Chapter 3

Ihad a bad feeling about this new job. We were going because we’d always show up if someone needed help to escape the Coalition. It was how they contacted us. I was doing this long before I rescued Benji and Pax. I had a whole network across the country. I’d save someone, patch them up, and set them up somewhere they’d be safe. Most of the time, they wanted to save Coalition victims in their new area.

Pax and Benji were different. We were pack. The three of us belonged together. We still hadn’t met the woman who would complete us, but she was out there somewhere. Benji and Pax joined me on every job once they were able to, but I was the face of all of this because I’d never been taken by the Coalition. As far as we knew, they didn’t even know my name.

It wasn’t hard for a supernatural to contact me, but only the humans in the small town at the bottom of the mountain we lived on really knew me. People were always contacting me, except for the month of Benji’s birthday, when most people who knew me knew that they needed to reach out to someone else.

It was highly suss for someone to call Benji about a job. Everyone knew I worked jobs with my pack, but I was much more famous than they were and we were okay with that. they had no desire to repeat their time in a Coalition facility. They were still calling them asylums. No one did that anymore, but it was kind of an apt name.

Most legitimate treatment centers had decent names and were run by people with medical training. That definitely wasn’t the Coalition. There was absolutely zero medical research that pouring chemicals in anyone’s eyes was going to do a fucking thing but blind them, but they sure as fuck thought it was going to get the demon out of Pax. Which was idiotic because that wasn’t even how demons worked, but they blinded him anyway.

Benji wasn’t being super forthcoming about this job. He was being typical Benji, telling us it was the most important job we were ever going to take. Which meant it could actually be important, or the person who contacted Benji was one of his Pokémon friends and their cat was missing.

You never knew with Benji.

We had several means of travel. If we were going somewhere with humans where it would be suspicious if they saw us using magic, we used the SUV or our bikes. Benji said this would be a magic trip, and he’d take us with his shadows.

The three of us ended up in a large, top-floor penthouse with three very strange men. They were arranged strategically on a couch and impeccably dressed. They were also very different.

The one in the center was tall, lithe, and insanely pretty. He had blond hair and bright-blue eyes and gave off vibes like he didn’t have to wait in line at a single club and the VIP section was always waiting for him.

To his right was another tall man dressed in all black. This one didn’t look like he went to the same clubs and hated the other dude’s music. He was channeling the goth vibes pretty hard and was rocking the guyliner. He was pretty fucking intense.

The other guy was completely different from those two. He was a fucking giant, for one. And where the two guys to his right were unnaturally beautiful, this guy was pretty rough looking. He had most of his face hidden by a pretty impressive beard and where the other two guys in front of us looked like they hadn’t done manual labor a day in their lives, he had callouses all over his hands and soot under his nails. He also looked like he dressed for comfort, not style.

It wasn’t just that I had no idea what these guys could possibly have in common. I didn’t know what they were. They all gave out massive amounts of power, but I’d never met another supernatural like them before.

“Which one of you is Di? I didn’t know you’d be bringing friends. Hi, I’m Benji,” he said, holding his hand out.

The pretty blond man fluttered his long lashes at Benji. He took his hand, but he didn’t shake it. He kissed Benji’s knuckles, which Benji seemed to like, but Pax and I definitely did not. Benji was ours.

“I’m Di. These are my friends. Their names don’t really matter.”

Pax and I exchanged a look. The two friends didn’t seem to really care about that, which raised a few suspicions. I always introduced my team. We’d come this far by vetting the people who called us for jobs.

I couldn’t figure these men out. The blond one was clearly bisexual. He wasn’t just flirting with Benji. He was checking out Pax and me, too. And my bear kind of liked it. The tall, dark goth drink of water was wearing a wedding ring. He was the only one. The bearded man looked like he wished Di would stop flirting and get on with it.

“How would you like to stop the Coalition for good?” Di asked.

“We’d love to, but first, you’re going to tell us why you contacted Benji instead of me.”

“Down boy,” Di purred.

His friends rolled their eyes.

“You ever heard of Cassandra? She was one of the most famous seers during Greek times. A lot of people opted not to listen to her, but we always did. Bringing down the Coalition has everything to do with the three of you, and it has to happen now. She said if we called you and not the hybrid, you’d tell us no,” the goth man said.

Damn right, I would have. Benji’s mental health was my priority.

“There’s a green witch in the bowels of New Eden Asylum in New York. You get her out and the Coalition will crumble,” the bearded giant said.

I scoffed. A green witch wasn’t going to topple the Coalition. Most of them were off getting mad if you killed weeds.

“Explain,” Pax said.

Benji tugged my ear. He always did that when he wanted something because he knew it was my weakness.

“Hear them out. I want them to pay for what they did to me.”

“Sit,” Di said.

I’d hear them out. I didn’t see how this was possible, but if I could stop the Coalition and get Pax and Benji closure, I’d do anything.