“We gave her space, gave her freedom. Hell, even privileges. What did she do? She tried to escape,” Cade said.
Talon’s fist clenched. “She’s a danger to herself and us. She can't do this again. Especially not at the Border Front. It will get someone killed.”
Cade’s voice dropped low and deadly serious. “No, she can't. She won't.”
I glanced at them both. “So what? Do we lock her down? No more privileges? Treat her like a prisoner?”
“Sheisa prisoner, at least for now,” Cade said. “No freedom until she proves she can be trusted.”
I scoffed. “She treats our control like a challenge. Like pushing back is a game. Why can’t she see we’re just trying to keep her safe? Most omegas—”
“Rowan isn’t like most omegas,” Talon cut in. His voice was calm but firm. “Especially not anymore.”
Cade nodded. “He’s right. She’s not.” He tightened his grip on the wheel. “Which means we can’t treat her like one.”
He glanced at me. “We set clear boundaries and strict rules. She follows them, or the consequences will escalate. This isn’t about control; it’s about survival. Ours and hers. Our job is to keep her safe.”
“Which she’s made pretty damn clear she can’t do on her fucking own,” I muttered.
Silence stretched as we all considered what could have happened to her.
Finally, Cade broke the silence. “When we get to the Border Front, Rowan’s on lockdown. No unsupervised movement. No privileges. We'll rotate shifts and keep our eyes on her every second. If she thought we were controlling before, she hasn't a clue what’s coming. And therewill beconsequences. She’s going to be punished hard enough that she remembers her mistakeevery time she sits down for the foreseeable future.”
“She’s going to hate us,” I said, barely able to contain my grin at the thought of getting to spank Kitten's plump ass again while she glared at me. I loved when my fiery omega was mad. My star player was getting hard just thinking about her angry little scowl and reddened butt.
“She’s made it clear she already does,” Cade said flatly. “But if it keeps her breathing, it’s worth it.”
"Dibs on spanking her!" I said giddy.
"She's getting a hell of a lot more than a spanking. She's long overdue for punishment. Talon and I discussed a few ideas…" Cade said, trailing off in thought.
I glanced at Tally and saw his bright yellow eyes gleaming with excitement, clearly envisioning whatever deviant punishment they’d dreamed up for Kitten.
I wondered why Rowan’s eyes hadn’t started glowing the way Talon’s had after his awakening. All shifters had a physical trait that set them apart. Yellow eyes marked them as something other, a stark warning of their predatory nature. Rowan's eyes were still that bright baby blue, which drew me in.
Her wolf's red fur coat was also unlike anything we’d ever seen. Shifters were always grey, black, or brown, but never red. That kind of coloring just didn’t happen. Combined with her eyes, Rowan looked distinctly abnormal from other shifters. We wouldn't have been able to keep her secret if she hadn't.
Maybe it was the suppressants, or that her awakening came so late, but something told me it went deeper than that. A quiet instinct in the back of my mind whispered that she wasn’t quite like Talon or the others.
I pushed the thought aside. Rowan was already different enough. If she stood out any more, the target on her back wouldonly grow.
"Are we almost there yet? I'm fucking bored and can't wait to get started with Kitten's punishment," I asked, trying to redirect my own pessimistic thoughts.
“Ryker, if you ask if we’re almost there one more time, I’m leaving you on the side of the road and you can walk to base,” Cade threatened again.
“Besides, we’re on duty first thing tomorrow. Patrol starts bright and early at 0700. Our pet's punishment will have to wait,” Talon added.
“Already? Seriously? You think Command could have at least given us a day to unpack?"
“You were the one eager to get off checkpoint duty,” Cade said. “Now you’re back on patrol. Command’s been waiting for us to return. A direworg horde bigger than anything we’ve seen on our side of the wall, killed two alphas last week. Now they want us sweeping the patrol radius, looking for where the mutated are getting through. They think there’s a breach.”
“Obviously there’s a breach. How else would anything get through the wall into New Arca?” I snorted.
“Well, we need to find it, because if we can’t find it on our side, you know they’re going to send us to the other side to search. I hate going north,” Talon said bitterly.
A handful of isolated shifter packs lived in the far north. They stayed hidden, but we sometimes encountered their castoffs. Those who had lost control and become slaves to their beasts. Some were aggressive, feral creatures with no reason left in them. Others simply wandered, living like animals, completely severed from their humanity.
Talon hated them.
