Before we went in, Lars divided us into smaller teams. Each of us dragons were paired with a wolf.

“I need you dragons to watch their backs. This is more than just an end run game on the brains of this operation. We need to stop their people from destroying information and to gather as much raw data as we can get our hands on.”

Carson nods in agreement. “Our intel is good, Ronnie Bould has been instrumental in getting us what we need but now we need to harvest that information straight from their hands. It’ll be used in prosecution of not just the hate crimes but in every possible RICO charge, tax evasion, and federal and territorial law they’ve broken since they started. We want these guys to go down and stay down.”

Taran glances at us and raises his eyebrows in slight surprise. In that silent moment, I agree.

The wolves are going all out here.

We all nod, agreeing with what we’ve been told.

Carlo comes up and taps me on the shoulder. “Looks like you’re with me, Varos.”

The look on Sako’s face is mixed. On the one hand, if I were in Sako’s boots, I’d want to be with my mate while this goes down.

On the other, separating them is better so they can focus more on their job and less on each other.

I nod to Sako, a silent promise that I’ll look after Carlo, and he visibly relaxes. After he lifts a hand, he heads off with his wolf partner.

I let Carlo watch as Sako disappears down a hallway. “You good, Carlo?”

“Yeah,” he says absently before turning to face me. He puts his game face on. “Yeah.”

“Let’s move. I take it you know where we’re heading?”

“Vice president in charge of research.” Carlo inclines his head for me to follow and takes off at a jog.

Research. An uneasy feeling sits in my stomach. Bronaz and Goldie talked a little bit about some of the stuff they uncovered. Although they had no definitive proof, we all had this very bad feeling that the hate was more than just hatred of a species of shifter.

We just hoped that it wasn’t true, that someone wouldn’t be that barbaric.

In a way, maybe this will prove out to settle it once and for all.

As we hit one juncture of a hallway, we pause and look at the camera up in the corner. The light is green, not red or off. I remember Ronnie telling us that he’d have control of the cameras. I trust that my mate has the situation in hand.

I tap Carlo on the shoulder and skirt around him as we slink down the hall.

At one door, a guy steps out suddenly right in my path. A punch to his throat silences any surprised yell and I wrap my arm around his neck and drag him back into the office.

Carlo follows and eases the door shut behind us as I put the guy in a sleeper hold.

Soon, the guy stops moving and goes limp in my arms. “Sorry guy, but that headache is going to be killer when you wake up.”

I drag him to a supply closet and lock the door.

While I’m dealing with him, Carlo takes the opportunity to search the office. “Nothing here that I can see. Here,” he hands me some files from the guy’s inbox. “Look through those just in case while I see what’s on his hard drive.”

We don’t spend a lot of time going through the records. I don’t see anything that stands out to me. Neither does Carlo and we move on.

Talk over the comm is a constant stream as everyone keeps the updates rolling. It’s a bit noisy and annoying. Mostly, I’m annoyed that I don’t hear Ronnie’s voice. I know he’s busy collating all the information and keeping an eye on everything at once.

I’d like to hear his voice, anyway, just so I can be certain he’s okay.

Carlo uses a keycard to unlock the VP’s door and we slip inside. We luck out that the VP dude isn’t there. I tuck a chair beneath the door knob and join him at the desk. Carlo gets comfortable at the man’s computer and his fingers fly over the keyboard.

“Looks like stuff is coming back to you.”

He smiles as he sorts through the files on the hard drive. “It’s slower now,” he says. “Just when I think there’s nothing else to remember, something just pops up. Sometimes it’s important, most of the time, it’s not. Drives Sako crazy.”

“Only because it comes at the worst possible time,” Sako’s voice breaks in over the comm.

Carlo’s ears turn bright red. I pat him on the shoulder and leave him to the computer to start a search of what physical files there are.

Thankfully, what I’m finding does not point to experimentation on mythical shifters. I’m relieved, to be sure. A little disappointed because there’s not much else that I can see to give us any insight.

“I have his personal appointment book,” Carlo announces.

“Download it and move on. I’m sure his contact information will be of more use,” Carson says in my ear.

We wrap that up and head for our next target.

Just as we’re ready to turn down a side hall, a familiar scent hits us both. I grab Carlo’s arm and drag him back with me before we step into view. After catching my breath, I peek around the corner.

Ahead of me are two shifters, both in wolf form. Carlo catches a glimpse before ducking back. His lips pull back from his teeth in a soft snarl.

I squeeze his shoulder. “Keep a lid on it. The wolves will get them in the final sweep.”

Carlo gives me a haunted look. “I know them, the fucking bastards.”

“Stay cool, my friend. If you know them, then you know they were lied to, just like you. Let Lars and Carson handle that. We need to keep moving.”

Well, it didn’t work out like that.

Chances are, they caught our scent as well, and they rounded the corner at full speed.

Fuck.

“Don’t let them get a warning out,” Carlo says as he charges one of them. By the time he reaches the first wolf, he’s in wolf form as well. With a full body slam, he and the wolf go tumbling down to the floor.

The second wolf lopes toward me, teeth bared. I barely get to my dragon form before I meet him head on, tooth and claw.

Being bigger does have its advantages. I outweigh him and can easily overpower him.

The disadvantage is that in the hall, it’s a tight squeeze for me to move around. My wings make it hard to turn and the wolf skids by me.

It’s faster to tail swipe his stupid ass while I struggle to get turned. He yips once as he hits the wall and he’s unmoving when I finally get close to him. Shifting back to my human form, I place a hand on his neck. He’s still breathing but his eyes are closed.

Good, I just knocked the sense out of him.

Behind me, Carlo and the other wolf are crashing around until finally Carlo gets the upper hand, or paw, I guess, and manages to neutralize the guy.

We drag them to a janitor’s closet and shut the door. “Did they get off any warning?”

Ronnie’s voice crackles through the comm. “Nothing from where you are but you guys need to step it up. I’m getting some chatter from their security.”

“We’re almost in position. Give them something else to focus on,” Lars says. “Send in the cats.”

Carlo and I look at each other before we take off down the hall.

We hit the jackpot in the third office we search.

“Carson,” Carlo says as he opens a box. “I just found a huge stash of brochures. Fucking brochures that smear the mythical shifters pretty bad. Looks like they’re getting ready for a huge propaganda push.”

“It’s going to a professional conference,” I say, holding up a memo. “Looks like they’re ready to take this to a new, more public campaign against us.”

Carlo whistles low and waves the brochure at me. “Wow. This guy has a real hate on for mythical shifters.”

I take one from the box.

It’s slick, I’ll give him that. It’s glossy and full color as it talks about the Matthews Foundation.

I read it aloud. “The mythical shifters living in these united territories don't conduct themselves for the betterment of our way of life. Their lascivious and licentious lifestyle, coupled with their greed and gross consumption of wealth, threatens our way of life unless we take steps to put a stop to it and to bring them back under the control of our benevolent, fully human, government.”

I wince when Taran’s voice barks in my ear. “What? What the fuck?”

“Oh, it gets better. We seek to gain financial restitution from the small subset of these so-called ‘mythical’ species, to demand the distribution of wealth they have wrongfully acquired for themselves and refused to disclose their sources and give a full accounting.”

“Wrongfully?” Bronaz’s tone reflects my own thoughts.

I fold one up and tuck it in the waistband of my jeans. “That’s what it says. This thing is filled with this sort of hate rhetoric.”

Sako’s scoff comes across the comms loud and clear. “Good luck with that, dude.”

“Grab what you can and keep moving,” Carson says.

We hit the legal department next. The lawyers who were working late are easy to subdue. That’s where we find the biggest jackpot of the entire night.

Carlo flaps open the folder and sits down to read it. “Guys, you’re gonna love this one.”

I lean to read over his shoulder. “Holy shit. They’re looking to introduce legislation to limit how much wealth a mythical shifter can possess and to demand, by law, a full accounting of all mythical holdings and financial records.”

“They can’t do that,” Nyve says.

“They’re petitioning several congressmen next time they’re in session.” Carlo closes the file and grabs a few more, handing them off to me.

We don’t need Carson telling us to grab it. I flip through more folders, while Carlo starts capturing the information from the hard drive.

“So what we’re looking at is one guy who felt cheated by a mythical once and now he has this vendetta against all of you.” Carlo leans back in the chair as the data copies. “There comes a time when you just need to let it go, man. So much easier on the blood pressure.”

I check the hall to make sure no one is heading our way. “That’s how it works. Someone fails at something and instead of taking stock internally and learning from any mistakes, they just blame someone else for their problems.”

Carlo shakes his head slowly. “Sad thing is that at one point, I thought I identified. It all made sense to me. Now, seeing it in this light, it sounds so damn crazy.”

“Because it is crazy.” I lock the door and head over to check his progress. “But don’t beat yourself up over it, Carlo. For anyone who is disaffected by the world, their sales pitch of hate can be seductive. It gives them someone to focus on, to blame for their problems.”

“Glad I know better now.” Carlo straightens in his chair when the beep signals he’s finished copying. “Let’s go.”

“I think we got enough,” Lars says. “Meet us at the rendezvous. It sounds like it’s getting heated out there so it’s time to wrap it up.”

I can see and hear some of the fighting going on across the compound where we are. Off in the distance somewhere.

Ronnie has been radio quiet for the most part.

I hope he’s safe.