I take his hand and squeeze it. “I know, Cass. And I appreciate it. Now, where are we meeting Detective Miller?”
* * *
We meetthe royal detective inspector in the alley behind a heavily warded row house just outside downtown Fairhaven. The whole back alley has been covered in spells and Cassian quickly explains that they obscure any visitors from being seen by neighbors—or by anyone else who could be watching the apartment.
“The Soldiers aren’t happy about my investigation into their activity,” the detective explains. He leads us into the kitchen through the back door, sits us down at the table there and offers us tea. Marcus and I accept, but Cassian is all business as he paces the cozy kitchen.
“Your wards are holding up?”
“They are,” Graeme confirms. “Your Professor Reinhardt did an immaculate job with them. Truly world-class casting. I’m not worried about the Soldiers attacking me—or anyone else—in my home. Now, at the Fairhaven police station, that’s another matter entirely.”
Marcus shakes his head. “The Soldiers are getting too bold.”
“That they are,” the English detective sighs, pouring boiling water into three waiting mugs. “No doubt thanks to their increasing connections in the corporate world. A defense firm, no less. Iknowthere’s a connection to Radcliffe Industries, but the mole I have inside the company hasn’t found anything aside from the standard horrific machines of war and terror. There has to be a secret project, a clandestine facility somewhere.”
My heart stutters in my chest. Could Radcliffe be somewhere other than Cambridge? I had naively assumed that Rad’s project would be based in their headquarters where their main R&D facilities are.
“Andrew Radcliffe is leading up a secret project,” I confirm. “I thought it was taking place in Cambridge, but now I’m not so sure. He hasn’t shared those details. But I know that he’s using test subjects from Rose Pharmaceuticals. Omegas with special abilities.”
“Affinities?”
I freeze on the spot, my scent sharpening. I don’t dare lie now that my scent has betrayed me. I reach out with my affinity, realizing it may already be too late, but I don’t pick up anything from the detective but curiosity. “That’s what I overheard my family talking about. I didn’t realize what it meant at the time.”
The young detective studies me closely but doesn’t press the subject. “Affinitied omegas being used by a defense firm? Whatever for?”
“Rad was boastful when I met with him over the summer. He’s leading a project to control omegas with affinities. I believe he intends to use them as a weapon against other omegas.”
Graeme sets his mug down with a heavy thunk. “That’s more dire than even I imagined, and I’ve imagined the worst about the Soldiers for a very long time.”
I pause for a moment, pretending to fiddle with the tag on my tea bag as I reach out with my affinity. I trusted the detective inspector when I first met him, and I pick up the same ardent desire for justice now as I did then. Letting out a small sigh, I continue, “They’re just a small part of it. There’s a larger movement?—”
“Project Halcyon? Your young hacker friend told me as much as he could about it. A coordinated effort to reduce omegas to obedient little breeders.” For the first time, his handsome face crumples in anger, his brow furrowing. His thoughts are full of rage, of longing. And loss. Saints, this alpha has lost someone very dear to him—anomegawho was very dear to him. At the Soldiers’ hands? It has to be…
“It’s more than that. My father’s company is working on a trial to improve alpha fertility. I have to imagine it’s promising based on the way my sister spoke of it. They’re not planning on just enslaving omegas. They want to eradicate us. And they’ll do it with the affinitied omegas they hope to control.”
“Fuck!” he exclaims, pounding his fist on the kitchen table with his fist, making our mugs shake and tea slosh over the sides. He seems immediately ashamed and quickly turns for a tea towel. “My apologies, but that’s simply barbaric.”
“The only silver lining is that I don’t think Radcliffe has been successful yet. He… my mating to him is contingent on him succeeding in this project.”
“The fuck it is,” Cassian mutters.
“If you were to kill him and toss him in the Bay, I’d look the other way,” the detective says. “Him and all his ilk.”
“I wish I knew more, Detective,” I say, clasping my hands around my mug of tea. “He’s boastful and proud, the very definition of hubris, but most of his ravings were about me, not about the project. I’m due to see him at the end of the month, though, and I can pass along anything I learn then.”
“That would be most appreciated, Miss Rose. I suppose I should tell my insider at Radcliffe Industries to stand down for now. It seems they won’t find anything at the headquarters. Not without blowing their cover or conducting a significant amount of corporate hacking—which it seems your beta friend is already doing. You know I could prosecute him for about a hundred different infractions.”
Cassian lets out a low growl. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t.”
The detective rolls his eyes. “He’s one of my best sources of information. Just tell him to keep covering his tracks. With the way things are changing, I don’t know if I have enough influence to protect him if he gets caught. We need all the intel we can get if we have any chance of stopping the Soldiers or Project Halcyon.”
* * *
I push asideall thoughts of Project Halcyon, of terrorist alphas, and gruesome masks for the afternoon the moment I let Luca put my helmet on. In minutes, we’re zipping down the streets of Fairhaven on the back of Luca’s motorcycle and then we finally hit the highway.
We rip down the coast, my long hair slipping from the helmet and blowing in the wind behind me. The bike thrums between our thighs, and Luca is so warm against my front, all power and muscle as I hold tight around his waist.
The sun shines above us as the ground disappears beneath us, mile by mile, we fly south along the long, curving road that hugs the shore. It’s a beautiful day—too beautiful not to hit the road, Luca had said when he’d shown up at the townhouse, my helmet tucked under his arm.
