Rodrigo, the leader of the rebellion, although he’d tell you “in name only,” crosses his arms over his broad chest and raises an eyebrow at the two older Alphas on the other side of the table. “Willow and Isaac?”
Caius, the more severe-looking one, clears his throat. “They’re working out some stuff.”
The Alpha beside him is Jory, a man who’d been undercover as a Beta when I was taken to Tenebrosa. He snickers at his pack brother, and Mira makes a strange sound and draws my attention to her wincing face. If not for the blue light shining on it, I think it’d be green.
Huh.
“At least someone is,” Rodrigo mutters, then frowns. Sounds like a lot of people are having pack issues. “All right, let’s proceed. Mira?”
Mira swallows hard, but I get the feeling it isn’t jitters. When she approaches the table, Rai, one of her Alphas, stays beside her.
As beautiful as Mira is, with her silver eyes and wavy brunette hair, Rai is like some kind of sculpture straight out of Old Japan. His dark eyes serious and steady, his straight hair white as snow, just long enough to fall over his eyebrows when he tilts his head.
“There aren’t a lot of completed packs on campus,” Mira says as Rai waves his hand over the table, making the projection change at his will. “And bonded packs mean more than team cohesion. It means power.”
Mira tells us all of the failed missions in UNA, and how those packs sent out there have been captured, imprisoned in a medical facility. The news fans the flames of my hatred for the GBE, knowing what those captured are likely in for.
“Follow-up teams discovered that after the rebellion made themselves known by taking the academies, the GBE has been ramping up their security and also trying to ferret out any undercover operatives in their midst.”
“Unsuccessfully,” Rodrigo chimes.
“As far as you know.”
The voice is deep, grumbling, with a heavy Russian accent. My gaze swivels toward it in the shadows at the back wall, where a hulking Alpha leans. I had no idea this guy was here with us. I hadn’t even scented him, and I still can’t.
Rodrigo frowns on a sigh. “As far as we know.”
Mira raises a brow at the Russian then turns it on Rodrigo before continuing. “The original plans remain the same. We still need to infiltrate two facilities and achieve our goals there.” A building on the map fills the table’s projection. “Infiltrate thisfacility and hack the global communications satellites.” That building disappears, and another pops up in its place. “Infiltrate this facility, free the prisoners, including our missing operatives, purge the database. We do all this at the same time.”
We.I don’t think it’s casual language.
I glance down at Nyx who is no longer leaning on my shoulder, but leaning forward, toward the map. There’s an edge to her energy that wasn’t there before, a hum that courses through my body from our joined hands, and I realize then that she’s itching to kick some arse.
Now, I know for certain, we’re about to be sent on an official mission for the rebellion.
A rush of adrenaline floods my system to match Nyx’s hum, and a smile stretches across my face.
Any chance to take these feckers down, I’m in.
“What do you need us to do?” Erich chimes in, obviously on the same page as me and Nyx, who takes his hand in her free one. They share a look of adoration that warms my heart before he looks at me, his icy eyes even more electric blue in the light of the projection. Those eyes are filled with love, and what’s more, a level of understanding I didn’t realize he had with me.
It’s like he was as affected by the mention of the prisoners as I was.
“Mira and her pack are going to take care of the communications facility,” Rodrigo explains. “We need your pack to handle the science facility.”
“Please tell me I can finish it off the same way as Tenebrosa,” I say with a bit more excitement in my tone than I’d meant to.
Rodrigo regards me a moment. “After you save the prisoners and purge the system, you’re welcome to do as you see fit.”
Well, I can’t say I’m not ecstatic about this. Taking out two major science facilities? Who else would have that on their resume?
“We’ll be leaving separately,” Mira tells us. “Undercover with fake identification—”
“Which will be flawless,” Rai chimes.
Mira purses her lips at his pride, stifling a smile. “Right. And there’s already been a plan mapped out, even safe houses, so to speak.”
Rai changes the map again to show us tiny spaces tucked away all over New York, the city islands and Long Island.
