The brothers start rising one by one. Chief first, then Scar, then Claws. Every male in the room is on his feet before I’ve fully registered what’s happening. Footsteps in the hallway. Rook’s heavy ones. Someone else’s, smaller and lighter.
Rook fills the dining room doorway.
And behind him, peeking around his arm like she doesn’t quite want to be seen, is a small, drenched human female.
She has dark red hair plastered to her face from the rain. Light skin and freckles. She’s clutching a battered travel bag against her chest and wearing clothes that are two sizes too big for her. She can’t be more than five feet, two inches tall. She is shaking, from cold or fear or both.
Her eyes are huge and watchful and they are fixed on Rook’s back like he is the only safe thing in the universe.
The entire table stares.
Rook clears his throat. His voice is tighter than I’ve ever heard it. “She’s human,” he announces. “And I scented her.”
The dining room goes absolutely silent for a full three seconds.
Then Cannibal drops his fork. “Ohhells,” he breathes.
“Another one?” Chief questions.
“Another one,” Rook confirms.
“That’s seven of us now,” Leah laughs, delighted. “Seven humans. How do you all keep attracting so many of us to this planet?”
“Welcome,” Lila calls out to the small female, her voice warm and huge.
The human flinches a little at the volume. Rook shifts instinctively, putting himself more fully between her and the room, like he is physically blocking the noise from hitting her. “She stays,” Rook growls.
“She stays,” Chief agrees without missing a beat.
“Obviously,” Scar responds.
Everyone else is nodding in agreement.
The small female blinks. She looks up at Rook — way up, because he’s so much taller than she is — with an expression I can only describe as bewildered. Then she looks at the rest of us. Then back at Rook.
“I — “ she starts. Her voice is hoarse from either crying or not speaking for a long time, I can’t tell which. “I have information. About Chronos. I didn’t — I didn’t know where else to go, and someone said — someone said the Fever Brothers would — “
“You are safe here,” Rook says, quiet and immediate.
She looks up at him again. Her eyes fill. “Okay,” she whispers.
My journalist brain is doing cartwheels.Chronos. Information. She came here specifically, by name.
Jana stands up briskly. “Right. Food. You look like you haven’t eaten in two days.”
“Three,” the human admits in a small voice.
“Three.Okay.” Jana is already moving. “Rook, bring her in, sit her down. Somebody get the med kit. Lila, a clean towel.Naomi, there’s a blanket on the back of my chair, pass it over. Move, people.”
The compound erupts into the familiar choreography of taking care of someone new. Exactly the way they took care of me, six months ago.
Rook guides the human female into the dining room with one enormous claw at the small of her back. He is so careful with her. So careful. I watch his face as he settles her into the chair Jana is gesturing to, watch the way his eyes track every micro-expression of hers. He immediately positions himself between her and the rest of the family without even seeming to think about it. He also makes sure not to touch her bare skin.
She sits down, still holding her travel bag against her chest like someone might take it from her.
Rook crouches down beside her chair so he is no longer looming over her. “I am Maxon of Twenty-Four,” he tells her quietly. “My crew name is Rook.”
“Rook,” she repeats.
“What is your name?”
She swallows. Looks at him for a long moment. “Hallie,” she finally says. “Hallie Longwell.”
“Hallie Longwell,” he repeats back to her. “You are safe here now.”
She exhales shakily.
-Rook Takes Queen,Book 7, continues the Fever Brothers saga.
