“Um, yeah. I’ll do that.”
“Doesn’t normally take orders from anyone else, does he?” Fabiana quipped with a smile that relaxed the room.
Russel laughed. “Good one, Alpha mate. It’s about time he answered to someone else.”
“Maybe he likes getting orders from a woman. You see him get tongue tied?” Jayden joked, his blond hair falling over one dark eye.
“I think Kate may do that for him,” Adonis added.
“Or Ashley. That’s Doublemint fun,” Russel continued.
“It makes one wonder how full their house is, really,” Fabiana mused.
A pause, and then the room filled with laughter.
Her hand shook against thigh underneath the table, and he lifted it to his mouth for a kiss.
“Good job, mate.”
Fabiana jumped when his voice entered her head. He hadn’t used the mate pathway with her, allowing her to get used to their bond before trying.
“That wasn’t weird, was it?”
“They will love you,” he promised.
Raph returned and pushed a chair into the space before finding a way to fit in on the other side of Fabiana. She was boxed between them. She didn’t know it, but the positioning was out of respect. They’d both work to keep her safe, and Raph made it obvious to everyone in the room that he placed her above himself.
“You didn’t miss much. I’ll catch you up later.”
She nodded, and Adonis looked back to his men. “Now that my mate is here, I’d like to turn our attention to the suits she’s producing. Gentlemen, smell the space around you.”
They did as he ordered, each of them frowning.
“The room didn’t change,” Russel commented.
“The same scents that were here before are here now, but she’s sitting right next to you.”
Yanni was not a talkative man and spent most of his time watching and cataloging unless he had something to offer. He stared intently at Fabiana, and Adonis growled.
The wolf lifted his hands in the air. “I mean no disrespect. Is she wearing the suit?”
Adonis pulled the edge of the suit near her neck, breaking the seal. These men needed to know her scent to protect her. They all sat back in their chairs.
“Shit,” Jayden cursed.
“As you have just witnessed,” Fabiana began, “the suit hides all scent as long as the seal remains intact. This is something to watch for during fighting. It will move with your body and expand and contract when needed, but if you are cut or pierced, it can’t do its job.”
Russel leaned forward in his seat. “How fortified are the suits?”
“More now because of their intended use,” Adonis replied. “The built-in nanos will work on repair if something happens, but they can’t keep up with large amounts of damage. We’re using defense magic to help reenforce it to sustain moderate damage, but trust me, you’ll still feel the impact, so be careful. They won’t make you impervious to pain but will hide you for as long as possible.”
“Sometimes, that’s all the edge you need.” Yanni’s brown gaze met Adonis’s.
Raphael was asicario, a man who knew death and destruction more than anyone—except for Yanni. Raph had been under his tutelage since he was a pup. If Yanni wanted to be more than a hired hand to remove threats, he could have been higher in the ranking system, but for now he served as Raph’s beta.
Adonis nodded imperceptively.
Fabiana gently cleared her throat and sat taller in her chair. “The test team is eighteen men, including all of you in this room. I wanted to show you what you’re part of with this development as well as share my secret. You all may have wondered why you couldn’t track me, and now you know. We are protecting this, and if it gets into the wrong hands–”
