“All of us have been separated from Command since Zeke died,” Daniel countered. “Except Ambrose, because he’s been following leads with a team.”
“And did he find anything useful?”
“You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
Uncle Dalton hesitated, and surprise made me straighten.
Daniel let out a huff of humorless laughter.
“It’s a delicate situation,” Uncle Dalton hedged.
“Maybe in the beginning,” Daniel argued. “At this point, it’s got the finesse of a godsdamn machine gun. They attackedthe propertytonight. Used Billy Finau to lure us out so they could target our mates.”
“Fuck,” Uncle Dalton breathed.
I waited for Uncle Dalton to say something, anything. He had names of human militia members. He knew where a few of their safe houses were. I’d heard him going over things with my pop, but I hadn’t paid much attention. I wasn’t in charge of strategy like that—it was above my pay grade. I was a soldier. I went where I was ordered. The larger picture interested me, of course, because I wanted Vampires and their mates to be safe, but I didn’t know the people my pop and uncle were discussing. I didn’t recognize the streets they mentioned or the connections they thought they might’ve found.
Uncle Dalton said nothing.
Daniel’s arm moved across my lap, his hand wrapping around the thigh furthest from him. I wondered if he was as shocked as I was that my uncle wasn’t cooperating.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Ian making a face at me. When I moved my eyes in his direction, he wiggled his eyebrows and stuck his tongue in his cheek, moving it from side to side.
I just barely held back a very inappropriate laugh.
He widened his eyes and then rolled them back and dropped his mouth open. Then, quick as a blink, his face lost all expression, and he looked down at Thunder while his ears flushed a deep red.
I turned to find my mate looking at my cousin in amusement. He glanced at me, and his expression turned serious again.
“Rosemary is out,” he announced.
“Fuck off,” I said in exasperation, digging my big toes into his back.
“They know who you are now,” he said, ignoring my toes. “And if they grabbed you again, they’d find the symptoms they were waiting for.”
“She’s out,” Uncle Dalton confirmed.
“That’s bullshit.” I smacked the arm of the couch.
“The only reason we agreed to let you is because you weren’t mated,” Uncle Dalton reminded me. “I knew they’d realize that you weren’t what they were looking for. Now? You’re exactly who they’re looking for.”
“No one can know we’re mated,” Daniel continued. “Not anyone outside of family.”
“Agreed.”
“Not even Arthur.”
Uncle Dalton nodded. “You’ll have to be very circumspect about being seen together.”
“We won’t be seen together,” Daniel replied. “I don’t plan on even bringing her to the house.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, yanking my feet out of their warm cocoon so I could set them on the floor. “You two don’t get to just decide?—”
“Erik and Mattie are going tolovethat,” Uncle Dalton replied sarcastically, completely ignoring me.
“They’ll understand.”
“Stop,” I finally yelled, shooting to my feet. “I’m a fully grown adult. Neither of you gets to tell me what to do.”
