20

BYRON

"What the fuck am I looking at?"

My eyes widen on the screen, and Aida's breath quickens beside me.

I haven't let her leave my side, partly because this shit with Preston has me wondering if he's not the only one more bothered with Aida's presence than being let on, and mostly because my wolf is feeling possessive as hell.

We need to fuck her.

I've never felt more feral than being mated with Aida, and even with my cubs already growing inside of her, my wolf is still not appeased.

Cubs.

Damn.

I'll have to come to terms with being a new father again. I'm sure as much as Aida needs to come to terms with being a new mother. It reminds me that I still don't know things about my mate, like how old she is.

Like most Black women, the don't crack rule applies, and she could have had Zora young and be in her early thirties or had her late and be closer to my age.

But I'll figure all that out once I understand what the fuck I'm seeing on a store's security footage Kofi obtained.

The image is clear, but the hunched, misshapen figure tearing through the aisle and sniffing along the ground isn't anything I've seen before.

Suddenly, the thing lunges at the camera, and the feed goes blank.

Kofi taps the trackpad to rewind and pauses on the figure just before it destroys the security camera. "That is Maxim Umansky."

"What?"

Everyone shifts at Aida's outburst, and Kofi nods.

"That is Maxim Umansky," he says again as if her question wasn't rhetorical. He's not being flippant. That's just how Kofi is.

"I don't understand. I thought he died at Genesis's labs?"

"That's him," Kofi nods to the screen. "So he didn't die."

"She's got it, Kof," I interject before Aida can get offended. "I'm assuming someone from our rescue at Genesis confirmed his scent?"

"Ishaaq. There were also genetic profiles of all the employees in the lab files we took. We matched a sample left at the scene. It's him."

I can see what may have been a man somewhere in the twisted face. "He took the hormone, the one the other doctor synthesized, right before the building went down. It looked like that shit killed him."

"Well, that's him, so it didn't," Kofi says again, and I roll my eyes.

"He doesn't look far off." Destin's face is pinched in something close to pity, and it's just like my younger son to be empathetic, even with the enemy.

In the same way, I expect a satisfied sneer to be present on Preston's face when I glance at him.

While I can't muster any sympathy for the man who harmed my mate, I do agree with my son that whatever Max has been transformed into due to taking the serum isn't pleasant.

He looks unstable and in pain.

"Where was this taken?"

"Southland."

My eyes widen at Kofi's response.

Southland is a town not too far from the compound, four or five hours away.

"He tracked us," I say without preamble. "He's coming here."

"How did he do that?"

"The same way we tracked you back to the Genesis Labs," Kofi responds to Aida's question. "Craven Park was one of our touchpoints. We set them up at all the public parks in cities where Genesis had labs or properties. When Byron had you scenting the trees there, we found it on one of our routine canvasses and tracked it back to where he was being held. It's one of our protocols. My guess is the synthesized hormone has enhanced his smell enough that he can locate one or both of your scents."

"It looks like he's tracking you here," Destin adds.

I narrow my eyes. "We didn't cover?"

Kofi shrugs. "Everything got doused, and we had a mist flowing from the van as we drove here. The formula isn't undetectable."

I sigh. "The new one is. I was working on it when they took me."

Kofi lifts a shoulder again. "Either way, we've got a team looking for him. The twins are out there. After you, they're the best. Maxim won't make it here."

I nod. "We can talk more about this later. I'm going to take Aida back to our room. Maxim isn't her problem to deal with."

She inhales to speak, and I place a hand at her back, turning her toward the door.

"Not your problem. I worry about Maxim. You don't worry about Maxim."

Aida rolls her eyes but lets me move her away.

Kofi's nostrils flare as she shifts the air, and I know he's scenting the cubs, making sure he didn't stress her out. He nods and shuts down the file we were looking at before turning to Preston.

"We still need a proper debrief on what happened on your last assignment. Destin, you should be there, too. We need to compare notes. Wait in my office."

The boys file out, and Destin claps me on the shoulder as he passes. Before he leaves, Preston pulls me in for a fierce hug. I kiss the top of his head, holding our foreheads together to let him know it's all good.

We follow once they're gone, with Aida ahead of me. She's cleared the door when Kofi pulls me back out of her earshot.

"I had to let him do it, challenge you. Something happened on his last assignment—with a woman. In the middle of it, he called to tell me that he had been fated and had the dream. But he didn't show up with anyone, and he's avoided any questions about her since then."

I look toward the door where Preston disappeared not moments before. "You think he was tricked into thinking he had a mate?"

Kofi shrugs. "I don't know, but he's passed all the post-assignment tests, and his blood work is clean. All I know is when he heard you got rescued with a human mate, he was sure you were tricked. He was scared for you."

I know Kofi wouldn't have let Preston's challenge stand without a good reason. He's clan first, and clan means family. He wouldn't potentially blow mine up just to appease my son's hurt feelings.

"See if you can get him to talk about what happened. It might help shed light on how these people replicate fate dreams."

I nod, turning to leave, but he stops me again.

"You also need to talk to your mate about her past. There's some shit there."

I suspected Kofi did full intel on Aida, but if he's inquiring about Aida's ex, that means there were some shadows he couldn't bring to light. "She'll tell me when she's ready."

He cocks his head. "You sure there's nothing wrong with your nose?"

I shove his arm and walk out. "There's nothing wrong with my fucking nose."

***

When I enter the hall, Aida is at the end, clearly giving Kofi and me privacy to talk.

I meet her, taking her by the waist to press a deep kiss to her lips, calming my still riotous wolf for a moment.

"Can we check on Zora?"

"Of course." I know the news about Maxim has her on edge, so I take her to one of the rec rooms, where the kids are playing video games. She relaxes once she sees her daughter is fine.

She's quiet while we walk back to our room. Once inside, I close the door with a resounding click, leaving the space dim without light.

"What—"

My wolf has Aida on her knees before she can get the question out.

Aida reacts immediately, hiking her dress up herself and lowering her face to arch into my first thrust as I fuck deep into the warmth of her pussy. My wolf howls in my chest.

She moans, rocking back, her ass full and beautiful as it bounces beneath the bunched fabric of her dress. Her hands clutch my thighs, urging me harder, and I'm too happy to oblige. I slap fast through her slick heat, a growl rumbling in my chest as release crashes over me, faster than I want but as ferociously as I need.

Aida whines, clenching around me as she gasps out her orgasm, milking my dick and coating me with the sweet scent of her slick.

I lift her and carry her to the bed, collapsing beside her. Satisfied, my wolf backs off, curling into a ball.

"Is he always going to be like that?" Her voice is raw as she speaks from behind the shroud of curls puffed around her face.

"Probably. You do something to him. It's biological, so he might be. You complaining?"

Her lips part into a smile as she shifts her head back and forth against the mattress. "Not at all. Just trying to decide if I need to start working out to keep up."

I roll to my side, pulling her slack body against mine. Between us, the stirrings of our cubs remind me of my earlier thoughts about how little Aida and I know each other.

"Can we chat a bit if you're not too tired?"

She goes still but lifts her head, extracting a hand from between us to push her hair out of her face.

There's worry in her eyes when they meet mine, but she nods. "Sure."

Leaning in, I kiss her, sliding my tongue through her mouth and making my wolf lift his head in interest.

Down boy .

When the scent of her concern has lessoned, I pull back, pressing a final kiss to her full lips.

"I'm forty. How old are you?"

She blinks and then laughs, cackling loudly in the room's quiet. "I'm sorry. It's just that everything has felt so intense lately. I wasn't expecting that." Frowning, she pulls back to see me more fully. "Forty, really? I thought you were older, and you just looked good. Youngin'."

"Youngin'? What are you like, thirty-two?"

She makes an incredulous face. "‘I'll take the compliment,'" she tosses back the words I used at Genesis when we first met, "but no. I'm turning forty-two in the fall."

Now it's my turn to look disbelieving. "Damn, baby. I'd assure you look good, but I think you know you do."

"Yeah." She fake flings her hair back, and I chuckle. "But really, I was super focused on finishing school for most of my twenties. It took me and my first husband a while to get to Zora."

"High school sweethearts?" I keep my tone cautious so she knows she can back out anytime.

"Undergrad. I met him in chem class, and that was that. He said I smelled nice," she laughs. "He had a great nose."

Interesting.

"Were you together long after Zora was born?"

She hums a melancholy sound. "We had almost ten years with just the two of us and then thirteen with Zo. That's how old she was when he died."

Her voice wavers, but she fights to keep it strong.

Wrapping an arm around her, I pull her close. My wolf pushes forward, too, nuzzling the part of my chest that touches hers. "Cancer, right?"

"Cancer."

"I remember Zora saying that. Ergo, you taking the job at Genesis." I lean back to see her face and the tears I've scented shine on her lashes. I knuckle the single droplet that starts tracking down her cheek and kiss her forehead.

"Genesis was me trying to make up for so many things. I want to be able to say it was mostly because I hoped the work I'd be doing would prevent another little girl like my daughter from losing her father so young, but it was selfish. I wanted the life I had back. I felt like I deserved it back. That bastard blew up my life—" She sighs, and I wait to see if she'll continue, but the silence stretches on.

"It stands that you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, but if there is something I need to know for your safety, tell me. No part of me is going to judge you. You're mine. Only death is going to change that, Aida."

I let her come to terms with whatever she needs, and when she starts to speak again, her voice is small but strong. "I met my second husband shortly after Malik died. I wasn't looking, and I was still kind of drained from so much change in my and Zora's life, but he walked past me in a store and froze. I thought maybe I'd hit him with my cart or something, but he just stared at me, and then he said I smelled nice."

She huffs a little cynical laugh. "That's all it took. That one little reminder of the life I'd lost with someone I loved, and I let someone into my life I never would have. And the strange thing is, I don't even know now how it happened. He was just suddenly always there. He moved in. Zora hated him from the jump, and I thought she simply wasn't ready to let another father figure into her heart. But she was right, and I was—I don't know—lonely. I sacrificed my career, my safety, and my child's safety on some dude I met in a grocery store who liked my perfume."

Her self-derision carries the end of her tirade into bitterness, and I give her another squeeze.

"Can you go on?" I don't want to press, but something about this isn't sitting right.

She sighs. "That's it. We got married quickly. He was insistent from the jump that he wanted to have children. I agreed to try even though I was older and Zora was damn near an adult. At first, I was excited, but then he got kind of obsessive about it. It stopped feeling like we were building on our family and like he saw me as some machine. It got so weird, and then the charming, kind man I met was completely gone. When I didn't get pregnant right away, he got violent and possessive. Once that happened, I got him out of there quick. That was a fucking fiasco of him going ballistic, trashing our house. I had to call the cops. Zora was terrified. He left, and then two days later he," she clears her throat. "He came to my job. I was working at another lab. He had a gun, and he held me and my staff hostage, trying to force them to—"

I can feel the heat of embarrassment warming her skin.

"You can stop if you want."

"No,' she shakes her head, wrapping her arms around me. I sink into the feeling of her using me as support. "It's just so damn crazy. Honestly, every time I think about it, I can't believe that became my life." Taking a deep breath, she continues. "This man showed up at my job, jerked off into a cup, and tried to force my staff to inseminate me."

"What?" It comes out on a disbelieving chuckle, and she snorts a similar laugh and nods.

"You heard me." She waits, letting me process, but I don't need to.

"Aida, I'm so sorry that happened to you—and Zora. And I can't believe you've been beating yourself up about that. I know for a fact that crazy is very good at mimicking sane. Damn."

"Thank you." There's emotion in her voice again. "After everything happened, it felt like all anyone wanted to do was blame me. Everyone assumed I was desperate and dating below myself. I got fired, of course, apparently for having bad judgment. But the Delon I met was not the Delon that he turned out to be."

I freeze, sitting up so slowly that by the time Aida realizes what's happening, we're both nearly erect.

"What?" Her gaze is cautious, as if she's expecting me to boot her out for what she's told me.

I know I'm frowning. I am shocked, but not by her story.

"You were married to Delon ?"