“I came to Wall Street to work for Adalwulf Associates to infiltrate their pack. When they wouldn't hire me, I tried to come at it from another angle.”
“Working for me.”
“Yes.”
“What is your endgame?”
Noah looks down at me. Then stares at the desk for a moment, like he’s thinking. “It’s changed.”
“Because of her.” Blackthroat lifts his chin toward me.
“Aster is my mate.”
“I knew it.” This comment comes from one of the males against the wall.
Noah doesn’t see him because he’s focused on Brick, but when I look over, he follows my gaze.
The man signs and speaks to him. “I remember when you saw her outside Brick and Madi’s wedding.”
I look up at Noah. “You saw me?”
He nods, that hint of a smile playing around the edges of his mouth as he stares down like he’s drinking me in. “I recognized you from my dreams.”
Blackthroat clears his throat, so I lift my chin in his direction to shift Noah’s focus. My mate looks back at his boss. “I planned to destroy them. Now I just want to get my mother and sister out.”
Brick runs a hand over his beard, considering us. “The tiara heist was you?”
“Yes, sir. Just to fuck with them. Aiden wanted the tiara for a Moonborn ritual, so I took it. I ran into Aster there and put a tracker in her purse to locate her. I found her imprisoned in a tower. Starved.” His arm tightens around me.
I flinch. My pride detests that he’s outing Aiden’s treatment of me, but his indignation also makes my nose burn. Seeing it through his eyes brings home just how mistreated and abused I was. I spent my life excusing the mistreatment as necessary for me to achieve the role as Seeress, but none of that seems to matter anymore.
I don’t care so much about being Seeress. Or about the Adalwulf pack. Not the way I care about the male standing beside me.
The human, Madi, looks at me with a form of shocked sympathy. Brick also turns his penetrating gaze on me as he says to Noah, “So not only were you reckless, showing your wolf to humans, you also kidnapped the most powerful member of the Adalwulf pack and dumped her on my doorstep.”
“He didn’t kidnap me,” I say. My voice is a bit raspy, but it comes out strong. “He rescued me.”
Brick’s eyes narrow, and I feel the full weight of an Alpha stare. The pressure is so intense, I can’t draw a full breath. “I’m supposed to believe that?”
“We came here to warn your mate. I mean you no harm.”
“This vision. What did you see?”
I describe the lunch-time scene. Madi with an older woman, with Vera hovering nearby.
When I describe Vera’s narrow face and beady eyes, Madi sits up straight. Brick automatically turns and puts all his focus on his mate.
“Could she mean…” Madi taps on her phone and shows Brick something. Sully crowds close to see it and then leaves the room, signaling several other wolves to come with him.
“Is this who you saw?” Brick shows me Madi’s screen. There’s a picture of Madi and an older lady–the one from my vision. Beside the older lady is Vera.
“Yes. That’s Vera. And that’s the older woman I saw.”
“Eleanor,” Madi murmurs. “My grandmother. This is her new assistant.”
“Vera’s an Adalwulf. Her orders must have been to get close to you by any means possible. That’s how she was going to poison you.”
Madi sits back in her seat, looking pale.
