“We’ve all been there,” Mercy said. “One time I walked into the middle of a juvenile battle and ended up drowned in homemade concoctions that smelled like rotten socks and putrid fruit.” She shuddered. “It all wears or washes off.”

And so it continued, with little Ben announcing to everyone who would listen that Memory’s smell was temporary—as if he wanted to ensure no one would judge her for her odd dual-layered scent. Memory wanted to cuddle her small defender to death.

The SnowDancers, her new packmates, made commiserating faces at her and, as with Mercy, shared their own scent disasters . . . and Memory began to understand that to a wolf, a temporary unpleasant scent was just bad luck. “They really don’t care,” she whispered to Alexei after they’d escorted Ben back to class and dropped Elodie at the nursery.

One arm around her shoulders, he raised his eyebrows. “You should listen to me when I tell you these things, lioness.” A snap of his teeth that made her want to kiss him. “Assholes will tease you though—but only because they sense you can take it. I’d tell you to feel free to dish it back, but you don’t need the encouragement.” A scowl. “I found another goddamn rubber chicken in my stuff the other day. Some genius had drawn a wolf face on it.”

Memory’s shoulders shook. “I love you,” she said, throwing her arms around him.

“Grr.”

She went to rise on tiptoe to bite at his stubbled jaw when her nape prickled. Primal power licked the air. Shifting on her heel, she found exactly who she’d expected: Hawke. The alpha wolf’s pale eyes were even more striking today, his hair an extraordinary silver-gold. Holding her gaze, he lifted a hand.

Memory stood motionless, her heart thunder—but she didn’t flinch when he cupped her cheek. A deep sense of acceptance, primal protectiveness, wild affection, it sank into her soul. This was why he was alpha. Because he had the capacity to hold every member of his pack in his heart.

“You’re one of mine now,” he said, brushing back her hair with his other hand before leaning down to kiss her cheek. “Wild, a survivor, a fighter, you do this pack proud.”

Eyes stinging at the unqualified acceptance, Memory hugged him.

Wrapping his own arms around her, his scent familiar to her in a way she couldn’t explain, he said, “For a big wolfy chicken, you did good, Lexie.”

“I’m going to murder you,” Alexei muttered, but a minute later, he accepted his alpha’s back-slapping embrace with a grin.

“Hey! Russian Bridegroom!” yelled an unknown male voice just as Hawke and Alexei separated. “What’s this I hear about you going off the mail-order market?”

Alexei threatened to punch the big, dark-skinned, and shaggy-haired male who dropped a rucksack on the floor and fought him off with a grin. “Out of my way,” the other wolf said. “I’m here to meet the pretty half of this pair.”

When the big man held out his arms, a laughing Memory allowed him to enfold her in them. His friendship with and love for Alexei might as well have been written in neon against the stone walls of the den. “Hello, Matthias,” she said, recognizing him from the description Alexei had given her last night of his childhood best friend.

Then another friend stepped into view, and Matthias released her so Judd could touch his fingers to her cheek. The blonde with him bounced up and down before opening her arms. “Do you hug?”

“I’m an empath.” Contact with people as openly happy to see her as Alexei’s friends and alpha . . . it was like sunlight to her. She flowered under the affectionate attention, and she flowered most of all in the light of Alexei’s love.

Her wolf made no effort to hide his smug pride in having her for a mate. Below that, however, was a screaming tension that refused to snap. Alexei, her beautiful golden wolf, was waiting to go rogue. Was waiting to start hunting her. Was terrified of looking at his claws one day and seeing her blood.

Chapter 56

The shield vulnerability has been identified. It is limited to a small number of Arrows who came of age during a specific outdated training regime—it was unfortunate chance that four of them were in the compound at the time of the attack. Yuri was one of the first to be taught under that regime, Amin in the final class.

The only outlier is Abbot. He came into training at a later age and was taught the older technique because it was faster. No other Arrows under the age of thirty-five bear the shield flaw. All Arrows with the shield flaw, whether on active duty or retired, are in the process of building new next-generation shields.

We are ready to resume our duties as the guardians of Designation E, but we understand if empaths no longer feel able to trust our presence.

—Aden Kai, leader of the Arrow Squad, in a report to Ivy Jane Zen, President of the Empathic Collective

My Es have missed your Arrows. Welcome back.

And tell the squad to forget about brooding or stewing in guilt. Because you know what my Es saw? That even under vicious mental duress, your men and women will not hurt an E—no matter the cost. Arrows and Es have become an even tighter unit, one that nothing and no one will ever tear apart.

—Ivy Jane Zen to Aden Kai

Axl is going to read bedtime stories to the children today. I want you two to take some personal time. Honor Yuri’s joy in the squad’s freedom to live and love, and step away from his bedside. Nerida’s more than ready to stay with him—she’s half in love with him, in case you haven’t figured it out already.

—Personal message from Ivy Jane Zen to Aden Kai and Zaira Neve

We hadn’t figured it out. Thanks for the intel. We’ll leave her to spend time with him.

Fuck, Ivy, we just played our last card and failed. No one can help Yuri. Aden’s going to have to make the call to pull life support and it’s breaking him apart.

—Zaira Neve to Ivy Jane Zen

Take care of him, Zaira. Vasic and I will hold the fort.

—Ivy Jane Zen to Zaira Neve

IT WAS THREE days after the PsyNet collapse that Kaleb noticed something. Actually, the NetMind and DarkMind noted it in an unexpected but encouraging display of coherence, and nudged him in that direction. “It’s the new E,” he told Sahara, holding out a psychic hand so she could join him at the same coordinates.

“She’s different,” Sahara said after a long moment.

When he asked the NetMind and the DarkMind about the discrepancy, the twin neosentience showed him images of running water, crashing rivers.

“Ivy Jane needs to see this,” Sahara said.

Kaleb made the contact.

The president of the Empathic Collective appeared on the PsyNet beside them not long afterward, with Vasic by her side. Given recent events, the other man’s protectiveness was understandable.

“Can you tell what she’s doing?” Kaleb asked Ivy Jane.

“No, and we should stop spying on Memory and bring her into this discussion. She’s at the empathic compound. Give me five minutes to warn her we’re coming, then teleport in.”

When Kaleb and Sahara arrived, it was to find Memory and the SnowDancer lieutenant, Alexei Harte, waiting with Ivy Jane and Vasic near the tree line. Folding his arms, Alexei set his booted feet apart in an aggressive stance. “What’s this about?”

Ivy Jane took the lead, explaining what the four of them had seen on the PsyNet. “There’s a . . . I don’t know what to call it . . . a kind of motion in the PsyNet around your mind,” she said to Memory, and undulated her hand to show the wavelike pattern. “It’s slow but constant.”

Lines formed between Memory’s eyebrows. “Am I causing a problem? Further disintegration?”

Kaleb saw Alexei’s jaw go hard, the other man’s arms opening. He curled one around the empath’s shoulders, tucking her close to his body. “If she’s doing anything, she’s making your network stronger.” He growled. “Memory does that. She takes the bad out of things.”

Eyes shining, the new variant of E rose up on tiptoe to kiss the wolf’s jaw.

He gave her a stern look in return. “I’m trying for an attitude here.”

The E’s laugh faded when she faced the rest of them. “I can’t see the motion.”

“Possibly because you’re inside it.” It made sense that her own viewpoint was static—else she’d find it impossible to get a stable sightline when she entered the PsyNet. “There’s also a bond.” Keeping one eye on the wolf—despite how he treated the E, Alexei Harte was a deadly predator who could not be taken lightly, even by a Tk—Kaleb explained what else he’d spotted. “The NetMind and DarkMind are hiding it from view.”

Memory scowled. “Why? It’s beautiful, just like Alexei.”

Kaleb felt a certain sympathy when the wolf lieutenant groaned. He, too, had a lover who kept puncturing his deadly reputation. “The director of EmNet, Silver Mercant, is also mated to a changeling.”

“Yeah, StoneWater bear alpha.” Alexei’s gray eyes had developed a rim of amber. “You saying the Net’s hiding their bond, too?”

Not just a predator, but a very smart one. “Yes. Silver is not a woman to hide her allegiance.” His former aide and her mate were alpha personalities who dared anyone to try to interfere with their bond. “She’s curious to know what the NetMind and DarkMind are doing, but she doesn’t have a direct communication line with them. I do, but they’re being coy on this point.”

“Es can talk to the NetMind,” Ivy Jane explained to Memory. “And because this is your mind, if you ask, it might tell you why there’s motion around it—and why it’s hiding your bond.” A smile. “Do you want to try?”

* * *

• • •

MEMORY had put her hand on Alexei’s lower back, now clenched her fingers in his T-shirt. Part of her didn’t want to know, didn’t want to find out what was happening. She already knew she was designed to work with the most twisted psyches on the planet, and that she contributed nothing to the Honeycomb—which was pretty much all that was holding the PsyNet together at this point.