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“She’s brilliant,” Ava admitted. “I feel like I have a partner in crime. Instead of me doing all the heavy lifting for administrative tasks, she’s right there with me. It’s been a welcome reprieve, honestly. Especially with the extract effort we’ve taken on because of the Raeth Heat.”
Aidan grunted in approval. “Good. Riaz doesn’t know I’m here yet, though I’m sure word will reach him soon if it hasn’t already.”
“And why doesn’t Riaz know you’re here?”
“If I’d have told him, he would have rushed out to meet me. Right now, that’d mean I have two problems on my hands.”
Ava raised her eyebrows in question.
“I needed to speak with you first,” Aidan explained, pointing to two lounge chairs set up along one side of the empty pool, “before Riaz could weigh in.”
“That’s only one problem.”
A hint of a smirk. “The second problem is a little more tricky. After what happened with Drake’s House in New York, we took the Raeths up on their offer to recode our HVAC units to ensure that didn’t happen at any of our dens. We can’t run the risk of having our biggest packs go rabid.”
Ava nodded. Six months ago, the Citizens of the Light had attacked the vampires using gaseous sunlight. It had filtered through their cooling system, poisoning the air, and nearly resulted in mass casualties. Riaz’s quick thinking—and a host of other immortals aiding the effort—had been the only reason there weren’t any deaths.
If it had been a werewolf den, the attack would’ve turned them rabid. Silver particles, the other favored weapon of the human terrorists, would also mean widespread fatalities if pumped through a pack’s HVAC system.
“Two days ago, we started the recoding process with Nova’s den. Since her pack is potentially a known location, it made sense to begin there.” Aidan grimaced.
“What happened?”
“I stayed with Nova and her pack while we recoded the systems, and she nearly challenged me by the end of hour three.”
Ava sucked in a breath. As the original werewolf, Aidan was the most dominant alpha—no one had ever challenged him and won. Regardless, he often stayed long stretches with the other packs to build ties and maintain relationships with his pack leaders. It rarely resulted in a challenge.
It was true that alphas didn’t always play well with other alphas, and the longer they were in close proximity to each other, the higher the likelihood of a dominance battle. For Nova to challenge Aidan that quickly was an oddity—and a dangerous one.
“Whatever Heat hormones the Raeths had going on have affected us, too,” he sighed. “We descend from them; it makes sense.”
“The wolves in our pack have been on edge lately, too. Riaz is no exception,” Ava added, frowning. “But it’s already been half a year. Can we afford to wait it out?”
He shook his head. “We have no way of knowing when the effects will wear off, and I’m not keen on letting a gap in security risk our wolves. That’s where you come in.”
“Me?”
“I won’t risk infighting between alphas with the Citizens breathing down our backs. You’re the beta I trust the most, Ava, and you are well liked and widely known. You won’t get the alpha’s tails in a twist the same way I do,” Aidan said.
“Remmus is a technopath, and the only one who’s had experience in encoding the HVAC systems to ensure what happened at Drake’s House doesn’t happen to us. The sacrifice I’m asking for is even bigger than it seems. Raeths can’t usually teleport to a place they’ve never been, nor to people they don’t know. Remmus’ data collecting power has a useful secondary feature, however—if he has access to a mind with strong memories of where he needs to go, he can lock on those impressions and use them to travel.”
Ava’s stomach turned over. “You want me to be a teleport lock.”
He slowly nodded.
That particular Raeth had proven himself to be the bane of her existence. Flirtatious, ostentatious, and cockier than a football quarterback on steroids, Ava would rather chew her own tail off than spend time with him—or let him have access to her mind.
Her reluctance was multi-faceted: one, he made her frantic with fear, like all Raeths; and two, he made her heartbeat faster for … reasons she didn’t care to disclose. It had nothing to do with the fact that the man was a walking temptation, nor the fact that her treacherous wolf seemed to swoon whenever he came near.
A growl rumbled in her throat. “Why can’t the Elementals or vampires assist? Surely, they have someone who can code? You know how high the cost would be for me.”
“The vampires are still recovering—both from the losses at Lucius’ House and what unfolded at Drake’s. If they hadn’t been hit quite as heavily, I’d suspect they’d join with us, but I won’t force them to assist in our dens. The majority of the Raeths are out; nearly a third of their population is expecting and it’s a miracle Nina and Zeke lent us Remmus. The Elementals don’t have anyone they can send to assist at the moment, and they aren’t directly affected by this.
“None of our people have the know-how, and Remmus could also set up a psychic alert if someone tried tampering with it as an added security. As I understand it, the process also involves manipulating a small dose of gaseous sunlight and silver. It’s asking a lot for him to subject himself to the repeated danger, but he agreed to take the risk.”
Aidan sighed. “We’ve been through so much, you and I. I know you’ll be able to keep your head no matter what is thrown at you so, fairly or unfairly, I keep on piling more. The question is, can I ask this of you?”
For a moment, she could only stare at him, trying to wrap her head around what he was saying. “You want me to allow a Raeth into my mind, Aidan.”
