Damon had the sense to change into something more presentable before wandering downstairs to meet their guests. He thought it would be smarter to bring the puke bucket than leave it, but he was too embarrassed to carry it himself, so he made Jun bring it down, which he did with a barely suppressed smile that he couldn't quite hide from Damon. Damon pinched his ass in retaliation, but Jun didn't even feel it. The man had an ass of steel.

There were three people waiting in the kitchen downstairs. Jun's parents, and a woman Damon had never seen before.

Speaking of Jun's parents, Damon had no idea how to face them now. Should he apologize?

'... Sorry your son got me pregnant?'

Maybe he should just avoid the subject entirely. This meeting wasn't about that after all. It was about Elizabeth and the possibility that she was being held captive by Damon's psychotic ex.

You know what? The ball is in their court, Damon decided. He wouldn't bring it up, but if they did, then they would talk about it. That was a reasonable response, right?

Ian was the first to notice him, and the look on his face... was not encouraging. Damon almost felt like cowering – until he realized Ian's glare wasn't actually directed at him, but at Jun standing just behind him. In fact, it wasn't even a legitimately angry glare. It was more annoyed than anything.

It made sense. Like Damon, they also probably didn't want the news of their impending grandchild to be delivered at the same time as a possible kidnapping case. Call Damon old-fashioned, but usually that kind of news required a little more ceremony.

Damon glanced over his shoulder at Jun and hoped he communicated 'your ass is grass' with his gaze. Jun blinked back at him innocently.

Unfortunately, misinterpreting Damon's expression, Jun held out the puke bowl to him, as if to say, 'go ahead, throw up in front of your in-laws and a complete stranger if you need to, it's fine.'

Damon would not be doing that, thank you very much, nausea be damned.

When no one spoke for about a minute, Damon realized he was going to have to get the ball rolling. "So, what are we going to do about Elizabeth?"

Silas rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Organize a search party, hopefully – except that Elizabeth went missing in Ganymede pack, which means I'll have to coordinate with Peter Reyne to get access to their land. Does your friend have any more details, like where Elizabeth might have been when she went missing?"

"No," Damon said. "Ava just mentioned that she went out for a run and never came back, so it could have happened anywhere. Although Ava does live towards the south end of the pack territory, so it would have most likely happened there."

"What about suspects?" Ian asked. "Who would want to kidnap Elizabeth? No one is supposed to know who she is."

Damon hesitated, though he didn't know why he bothered. Throwing Malachi under the bus should be the easiest thing in the world – except that Damon didn't have any concrete proof that he was involved at all other than the fact that he was hanging around Elizabeth. Either way, it was the only lead they had, so Damon bit his lip and fessed up.

"Your ex-boyfriend?" Ian said incredulously, eyebrows in the stratosphere. "The one that got Jun thrown in jail? Why would he do something like this?"

That was the million-dollar question, wasn't it? Why would Malachi care? About any of this – about him and Jun, about Elizabeth. Damon could only shake his head, feeling utterly stupid.

Damon had known Malachi his whole life. He felt like he should at least have some idea what was going on in Malachi's head – but he just didn't.

"It's possible," the yet-unnamed woman spoke up, "that he found out that she's not actually from Venus pack."

Damon paused. Not from Venus pack?

...Then where was she from?

"I haven't introduced myself," the woman said. "I'm Aila. Elizabeth's grandmother."

That's good, Damon thought briefly. At least one of Elizabeth's family members was here to let everyone else know what was going on. However, it was what Aila said next that threw everything that had happened so far into a new, frightening light.

"I'm also the current head of Equinox Coven. Elizabeth is half witch, half werewolf, and if what you say is true, then it's possible this Malachi person knew that."

***

Aila and Jun's parents left after about half an hour to go plan a search party, which gave Damon just enough time to close his dropped jaw and start putting puzzle pieces together.

Elizabeth was engaged to Jun. Elizabeth was half witch – which meant that their engagement was likely supposed to be a political match to strengthen ties between Venus pack and the coven.

Having a good relationship with the witches was imperative for the packs that lived near them. Witches were dedicated to maintaining balance, so anything that disturbed that balance – such as a wolf pack getting out of hand and interfering with humans or going to war with other packs – was something that they took it upon themselves to correct.

Ganymede pack was a perfect example of witches taking steps to maintain balance. An alpha in Ganymede pack abused his power over omegas, so a witch took him down a peg and made him have heats, putting him in the omega's place. Since then, Ganymede pack had taken intensive measures to repair their relationship with the witches, because while it wouldn't save them if they did something that needed punishment, it might make said punishment more lenient.

Aside from that, having a good relationship with the coven had other benefits – like trade. Equinox Coven, which had relationships with Ganymede pack, Venus pack, and another pack to the east, made medicinal tonics, spelled fabrics, and other useful items.

However, the number one important reason for upholding a relationship with the coven was because wolf packs needed witches far more than witches needed them. Witches were the ones who created magic boundaries for pack territories that repelled humans from accidentally stumbling onto them. Witches were the ones that fuzzed human perception, so they didn't question why a huge swath of land was unlisted on maps, and why thousands of young children weren't in school.

If Malachi had, indeed, kidnapped Elizabeth, while knowing that she's part witch, then it was either because he wanted her to use her power to do something for him, or to get the attention of the coven.

Well, he definitely had the coven's attention now, but Damon still couldn't guess why he would need to.

What Damon did know, was that whatever happened, Malachi wasn't going to walk out of this unscathed. Unless it wasn't Malachi at all, but with every passing moment, that was feeling less and less likely.

So then, what exactly would make someone so desperate as to intentionally piss off the most powerful being there was?