Chapter 7 #2
At least he knows he isn’t acting rationally.
Gavran frowns. “Explain. I don’t have Instabook or Facegram, either. How is that a problem?”
I’m already shaking my head before he finishes speaking.
“Look, I know you don’t really subscribe to all the tech of the last century, but it’s important to understand that being online is basically an epidemic these days.
Everyone over ten and under eighty has social media.
If not, they’re still online. Looking shit up, reading books, listening to music, and streaming videos.
Even Ford gets online now and then, and he still calls the internet ‘The Information Superhighway.’”
Gav’s lips tip up in a half smile.
“It’s not normal for a twenty-two-year-old female to be totally absent online,” I explain, tapping my iPad screen for emphasis. “Gav, she’s not even on the Omega Registry.”
That lands.
Vae sits up straighter. “Wait… seriously?”
“She’s not there. I triple checked. Even went through state-specific registries in case she was added locally somewhere else, and her absence on the federal branch is a fluke. Nothing.”
Caelan furrows his brows, rubbing his thumb back and forth across his lower lip. His gaze is distant, and I’d do anything to know what the hell is running through his head right now.
“I’d like to circle back to what you aren’t telling me about this Omega, Caelan.” Despite sounding like a request, Gav isn’t asking.
Just like me, he’s noticing the red flags and is now in full interrogation mode.
Caelan’s jaw is clenched tight, the muscles in his neck working overtime. I can feel his reticence through the Bond, and it makes me more suspicious.
“I was getting to that,” he replies in a clipped tone. “It felt like….” He trails off, and I can see him actually considering how much he’s willing to share.
“When I saw her on the balcony, it felt like I got a hit of adrenaline straight to the heart. I was jittery. Protective. Felt like I had no control over my Alpha instincts.”
He shrugs, downplaying his admission, but his words sound rehearsed.
His performance might fool someone else, but I’ve known him for fucking centuries. He isn’t just flirting with denial; he’s moved in with it and changed his mailing address.
Even more proof that I’m right to be suspicious of this Omega.
Caelan doesn’t react to people. He’s stoic, calm.
He doesn’t just survive the storm—he is the storm.
The male is built for handling worst-case scenarios with a cool head.
He’s not like Vae, who feels everything and does a piss poor job of hiding it.
Nor is he like me, with my short fuse and long memory, always one step away from blowing shit up if it doesn’t do what I want.
Caelan rarely displays the kind of Alpha aggression that Vae and I do. I honestly can’t even imagine how unsettled he must have felt last night, having his instincts trip like a landmine over a human female.
“So let me get this straight,” Gavran’s tone is dry as a desert as he holds up a hand, ticking off each point with increasing irritation.
“One: Dax’s drones go haywire around the Varenthrall estate, leading him to believe we’re dealing with wards we’ve never seen before.
Two: Caelan loses his shit over a human female who, technically, doesn’t exist on paper—”
“I did not lose my shit,” Caelan snaps. His fangs gleam in the firelight, more proof he’s not thinking clearly.
Gav stares him down with that heavy amber gaze. “Right, sure. You just felt the early stages of a protective Alpha rage for the first time in, what? Five hundred years? Completely on brand for you.”
He folds down another finger. “Three: The next night, Daxen’s tech glitches again, at a different location.
Four: Vaelenor’s Bone Curse goes off like a sleeper agent because he smells magic he’s only encountered once.
I’ve got two of my best warriors grappling with instincts they haven’t touched in centuries.
I’ve got a magical ward without any kind of traceable signature, and ancient magic resurfacing that no one’s seen since the godsdamned 1500’s. ”
His pause is calculated and heavy. “Am I missing anything?”
Uneasy glances are exchanged around the room, but no one speaks. Vae crosses his arms and tips his chair until it’s balancing on the back two legs. He looks like he’d rather chew glass than be the first one to speak.
Caelan’s still as stone, barely breathing. I can’t feel him in the Bond at all now, which is somehow worse than if he broadcast his feelings for the entire room.
My eyes dart around the room, landing basically everywhere except for directly on Gavran. When my gaze flicks to Silas, I see that fucking look in his eyes again.
“So what I’m hearing is,” Silas drawls, a huge shit-eating grin spreading across his face, “I’m the most emotionally stable one at this table.”
“No,” we all answer simultaneously.
I roll my neck and exhale. I need to shift back to strategy mode, try and get this shit show back on track. There are too many questions that need answers. Too many moving pieces that don’t make sense. I can’t stand it.
“We need to get eyes back on that estate. There are too many coincidences, and we still don’t know if any of this ties back to the missing Omegas. The wards. The ghost girl—”
“Idril.” Caelan barks.
Vae’s chair thuds onto all four legs as Silas lets out a long whistle.
I roll my eyes. “Really? You’re going to police my words now?”
“I’m asking you to show some basic respect,” he snaps back.
“Listen. You don’t know this girl. You watched her on a balcony for like ten minutes—”
“Doesn’t matter. She’s a person.”
“She’s a threat,” I snap. Taking a breath, I make a conscious effort to stay composed and stick to the facts.
“Look. She knows Alexander personally. Her father is working with the Severed. She doesn’t exist outside of that house, and whatever you saw in the twelve seconds you were around her has turned you into someone I don’t even recognize. ”
Caelan’s fists clench. “I know what I saw.”
“You saw what your instincts wanted you to see.” My voice rises despite my attempts to stay calm and rational. “You’re an Alpha. Your instincts made you believe there was an Omega who was in distress, and you acted accordingly. Your biology kicked in, and you stopped thinking rationally.”
“Fuck you, Dax.”
“Fuck you back! I’m trying to keep you safe, you idiot!”
“Both of you shut up,” Gav’s booming voice slams us back down into our seats.
“I don’t give a shit about your spat. This—whatever this is—is pack business, so save it for later. Right now, I care more about facts than I do about feelings, and the fact is we have multiple problems and not nearly enough intel to begin solving them.”
Gav scoots back, resting his ankle on top of his knee. “First off, we need someone closer. Dax, do you think we can sneak in? Maybe plant some pics and bug the place?”
“We could try,” I reply, considering our options.
“But those wards already fried my tech once. They’ll do the same to mics and cameras.
That drone is the only piece of gear I have that can even partially punch through outside of comms, and that’s only because comms are transient tech. They’re not meant for spying.”
“Then we go old-school,” Gav responds without missing a beat. “Boots-on-the-ground. Get eyes on Varenthrall, see what he’s up to. Get eyes on the daughter, as well.”
Caelan shifts in his seat. I can feel the tension radiating off of him.
Gav holds up a hand to stop the snarl of disagreement that’s coming.
“I know you think she’s innocent, brother, but Dax is partially correct.
At best, she’s a naive, sheltered girl who has no idea what kind of monster her father really is. ”
I snort. There’s no way. You don’t live with someone without knowing what they are. And make no mistake, Jonathan Varenthrall is a monster. No one who works with the Severed voluntarily is any kind of innocent.
“At worst, she’s in on whatever Alexander and her father are planning. We’ve also got unknown magic in the mix. I can’t afford to trust anyone not in this room right now, outside of Ford and Evander.” He pauses, then adds with deliberate emphasis, “Including the Omega.”
He does it to gauge Caelan’s reaction. To see if he’ll lose it.
And Fates, he very nearly does.
His eyes flash, his palms press flat on the table, and he starts to stand up. He catches himself at the last second, seeming almost shocked to find himself nearly out of his seat, and slumps back down.
Rather than voice the retort, I can practically see sitting on the tip of his tongue, he shifts tactics in a maddening move I should have seen coming.
“I’ll go.” He lifts his chin, and his eyes are harder and more stubborn than I can ever remember seeing them.
I feel like I’m in the fucking twilight zone right now.
“Absolutely not.” Planting my hands on the table, I turn my full attention to Gav. “Caelan is compromised. Sending him back in is a mistake.”
“I’m not compromised,” Caelan objects, and I swear there’s genuine hurt in his eyes before he hides it under the calm mask he usually wears.
“You are,” I sigh. “You get angry when it’s suggested she’s a threat, you’re snarling at your pack, your instincts are short-circuiting, which is making you misremember what you saw. You nearly ripped Silas’ throat out for making a joke about her name. You’re the definition of compromised.”
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe I’m getting so pissed because my brother is treating a victim like a villain?”
His accusation nearly knocks the air out of my lungs. He can’t be fucking serious. A victim? She’s a victim now? Unbelievable!
How the hell has this female dug her claws into my brother when they haven’t even exchanged names?