“Lickarse!” Aisling snapped.
Dewi’s eyes widened. “Puta!”
Aisling stepped forward. “Gobshite!”
Dewi squared off with her. “Coño!”
“Enough!” Peyton roared, silencing both women. “You know what? I don’t give a fuck, flying or otherwise, if you two like each other. This isn’t how I’d hoped this introduction would go, but fuck it, we’re beyond that point now. Aisling, you’re assigned to Florida, and youwilldo what Dewi says. She’s your boss and the buck stops with her.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “You just Primed me!”
“Damned right I did.” His voice dropped into a growl. “Because I’m thefuckingPack Alpha.”
Dewi propped her fists on where she assumed her hips were. “Ha!”
Peyton turned on her. “And youwilltry to get along with her and treat her fairly!”
She realized what he did. “Motherfucker! Did you just Prime me, too?”
He smirked. “Perk of the rank, kiddo.” Amusement bled from his features. “This is too serious for me to wait you out, Dewi. I’m sorry. Igetit; you two are going to be like gasoline and a burning road flare and you didn’t get off on the right foot with each other. Suck it up, as you like to tell people you have to deal with.” He looked at Aisling. “Please wait outside for a moment.”
She glared at both of them but stepped outside and shut the door behind her.
“Why am I even Head Enforcer if you’re going to overrule me like this?” Dewi asked.
“The only reason I’m overruling you is because these are extraordinary circumstances and I need you to understand that. Believe me, this isn’t my preferred way of handling things but Aisling has scented the fucker.”
“Faegan Lewis?”
“Exactly.”
Dewi glared. “Meaning shelosthis trail, so how good a tracker can she be?”
Undeterred, he pressed on. “Plus she’s single, doesn’t have kids to worry about, and was the best choice of the available people to bring over. Trevor and Elaine like her. They’ve known her and her family for years. And she’s a woman, so hopefully Tamsin will feel comfortable with her. We need a woman to work with Imani, and the kids. You are going to be too busy with the baby to give Imani the time and focus she’ll really need, and while Tamsin is great with the kids we need someone with a little more backbone or Imani will run right over them, shifter or not. Tamsin’s an omega. And Aisling’s fifty-five. Meaning she’s older than Beck, believe it or not. Older thanme. She’s seen things and she has valuable real-world skills that we might need that our people don’t have.”
“You sound like she’s going to be here long-term.”
“She is. I have information that Faegan might try to make his way to the US. If he does, I need someone to help protect Tamsin and the kids who’s actually scented the guy up close and personal, and you haven’t.”
“Uh, Tamsin has!”
“Yeah, and if Tamsin smells him it means you and your Enforcers have fucked up and let him get too goddamned close to her and her baby!”
She jabbed a finger at him. “Well, if you’d have let me go to the UK at the start of all this bullshit, and—”
“Dewi,please, stop.”
It wasn’t a Prime order, but the weary desperation in Peyton’s tone—something she’d never heard before, pulled her up short.
“What aren’t you telling me? You want me to blindly follow orders but you know damned well that’s not me and never has been. You wouldn’t want a Head Enforcer who’s like that, anyway. So cough it up, bro.”
“Someone is actively trying to sell information about shifters to a foreign entity to use them to develop bio-weapons. And there’s a good chance they’ve already captured shifters and are actively experimenting on them.”
Dewi’s eyes widened. “Holy shit,” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“Who?” she asked.
