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A heartbeat later, the sharp, elegant aroma of dried jasmine and green tea drifted across the family room. I heard the soft, whisper-light rustle of her silk gown against the hardwood floor as Mei Ling glided towards me. She carried the quiet authority of a woman who never needed to raise her voice to command absolute obedience.

"Come, girls," Mei Ling commanded gently, stopping just a few feet in front of me. "Let's get ready for luncheon while the men finish discussing this business."

Mei Ling reached out, her fingers wrapping around my forearm. I tensed, my breath catching in my throat as my clouded eyes turned toward her. A flicker of genuine surprise cut straight through my practiced composure.

"You still want me to come to your luncheon?" I asked, my voice dropping its defiant edge.

Mei Ling chuckled softly. "I pulled similar mischief when I was first promised to Fenrir."

Nell stepped into line right beside us. "I accidentally started the Volki war after Magnus kidnapped me."

She actually didn't. But I'd let her think that.

Addie followed close behind, her tone laced with amused nostalgia. "I set up a poison pill in the Blackwood infrastructure right after Vidar married me."

Yup, I'd found that too. The old heads of Sterling & Associates were a bunch of male gossips.

Vidar’s head snapped up sharply, his gray eyes narrowing. "You what?"

"Relax, Viddo," Addie called over her shoulder without breaking stride. "I killed it."

We left the men standing in heavy, stunned silence as Mei Ling guided us out of the family room, leading the procession down the wide corridor and into the kitchen.

The air in the kitchen smelled of roasted coffee beans, fresh bread, and simmered garden herbs. Walking between the three women, tracking their distinct silhouettes through the haze of my sight, a strange, unaccustomed feeling bloomed low in my chest.

Cautiously—against every ruthless instinct Sorsha had ever drilled into my head—I felt the first faint flutter of belonging. I was starting to feel like part of this family.

Maybe one day I could tell them everything: my secret vision, my mother's suffocating grip, the full depth of my maneuvers. Maybe not.

But as Mei Ling poured a stream of hot tea and set a porcelain cup into my hands, as Addie leaned into me, laughing at a joke Nell made at Magnus' expense, I made a choice. I was going to dismantle every single poison pill I had laid across the Blackwood territory.

I actually liked being part of this little gang.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

GUNNAR

"We need to re-route through the southern corridor," Vidar said, his voice clipped and clinical as he tapped the tablet screen.

I stood near the corner bar, staring down into the dark amber liquid in my glass, while Vidar and Magnus hovered over the computer tablet on the table. My mind wasn't on the shipping routes or the state police. It was on the realization that had been settling into my bones ever since the life went out of Corin Petrakis' eyes after he said his last words.

You want to know who Rosalind Lobo needs protecting from? Take a look in the fucking mirror.

Those words were just another lie. Though my wife would need protection from me. Because Rosalind was the informant. She was the chaos agent. She was the one who had fed the cops the cargo details, the one who had dropped rumors to the Lupettos, and I'm pretty sure she was the one who had thrown every pack in the territory into a panicked bloodbath. My fragile, blind wife in her frilly dresses was not a wounded wolf. She would never let herself get eaten.

The wounded wolf gets eaten. Those were other words Petrakis had said. Words my wife had just repeated in the family room, casually, as if she'd heard them all her life.

Maybe she had heard them from her mother? Maybe it was Sorsha behind all of this?

But I knew Rosalind now. I knew how smart she was. How manipulative. It fucking turned me on.

But this? Rosalind as a traitor? This was not making my dick hard right now. It was making my heart pound.

I should have told my brothers right then. I should have laid the facts on the table and let the pack deal with the threat. But I kept my mouth shut. Because the thought of my family turning on her—the thought of anyone laying a finger on her—made my wolf want to tear the world apart.

"Gunnar, are you listening?" said Magnus.

"He doesn't need to worry about the logistics," said Vidar. "Just be ready when we give you a body to drop."