Page 68 of Claimed By The Tracker

He hadn't counted on Delaney calling Maddox.

By the time Gabriel's operatives arrived, my sister was in a car with Maddox driving and two agency operatives providing perimeter security. By the time Gabriel realized what had happened, she was at the secondary location that Roan had been preparing.

I found out about it the way Jace did. Through Gideon's alert. Delivered in that clipped, efficient voice that meant someone had moved faster than anticipated.

"Extraction confirmed successful," Gideon said into the phone. "Delaney's secure. Gabriel's operatives standing down. No confrontation."

Through the bond I felt Jace's relief. His wolf settled into something calmer. The immediate threat had been neutralized.

My own magic quieted at my palms. No longer restless. No longer needing to discharge in preparation for something that wasn't coming.

"He's going to retaliate," Roan said. Not a question. Assessment. He said it steady, the same voice he used for everything now, arm and all.

"Probably," Gideon confirmed. "But the agency just demonstrated we can move faster than him. That changes the calculus."

"You built that secondary location in under a day," I said to Roan. "One-handed, from what I hear."

"Wasn't one-handed." He flexed the changed hand once, unbothered. "Just slower than it used to be. I'll take slower over dead every time."

It changed more than the calculus.

It changed what felt possible. For nine years I'd been running from my father's grip. Hiding from it. Trying to move around it. In the space of forty-eight hours, I'd watched Jace and Roan and Gideon and Tara and Maddox stand in front of it and refuse to let it touch me. When Gabriel made his move on Delaney, I'd watched them move faster. Smarter. With better positioning.

They'd stood in front of his leverage and made it irrelevant.

That night, after Delaney was secured and the farmhouse had settled into its perimeter watch rhythm, Jace found me in the library.

I was sitting in one of the old leather chairs, my fingers tracing the rim of a cold coffee cup. My magic flickering gold at my palms in small restless surges. My mind running scenarios I'd already run a hundred times.

He didn't speak. He just came and sat in the chair beside me. Waited.

"I want to do something," I said finally. "To him. To my father. Something that matters."

"I know."

"Not revenge." I looked at him. His profile was sharp against the lamplight. Gold at the edges of his eyes. "Something that ends it. Something that makes it clear he can't reach me anymore. That he can't reach Delaney. That everything he built is done."

Jace turned to look at me. His jaw was tight. His eyes fully gold now. His wolf was present and pressing close to the surface. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that we have everything we need. The documentation. The witnesses. The legal precedent. I'm thinking that one more filing—one more official acknowledgment that Gabriel Rowe weaponized his daughters—ends this."

"That's not the part that's going to be hard," Jace said quietly. "Filing is procedural. Easy."

"What's hard?"

"What's hard is what comes after." He reached over and took my hand. His grip was warm and steady. "What's hard is standing in front of your father and telling him that his leverage is gone. All of it. Not just the legal piece. The entire foundation."

I was quiet for a long moment. Then: "Can you help me do that?"

"Yes."

He said it like it was the simplest thing in the world. Like the answer had always been yes and would always be yes and the only variable that mattered was when I was ready to ask.

I stood up and took his hand. Led him upstairs.

We didn't go to the bedroom. Not yet. I led him to the guest room that Tara had been using for archive work. Closed the door behind us. Locked it.

"I need you to understand something," I said. My voice was steady. My magic steady. For the first time in my life I was going to ask for something from someone I wasn't afraid of losing. "The bond is mine. Our bond. I chose it. And I'm choosing what comes next."