Bundled up in comfortable clothes, running shoes, and a pink puffy jacket, she sat calmly in her seat as her elf roared out of the long concrete tunnel. He’d been astonished by her apparently easy agreement to run away with him and kept checking in every few minutes to be sure she hadn’t changed her mind. Cecilia suspected that he peeled out of the garage so fast because he half-expected her to bail as soon as her ass hit the seat.
But she wasn’t bailing.
In her mind, there was no way the situation was as dire as he said it was. She just couldn’t imagine a system so blatantly unfairto people who’d been victimized their entire lives. There had to be a workaround, a plea they could make, that would allow them to return quickly and go about their business like normal.
In the meantime, there was nothing wrong with a vacation. It wasn’t like anyone expected her at work after she’d no-showed multiple days in a row, and her parents certainly weren’t looking for her. The only person who would care that she left was Dahlia, and it just so happened that they were headed right for her.
Strangely, Dahlia hadn’t sounded all that surprised when Cecilia called to ask if they could come stay for a while. But maybe nothing shocked her much anymore. Having a husband like Felix could do that to a woman.
She’d offered to send Genevieve, the Amauri-employed witch who could open m-gates in the fabric of space-time — presumably to do crimes — but Sloane flatly refused to travel that way. Cecilia wasn’t exactly excited about the idea of being squeezed through and spat out a cosmic straw, so she agreed that the car was the best bet.
All in all, Sloane was far more tense than she was as they roared out of what she learned was Marin County. They were making a break for the border, which would take several hours. She didn’t exactly expect to be chased or anything, so she settled in with a soft blanket and a pillow, one arm extended to rest on his thigh as he drove.
They were silent for a while. She tried her best to give him time to decompress a little, but in the end, she just wasn’t the kind of person who could take quiet for that long.
“So… your team,” she began in her best nonchalant tone as she gently rubbed his thigh. “Can you tell me about them?”
Sloane’s chest rose with a deep breath. “Tell me what pertinent details interest you.”
“Are you friends?”
“No,” he answered, “we’re part of the same unit.”
“Okay, but you kind of grew up together, right? And you’ve beenpart of the same unitfor how many decades? You must at leastlikeeach other.”
He adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “Liking each other is irrelevant.”
Smothering a chuckle, she gave his thigh a quick, playful squeeze. “You know, another thing I love about you is how you think you can get away with not answering by being, like, super literal or side-stepping the spirit of the question. It’s cute.”
Sloane’s helmet briefly turned in her direction before it focused back on the road. “…You are the only one who thinks anything I do is cute, doe.”
“Well, I’m the only opinion that matters,” she stated, shrugging. Cecilia wiggled her eyebrows at him. “Unless you’re friends with your teammates, in which case theyalsomatter.”
She couldn’t be sure, but she thought he let out a very quiet, put-upon sigh. “We’re not friends. We’re… pack.”
“Pack? Like… shifters?”
Sloane tilted his head in one direction, then the other. “Not quite. Our structure is unique. Elves naturally gravitate toward hierarchy, but it’s normally slightly looser. Due to our training, a stricter and more tight-knit formation was prudent.”
Oh,she thought, eyes widening.Oh no.
Bracing herself, she asked, “So… where do you fall in the pack hierarchy?”
“I’m the most senior member of the unit,” he confirmed, “followed by Vesta. There was a gap between our capture and the others, so we were slightly older. Leadership naturally fell to us.”
Horror clung to the back of her throat like bile. “Is she sort of like your sister, then? If you’re taken as kids together and… and everything else.”
“We would never compare our working relationships to siblings or a family unit,” he replied, as blunt and nuanced as a brick.
“Youwouldn’t say it but that doesn’t make it untrue,” she argued. “Sloane… I think they’re your family. You’re the big brother, aren’t you?”
His voice came out clipped when he insisted, “If you must assign it a familial title, it would be more accurate to say I’m co-alpha.”
“Oh good gods, that’sworse!”she cried, twisting in her seat to give him her complete attention. Nearly draping herself over the center console, she grabbed his bicep. “Sloane, am I taking you away from your pack? The pack thatneedsyou?”
Peeling one hand off the wheel, he completely covered her knee with his palm. “You’re my consort. You come above everything. Even them. They’d do the same.”
“But you’re the example, Sloane,” she insisted. “You’re the leader. Even if they’ll survive losing you, don’t you think it’d be better to show them that this is something they should have, too? That they shouldn’t have to give up everything for?”
