“Not when it’s family,” Cassidy fires back, her voice trembling. “Not when it’s Sadie. I wasn’t going to watch her bleed out in my arms.”
Rush’s hand lands on hers, steadying. “What’s done is done. The question now is how we protect her.”
The debate ignites. Gideon leans forward, jaw tight. “You inflicted the change on her without her consent. My guess is she didn't know the truth about you, Rush or the rest of us. I'm not sure that's saving. It sounds a lot more like inflicting something on her she might not have chosen for herself.”
Dalton bristles, fire in his voice. “I’d have done the same. You think I’d let Kari die if biting her was the only way to keep her alive? Hell no.”
“Don’t bring my sister into this,” Gideon growls, stepping closer.
“Enough.” Rush’s command slices through the room, but the fury simmers. Turning someone without their consent is a big deal to our kind, regardless of the reason. It's a slippery slope.
The air feels heavy, charged like a storm pressing against the walls, and every breath carries more than a trace of tension. Deacon mutters about restraint, about the danger of untrained wolves. Cassidy glares at him like she’ll burn him alive. I keep silent, but the tension makes me grind my teeth. Every instinct says danger circles closer than we know.
“Whoever ordered this hit won’t stop,” Rush continues. “We saw their reach in Aruba, and again in Houston. That makes Sadie this team's highest priority."
"Does the governor agree with that?" Gideon asks. The governor is the only one with jurisdiction over our team.
Rush shakes his head. "Doesn't matter. They’ve failed twice, and that will only make them more desperate.”
The reminder shoves ice into my veins. Two attempts already. A third will come, and so will a fourth, and so on and so on until they succeed. The thought of Sadie bleeding out nearly unravels me from the inside.
I hear the voices around me, but they blur into a low thrum pulsing through my system. All I can think about is the way my wolf reacts every time Sadie’s name is spoken. The memory slams into me—Rush and Cassidy’s wedding, Sadie in a pale green dress that made her eyes look like sea glass. One smile from her had sent my wolf lunging against its leash. I’d buried it, ignored it, convinced myself it was nothing. I told myself she was off-limits. Cassidy’s sister. A civilian. Not mine.
Now there’s no ignoring it. Fate has shoved her into my path again.
Rush pulls the room back to focus. “She needs protection. Day and night. No gaps.”
Every eye turns to me.
“No,” I say flatly. “Not me.”
Rush arches a brow. “You’re the best option. You fly. You hack. You disappear when you need to. And you’re the only one who’s dealt with her before.”
"I haven't dealt with her. I danced with her at your wedding. Besides,I’m not a babysitter,” I growl. The snap is sharper than I meant, my voice clipped short enough to draw Gideon’s eyebrow. I unclench my fist under the table before anyone else notices.
Dalton grins. “Pretty baby, though." He turns to the others as I smile. "You should’ve seen his face at the wedding when she walked in.”
Gideon piles it on with a laugh. “He looked like somebody gut-punched him.”
Deacon chuckles, shaking his head. “You're right. Besides, I've never known Gage to lose his cool that fast.”
Laughter ripples, the kind that cuts and bonds all at once. I don’t rise to the bait, but my wolf snarls inside me, wild and restless. Rush doesn’t laugh either.
“You know what this is, Gage,” he says quietly. “Don’t make me spell it out.”
I hold his gaze, but the truth is already clawing at me. My wolf knew before I did. Sadie isn’t just Cassidy’s sister. She isn’t just a case. She’s… something my wolf refuses to ignore. The word I don’t want to name claws at me, but I shove it back down, locking it tight.
Deacon’s voice breaks the silence. “Since Cassidy turned her without any kind of preparation or foreknowledge, I have to ask,is she volatile? You all know what those first few days can be like for an uninformed human. She’s going to need someone who won’t flinch when she loses control.”
“She won’t lose control,” Cassidy insists, sharp as glass.
Dalton shakes his head. “Deke isn't saying she will, but do you want to bet her life on that? Yours? Ours? I take it she knows about the rest of us.”
"I had to tell her."
Rush places his hand over Cassidy's. "Of course you did, babe. And despite what any of these assholes says, they'd have done the same and we all know it."
The words sting. Cassidy falters, guilt dragging her shoulders lower. I glance at her, and for the first time I see not only her conviction but also her fear.
