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“Well,” she said snidely to me, Avery, Diya, and Stone, “at least someone understands how to greet a member of the council and an alpha.”

It was too late to fix it, but before I could even try, she stepped in front of Sasha, and when she did, he straightened up, dipped his head, and extended his right hand, the back of it facing upward, his fingers relaxed and pointing down.

“An omega. How charming.” She kissed his hand.

I could tell the humans in the room were confused—why wasn’t Sasha kissing her hand? But she was the alpha, and it was his place to show her deference with his greeting, which he did, perfectly. She was pleased with him. The rest of us had clearly been raised by actual wolves, in her opinion.

Once we were all seated, every time she looked up, her eyes softened when she looked at him. When Bannerman asked if anyone wanted water or anything, everyone said yes, water, and he yelled for someone to bring it. Sasha quickly excused himself, and when everyone else had a bottle in front of them, and Mrs. Van Poole appeared horrified, Sasha sailed back into the room with a glass of water and a napkin. He gently put the tiny square down first, then the large glass. She was pleased with him, again.

When Sasha was seated, Wade took a breath.

“Everyone’s been briefed,” he began, and I noted that he had his right index finger pressed to his forehead as though there was the slight possibility that Sasha and I were making him tired. I took immediate offense.

“That accident was not our fault,” I growled at him.

“When did I say it was?” he barked back. “What I wanna hear is the story. How is Sasha alive, and your car looks like a crushed can?”

“He’s very fast,” I stated.

He scowled at me.

I shrugged. “There have to be traffic cameras down there, you can watch it yourself.”

“We already did,” Avery informed me. “There’s a shadow, for a moment, when the door opens, but that’s all.

I took a breath. “I think you’re focused on the wrong thing. Instead of questioning Sasha’s leap to safety, maybe we could focus on what the hell you’re gonna do about River Wilkes putting a contract out on my fiancé?”

The room erupted, which was fine with me.

The Feds did not think anyone was after Sasha, they thought it was me, and that this was about the omegas and the people they were missing, who they were convinced Royce Kimball could name. They didn’t understand why I hadn’t called them when he was at Sasha’s, as clearly, his bail would be revoked because he’d been armed.

“I called that in,” Wade told them. “Do you people not get our reports?”

That did not go over well.

“I thought inter-agency cooperation happened,” Mrs. Van Poole stated. “Is that not the case? Because I must tell you, all this yelling leads me to believe that it does not.”

“Let’s keep the disruptions to a minimum,” Bannerman warned the room.

Avery and Wade were certain it was River who had sent men to question and detain Sasha, and who had then decided to kill him. They wanted to bring River in for questioning.

“No one but Royce Kimball and Sasha’s douchebag acquaintance at work know anything about the diary, and technically, Sasha never confirmed finding anything,” Wade stressed. “Both those guys think Sasha probably found something, but they don’t know for sure. So all of this, this chase on the freeway, that’s all over hearsay and nothing else.”

“Mr. Wilkes already contacted me and said that the appearance of a supposed diary that implicated an ancestor of his was complete rubbish,” Mrs. Van Poole shared. “He said the allegations were ridiculous, and until the so-called diary could be authenticated, he and his family would not concern themselves with what an underling at the auction house might, or might not, have found.”

Everyone started to speak at once.

“Which,” she continued quickly, talking over the group, “is all well and good to say, as well as expected. However, the diary needs to be authenticated, at once, by a reputable third party. We need an all human team in charge, and it needs to be reproduced, and the original kept under lock and key.”

“I will organize that immediately,” Diya told her. “I will send all the specifics to your office and everyone else, including Mr. Davenport, the moment I know them.”

She nodded, then turned to Sasha. “I will need you to produce the book now, Mr. Norwood. And we all need to go with you so we can swear to what we saw. I know it’s the weekend, but that can’t be helped. It needs to be placed in the custody of Lupine Affairs within the Chicago Police Department.”

“Of course.”

She nodded. “Good.”

“In the meantime, there’s a federal warrant out for Royce Kimball now,” Agent Putnam said. “Threatening Mr. Norwood puts him in jail until his trial.”