Chapter 11

Since the mall massacre, there seemed to be Red Cloth attacks happening everywhere and on a daily basis. It was unpredictable because they happened in random locations and at random times of the day, but it never failed that a witch attack happened somewhere in Fairview City.

And in every major city across the country.

How in the hell had the Supreme Rose grown their cult so large in such a short timeframe?

Well, I guess it wasn’t that short since we knew they’d been at it for at least a few years, but still. Five years ago, Jude and I hadn’t seen a witch in the US in our entire lives. And now they were everywhere.

Witches were everywhere, but the Supreme Rose and Anderson weren’t.

They’d gone to ground again. No one had seen them, and everyone was looking for them at every single attack. I watched all the vids of the fights here in the city and the surrounding cities to see if I could catch a glimpse, but the two of them were gone.

A lot of these witch attacks had ended with our enemy running away. Many times, a few of them would make a run for it while some stayed back and fought so the others could get away. I wasn’t sure if those people knew they were going to be killed or if they truly thought they could beat us, but I assumed it was the former. But that meant these humans were willingly sacrificing themselves for the others—or for the cause.

It was gross.

Everything about them was gross.

And to top off the witch attacks, I was sure we were going to have a First Veil Tear problem soon because the breaches were coming quicker than usual. That seemed to be a common pattern. Whenever we ended up with an influx of tears, it usually indicated that the First Veil Tear was compromised and would be ripping back open soon.

So we had that to look forward to.

Ugh.

I was just a pocketful of sunshine today.

“You alright, baby?” Cos asked from where he stood in front of his dresser.

I sighed as I pulled my work shirt off. “I’m fine. Just… frustrated.”

“I think everyone’s frustrated. I wish I knew how to make you feel better.”

“You and me both, kitty cat.” I threw my t-shirt on, then quickly changed my pants.

I waited for Cos to finish changing out of his work clothes, then stepped into him, wrapping my arms around his waist. He slid his arms around me and held me tightly to him, burying his nose against my neck and breathing me in while I did the same.

This was the one place in the world where I felt… absolutely safe. Like nothing and no one could ever hurt us.

“I love you,” I muttered into his t-shirt.

“I love you, too, baby.” He pressed a kiss to my skin. “I’m sorry you’re so frustrated.”

I shrugged. “Not your fault. You’re as frustrated as me.”

“I am, but mostly because I hate that I can’t fix this for you.”

I leaned back, peered up into his golden eyes, and gave his waist a squeeze. “This helps.”

His smile was small, but it reached his eyes, like all his smiles did when he was looking at me. “It helps me, too.”

I went up on my tip-toes to press a small kiss to his lips, then pulled him down so he’d rest his forehead against mine. We both sighed, closed our eyes, and simply stood there with our arms wrapped around each other for a long time.

When we parted, he took my face in his palms, kissed my forehead, then each eyelid, then the tip of my nose, then my smiling lips. He nudged my nose with his and whispered, “We’re going to get through this, and then I’m going to take you on a vacation.”

“I’ve never been on a vacation before.”

“I know.” He pressed another soft kiss to my lips. “We’re going to go to a zoo, an aquarium, and a beach where you can just lay on a towel all day long.”

All the places I’d confessed over the years that I wanted to see because I’d never gotten the chance. He was too sweet for words. “Are you going to lather me in sunscreen?”

“Of course.”

I couldn’t help but let out a small puff of laughter. “I’d like that—the lathering and your list of places to go.”

He smiled, kissed the tip of my nose, then pressed his lips to my forehead again and let them linger there for a long time. I closed my eyes and breathed. Just… breathed, safe in his arms.

Eventually, we parted, but Cos threaded his fingers through mine and pulled me out of our room to head down for dinner. He kept me close to his side while we plated our food, and I definitely didn’t complain when he pushed our chairs close enough that our shoulders were pressed together.

When I finished eating, I heard a meow from the floor and looked down to see Poppy wanting some attention. Even though I probably shouldn’t let her up while the others were still eating, I was a sucker for that cute face. So I picked her up and held her in my lap while she stared across the table at people’s food.

Toward the end of our meal, when people had been getting up and migrating into the family room, Scarlett and Ben moved down the table to sit across from Cos and me. I wouldn’t have thought it was weird at all until I looked at their faces. Scar looked determined, and Ben looked… nervous or something. It was suspicious.

“You guys okay?” Cos asked before I could.

Scarlett nodded. “We’re fine, but we wanted to talk to you about something.”

Cos set the roll he was nibbling on down. “Okay. What’s up?”

I put my hand on his thigh under the table because I could feel his sudden stress. He placed his hand on top of mine and squeezed it.

Poppy yelled at me for stopping the pets, and she hopped off my lap to find someone else to demand cuddles from.

Scarlett let out a long sigh before she spoke. “I don’t want anyone to get any hurt feelings.” Her gaze shot to mine for a moment before she refocused on my mate. “But I know you’ve been worried about having that house next door empty, so we’ve been thinking… what if Ben and I stay there?”

I blinked at them for a few seconds. “You want to move out?”

I must’ve sounded more accusatory than I’d meant because they both winced, and Ben said, “It’s not that. We love living here with you guys, but we figured this would… give us more privacy but also keep the house… filled.” He sort of cringed, and even though I was kind of pissed that they wanted to leave us—leave Jude—I understood what he meant. Houses that weren’t lived in seemed to sort of fall apart or something after a while.

Cos squeezed my hand harder. “You’d be comfortable living over there by yourselves?”

Scarlett nodded. “Yes. Since Mads, Jude, Ash, and Logan extended their property shield to include that house and everything, it’s just as safe there as it is here.” We’d extended Logan’s property shield spell the day the house was officially ours. “And, um, we could… you know, still come over here for dinner and everything. We’d just… sleep over there, really.”

I clenched my jaw. Logically, I knew they weren’t leaving us or anything ridiculous like that. They’d literally be right next door. But Jude would be upset that his sister—our sister—wanted to leave at all. I didn’t like it.

I didn’t like anything that upset Jude.

Scarlett met my gaze. “I’m not leaving my brothers. I don’t ever want to leave you two, but… Ben and I have never had… we’ve never had any privacy. Ever. You know how it was at the compound, Mads. And the two of us had to sneak around, so we just… we’ve never had a moment where we didn’t have to worry about other people walking in. We don’t have to hide here like we did there, but we’re still always… waiting for someone to interrupt us, you know what I mean?”

I nodded in acquiescence because I truly did understand that. How amazing had it been for Jude and me to find that apartment and live in a place with just the two of us? We’d never had that before, and we… we’d needed it. Maybe Scarlett and Ben needed it, too.

She continued, “And I know we have our own room here, but we just thought… I just thought it would be nice to have some time with him where we don’t have to look over our shoulder or hide inside one room or anything.” She surprised me by reaching across the table and grabbing my free hand. “I swear I don’t want to leave you and Jude. I swear it. I just want to have a little space with my partner. And I still want to come back here for dinner every night.”

I flipped my hand over under hers and squeezed back. Logically, I understood what she was saying. But my heart was so worried about my dyad. It felt tight in my chest, like a belt was strapped around it and kept pulling tighter. Goddess, I hated shit like this.

Emotions were horrible.

Cos stared at her for several beats before sighing. “You’ll really come home for dinner?”

The way he said home made my heart melt for him a little bit, and it helped ease the belt around my heart, too.

Scarlett stared at him for a moment, and Ben cleared his throat and said, “Of course we’ll come home for dinner. Every night.”

Cos gave them a nod. “I think you should talk to Jude before making it official, but if this is what you two want, then that’s what you should do. We’ll help you move your stuff over whenever you’re ready.”

A part of me wanted to be mad at him for that, but I couldn’t. He might not have understood what it was like at the compound, but he was empathetic and could see that they needed this.

Not to mention, we didn’t want them staying here if they didn’t want to. And it would be good to have someone taking care of that house. Not only because it was where the panic room was, but because Cos had told me his secret dream. Well, maybe it wasn’t so secret, but… he wanted to grow our pride so big that we’d have to use that house because all the rooms here were full. I suppose branching out into that house now wouldn’t be such a bad thing, right?

I just… Jude. He was going to be so upset.

Scarlett nodded. “I’ll talk to him tonight. If you’re sure you’re okay with this? I know we’re not officially a part of your pride, so if you’re not comfortable with?—”

“Scarlett,” Cos said, cutting her off. “You’re a part of our pride, as long as you want to be. I didn’t want to pressure you when you just came out of a bad situation. But everyone here considers you a part of our pride, and I’d love to make it official. If you two want to?”

She blinked, and I swore her eyes looked glassy. “I… I’d love to be a part of the Ono-Nai pride.”

Cosmo’s smile was gentle. “Wonderful. And you, Ben?”

Ben looked shocked to be asked directly, as if he hadn’t expected us to include him—of course we’d include him; he was a part of our family already, even if he and Scar didn’t last—but he didn’t hesitate to say, “Yes. Please.”

“I’ll put in the official paperwork this week.”

Both of them smiled at my mate, and my heart warmed with affection for all three of them, more of that tension loosening.

Scarlett met my gaze again. “Are you mad at me?”

I took a deep breath and shook my head. “No. I’m sad, I think? But I’ll be okay.”

“We’ll still be here all the time.”

“I know. I think I’m more worried about Jude’s reaction than anything else.”

She nodded. “I’ll go talk to him tonight.” She glanced between Cos and me. “Thank you both for understanding and for… for everything.”

“No need to thank us, Scar.”

Cos stood up and walked around the table. When she stood, he pulled her into a hug and scented her cheek. Then he gently tugged Ben to his feet and did the same to him.

Afterward, I walked Scarlett over to Jude and held my dyad’s hand while our sister told him the news. Jude was sad; that much was obvious just from looking at his face, let alone from what I could feel coming from him. I squeezed his hand and stepped closer to him, making sure he knew I was right here with him.

Scarlett looked a little desperate when she said, “I promise we’ll come back for dinner, okay? And we’re not, like, leaving, alright? Cos asked us to officially become members of your pride, and we both said yes.”

Jude’s eyes widened, and he looked between Scar and Ben for a few seconds. “You’re Ono-Nais now?”

Ben nodded, and Scarlett smiled, saying, “Yeah, big brother, we are.”

Jude released my hand to wrap his arms around Scarlett, holding her tight and whispering.

I sent Ben a smile, and he returned it even though he didn’t seem to know what to do. But… since I was trying to make sure he knew he was wanted, I stepped up to him and pulled him into a hug. This time, he was the one who was a bit stiff, but he relaxed after he finally wrapped his arms around me.

“I’m glad you said yes,” I whispered after a moment.

“Me, too.” He gave me a squeeze. “Thank you for letting us be a part of your family, Mads.”

“We’re lucky to have you… brother.”

He sucked in a breath and squeezed harder. I almost couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t want him to let go, so I ignored it. When he finally released me, we smiled at each other for only a few seconds before Jude grabbed him in a hug, and Scar grabbed me in one.

The hugs helped soothe the hurt pieces away, and I felt a lot better about the house situation. Sometimes, it amazed me how much a simple hug could do.

When she and Ben walked away, I gave Jude a huge hug before Kulani pulled him into his arms. And when River came over to comfort him, I gave my dyad a kiss on the cheek and whispered in Magi, “I’m right here if you need me.”

He whispered back, “I know you are. I’ll be okay with my mates.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. I’ll be fine, bubba. I’m a little sad, but I understand so I’m not hurt or anything.”

Since I could feel him through our bond, I knew it was true. “Alright. Love you, Judikans.”

“Love you, too, bubba.”

I gave his cheek another kiss before making my way over to my mate.

“Mads, can I talk to you for a minute? In private?” Logan asked before I could reach Cos.

I took a breath, trying to switch gears even though my emotions were a little bruised and raw. This was apparently the night to tell me things or something. Geez. But… I would never turn my little ce’oso away. I honestly didn’t want to. I loved when he came to talk to me.

“Sure,” I finally said to him when I got a good look at his face. He seemed almost upset, maybe? Or maybe it was more confused? Was he upset about Scarlett and Ben?

He gestured with his head, and I followed Logan through the house and out the back door. Clearly, he really wanted privacy. Was something wrong? Did he need help with something?

When Lo stopped at the fire pit and faced me, he took one look at my face and huffed out in amusement. “I’m fine, Mads. Stop fretting.”

“I’m not fretting.”

“Uh-huh.”

I flipped him off, making him chuckle for a moment before he got all serious again.

When he spoke, it was in Magi. “So this is going to sound crazy, but ever since my accident, I sort of feel this, like, weird pull every time I close a veil tear. At first, I thought it was just some sort of fear reaction or something, and it wasn’t that strong, so I could ignore it. But now… since the… the baby taragorians, it feels a lot stronger, and I… I don’t know, it’s just… weird.”

I stared at him, my eyes widening further with every word he spoke. My chest tightened in fear, my heart racing so fast and hard I was sure the shifters in the house could hear it from here. Fear, anxiety, and horror all filled my entire body, my entire soul. The veil could not have Logan. Never.

“Are you telling me that the veil wants to pull you through it?”

He jerked back in shock. “What? No! Not that kind of pull!”

“Then what kind of pull is it, Lo? What do you mean? Because right now, I want to go punch the shit out of something that I can’t even physically touch.”

He rolled his eyes at me, walked over to the furniture surrounding the fire pit, and sat down heavily, waving me to a seat. Once I was in the seat beside him, he said, “It doesn’t feel malicious at all, and I don’t want to, like, walk into the fucking tear or anything crazy like that—geez. I would never do that, Mads. It doesn’t feel like it wants me to, either.”

“Then what do you mean by feeling a pull?”

He was quiet for a few beats. “More like I want to study it. Pull probably isn’t the right word. I feel this… need to discover more about it. I want to figure it out or something.”

I took that in for a few seconds before letting my initial stay the fuck away from it come out of my mouth. Taking a breath, I let my more murderous feelings go as best I could. “Okay.” I drew the word out. “I’m not sure how you can discover anything about it without hurting yourself.”

He let out a long-suffering sigh. “Yeah, I know. I just… I don’t know, but there’s this thing I want to try. Like a spell—” He cut himself off, his shoulders tensing up around his ears. What the hell was going on with him?

“Lo?”

He took a breath, letting his shoulders come down, although he was in no way relaxed. “Sorry, I’m just… nervous or something, I don’t know. I feel like, if I could test a couple of things out, I… I might be able to figure out how to push the taragorians back through the tears before we close them up.”

I sat up straighter. “You… you do?”

He nodded enthusiastically. “I do. I think I can help them. I think I’m meant to.”

I thought about that for several minutes while I stared at my little ce’oso, who had truly grown up so much this past year. He wasn’t a little kid anymore, even if I thought he’d always be my little kid brother in my eyes.

If he really could figure out a way to push the beasts back across the veil, it would save so many lives. I’d always hated the fact we had to kill the poor things. It truly wasn’t their fault that we were a good food source for them. And after those taragorian young, I… I could definitely understand why Logan wanted to do this. And as long as he didn’t risk himself. As long as he was safe, then…

After a long time, I asked, “What would you need to do to accomplish this?”

His entire body finally relaxed. “I just want to test a few spells on an existing veil tear to see if they’ll work. To me, it’s like there’s two layers of the veil, and the only one that’s opening is the one that comes into our world, not the one that goes out.”

I thought about that for a moment, and it did make a weird kind of sense.

He continued, “There’s also an idea I have on spelling the taragorians themselves so they could push through without issue. I kind of prefer that method because it’ll keep humans from trying to cross over themselves and doing… whatever horrible things they think of to the Tarago realm.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Um, yeah, agreed. So maybe we test that spell first?”

He sat up straight. “You’re going to let me try?”

“Pretty sure you’d do it even if I said not to.”I shot him a grin. “But I appreciate the heads-up. As long as the spell won’t hurt anyone else—especially not yourself, Lo—I’m willing to give it a go.”

”Really?”

”Really.”

He let out a sort of squeal, stood, and threw his arms around my neck. I snorted out a small laugh at his excitement and hugged him back tightly for a moment.

“Even if it doesn’t work, I appreciate you helping me,”he murmured.

“No problem, ce’oso. No problem at all.”

He gave me another squeeze before we both stood and headed for the house.

When I reached Cos, he kissed my temple and murmured against my skin. “Everything alright?”

I nodded. “Yeah. He’s fine. Freaked me out for a second, but we’re going to work on a new weave. I’ll tell you about it later.”

He kissed me there again. “Okay, baby.”

To change the subject, I asked, “You ready for our meeting tomorrow?”

“Sure am.”

“I’m not looking forward to talking to Director Dipshit. She better fucking listen to us.”

“She will.”

I lifted a brow. “You sound way too sure about that.”

He shrugged. “After all the shit she pulled, she’s lucky to still have her job. Not only because of how wrong it was to attack us like that at the wall and how bad she made the NHSO look, but she also cost them a lot of money with all the damage she did.”

I hadn’t thought of that. “That’s true.”

“She’s treading carefully right now and doesn’t want to piss anyone off. And since I have the support of the SWC and the Cloaked Freeway leaders, I don’t think she can really tell me no.”

That made a slow smile spread across my face. “I like the way you think.”

He winked at me. “I have my moments.”

I chuckled, and when he smiled that sweet smile of his at me, I decided to set aside all the heavy talk for the rest of the night and try to enjoy spending a few hours with my pride.

I could go back to worrying about everything tomorrow… or tonight when I had trouble sleeping.

The next morning,Cos and I got ready like we normally did. While he was in the shower, I sat in my shirt and jeans on the bed, scrolling through the news feeds for anything that happened overnight.

There was always something. And there were always vids.

I had to search. I had to see if Anderson had shown up while I was sleeping.

It felt like I didn’t have a choice but to look for him. Almost like as soon as I woke, my magic was immediately, like, find him! And since I couldn’t physically go searching the entire city, I did what I could—search through the overnight vids.

When Cos walked in, he sighed at me. “That’s not doing you any good.”

“If I don’t look for him, I feel antsy. This at least helps me feel like I’m doing something to fulfill this stupid promise.”

He sighed again and went to the closet to put on his clothes. Once he had his pants and shirt on, he walked over to the bed, tapped my HID to turn off the screen, and put his hands on the mattress on either side of me. He drew me into a kiss, and my hands reached up of their own accord, one grabbing his shirt to hold him there, the other scratching the scruff under his chin.

I hummed against him and tried to pull him down on top of me, but he wouldn’t budge. “Cos,” I said and definitely didn’t whine.

He groaned. “We can’t. It’s almost time to go, and we still need to eat breakfast.”

I let out a very dignified whining-groan sound. “Don’t start things you can’t finish.”

He chuckled against my lips. “All I did was kiss you.”

“That was more than just a regular old kiss.”

He snorted and captured my lips again, and it felt like my body sighed against him. Goddess, I really wanted to pull him down on top of me and strip those clothes back off and?—

Just when I thought he was going to deepen the kiss, he slowed it down, turning it into something tender. He lingered there for another minute before letting out a sigh and resting his forehead against mine for a long moment.

“Come on, sweetheart. We need to finish getting ready.”

“I am ready.”

He pecked my nose, stood up, then flicked the top of my bare foot with his large fingers. “Socks.”

“Ow.”

“That didn’t hurt.”

I climbed out of the bed and headed for my dresser. “You don’t know that.”

He turned to face me. “I’m sorry… even though I know that didn’t actually hurt.”

“Not forgiven.”

He gave me this innocent look that absolutely shouldn’t be as cute and endearing on a giant man filled with muscles but positively was. It got me every time. It was the cat eyes… it had to be. Damn him.

I chuckled. “You’re forgiven.”

With a snort, his endearing expression turned to amusement, and he twisted back to his own dresser.

I yanked my sock drawer open, and before I could even comprehend what was happening, I was spluttering and yelling and coughing on something that was choking me.

Glitter flew around me, hitting me in the face, chest, arms, and who knew where else. It sparkled in the air, and when I finally actually figured out what had happened—those little butts glitter bombed me—I turned to Cos to try and stop him from opening his own drawer.

It was too late.

He turned to me, glitter still somehow flying around him. He was completely covered in it. It was on every inch of his face I could see so he looked like a big blob with eyes. His hair was sparkling like he was about to go on stage for a costume contest, and his shirt was just as bad.

He looked ridiculous. Totally, utterly ridiculous.

I had no doubt I looked the same.

When our eyes caught, we both burst out laughing.

Through my snickers, I muttered out, “Oh my goddess, you’re covered in glitter. Like, I’ve never actually seen so much glitter in my life.”

“So are you. Holy shit, it’s everywhere, Mads. Everywhere.” He looked caught between amusement, exasperation, and frustration. “We need to leave for work soon!”

I snorted. “Um… we can’t go in like this.”

“How do we get it off? Another shower?”

Would a shower even help get it off? Who knew? But I didn’t have a better idea.

We raced across the hall and into the bathroom, but before I could shut the door, Charlie’s voice yelled, “Logan! Haiden! You’re dead!”

Cos and I stared at each other before laughing again. He slammed the door shut. “Hurry. I have a feeling we’re gonna run out of hot water very quickly.”

When Zara’s scream filled the air, I figured he was right. Everyone was going to be taking a second shower this morning.

We quickly showered—laughing every time someone else screamed in outrage—got dressed, and ran to Logan and Haiden’s room. After making sure they weren’t in there, we snuck in. I went over to Lo’s dresser and was about to open the drawer, but thought better of it.

I pushed Cos out of the way and backed us up before closing my eyes and picturing what runes I needed. I had most of Jude’s runes memorized, and in this situation, it was easy to concentrate on them. In combat, I wouldn’t want to risk it.

I activated the runes I needed—still, grip, air, and fly—weaved them together, and used the spell Jude still liked to call grabby hands. I pulled the drawer open and sighed in relief when no glitter came out. I used the spell to open the drawer on Haiden’s dresser, too, and again, no glitter.

Cos and I pulled out all of their socks and carried them downstairs to the dining room where most of our pride mates had gathered.

I couldn’t help the small laugh that bubbled out of me when I saw stray pieces of glitter in nearly everyone’s hair. This was ridiculous.

Cos said, “We have socks for everyone.”

It only took a beat for Haiden to say, “Hey. Those are mine and Logan’s.”

“Yep. You glitter-bombed our socks, so now we get to use yours,” I said as I passed out the socks.

Zara said, “Thank god. I didn’t want to wear glittery socks all day, but I really didn’t want to go sockless at work. It would’ve been so gross.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, and it would’ve stunk up the van on the way home, too. No one wants to smell that.”

She snickered but didn’t disagree. The shifters’ sense of smell, and my own, wouldn’t have handled so many sockless stinky feet in an enclosed area well.

Charlie took a pair of Haiden’s socks from Cos, pointed them at Haiden first, then at Logan. “Just know, there will be payback.”

“We were only getting you back for the card,” Logan said with wide eyes. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to look all innocent and cute on purpose, but he totally did.

Charlie was somehow immune to the cuteness, though, because he said, “Revenge will be mine.”

I couldn’t help but snort out a laugh, and when I glanced at my mate, he was smiling and shaking his head in exasperation. Leaning over, I went up on my toes and pulled him down a bit so I could kiss his cheek before I walked into the kitchen to find something the two of us could eat in the car on the way to work.

The meeting was going okay,but it was so damn boring.

There was so much red tape everywhere that trying to do anything was incredibly frustrating. But Cos and Jude really knew their stuff. I was really only here as the muscle, which was laughable if you looked at me compared to my giant, muscled companions. But at least I had the magical muscle, right?

I must’ve heard Jude say a hundred times that we needed all the help we could get and that the only way to win against this growing terrorist group was if we started working together with all our allies, including the vigilantes that kept popping up to help us.

After hours of talking about procedures and laws and blah, blah, blah, Director Dipshit said, “I think we have it. As long as the non-TRD group lets all official TRD teams take the lead, we won’t take them into custody.”

I flinched, then sneered because what the hell? Why would they take them into custody to begin with? They haven’t broken any laws or hurt anyone other than witches and taragorians, which was allowed in the US. If you were attacked by a taragorian or a witch, you had every right to fight back and even kill them. All these magi and shifters had done was help us. So then why the hell would she think it was okay to apprehend them to begin with?

She must’ve seen my sneer because she frowned at me. “What’s that look for? I’m doing what you all want.”

Through gritted teeth, I said, “Those people haven’t broken any laws. They’re allowed to defend themselves against taragorians and witches—that’s part of the law. And guess what? Magi and shifters are equal citizens now, so you can’t just arrest us anymore for no reason.”

She stared at me with narrowed eyes for a long moment, but Cos broke the tension by saying, “I think we’re good to go, Director Davis. You need to send out a notice to all of your agents here and to the other directors across the country today. Make sure they know to leave the non-TRD groups alone. But I think we’ve done all we can for today, so we can conclude our meeting.”

She was still staring at me, and I was still clenching my teeth and trying my best not to punch her in the face. Or throw an energy ball at her. Being human, she’d never even see it coming. That would be so satisfying.

But finally, she pulled her attention away from me and said to my mate, “We have a deal, Councilor Ono-Nai.” She held her hand out to shake, and Cos slid his large hand into hers.

It made me sneer harder. As soon as we left this office, I was going to make him wash his hands to get her stink off him.

When we made it into our office, Cos went straight into the bathroom to wash his hands—I didn’t even have to say anything. I guess Director Dipshit was just that gross of a person. Or maybe he’d seen how I’d glared at his hand. Sometimes my nose seemed to be as sensitive as his, so I supposed he was taking that into consideration.

Whatever the reason, I was glad for it.

When he came back out, the rest of our team looked at him expectantly, and he said, “We have protections in place for the vigilante groups, although they’re referring to them as non-TRD groups.” He shrugged and rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I’d like to get in touch with that group to let them know that as long as they let official TRD teams take the lead at incidents, they won’t face any consequences.”

“Not that they should anyway,” I muttered.

Cos gave me a look, but he still squeezed the back of my neck, so at least he wasn’t angry at my anger.

Jude ignored us completely and asked the room, “Does anyone have a way to contact any of those people? If not, we’re just going to have to wait for them to run into us again.”

Everyone shook their heads, and I frowned in disappointment.

Well, I guess we had to wait, then. That sucked.