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Jasmin smiles. “I had notes. Arlene decided we needed more.”

Selena takes the tablet from me and swipes through several more videos. “She noticed what Jasmin and I were doing, gave Damian her phone and took his Meta glasses. By the time she told me she was recording, she already had evidence.”

“Good evidence,” Jasmin adds. “She caught entire conversations. They can’t come back later and say I wrote something down wrong or Selena misunderstood them.”

“Or claim something was taken out of context,” Selena says. “We have the context.”

I take the tablet again and start another video. Arlene moves through the safe room slowly enough that the picture remains steady. Darlene appears briefly at the bottom of the frame before Arlene crouches, and the recording catches her giving her daughter something from the emergency bag. A few seconds later, she’s moving again.

“She did all of this while taking care of two pups?”

“And nobody paid attention to the mother in sunglasses checking on her children,” Jasmin says.

Selena smiles. “She knew when to move closer, when to stay where she was and when to let someone keep talking. I didn’t have to teach her any of it. She was like a natural Shadow Elite.”

Jasmin nods. “I’d work with her again.”

“Definitely,” Selena says.

Joshua chuckles. “Apparently both Carters enjoy surprising people.”

Selena looks at him. “What did Darian do?”

“He held back during the pack run.”

“I know.”

Joshua looks at me. “You knew?”

“I spar with him.”

“Fair point.”

Most wolves suddenly find something else to do when I step onto the training field. Even suppressing my Lycan, I’m stronger than I was before my transformation, and nobody wants to find out what happens if my control slips. Darian steps forward. He always fucking steps forward.

I knew how strong he was before we ever sparred. The first night he came to Silver Moon, he killed thirty rogues alone. Sparring with him only showed me how much control sits beneath that strength. Every time we fight, I can release a little more of the Alpha strength I spent years learning to control before I became a Lycan, and Darian meets me without fear.

Joshua taps the report in front of him. “Yesterday showed me something different.”

My Lycan shifts inside me.

“He had everybody’s back,” Joshua continues. “Not just mine or Michael’s. Everybody. Darian could be in the middle of fighting his own rogue and still know what was happening around him. Michael had an opening behind him, Darian closed it. Two came at me, Darian took one. One of the Pack Warriors called out farther down the line, and Darian heard him.”

“He took fifteen,” Jasmin says.

“Because half the damn time somebody else’s problem became his.” Joshua shakes his head. “He wasn’t chasing kills. He was protecting the line.”

My Lycan rumbles.

Beta.

I ignore him.

“And he took orders,” Joshua says.

“He’s supposed to.”

Joshua gives me a look. “You know what I mean. Darian was the strongest wolf on that line. He knew it. We knew it. Didn’t matter. I was his Gamma. I told him to move, he moved. I told him to close a gap, he closed it. He never tried to take command, never questioned an order and never acted like being stronger meant he outranked me.”