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“Miss Reyes.”

“Elena.” I match her energy. Killer for killer—or I do my best. “Good morning.”

“Is it?”

“Uh, you tell me?”

“There was an incident on the grounds yesterday. Some kind of rodent was spotted in the topiary.”

Merda.

“Rodent? Like a mouse?”

Her eyes narrow like I’ve just admitted it was me. “Someone claims to have seen a raccoon. Can you tell me anything about that?”

“I know very little about raccoons, ma’am.”

That’s the truth.

I know even less about Echo himself.

She studies me with the intensity of the oracles from The NeverEnding Story. “There is a rodent loose on these grounds,” Elena says with the authority of a woman who once made a visiting alpha general apologize for tracking mud across her marble floors. And then wipe it up with his own handkerchief. “It left what I can only describe as the skeleton of a breakfast sandwich on the garden wall.” She looks right through me. “Do you know anything about this?”

I meet her gaze with everything I have. “If I had an explanation about any of it, I would share it with you.”

No lies detected.

Who could possibly explain Echo’s behavior? Not me.

A long pause.

“Fine,” she says finally, making another note. What she’s writing, I genuinely don't want to know. Maybe signing a kill order on me. “I'll be calling pest control.”

“That seems like a reasonable course of action.”

She gives me one more look—the kind that suggests she knows exactly where the bodies are buried because she put them there—and turns back down the corridor the way she came, heels clicking with the precision of a guillotine.

I honestly don’t know who would win in that fight: Elena or Echo. But I also don’t want to find out. Thank the wolf goddess he didn’t ride in with me today. In fact, I looked everywhere for him when I woke up this morning, but he was already gone. Probably off robbing a jewelry store blind.

Andy is sitting at Lexi’s desk with the focused energy of someone who has already completed twelve tasks before nine a.m. and is mildly disappointed in everyone who hasn’t.

She’s proven to be more than capable as Lexi’s second and a good balance for the carefree she-alpha. Honestly, Andy’s Type A personality scares even me sometimes. Though not as much as Elena does.

“Morning,” she says without looking up.

“Morning. Are the alphas in?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “Just Grey. He’s on a call with the insurance company about the restaurant claim, but he should be done soon.”

“How are they?” I ask. Meaning: How are they after yesterday? After the fire and Bobby and Crow and Claire and all the things that happened to remind us this war is just beginning.

Andy looks up then, as if she’s just remembered what all went on and how deep my question goes. Something in her expression softens just slightly. “Grey is manic about Lexi’s safety, as usual.”

“Speaking of which, can you please tell them sneaking off to the cabin isn’t making them safer?”

She smirks. “Believe me, I already made them promise that was the last time.”

“Thank you.”