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I glanced at him and shook my head nearly imperceptibly, and he nodded his understanding, sitting up a little straighter.

After Linda had thoroughly displayed her dominance, she began speaking. “Alright Mr. Ramos, let’s get this wrapped up. I just need to run through a few things here with you and then with Ms. Linden, and after that you can all be on your way.”

Julian sighed. “I was defending myself and Marlowe. That’sit.”

“Yes, I got the gist of it from your pack and some eyewitnesses that drove by the attack. I just want to hear the whole story from your mouth. From the start.”

Scratching his chin, Julian began to recount how he had seen a woman being attacked in a car by a vampyr and he’d decided to follow, forcing them off the road to confront them.

“The driver went after me with a knife, and I defeated him with my bare hands.”

Linda grunted her approval. “And the other vampyr?”

“He was attacking Marlowe, and we fought. Fucker flew like ten feet in the air and dropped on me, and then…”

“Wait.” Linda held up her hand to stop him. “Heflew?”

My eyes widened. I probably should have had them go over the story in detail with me first, but I hadn’t thought anything likethathad happened.

“Yeah.” He looked at me for confirmation and I leaned towards the table, placing my hand on top.

“Just to clarify, my client is explaining what he perceived at the time. This doesn’t change the fact this was clearly an act of self-defense.”

Linda clicked her pen. “Of course. It’s just… look,” she turned to me. “I went over your statements from the attack at Mr. Wolcott’s house, and the eyewitness accounts and security camera footage from city hall. By now, all of Maiingan Hollow knows your pack can shift. Flying is the vampyr equivalent to shifting—a trait that’s been lost to their kind for many generations. There must be some sort of catalyst that’s behind these abilities coming back to us.”

We all instinctively looked towards the door, behind which Marlowe sat alone.

“It won’t take long at all for everyone to figure out your omega is the common denominator here. Is she… reawakening these abilities through sex?”

I held out my arm to stop Julian from leaping over the table, growling my response. “We are not answering that question.”

Linda didn’t even flinch at Julian’s snarling, she was too occupied with unraveling the mystery to really notice. “Fair enough, but you’re going to have to prepare yourselves once it starts getting asked. The people here are going to realize that she’s the connection, if they haven’t already, and they’re going to be wondering the same things—how can Ms. Linden bring out a shifter’s wolf, and can she doit for me?”

And with Marlowe being an omega, shifters were likely to jump to the same conclusion that the answer lay in sex. We were already dealing with alphas frothing at the mouth over thoughts of knotting her, but add in gaining the ability to shift, and Marlowe would be in serious danger.

We needed to come up with a plausible explanation as to why we could shift and others couldn’t that didn’t involve Marlowe. Fast.

I shot a quick text to Archer, since this sort of thing seemed more in his wheelhouse, then put my phone back in my pocket. Julian tapped his foot, his eyes darting to the door, while Linda remained silent. She stared at some spot on the table, her mind clearly working quickly behind her static eyes. “It’s blood, isn’t it?”

She looked up at us, my ticked-off expression likely confirming her theory. She was smart, and seemed to be asking more from curiosity than desire, but all I could see was a threat. I bared my teeth and sucked in a breath. “I think you’ve said enough on the subject,Detective. Let’s not speculate…”

“You all bonded with her,” she said, more interested in following her own threads than acknowledging my display of dominance. “Ingesting her blood through the bite. And then the vampyr drank her blood and could fly again.”

I got up. “Julian, I think we’re done here. Unless you’re planning on charging my clients, we’re leaving.”

“Don’t worry,” she replied calmly, holding out her open palms. “No other vamps were around to see, right? I won’t write that part down. The Vampyric Council is already asking for a copy of my report, and the last thing I want to do is give them another reason to come after your pack and Ms. Linden.”

I slowly sat back down, waiting for her to finish.

“I can’t explain it, but I feel this overwhelming urge to just take her home with me, brush her hair, wrap her up in blankets and paint her toenails…”

Julian and I didn’t even need to growl for Linda to realize she had majorly overstepped. “I’m sorry, I would never do anything like that. And it’s not even sexual, I’m straight. Married, even. But I guess this is the power omegas have over us, huh? So interesting.”

She shook her head and sighed, clicking her pen again. “Okay, I think I have enough here. Once I get Ms. Linden’s statement, you all are free to go.”

Julian leaped out of his seat and made it to the door before Icould, ripping it open to check on Marlowe.

But she wasn’t where we’d left her.