My heels clicked a rhythmic sound on the wooden boards of the front veranda as I paced. It was the best I could manage in an effort to keep control, and it was barely working as it was.

Kit had returned some hours earlier with Caleb and Wes and filled us in on everything Bridget had blurted out about her plans. Stupid woman. No wonder her mother had tried to strip her magic from her all those centuries ago; she wasn’t sane enough to handle them herself.

It was the email that Vali had shared with me that had me pacing the damn veranda, though. He’d done the right thing, showing me. I could tell how torn he was, and it was clear that Director Pierre hadn’t wanted the information shared with the team. Otherwise why not send it to me?

Expecting Vali to keep something of that magnitude to himself was too much to ask, though. He was sitting in one of the wicker chairs, watching me with those dark gray eyes as I paced, and the tension practically vibrated through him.

“So, what do we do?” he asked me after the longest amount of time.

I didn’t immediately respond; instead I paced a few more lengths while I thought his question over. What the bloody hell did we do?

“I guess we track down Bridget’s missing guardians. Most likely they are staying away due to the geas she placed on them, but surely with Austin and Caleb at full power we can break those for them. That would allow them to do what needs to be done.” I tightened my lips over my teeth, knowing that hadn’t been what he was asking.

“Makes sense,” he rumbled. “But you know what I meant. What do we do about the other message.”

My next step faltered, and I paused, sighing heavily. Jonathan’s surface message had been clear. Find Lachlan and Victor, and have one of them kill Bridget before shit got out of hand. His other message wasn’t that much harder to determine.

A Ban Dia could only be killed by her direct relative, say Bridget to Kit. Or by her dianoch.

So if one of us were to lose control, we stood a very real chance of hurting her. Maybe even killing her. I couldn’t let that happen. But what were my options, here? To never let her heal me and therefore never turn into the beast that lurked inside my mind?

Leaving wasn’t an option. Maybe it should be. Of course, it should be, and a better man than me would already have his shit packed and be on a plane to the farthest corner of the earth in order to keep her safe.

But the thought of never seeing her again made me physically ill. Even entertaining the idea resulted in a sensation akin to being stabbed by a thousand knives dipped in acid. Deep down, I knew I couldn’t survive being away from her. Sooner or later I would lose my battle for control, and something told me if that happened, there would be no need for her magic to bring out my beast. He could do that all on his own given half an inch of freedom.

“I don’t know,” I finally admitted to Vali, dropping down into the seat beside him and scrubbing my hands over my face. “I honestly don’t know.”

He pursed his lips and nodded slowly. “I respect your honesty on this one, Alpha,” he growled, and I huffed. He’d never called me Alpha before, I suspect because he never really considered me his leader—which was understandable and not a battle I was concerned to fight. His use of it now, though... that worried me.

“My suggestion, if you’re open to it,” he started, and I gave a small nod to continue, “is that you let Kit heal you in a controlled environment. Your need for control is clear, and I suspect it stems from whatever you’re afraid you’ll change into.” I gave another short nod. “So, maybe we need to create an environment similar to the control you keep mentally. A cage or a box, a confined space where you will feel safe. Then if anything does go wrong after she heals you, we can keep you under lock and key until you get a hang of things.”

I sighed, rubbing at the stubble on my cheek as I considered his idea. It wasn’t a bad one. Far from it. More to the point, it was a hell of a lot better than anything I’d been able to come up with so far.

“It’ll take time to arrange,” I said in a soft voice, almost not wanting to voice my agreement. “More time than we have before the next full moon.”

“Well,” he said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “Then we just need to keep you alive through that, keep Kit from having all her magic stolen by her psychotic biological mother, and then we deal with all of this afterward. One step at a time, right?”

He was right. It was weird, talking to Vali. He was so much like Cole that sometimes it felt like they were the same person, but then at other times he showed exactly how he’d become such a formidable crime lord. He was a damn master strategist, and a skill like that was going to come in handy with what was to come.

“One step at a time,” I repeated. “But promise me this. If anything happens and you think I might be at risk of hurting her...” I trailed off, my throat tightening with panic just imagining it.

“I’ll shoot you myself,” Vali promised. “You have my word.”

“Thank you,” I murmured, feeling just a tiny bit of weight lift at his oath. At least I had contingencies in place, should the worst occur. I couldn’t risk being the one to hurt my Kitten, and yet, I was the most likely to.

Bugger. I was right royally fucked.

Returning to Omega Headquarters for the reading of Director Pierre’s will was a somber affair. There had been no funeral, as per his wishes. Instead, his body had been cremated and the right officials paid off to avoid a police investigation into his death. It wasn’t needed, after all. We knew who had pulled that trigger, and he had paid for it.

“Are you sure you’re okay for this, Vix?” Cole murmured quietly to our girl as we walked down the marble corridor to the conference room. We were a few yards behind the other guys, and I walked on her other side.

She didn’t answer, but her lips tightened and she gave a sharp nod. Nobody could ever accuse her of weakness, but once in a while I wished she would lean on us. Let us help shoulder some of the weight on her mind.

“Good, you’re all here,” the Omega lawyer announced as we entered the conference room and he snapped his briefcase shut. “This is the Last Will and Testament of Jonathan Davenport, aka Director Louis Pierre. It was just updated recently, a month ago as witnessed by me, but the contents are strictly confidential and for your eyes only. Not even I know what is in this document.” He slid a thick manila folder across the table to me, and I caught it before it slid off the edge. “Mr. Morgan, if you’d be kind enough to visit me when you’re done here? I’d like to know what the future looks like for Omega.”

“Of course,” I murmured with a small nod.

Graeme, the lawyer, picked up his briefcase then turned to Kit and pursed his lips.

“I’m very sorry for your loss, Christina,” he said in a less businesslike voice. “I know we haven’t ever met, but your dad and I have worked together for many years. He’ll be sorely missed.”

“Thanks,” she responded in a husky whisper.

“Come and see me if you have more questions that those papers don’t cover. I was privy to… most of what Jonathan was doing here.” He gave her a pointed look that left no doubt in my mind he knew about the magic.

Kit gave him a tight smile, and he left us alone in the conference room, closing the door behind him.

“Shall we?” I suggested, indicating to the seats around the table. The boys all took one, but my Kitten hesitated, her eyes darting to the small metal urn she carried.

“I think I might get some air,” she said quietly. “I’m okay,” she added before I could express concern. “I just don’t know if I can hear what he put in that packet. I’ll wait outside, okay?”

I wanted to say no, to tell her that it wasn’t safe to be anywhere without protection until she got her magic back, but that wasn’t the way to deal with her. It was just a surefire way to make her claws come out.

“Stay where we can see you?” I asked, nodding at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the grassy lawn dotted with oak trees.

“Of course,” she agreed, backing out of the room. “Come get me when you’re done.”

We all waited, tense as violin strings, until she reappeared outside the window, giving us a small wave and then sitting cross-legged under a tree.

“Let’s see what the director left,” I started, flipping the folder open and breaking the seal on the flap. The accompanying letter, which Graeme had read to me over the phone, had been clear that Jonathan’s will was for all seven of us to read.

A lot of it was the standard stuff that I’d had to deal with when my parents died. Properties, bank accounts, safety deposit boxes, and priceless artwork were all left to Kit as Jonathan’s sole surviving family member and named heir of his estate.

The part that was, no doubt, the reason for the secrecy was the stack of DNA results. One for each of us, including Kit and Jonathan, which showed their matching DNA and confirmed what Bridget had told Kit about him being her blood relation. I flipped through them, then put them to the bottom of the pile to continue on. We didn’t need to read them to know they showed us all to be a whole lot more than human, and a quick glance at mine showed exactly what I had expected.

“Species: Unknown.”

“Is that everything?” Vali asked from across the table, and I glanced up. I hadn’t even realized I’d stopped speaking and was retreating inside my head once more.

“Uh, no.” I shook my head, scanning the next page. “The company, Omega Global, has been left to all of us. Kit is named as majority shareholder, but the remainder is split equally amongst the rest of us. Director Pierre asks that we keep Omega open and operational until such time that we deem Kit ‘of sound mind’ enough to make her own decisions with it.”

Cole grunted a disgusted noise. “So he doesn’t want to jeapordize his experiments while Vixen is emotional.”

“Something like that,” I agreed, druming my fingers on the tabletop as I read that document again.

“There is something I was meaning to bring up,” Wesley said, breaking into my musing. “Kit said that Jonathan assured her that all Omega recruits and agents were here voluntarily and fully aware of what is at stake with them being changed… but I sure as hell had no idea. Did you all?”

“I’m not an Omega recruit,” Vali replied with a grin. “But I know what you mean. Our family told stories about being descended from dragons, but they were only stories. Unless you learned something more after you came here?” He raised his brows at Cole, who shook his head.

“No,” he confirmed. “I had no idea.”

“Neither did I,” Wesley agreed.

Caleb shifted in his seat. “We knew about our heritage, obviously. But no one at Omega ever mentioned it to us.”

“Nor me,” I added, pursing my lips. “Do we think he lied to her?”

“See if there is anything else useful,” Wes suggested, nodding at the stack of papers in front of me. “I’ll do a quick bird’s-eye view of campus and see if I can get any intel.”

Caleb snorted at Wesley’s bird joke, and I rolled my eyes. Apparently he’d grown a sense of humor in the three years he’d been away.

Wesley’s eyes glazed over, and I flipped through the few last papers in the stack, which seemed to be summaries of the current recruits and agents under Omega’s employ. Names, ages, locations, and estimated species. Certainly explained why the document was for our eyes only. It would be pretty dangerous information if someone like Bridget got wind of it.

“Back,” Wes announced, and we all looked at him expectantly. “Most recruits have been sent home under the excuse that the campus is undergoing renovations. I did overhear a couple of first years talking, though, and it really does seem like they know what’s going on. Not about the director’s death.” That was still being kept a secret until Kit could make a formal announcement. “But they were discussing that girl that Kit healed back in her training group. They knew she’d shifted into a wolf and almost sounded excited to learn what they might be.”

“Huh, so we were the only ones kept in the dark?” Caleb pondered aloud, and Austin scowled.

“Sounds like Pierre was pulling a lot more strings than he has let on,” he muttered, slouching in his seat and folding his arms.

“What will we do about Omega?” Cole asked me. “Do we tell Vixen?”

“Not yet,” I decided, shaking my head. “For now, Vali and I will take over the running of things. Keep it all business as usual until this shit with Bridget is over with.”

The Romanian met my eyes across the table and gave me a nod of support. He was a lot like me, in some respects, and I was starting to overlook his history of violence and crime.

Charming bastard.