1

ROWAN

I CROSSED my arms over my chest as Elias threw another punch at the painfully silent traitor. The Changed vamp was now a picture of bloody bruises, ones that wouldn’t heal thanks to a potion a mage cooked up for our guests.

“You can choose not to speak,” Wolfy growled, capturing the bastard by the throat, bringing his snarling face close to the vamps. His fingers tightened dangerously around the bruised flesh of the asshole’s throat. “But every second of silence, means another hour of pain.”

The vamp opened his mouth to say something, but his words— Death to the Queen , the only Goddess damned thing the bastard would say—fell silent as Elias snapped his neck. Every time he muttered those words, my chest tightened out of fear.

Fear for Ivy.

Fear we weren’t doing enough.

I’d been so damned close to finally claiming her as mine, but these wankers had to come in and ruin it with an attack. A little longer, and Ivy might have been able to recognise the bond. Maybe, just maybe, her magic would have chosen me.

And now we were separated.

“That was uneventful,” I drawled, uncrossing my arms, trying to shake off my unease. “I say we starve him. Apparently, that might do the trick.”

“Starving takes too long,” Elias growled, picking up the vamp’s limp body and re-tying him to the chair. “We don’t have time for that.”

From the doorway, Jay snorted. I almost forgot he was there, the prick. “You’re too impatient,” the half-demon said. “We can take him back—”

“None of these assholes are going to the compound,” I said, any humour left in me disappearing. “Last time we sent them a prisoner, it got away. So, these ones stay where we can see them.”

“That’s a mighty large accusation,” Jay warned, pushing off the doorway. “And hard to prove.”

I shrugged. “It’s no secret there are spies in our midst. We know as much now. And in order to protect Ivy—” I cut myself off and spared Elias a look.

The wolf was mostly in control, not the man. I should have expected the wolf would take over once he was separated from his mate, but seeing it was another thing. The thinly veiled desperation reminded me of what I could be going through if I’d bonded her.

Going up against him was probably not the best thing to do. I wasn’t a certified mate yet, so to the wolf, I was the enemy.

I didn’t want to test my luck.

I had no doubt he knew I’d done something with Ivy, but since neither he nor Adrian had come for my balls yet, I assumed Ivy hadn’t said anything about our brief time together. She’d seemed to like it, which surprised me, considering the jackass I’d been the last couple of weeks. Not to mention the whole standing her up and deflecting like a shit-head child .

She was too good for me.

The wolf growled, pulling me out of my thoughts, and stalked to the door. “We deal with them here, or we get them to Grey so she can look into their memories.”

Jay shuddered at the suggestion, and I didn’t blame him. The idea of Maeve going through my memories sent a shiver of fear up my spine. There wasn’t much there for her to go through, but it was the principle of it.

“What about the others?” I asked instead, following Elias onto the loading bay. The four SUVs we’d arrived in were lined up all nice, recently warded with new charms and checked over thoroughly by Jay’s team for any trackers the enemy might have left behind for us.

We’d ended up losing the one vehicle we’d put a charm on. They’d been smart to ditch their car and take another one. A team found it in a lake an hour from the safe house, completely submerged with a single body inside. It’d been one of theirs, but not even a necromancer could have gotten it speaking again.

Jay grunted as he joined us, locking the door behind him. He checked the wards over before turning to us. “Lost one. Despite the check, she had something on her and managed to kill herself. The other is only saying the same shit as this one.”

Elias swore under his breath and scrubbed a hand over his face.

Why Maeve separated us, I had no idea.

We were a team— Ivy’s team, her protectors—and we shouldn’t have been divided.

I looked to Jay. “Check the other two prisoners again. Make sure there’s no way they die on us.”

“Or are leading their people here,” Elias added, eyes wary. “I promised Ivy I’d protect the girls. And that’s what I intend on doing.”

He’d spent the night in wolf form with the kids, and in the morning got them ready with Thea, before spending the rest of his time with our prisoners. The distance between him and Ivy was wearing thin on him and his wolf, and we’d been separated barely a day. I didn’t blame him though—I was starting to feel the effects of her absence, too.

“You got it,” Jay said, clapping Elias on the shoulder once. “The potion mage should be making something a little stronger in case these guys are planning something.”

Elias muttered a curse in response before watching Jay walk off in the direction of the main warehouse. I didn’t move to follow the half-demon. Instead, I observed Wolfy from the corner of my eye; he looked exhausted, with dark circles bruising his eyes and a sad frown. It was likely because of how recently he’d completed the mate bond, but he seemed sapped of almost all his energy. Or it had to do with distance—I’d never paid much attention to that when it came to Adrian’s family.

“What?” he snapped, though not as sharply as he might have weeks ago.

Before mating her .

I shrugged. “Just noticed how crappy you look.”

Elias snarled something and turned to stalk off, but I reached for his arm and stopped him.

“Are you really this affected by not being with her?” I asked softly. It wasn’t that I felt bad for the guy.

Maybe it was because I needed to put a name to my own ache. I wanted to believe Adrian was right. That she and I were mates, that the pull I felt for her—now more than ever, since waking up in that alley covered in my own blood—actually meant something.

Elias considered me carefully, tugging his arm free. “It’s like a piece of me is permanently gone,” he said, looking down at his hands. “Like I’m missing a limb. I know she’s okay. I can feel her, hear her, but without her near, it’s like I’m always searching for her.”

My skin prickled. I wouldn’t admit to him I felt her absence, too. It wasn’t nearly to the same extent, but I somehow found myself looking for her, reaching for that warmth, that fire she ignited within me.

“Adrian warned me it would be like this.” Elias shook his head and sighed. “Two weeks is the max we can be apart without it getting worse. At least, that’s what his mother claims.”

I snorted. “Sounds like you’ve still got a lot to learn about being the Queen’s mate. Can’t wait for your knighting ceremony.”

Elias grunted and spared me a scathing look that said more than words. Like he knew I wished it was me. Fuck, he probably did. He’d probably heard Adrian and I talking about it.

“Look—”

Elias held up a hand, stopping me. “I trust my mate,” he stated, meeting my stare. “I know you have feelings for her. You’ve never hidden that. And she feels the same way. So, if she needs to explore that, to figure out if there’s a mate bond there, then that’s what she’ll do.”

My throat thickened. He didn’t wait for my response, and instead left me standing in the loading bay.

~

The three children were sullen at lunch. No matter what Thea made, or how hard Elias tried to coax them out of their shells, they wanted none of it.

I was worried mostly for Eloise. She carried the weight of her sisters—of their mother’s death—on her shoulders. From what I knew, she had a better idea of the world they were entering. The younger two were mostly being shielded from the truth. I wasn’t sure how long that would last, if it would considering the other agents living under the same roof.

For the most part, Jay kept them on a tight leash. The agents knew what they could and couldn’t speak of. Meetings were held where little ears wouldn’t overhear, and all shifters kept their junk in gear at all times.

Maisie loved the shifters most. She was completely enamoured by Elias’s wolf, and was slowly warming up to Navya, the panther shifter from Jay’s team. Ginny was the quietest, and from what I’d heard after the disastrous birthday dinner from hell, she used to be the chattiest of the three. No amount of coaxing would make that girl move from Eloise’s side.

Thea assumed the role of parental figure, and she never complained. But like Elias, she looked exhausted. Her hair was thrown into two low pigtails, and she wore a black cap backwards over it. She deliberately ignored most of the agents, but she always cooked and spent any time away from the kids in front of the stove, making large serves of easily frozen foods.

It was fucking endless.

I made my way over to her while Elias engaged the girls with some activity he claimed would keep them sharp for when they went back to school. Thea didn’t look up as I came to a stop beside whatever soup she was making, the different ingredients spread out around her in a colour-based pattern. Greens were grouped next to the yellows, followed by the reds.

“Anything I can help with?” I asked, eyeing several bowls of different vegetables already diced. “I’m not a cook like Adrian, but I can chop shit. Promise.”

Thea arched a brow as she turned to me. “You didn’t help once at the last safe house. I distinctly remember hearing about your ability to turn blondes, blue. So, no thanks.”

I snorted a laugh and grinned. “That wasn’t an accident. I wanted to mess with Adrian. And he’s also a princess in the kitchen, so it’s best not to ask if he wants help,” I replied, shrugging.

She watched me for a long moment before sighing. “Fine. I have chicken cooling. I need it shredded.” Her eyes narrowed and she looked me over. “You know how to shred chicken, right?”

“How hard could it be?”

Thea groaned and lowered her head. “Lord save me from my friend’s idiot boyfriends,” she muttered.

My heart skipped a beat, and the grin widened. “You think I’m her boyfriend?”

She glared, watching as I put the cooked chicken into a bowl. “If you weren’t, I’d be worried. Especially after what I know, Cuddles.”

I pursed my lips and didn’t respond. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Ivy had told her about that day. Even if it had been for a short time, it soothed something within me.

If we weren’t mates, I knew I would cherish it. And if we were…

Without another word, we worked. Thea added an array of vegetables to her soup while I shredded the chicken. She accepted the meat without comment, tossing it into the simmering pot, and barely acknowledged me beyond that.

Maybe it was a good thing, I decided, as she let me help her prep the meal for serving. There wasn’t much I could do to help Ivy’s sisters, but I could at least help here.

The double doors to the main warehouse opened with agents leaving their day-shift duties. Their voices remained soft so as not to startle the girls, something Elias and I tried to enforce—but Thea was more forceful with. She wasn’t afraid of the agents, who were usually double her age or stronger than her.

I looked up as Jay entered, his brows drawn tight. He met my stare and gave me a nod.

Tension lined my body as I wrapped up the job Thea had given me. Our eyes met briefly, and she sighed.

I helped her pour soup for the kids and walked them to the table. Elias’s eyes darkened as he watched Jay, who waited for us by the doors with his arms crossed.

“Make sure you finish your food,” the wolf muttered, eyes alight, the shift close to the surface. “I’ll see you guys soon.”

Maisie hugged his arm before releasing him, pouting into her chicken-noodle soup. Ginny barely looked up from the page she’d been drawing on. And Eloise…

Her eyes followed us. We didn’t speak until we were out of the warehouse, walking the long hall towards the loading bay. The tension between the three of us thickened, threatening to explode, until we made it out to the cars.

“What happened?” Elias asked.

Jay turned on us with dark eyes. The tattoos lining his body shifted, slithering like snakes across his skin. “The vamp is still down, but we may have gotten something out of the other one.”

The other one being a shifter. Fox, arctic, male. He was a strange anomaly, considering he was dated at nearly two hundred and thirty years old. Shifters aged at a slower rate, but not like Fae, Vampires, and Demons.

And since our guy was a full-blooded shifter, it didn’t make sense.

I had a feeling it had something to do with whatever problem our enemy had with the Daughters of Nyx. Some kind of experimentation, considering the state of the bear shifters we’d fought during the kidnapping.

It sent a shiver of uncertainty through me. But I bottled it up and put it away. If anything were to happen to Ivy again, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.

I knew what her destiny held, and I would do anything in my power to stop it from happening.

If it meant bloodying my hands, then so be it.

Elias and I shared a look. It was like he knew the current war within me, the one I wanted to fight so badly but couldn’t win.

He said nothing, though, and nodded once.

We strode into the storeroom where our shifter waited, and we worked.