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CONNOR
My gut clenched as I followed Shea and Sanai away from the place—okay, the person—where I most wanted to be. I thought watching Ava storm out of our house after Finn shoved his foot in his mouth just a few months ago had been the hardest thing I’d ever done.
Until now.
Walking away from the woman I’d fallen head over heels in love with the moment she turned her sassy, sarcastic, succulent mouth my direction when assassins were afoot physicallyhurt. My inner wolf snarled that it was about the stupidest thing we could do. Not surprising that my beastly side didn’t give a single shit about diplomacy in the face of danger to its desired mate.
But we were no longer placeholder successors until Maddox’s daughters could grow up. Now the Pack—including those precious girls—were our responsibility. A fucking terrifying thought. Thank shadows my two brothers were in this political predicamentwithme.
No way I could have done this alone.
I cast one last look over my shoulder at the woman my heart fully agreed with my wolf was alreadyours. We just had to convince her (and to a lesser extent, my brothers) of that fact.
Ava followed Deion to an injured patient, determination written in every line of her beautiful face and efficient stride. She was quite simply breathtaking to behold.
Finn placed himself a few feet away from her, his back to the wall so he could watch for any signs of danger without being ambushed from behind. The black leather jacket he rarely went without, even at a black tie affair like tonight, paired with the tip of his chest tattoo just peeking out from his white silk shirt gave him a dangerous edge that would hopefully discourage any potential attackers. Well that and the fact the shirt was spattered with bloodstains that were not his own...
I couldn’t argue that Shea had made the correct call on which of us to assign as Ava’s primary bodyguard while we stepped outside to deal with the ineffective (when it came to magical crimes) human authorities. Finn may have verbally wounded Ava all those months ago, but he was without equal in combat. If anyonewerefoolish enough to attack his current charge, they would likely die before Shea and I could arrive.
An event that I would certainly not mind. Ava’s safety meant a fuck-ton more than my pride.
Shea responded to a question from Sanai as a group of guardians escorted us into the hall. I forced my attention away from Ava and Finn, and the ballroom sentries shut the door with a loud bang that seemed to sum up how this evening was going.
Sanai and our other escorts fanned out to surround us on all sides. Something that had my inner wolf whining unhappily. I might be the least trigger-happy triplet, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed cowering behind others.
My lips twisted ruefully. Yeah. Getting used to our new status in the Pack was gonna take time.
Shea’s head leaned in close to mine. “Since you so thoughtfully voluntold me to take point as Packleader to outsiders, I assume you’ll let me call most of the shots out there.”
A grin flashed across my face. I knew my doing that would get his goat. Even if it only made the most sense. The three of us might have been triplets linked by our magic, but we couldn’t be otherwise more different. And Shea was the poster child for overachieving firstborn children everywhere. The man ran his own corporate empire, for shadows’ sake. These days his CEO duties were admittedly much more low-key than in earlier years, but still. As charming asIcould be, Shea was the consummate negotiator.
“Be my guest. You’ll probably piss them off less than my superior but underappreciated humor will.”
Shea rolled his eyes. “Between Finn’s bulldozer tendencies and your turning every-damn-thing into a joke, I’m thinking you volunteering me as Pack spokesperson was the correct call.”
My grin morphed into a smirk. “I generallyamright.”
“Uh huh. Whatever you need to tell yourself, Pup.”
That nickname my brothers used by virtue of me being born 10 minutes after Shea and 5 after Finn was adorable. The fact they thought it annoyed me was even more so.
I nodded ahead to where Sanai held the Manor’s front door open. Before Shea could actually step outside after the six guardians who’d gone ahead, however, two of the Pack’s most powerful Spellbinders darted around us. Shea and I exchanged amused glances. Our new Beacon was obviously as keen to protectusas we were to protecther. A surge of satisfied warmth flared inside at the sign she might still care.
“Clever little Radiant,” Shea murmured, and I couldn’t help but nod.
Sanai had smoothly stepped to block the doorway after the Spellbinders ducked outside. Once they did their thing—presumably to seek out signs of imminent magical danger—she stepped aside and gestured for us to proceed.
We stepped into the balmy spring evening air, and our eyes immediately moved across the front courtyard to where an impatient-looking group of uniformed and plain-clothed police officers stood next to an imposing fountain. A larger-than-life granite Shadow Wolf in canine form snarled protectively in front of a robed woman whose hands appeared to be summoning water from thin air. Thinking of Ava being so far from my side with enemies on the loose had me relating to the wolf statue like never before.
It didn’t escape my attention that a much larger number of Pack guardians than cops spread out around the area. Judging by their mostly disgruntled expressions, it hadn’t escaped theirs either. Adding our more recently arrived group and the two Spellbinders to our number, and the discrepancy became even more noticeable.
Two of the detectives stepped forward to meet us. They’d obviously been briefed on who we were, since they immediately recognized us—although I couldn’t say the same.
“Detective Cunningham, I’m glad to see a familiar face from the police department,” Shea directed his comments to the short, stout white man on the left. Obviously he’d met the detective without me. That or my memory was way worse than I thought. Although to be fair, I might just have not paid attention if we’d met at one of the interminable Circle affairs.
“Mr. Donnelly. A shame our meeting again had to be under such...disturbing circumstances.”
Shea’s glance moved to the tall, curvy white woman next to Cunningham. “I don’t believe that we’ve met before, Detective...”
