Conall’s fingers stilled on the keyboard.We haven’t heard anything about—
Because someone doesn’twantyou to hear about it.She moved closer to the display, close enough that his scent wrapped around her like smoke.The Ruby Range Pack in Montana.Seven members are missing, including their alpha’s daughter.The Creek Bend Pack in Arkansas—their entire leadership council dead in what looks like a hunting accident.
Jesus.Conall pulled up new windows on his screen, fingers flying across the keys.That’s a pattern.
No shit.Nadine watched him work, noting the way his brow furrowed in concentration, the efficient movement of his hands.Despite everything, he was good at this.Methodical.Thorough.
It pissed her off how attractive that was.
What else?he asked without looking up.
She hesitated.This was the part that made her vulnerable, that revealed how deep she’d gone down this particular rabbit hole.
But if they were going to do this—if she was going to trust him enough to share intelligence—she needed to give him something real.
The assets,she said finally.Chimera’s been placing them for decades.They’ve been mapping pack territories, infiltrating leadership structures, gathering intelligence on our weaknesses.
Conall’s hands stopped moving.How do you know all this?
Because,she said, her voice barely above a whisper,my mother was one of them.
The silence that followed felt heavy enough to crush her.
So the story you told me before—you lied?
Partially.
Explain.Conall’s voice had gone neutral, the way people talked when they were trying not to spook a wounded animal.
Nadine turned back to face him, leaning against the windowsill.My mother, Lucy, wasn’t a human.She was a shifter, an asset placed in the Red Canyon Pack when she was nineteen.Her mission was to gather intelligence on pack alliances in the Southwest.She was very good at her job.
But something went wrong.
She fell in love.The words tasted sour in her mouth.With the pack’s beta.My father—my real father.Marcus Torrance.
Conall’s eyebrows shot up.Torrance?But Gregory—
Is Marcus’s younger brother.Nadine’s laugh held no humor.Lucy got pregnant with me, and suddenly Chimera had a problem.They couldn’t extract her without blowing her cover, but a pregnant asset was a liability.
She began pacing the small space.The movement helped, gave her something to do with the restless energy that talking about this always brought up.
So they waited.Let her have the baby—let her have me.Then they killed Marcus and made it look like a challenge gone wrong.Lucy was supposed to disappear after that, but…
But she didn’t.
She ran.Took me and ran as far as she could get.Nadine stopped pacing, facing Conall directly.It wasn’t far enough.
What happened to her?
The rest of what I told you was true, basically.She died in a car wreck—manufactured by Chimera.Gregory tracked me down, took me in, raised me off the shifter grid.
Why?
He wanted to use me as an assassin.He trained me, gave me resources, pointed me toward targets.All of them connected to Chimera.All of them so he could save shifter kids.Or so he told me.Her voice grew quieter.I believed him.I wanted to believe him.
Because he was the only family you had left.
Show me what you have on your pack’s asset recovery mission,she said.
