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Allowing a coup to take over the throne? Not so much.

“My vote is we kill the human hybrid. He’s a victim like the wolves, but from what we know, very unstable,” Ari recommended and glanced at the king.

Vincent nodded.

Callan cursed, but Mack turned and the look they shared told him he knew it was best. Marcus and Charlotte had met the enhanced human out in the field and reported back what they knew about the creature. He was a danger. Likely to both humans and vampires.

There was no future for the hybrid.

“I agree,” Marcus said, confirming his thoughts.

“If he’s there, we’ll find him,” Ben said, and Mack added the assassin to his list of team members.

Who else?

Fuck, at least he was paying attention now.

Don’t think of your pretty mate.

“Meanwhile, we maintain the triple layer protection on the family,” Brayden reminded them, referring to the king and all the royals. Which also included himself as the prince. Although, from the mumblings he’d heard from Craig in the time he’d been in the inner circle, Brayden often saw himself as exempt.

He wasn’t.

If Vincent was killed, the queen would follow. Lucca was not old enough to lead—or form a full sentence—so Brayden would become king regent until the little prince was old enough to take over.

Technically.

It had never happened in their history. There had only ever been three kings; Gio—Ari’s brother; Francis, Gio’s son; and now Vincent, his firstborn grandson.

“Let’s do this!” Oliver clapped his hands, grinning. “I am ready to rumble.”

Mack mentally added him to the team.

“Yeah, well, make sure it’s not in the crapper this time.” Tristan kicked his chair.

Moans andgrossesfilled the air.

Craig laughed, then pushed away from the desk he was leaning on. “Okay boys, wheels up in two hours. Shadow Team, stay around to go over the plan. The rest of you, back to work.”

The room broke up, with warriors heading out to their respective teams and tasks while Ben, Logan, Oliver, Kurt, and Mack moved over to the side of the room and stood over the war table.

Thank fuck, now he knew who he was traveling with.

The table was actually a digital screen which lay flat, and someone had loaded a map of Russia already. Terrain view.

Ari swiped in the corner, and it zoomed in on St. Petersburg.

“Our intel shows that Mikhailov resides here.” He pointed while Craig made gun fingers at it andpow pownoises.

Kurt chuckled silently.

Mack smirked and glanced over at Ben, who was leaning in closely. The guy was a joker, but when he was focused, the SLC and former assassin was all business.

“Who’s leading?” Mack asked.

Brayden rested his hands on his hips and glanced between Ben and Kurt. “I’m on the fence here. Both of you could do the job, but I need your input. Do we need three assassins with their minds on the job or more grunt?”

The two vampires stared at one another for a moment.