You need to get ahead of this—somebody just dropped Beckett’s name as a Howlers prospect and it’s going viral. Was it you??
I blinked. Just before the elevator doors closed, Marchand’s phone went off.
So did Beckett’s.
Simultaneously.
Shit.
Another message lit up my screen.
Colin (team comms):
Wren. Damage control. NOW. CBC, TSN, and Vultures’ press all blowing up. What the hell happened?
Then another?—
The doors opened to the ground floor and I strode out, before I checked the next message.
Jana:
Looks like Navarro stirred the pot? Some “innocent” question and now the rumor is everywhere. You better get ahead of this before it spirals.
I stopped dead in the hallway.
People were already looking at their phones. Whispers floating. Somewhere nearby, a monitor was playing a segment I didn’t even need to see toknowit was about us.
AboutBeckett.
About him coming “home.”
Too late to get ahead of it now.
The wildfire had already ignited.
I was standing in the middle of it, one step from meltdown, one tick from exposure, with exactly zero backup.
My suppressants were already trickling out of my system.
My control was slipping.
And now the press had blood in the water.
Perfect.
Chapter
Five
JAY
The waitress had freckles and fangs, her braid looped into a knot at the base of her neck, and a wedding band that glinted every time she reached for a glass.
Omega. Bonded. Her arms were tatted up and on full display. Her scent saidhappy,safe,fuck off, claimed—in that particular cocktail only true mating could pull off.
So, of course, Rhett flirted with her anyway.
In the harmless way.
