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“I can, uh, give you two a minute,” Crow says, awkwardly stepping away.

Behind me, the meeting room door swings open, and Dutch pokes his head out. “Are you two going to stand there all day, or—” He stops. A beat passes, and then he blurts, “Oh shit. Mia, what’s⁠—”

“Go back inside,” she snarls, and there’s a glimpse of violence in her green eyes as she snaps at him.

Beneath the mate bond, I note the sudden dominance that surges in her. A strength I’ve never noticed before. Or did I? It feels similar to her surge during the meeting yesterday. When she’d snapped at Razor. Only this one is much, much stronger.

“Mia? What’s wrong?” Lexi asks as she and Grey and the rest of them trickle out from behind Dutch and come to stand around me.

“Nothing,” Mia growls, eyes flashing.

“Sure.” Dutch crosses his arms, clearly unafraid, though maybe he should be.

Grey steps up beside me. I glance over and note the understanding in his expression. Like he’s read between the lines and knows exactly what’s happening. He doesn’t offer an explanation, but something in his posture eases like a calculation he’s been running has finally resolved.

“We’ve been waiting for you,” he says to Mia. “Why don’t we head into the conference room, and we’ll show you what Marcus found?”

She looks over at him, and some of the fight goes out of her eyes. “I think I need a few minutes,” she says quietly.

“Of course,” Grey says.

That’s when the air changes.

It’s subtle at first. So subtle that my wolf clocks it three full seconds before my brain does. A scent underneath the normal smells of the house. Something else, woven in. Chemical. Bitter. Laced with something that prickles against my wolf’s senses like static.

My wolf goes from still to alert in the space of a single heartbeat.

“Do you smell that?” I ask.

Mia’s already looking around, nostrils flared. “Yes. What is⁠—”

She breaks off, and all I know is that suddenly I want to go outside in a way that is both unreasonable and irresistible.

I see the destination clearly in my mind as if I’d had the thought myself. Maybe I did. Who else would have had it for me? My feet are already moving as I picture it. The back garden where the trees meet the yard. Someone is waiting. Someone whom I am very much looking forward to seeing.

“Where are you going?” Grey asks.

I look over at him and note the look of confusion he wears.

“Outside,” I say like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Don’t worry.”

“Why?” he presses.

“That’s where he wants me to go,” I say.

“Who?”

“My friend.”

“Yeah, my friend,” Dutch echoes, pushing past me on his way out.

“But—” Lexi pulls Grey aside as Razor shoves past him.

Marcus and Razor fall into step with me. They don’t say a word, but somehow, I know we’re headed to the same place. Dutch follows, arms uncrossed, like he’s already forgotten Mia’s outburst and his reaction to it.

Oh, Mia⁠—

I look at her in time to see something flicker across her face. Fast, like a card turning. Then her expression smooths, and I step past her, eager to see my old friend.