Page 11 of Ascension of the Pack

I had no issue with having a shower first, so I turned on the water to hot and stepped under the spray. She purred in my head as it buffeted our body, and I let my thoughts settle and coalesce. Rain was dead and gone so I could tick him off my to-do list, even if his lifelesseyes were haunting my dreams and crippling me with guilt. Unlike all the others I’d been forced to kill, I’d killed Rain in cold blood: I was amurderer.

I tried to think of something else, anything else. Jess was safe, albeit a little traumatised. She wasn’t going to be marrying Emory anytime soon; the wedding had been postponed until further notice. That meant I could focus on the one thing I really needed to sort out: the orb.

That conniving dragon bitch Geneve had it, and now it was time to snatch it back. I didn’t know the first thing about planning a heist, but I did know that I was going to need a team – and a good theme song.

Channelling heist vibes, I dressed – rarely for me – in black: black jeans, black tank top. Then I put Terrance on my head. He was rarely anywhere else; you never knew when you might need some fire.

What I needed besides fire were some allies, sneaky allies. One in particular came to mind so I rang him and left a short voicemail. ‘I have a lead on the thing we talked about last time. Come and see me.’

I hung up. Ordering him was a sure way to pull his tail, but I couldn’t resist it. The man deserved it.

With a spring in my step, I bounced off to the kitchen. My step lost its spring when I saw Xander there. I faltered in the doorway, but he’d already seen me. ‘My Queen!’he greeted me ebulliently. ‘You are truly magnificent! Slayer of vile alphas, saviour of wolves everywhere! You are amazing!’

I fully believed I was amazing and magnificent, but it was still weird for someone else to say it out loud. I gave him an awkward smile and went to the kettle.

‘I’ll make it!’ Xander hustled over. ‘A cup of tea, right?’

‘That would be great.’ I looked past him and spotted a grinning Finley. ‘Bacon?’ I pleaded.

‘You got it.’ Without hesitation, he reached behind him and passed me two bacon rolls; he’d clearly been working hard all morning and he had a veritable stack of pig and bread behind him. The rolls were divided into two piles: red sauce and brown sauce. Truthfully, it wasn’t politics that divided the country but whether or not you were a red-sauce or brown-sauce person.

Finley stepped closer and lowered his voice. ‘The kid isn’t wrong,’ he murmured softly. ‘You are our saviour.’

An exasperated sigh slipped out. ‘Don’t you start. I can only cope with one hero-worshipper at a time.’

He grinned. ‘Noted. I’ll forego the visible worship but I wanted you to know that it’s there. I admire you endlessly, my Queen.’

To save myself from answering, I bit into my bacon roll. ‘Yum!’ I said happily as I took another salty, tomatoeybite. It was gratifying that Finley knew me well enough to remember that I was a red-sauce person and he’d passed me the right rolls.

I ate two and snagged a third, wolfing them down until I felt I was truly full, then took my cup of tea and went to hunt down Greg.

First I peered into the pack common room, where I was happy to see Marissa and Seren sitting with a smiling Daniella. When Daniella saw me, she gave me a thumbs-up. I grinned and returned the gesture.

Since Greg wasn’t there, I continued to my office. Sure enough, he was sitting at the security console. ‘Morning,’ I greeted him with a chaste kiss on the lips.

‘Mmm,’ he replied licking his own lips. ‘Bacon.’

I snorted. ‘Yup. If I’d known you were here, I’d have brought you one.’

‘I’ve already had a couple,’ he confessed. ‘Finley’s been making huge batches for everyone.’

‘I saw. He’s a wonder. How did it go last night? Did the charred wood work for Nina?’ I should have asked earlier but Greg had distracted me with his talk of numbers and statistics.

‘It did,’ he confirmed. ‘She’s made an extra floor just for the Cheshire Pack.’

‘Goodidea. I’ll go and see her later.’ I fixed him with a look. ‘But for now, it’s time to plan a heist. For real.’

He grinned. ‘I knew you were going to walk into the office and say that.’

‘Did you now?’ I huffed, hands on hips. I hated being predictable.

If anything, my tone made his grin widen. ‘So I’ve been making plans, calling in favours. There’s a reason I left you at the crack of dawn.’

‘Well, I’m glad it wasn’t because I was snoring.’

‘Notjustbecause of that,’ he muttered under his breath.

‘Hey! I don’t snore.’

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