Sara squeezed me in a hug as soon as she entered the conference room. Jonah shifted awkwardly, and I knew how uncomfortable he was with "feebs" being in his building, but he could just deal.

"You know," Sara said, "It was hard to believe you were really okay without setting eyes on you. This is why I would suck at a field job. All that secrecy…"

I snorted. "As if it's any different in internal affairs? Suspecting everyone, trusting no one."

Sara's jaw hardened. "Yeah, well, not everyone. I've got enough circumstantial evidence on Deamer. We just need to catch him in the act."

"And soon," I said, growling a bit. "I'm tired of being out of the game, just waiting."

"We're not waiting," Jonah said, tone clipped. "We're planning."

Sara stuck her hand out to introduce herself to Jonah. "Special Agent Sara Bright."

He glared at her hand with obvious distaste, which I swear made her push closer to him. I pressed her arm down. "He's got a thing about germs," I said, ignoring Jonah's glare. Like I was about to spout all his feelings against my agency? No. I could take it. I knew his fears came from a deep place, and I was determined to help him see it wasn't logical, but that was the long game. Not today.

"Of course," Sara said. "And congratulations!" She glanced at my baby bump. "How far along?"

I was surprised and pleased that Sara wasn't weirded out by my pregnancy. A lot of humans were, as evidenced by the eyes of the other agents with her skipping over me as if I were invisible.

"Just over a third," I said. "Finally done with the misery of morning sickness, for the most part."

Sara shook her head. "I can't imagine. I never want to have children. My brother has six—that's enough for me. I'll be an old spinster aunt for all my days. But you look good."

"Too skinny," Jonah grumbled, and I elbowed him. "You didn't have the weight to lose!"

"Not an appropriate topic, Jonah," I said through gritted teeth. Smarts—my mate had them in spades. Social skills? I was working on that.

After everyone was introduced and seated—I and all of Team ALPHA took care to keep Jonah and Pax as far away from the feds as possible—we got immediately to business. Until now, all of our communication had been via phone, always careful to couch our conversations in innocence and double meanings. Today was the first time we'd be able to speak openly and honestly.

"With Pax and Jonah's help," Cain began, "We've reached out to both the former senator and Deamer. They both know I'm alive, and they've been led to believe that I've been hiding underground for the last month, and that now I'm ready to step up and take my place as the only remaining heir of Hector Jimenez."

"Do we really need you to be the one interacting with them?" Ezra asked. He had fought Cain's involvement every step of the way, and the presence of the agents wasn't going to stop him.

"Or Matthew," Jonah added. "Surely we can use someone else to stand in for them."

Cain and I both opened our mouths to protest, but Sara spoke first. "In an operation as delicate as this, we like to remove as many variables as possible. Both men are familiar with Cain and Matthew on a personal level. It would be difficult to find a physical substitute for them, and near impossible to find a personality substitute, let alone someone who could match both. It's best if we move forward with their involvement."

"Sometimes I think we should just lock all the omegas up in an underground compound where they'll be safe from everything except the end of the world," Ezra muttered just loud enough for the shifters to hear.

Pax pulled a long knife from… I wasn't exactly sure with those tight pants. And when I said long, I meant long. It had a curved blade, and the handle was a brilliant glittery purple.

"Just try it," he threatened.

The humans, who hadn't heard what Ezra had said, were understandably on edge when faced with such a fabulously fierce omega who'd apparently gone off the deep end with no provocation. The rest of us were rather used to Pax, however. Though this knife was new.

"Where did you get that?" Zeke asked, reaching for the blade, but backing off when Pax turned it on him.

"Ah ah ah. Mine. I got tired of you changing your hiding place for yours. Besides, this one is pretty and can cut the nose hair off a koala."

"Do koalas even have nose hairs?" I whispered to Jonah.

He shrugged.

Zeke backed off and Pax kept his knife in hand as he picked up his tablet. "Understandably, both men are spooked, so we have to work to build some trust. Right now, we're working on finding the perfect meeting place. They're used to meeting in cartel safe places, and that's a no-go now. I highly doubt they'd trust that any new center is safe, either, after what has happened over the last few months. But somewhere public doesn't work either."

"The cartel has always gone in for cities. Would somewhere remote be better this time?"

Pax tapped at his screen. "Maybe. Sara will probably be able to give us further insight into Deamer's mind. And as much as we all hate to drag Preston in, we may need some insight on his dad."

"Most of our hideouts will be out of the running," Sara said. "Deamer probably knows about most of them, and I really can't guarantee he doesn't know about all of them."

"The problem with remote is there's not really anywhere for backup to hide nearby," I said. "Sure, we can have choppers waiting out of sight, but I can tell you right now none of these alphas will be comfortable with that."

The alphas in question grumbled in agreement.

"What I don't understand," Ezra grumbled, "is why we're not going straight after the fuckers. Why all this sneaky shit."

Sara leaned across the table and stared Ezra down, disregarding the fact that he was probably twice her weight, had a good foot and a half on her, and could turn into a furry weapon of claws and teeth. "I know there are a lot of people out there who think vigilante justice is better than no justice at all. And maybe they're right. But these men will face justice, and we will do it right. I will not have anyone under my command—Matthew included—devolve to their level. We're above that."

I could feel Jonah twitching beside me, and again felt the gap between our ideals. This time, instead of fighting him, I reached out to take his hand and comfort him.

Ray, who'd been mostly quiet for the meeting, laughed. "Deal with it, boys. Sometimes brains are more important than brawn."