Page 42 of Claimed By The Tracker

I didn't soften it. Delaney deserved the truth.

She answered on the second ring. "Lena. God⁠—"

"I need to tell you something," I said, "and I need you to listen without interrupting."

I told her everything.

The silence on the other end stretched long enough that I heard her breathing change.

"He told me the wedding was for your protection," Delaney's voice fractured. "He said Voss would keep you safe from the Council pressure—that without the alliance, the Council would take you anyway."

"I know what he told you." No heat. Just grief. "But now you know what was actually true."

"What do you need from me?"

The question shifted something between us. Not forgiveness—there was nothing to forgive her for. Just recognition: she'd loved me, she'd believed him, and she'd given him information that cost us both.

"Come to the agency," I said. "Tell them what Gabriel said. Not what you knew, not what you chose—what you were told, what you believed, what you gave them without understanding what it was."

"Yes." Delaney's voice steadied. "Tell me where to go."

I gave her the handoff point, and Roan was already coordinating extraction logistics with Gideon in the background. When the call ended, she set the phone down and didn't perform being fine about it.

She wasn't fine about it.

But I was operational, and that was what the moment required.

Maddox went to prep for extraction without being asked. Gideon plotted routes. Tara spread documents. Roan coordinated with the secondary location.

At two hours, Maddox reported: "Delaney's extracted. Shaken but safe. Transporting to secondary location."

The relief was sharp and clean.

I looked at Jace across the quiet kitchen and let him see the cost of it. He didn't offer reassurance or try to smooth it. He just held my gaze and squeezed my hand once, and that was enough.

The clock was running. Delaney was in the system now. The filing was contested. And Voss was still waiting for his moment.

Just past five, Gideon's next alert broke the quiet.

"The charter violation review received our filing," he said. His voice carried a note I hadn't heard from him before—something that might have been concern. "Automated acknowledgment came through twenty minutes ago. But there's a flag attached."

He turned the laptop. "Mandatory hold notification from the Council's primary tier. Competing claim of superior contract authority."

My magic surged—gold crackling at my fingertips.

"Voss filed a legal challenge to the charter review itself," I said slowly.

"Using the Council's own mechanism," Gideon confirmed. "The weapon we built to stop him has just been turned against us from inside the institution."

I stared at the screen and felt something cold settle in my chest alongside the fury.

The timeline had just closed. The filing was contested. The review would stall on procedural grounds while the primary tier decided whether the charter violation board even had authority to hear the claim.

And Voss was still out there. Still waiting. Still willing to move.

The game had changed. We'd played one move, and it wasn't the move we'd thought it was.

Chapter 13