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A hard grinding sound came over the line and Niko suspected his second-in-command was doing some self-castigation of his own. “She never let any of us know, Boone.”
“And that makes you feel better?” Boone lashed out.
The level-headed wolf rarely lost control of his temper.
After a second, Boone sucked in a breath. “I apologize, Prime.”
“Don’t. We all fucked up here. Including my father. And me.” He’d never forgive himself that mistake. Ever. “We should have gone to Greylock, should have known there was a problem long before it ever got so bad that children like Zee were forced into the role of protector.”
He heard his own voice, recognized the eerie calm tone of his voice, knew it for the warning it was.
“Prime?” Boone said warily.
He’d fallen to the killing rage, a state of mind that could hit a predatory Therian in times of intense fury.
“It’s alright, Boone.” And it was. He could still think, still focus. Still hunt.
The killing rage affected each of them differently, and was deadly in all of its forms, especially in a Prime. Niko, like his father, never lost sight of his rationality. In a way, that made him more dangerous, because he did lose sight of his humanity.
Now, little more than a wolf in human skin, he would hunt with a complete lack of emotion and care for anything but the prey.
Once he had the scent, nothing would stop him. Anything that got in his way would die.
After a moment of quiet, Boone asked, “What do you need from me?”
“Get to the hospital. Once you’re here, you’ll take over transferring Shale back to our territory and seeing to his care. He’s still weak. Until we know for certain if he was the target or not, I don’t want him left unguarded.”
The sound of throat gently clearing caught his attention. Looking up to see Aspen waiting six paces away, he cocked a brow.
“I can handle Shale.” She flicked a look between him and the phone before holding his gaze again. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m fully rested and I can set up with my gear in the nest. It’s got a 360° view of the surrounding area. The sensors embedded in the property can be fed into my personal software. Nothing would come on me unawares. Once Shale is recovered enough, he can join me in recon.”
Aspen’s gear happened to be firearms and the nest was a cupola-like room topping the big house where Shale would go when he left here. She was half-Therian, half-human. Her father had been a wolf, while her mother Gwen had served as a sharpshooter with Terra Command. She’d been one of their top non-commissioned officers, leading mission after mission, most of them focused on bringing down groups with ideologies that threatened the newly found peace among the races.
After falling in love, and then becoming a mother, she’d retired from service, not wanting to leave her mate a widower or her daughter an orphan. But she’d taught her daughter her trade and Aspen had been sixteen when her mother claimed that she’d been outshone. She’d said it with a smile.
Knowing Shale would be in good hands, he nodded at her. “Thank you, soldier.”
She didn’t respond, just returned to her side of the table and began shutting down her electronics.
“Boone.”
“Yes, Prime?”
Niko stared out the window, seeing nothing. Not the pewter gray sky, heavy with clouds, not the faded green of the mountains off in the distance, not the cars or parking lot.
His eye had turned inward and was focused on Zee as he’d seen her that very first time they’d met.
She’d been so quiet, so reluctant to look at anybody, to even meet his gaze.
“Start gathering the names. I want them. Yesterday. And talk to Hannah—she was under a misconception about Zee’s status in Greylock, apparently. I want to know where she got that information.”
