Page 56 of Born in Fire

“You’re early,” he remarks, eyes narrowing slightly as he takes in my disheveled appearance.

“Am I?” I glance at my watch, then shrug. “Guess I am.”

I reach for my phone, pretending to scroll through email while actually checking if Juno has sent any texts. Nothing. Not since she dropped that bombshell.

Tyler. The man is the worst kind of scum… and he broke her. But she picked herself up. Made herself stronger and braver in spite of him. And now I’m screwing with all of it.

“What’s wrong with you?” Caleb asks, his tone sharper than usual. Which is pretty fucking sharp.

“Nothing,” I reply without looking up. “Just tired.”

“Long night?”

I hesitate, thinking of Juno’s terrified face, of Tyler’s smug one before I wiped it off, of the hours spent pacing my warehouse loft trying to figure out how to fix this mess.

“I suppose you could say that.”

“Let me guess. It’s a woman.” There’s a dismissive edge to his voice that scrapes against my already raw nerves. There’s nothing about Juno that deserves to be dismissed.

“None of your business,” I snap, unable to keep the edge from my voice. I can feel his eyes on me, assessing, calculating.

“Everything okay?” he asks, and for a moment, genuine concern breaks through his leader facade.

I meet his gaze briefly before looking away. “Fine.”

I get the feeling he’d press further, but the other clan members begin to file in. The meeting begins, and I force myself to focus as Caleb outlines the situation with the viral video. On the screen, Mara’s carefully edited footage plays—shadows that could be wings, distorted audio that hints at secrets hidden in plain sight.

“Who is this woman?” Serena demands.

“A conspiracy theorist,” I answer. I’ve spent several hours diving deep into Mara’s online presence, trying to gauge the extent of the damage. “But her reach is extensive. Millions of views already, and the numbers are climbing.”

The discussion devolves into finger-pointing and accusations. Luke, predictably, turns his ire on Caleb. The others are equally scathing. We’re not a particularly forgiving species.

“Where were you when this happened?” Serena asks him. “Shouldn’t you have prevented this?”

“I was dealing with another situation,” Caleb replies, his voice too controlled.

“Another situation?” Luke snaps. “Your absences are becoming frequent, Caleb. Perhaps you need to reassess your priorities.”

I watch my brother carefully, noting the flash of heat in his eyes, the way his fingers twitch against the table. He’s holding back, containing something powerful and volatile.

“My priorities are exactly where they need to be. Our focus now should be on mitigating the damage,” he snaps.

“He’s right,” Lydia steps in. “Pointing fingers won’t solve anything.”

“So, what’s the plan?” asks Serena. “Do we suppress the information? Issue denials?”

“Trying to erase it will only draw more attention,” I say. “Streisand effect and all that.”

“Streisand effect?” Serena glances at me.

“You know. When you try to hide something and just end up drawing more attention to it?”

Luke huffs a breath. “Perfect. Just what we need. So what do we do?”

“Perhaps we control the narrative.” Lydia steeples her fingers in front of her. “Redirect the curiosity elsewhere. Flood the internet with conflicting theories to dilute the impact.”

“That could work,” Serena says. “Use our resources to create noise.”

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