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“I mean –” he stammered. “Robb. Mr. Lockwood. Boss. Sir.” He swallowed audibly. “My liege.”

Deathly silence fell over the room, broken only by a poorly timed, spittle-shooting, eardrum-piercing thweeech of a high C from Ruby’s recorder.

Robb let Trent stew in his own juices for a few more seconds, before nodding curtly, Goldie bobbing up and down with the motion.

And maybe she’d picked up on the vibes, because she launched herself gently from his head, flying across the room in a subdued fashion and landing on Trent’s shoulder, looking torn between the desire to protect her dad and wanting to hide behind him.

Just because Robb had spent his career behind an aloof façade, it didn’t mean he actually wanted to scare small children. Softening his expression ever so slightly, he cleared his throat, before turning off his computer and standing up.

“Okay, I’m all done,” he said neutrally, tucking his laptop into its bag. “Euan, you’re in charge while I’m gone. Minh is your first point of escalation, but if there’s anything that you need my support for specifically, don’t hesitate to contact me.” He looked slowly around the room, catching each of his team members’ eyes in turn. “I’d hope it goes without saying that the team’s safety is more important than my full attendance at the Modern Policing Methods in Shifter Law Enforcement Annual Conference.”

Euan nodded, his expression solemn. Of all the members of Robb’s team, Euan was the one that Robb trusted most to keep a cool head in any situation. It was why he’d recruited him in the first place, even though at the time Euan, overwhelmed with guilt at the death of his Agency partner, had been unable to shift into his marsupial lion form.

Robb had known that even if Euan had never been able to shift again, he would’ve brought a sense of composure that his team of hotheads had been sorely lacking. Sure, Callan and Brooke were both sensible enough, but they tended to get overshadowed by the bigger personalities around them. Euan had no qualms about putting any of the others in their place when he needed to.

As it turned out, Euan had regained the ability to shift, which Robb had always suspected would be the case, and his confidence had grown with it. Robb knew that the team would be in good hands with him.

“Enjoy Melbourne,” Euan said, with more gravity than such a statement probably deserved.

“As far as such things are possible, anyway.” That was Rhys, being his usual charming self.

“Make sure you bring us back a souvenir,” Zina added cheerfully.

“And don’t forget to take a black puffer jacket,” Brooke chimed in. “The locals will be able to pick you from a mile away if you don’t have one.”

Hector nodded. “Yeah, and maybe try and grow out a hipster mustache before you get there if you can, if you want to go fully incognito.”

Trent’s mouth opened a little as if he was about to add his own unhelpful comment, but then he clearly thought better of it, and closed it again.

Good. The sooner I can get out of here, the better.

It wasn’t like Robb was feeling a sudden strange, bittersweet sense of nostalgia as he looked around at the smiling faces, or anything. Definitely not that.

They’d been through a lot together, and he’d watched them grow from a ragtag bunch of youngsters into a highly competent team that had beaten tremendous odds on numerous occasions.

Is this what it’s like when you realize that your kids are now grown adults who don’t need you anymore?

“I’m off,” he said gruffly, striding across the room and through the door without looking back.

“Fostering strong relationships with the general community is of the utmost importance…”

Robb was suddenly hit with a very out-of-character urge to yawn, and he forced it down with a vengeance.

It wasn’t that the topic was unimportant. It was important. He owned every book written by the highly eminent researcher giving the presentation, and, more to the point, he had actually read all of them too.

But the fact that he knew all of this back to front meant that he could predict everything she was going to say. Between that, the stifling warmth of the lecture theater, the hardness of his chair, and his general weird feelings of dissatisfaction recently… well, he was having trouble getting too excited about it, even as his dingo listened with rapt attention, hanging on to every word.

He shifted in his chair, forcing himself to focus.

Bringing some graphs up on to the screen, the presenter continued, “Incarceration is not always the correct response. Rehabilitation is sometimes best achieved outside of the justice system…”

Robb winced internally. He could just see Tahnee smirking at him in his mind’s eye, her eyebrow raising slightly in a way that clearly meant, I told you so.

‘Sometimes’ doesn’t mean ‘always’, he wanted to snap back, but he held his tongue. He couldn’t exactly have a one-sided conversation with a hallucination of his shifter criminal mate in the middle of the Modern Policing Methods in Shifter Law Enforcement Annual Conference.

He wondered, not for the first or even the hundredth time, what she looked like now. It had been decades, and he had steadfastly refused to access any files the Agency may have had on her, even though he could have found a way to justify it.

Hell, he even knew that some members of his team knew her via the shifter sanctuary that she was now running – but they didn’t know about his past with her, and he was determined to keep it that way. He certainly wasn’t going to ask them for a description of her.