Her face contorted. “You fucking—”
“Latoya,” I demanded, “what were you doing at the warehouse?”
Her scowl softened into a frown when she looked at me. “We were the monitors. Silas was going to divide the names of our supporters. It would’ve been our job to give the ones assigned to us some… inspiration, in case they planned on dragging their feet. Some need reminding that there’s no use in fighting the inevitable.”
She smirked, walking to her cot.
“As for why it matters, Joey… well, think of it this way.” She sat, flinging her feet up and crossing them at her ankles. “You try to diffuse a bomb with ten minutes on the clock, and whoops, you fucked up and cut a wire you shouldn’t have. What happens? That timer now says fifty-nine seconds.” Latoya clapped her hands slowly, the gesture dripping with mockery. “Congratulations, y’all. You cut the wrong fucking wire. I hope y’all work well under pressure. Tick. Tick.Boom.”
Chapter Ten
Marcus
The supermoon was in four days.
Somehow the hunter convinced me to infiltrate Silas’s party. More importantly, she’d coerced me into allowing her to go with me.
Correction,us.
I needed to grant Latoya temporary freedom for this plan to have even the smallest chance of succeeding.
But succeeding at what? Getting a bunch of letters and numbers from a fucking cell phone? How did any of this matter when, even if it didn’t fall apart, I still lost the moment Joanna performed that damn spell?
I’d held my breath most of the interrogation, fearing… fucking hyacinth. But the moment Joanna mentioned scrubbing my scent—herscent…
There was no making up for the time I’d lost.
She held my forearm with an iron grip as we trudged through the tunnels. I’d said nothing when we entered the darkness because I smelled the tears brimming in her eyes.
The cry was silent and short-lived. Within minutes, her bottom lip stilled. She swept the trail of tears from her cheeks as if she suddenly remembered my heightened senses. It made me furious, and my wolf growled when Joanna tried to bury her sadness deeper.
“You think she’s insufferable now?” she asked flippantly. “Be thankful you didn’t know her during puberty.”
I flexed my fingers, keeping my gaze straight ahead.
“She got her period for the first time the day after Halloween and told me it was her dying because I wouldn’t share my chocolate bars,” Joanna chuckled. “I didn’t believe it, of course. But I didn’t know what a period was yet. And when I used the bathroom after her, I noticed the pad in the garbage. Plus, all day my mother had been waiting on her hand and foot.” She sighed, another bitter laugh breaking through her breath. “I gave the bitch all the candy I had.”
After we finished Latoya’s interrogation, Maya hurried ahead to talk to Grace, providing me and Joanna the privacy I soon wished we didn’t have. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing, and I was angry enough to curse the hell out of her. So, I held my tongue until we reached the main hall.
“Oh, hi, Joey.”
Joanna had released my arm the moment the darkness in the tunnels eased, so her arms were now free to wrap around the werewolf that called her name.
Lucas stood still with his hands at his sides, but his conspicuous racing heart was proof he didn’t hate the embrace.
My wolf snarled within me.
Joanna pulled away and tousled Lucas’s coffee-brown hair. “That hug lasted a whole three seconds longer than the last one. I’d say you’re starting to like me, Lucas,” she said in a singsong voice.
He fought the small smile tugging at his lips. Meanwhile, I fought the urge to rip him limb from limb.
“Why aren’t you at training?” I demanded.
Lucas’s mouth returned to its usual straight line. He took a step back, acknowledging me for the first time. “Alpha,” he greeted, his voice low and subservient. “I’m on my way there now, sir.”
“I didn’t realize you could afford to be late,” I declared, crossing my arms. “Considering you’re the only one of my wolves the hunter has had to slap the shit out of.”
Joanna’s bulging eyes darted to me. “Don’t be a dick.”
