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CHAPTER THREE

KAZ

I flicked on the lights, and the new base hummed to life in all its fluorescent glory.

Dust motes danced in the air of the converted warehouse.

The whole place needed a good cleaning, but it had potential.

Solid brick walls, reinforced windows, back exit through the alley.

Not bad for something we’d secured on short notice.

“Once again, I’d like to lodge formal complaints over the location,” Rava groused behind me. “This feels a little like spying on me , Kaz.”

I turned to face my sister, who stood with arms crossed and tail swishing irritably behind her. The barbed tip twitched with each sweep in a telltale sign she was genuinely annoyed, not just performing her usual dramatics.

“Silvermist Falls is strategically positioned,” I explained for the twentieth time. “Close enough to major cities for easy access, remote enough to avoid unwanted attention.”

“Top concerns for someone who can teleport anywhere in the world he’s been before.” She rolled her eyes. “Just admit you’re checking up on me and Zral.”

I wasn’t, but arguing would only convince her otherwise. I liked Zral, and the several years of eating shit before gaining approval he would have needed had been drastically shortened by the beating he’d taken while I’d been under Javed’s control.

My sister and her orc were still early into their mating, but even I could see past the protective older brother act that they were good for each other. Trouble for the rest of us, absolutely, and still finding their footing with each other, but still good.

At least they’d done it in the right order, and without blackmail at the center.

The truth of the relocation was simpler and more pathetic: I needed distance from the old compound. Every room, every hallway, every shadow still carried echoes of imprisonment. I’d ordered a complete purge after his death—new furniture, new paint, new everything—but he still lingered.

Some nights I’d wake gasping, convinced I could feel the phantom control of those damned infernal relics crawling under my skin, forcing me to hurt the people I loved. To hurt Rava.

Even now, thinking his name sent ice down my spine. Memories flashed: the gleam of the hellfire opal, the cold weight of compulsion, my hand closing around my sister’s against my will?—

And then Talia’s face, flushed with pleasure beneath me. The scent of jasmine and embers still clung to my skin despite the three showers I’d taken since leaving her bed. Since abandoning her while she slept.

Coward.

I’d marked her, claimed her, spilled inside her, and then fled like a thief in the night. What kind of male did that make me?

One who killed her brother and then fucked her on royal orders.

“Kaz?” Rava waved a hand in front of my face. “You in there?”

I blinked, shaking off the memories. “Morning meeting in thirty.” I cleared my throat. “Tell the others.”

I didn’t wait for her response, just strode toward the office I’d claimed at the far end of the building. Behind me, I heard Zane’s heavy footfalls and Malak’s lighter tread as they entered, carrying boxes of equipment. Good. We needed to get operational as quickly as possible.

My office was bare except for a desk and chair I’d teleported in last night. I’d handle decorating later. Right now, I had more pressing concerns.

I unpacked the slim file on Leona Cadum, spreading its contents across the desk.

A photo showed a young ifrit female with her dark hair twisted into an updo for some formal function or another.

Her file listed the basics: education, lineage, magical aptitude.

Nothing remarkable. Nothing to suggest why someone would target her.

But my gut said this wasn’t a standard kidnapping. The security footage from her family compound had been suspiciously turned off that night. Some personal items—clothes, jewelry, a few books—were missing, suggesting she’d packed before leaving. The room was neat, not ransacked.

This had all the hallmarks of a planned escape, not an abduction. Yet her family insisted she’d been taken against her will.

Malak could hack security systems along her likely escape route, Zane could check with his contacts in the underground, Rava could?—

No. I wouldn’t involve them. This was my burden to bear. My obligation to the crown. To Talia.

The thought of her sent heat curling through my gut. I closed my eyes, but that only made it worse. Without visual distractions, I could feel the ghost of her touch on my skin, taste the sweetness of her mouth, hear the little gasps she made when I?—

I forced my eyes open and stared at the file. Leona had been away at university until recently. That’s where I needed to start—who she knew there, what connections she might have made outside the watchful eyes of her family.

My fingers absently drifted to my wrist, tracing the marks Talia’s fangs had left during our claiming. The skin was healed now, but I swore I could still feel the imprint of her teeth. The mate bond hummed, a constant reminder of what I’d done. What I’d taken.

What I’d run from.

The clock on the wall ticked over to the appointed hour. Time for the meeting. I gathered the file, tucking it away in a drawer. I’d return to it after we’d settled the immediate business of establishing our base.

The conference room was really just a cleared space with a table thrown in the middle, but it would do. Malak, Zane, and Rava were already seated when I entered. I took my place at the head of the table, spine straight, passing a look over each of them in turn. Leader mode activated.

“Status reports,” I said.

Malak leaned forward, fingers steepled. “Barebones digital security will be operational by this evening. I’ve established firewalls and proxies to mask our activities.

Local networks have been mapped and access points identified.

I’ll have us ghost-level invisible to standard surveillance in no time after that. ”

I nodded. Malak’s ease at a keyboard was always a comfort. Like clockwork, he delivered exactly what was needed.

“Physical security is shit,” Zane cut in, blunt as always. “Main entrance has standard locks, easily picked. Windows on the east side are vulnerable unless you count ‘painted shut’ as a feature. Rear exit alarm is outdated. Anyone with basic training could breach this place in under two minutes.”

“We’re more likely to be killed out in the field than in the lobby during business hours,” I deadpanned.

Zane grunted. “Still.”

“Put together a list of what you need,” I told him. “Priority items first.”

A leader who doesn’t listen to what his people need is just a dictator with delusions.

The remembered words were just one of the many lessons my father had drilled into me before the ambush that took both my parents seven years ago. The entire Kadhan clan—not just this ragged bunch of misfits—had been mine to lead ever since.

It’d gone startlingly well. I’d kept us profitable, and most importantly, independent.

Our crews operated across the globe, taking on the jobs others couldn’t handle.

Even the ifrit families who publicly sneered at our ‘mercenary blood’ privately slipped us contracts when their own security forces failed.

The Kadhan name commanded respect throughout the monster world, our reputation built on centuries of uncompromising standards. No complications, no loose ends.

Until Javed.

Rava flicked a folder to each of us. “I’ve compiled profiles on local businesses we should establish relationships with.

The apothecary run by the witch up in Grimstone might be useful for specialized supplies, and there’s a vampire-owned overnight security firm we could partner with for certain jobs. ”

“Beneficial to have friends in town,” Malak agreed. “Especially since we’re essentially moving into Rava and Zral’s backyard.”

“Finally, some honesty about your spying. You always were my favorite, Mal.” Rava threw him a sickeningly sweet smile and scratched under his chin like she would an adorable animal. “Stay sweet, and I’ll keep sharing my toys.”

I should have smirked at that, kept them on track, contributed something useful to the conversation. Instead, my mind drifted again. Talia would be waking alone in our bed by now. Would she be angry? Relieved? Did she regret what we’d done?

Did she taste ash on her tongue and think of me?

“Kaz?” Malak’s voice cut through my thoughts. “I asked about our timeline for full operations.”

Shit. I’d missed half the conversation.

“We’ll settle in over the next week, bring more and more of the routine shit online here,” I said, hoping it was a reasonable response to whatever had been discussed. “Aim for new contracts by the end of the month.”

Malak and Zane exchanged a look that had me gritting my teeth. They knew me too well—knew when I wasn’t fully present.

“We’re done,” I said curtly, rising from my chair. “Get to work.”

I retreated back to my office and slumped against the door. This was pathetic. The clan needed their leader focused, not mooning over a mate he had no business claiming.

Distractions cost lives in our line of work.

I’d learned that lesson the hard way when I missed the signs of Rava’s discontent.

I’d been too busy with contracts to notice my own sister dropping her college classes and hatching a scheme to prove herself in Silvermist Falls.

If I’d been paying attention, she never would have felt the need to go rogue.

Never would have ended up in Javed’s crosshairs.

My fingers curled into fists at the memory.

I should have seen Javed’s cruelty sooner, should have recognized the danger he posed to Rava beyond just a political marriage she didn’t want.

The signs had been there in the whispers about his temper, the rumors of servants who disappeared, the way other royals gave him a wide berth at functions.

But I’d missed the monster lurking beneath the crown.

Then came the attack. The relics. The control. My own hands becoming weapons against those I’d sworn to protect.

Never again.

I pushed away from the door and straightened my shoulders. I needed to keep my shit together and stop letting Talia haunt me, crown and mate bond or no.

The rest of the day was spent between unpacking equipment and my secret search.

I caught myself absently touching my wrist while scrolling through Leona Cadum’s carefully curated social media.

She was the perfect ifrit female attending formal events, family gatherings, appropriate cultural celebrations.

Too perfect. No personal interests, no casual photos, nothing that revealed the woman behind the polished image.

This would be easier if I could hand it to Malak. He could find shadow accounts, deleted posts, the digital breadcrumbs people leave when they’re living double lives.

But this wasn’t clan business. This was my burden to carry.

That night, I dreamed of Talia. Of her mouth on my skin, her body beneath mine. I woke sweating and hard, the phantom scent of jasmine and embers filling my nostrils.

The next day, Malak’s morning drink carried hints of jasmine that had me halfway across our new headquarters before I recognized the scent wasn’t hers.

“Something wrong with the tea?” Malak had asked, eyebrow raised.

“Just thought I smelled something,” I’d muttered, turning back to my laptop where I’d been mapping Leona’s purchases against local businesses.

A trail of small charges led north toward the Canadian border.

Gas stations. Convenience stores. A diner off the highway.

Leona—or whoever had her purse—was on the move, but not covering their tracks well. Amateurs.

By the third day, Zane’s knowing looks had me snapping at my oldest friend over a simple sparring session.

“Your form’s sloppy,” I’d growled after he’d knocked me flat for the third time.

“The fuck it is.” He’d squared up to me, tail lashing behind him. “What’s got your horns in a twist?”

I walked away rather than answer, unable to explain the restless energy crawling under my skin. Back in my office, I found a response to my inquiry about Leona. I’d posed as an old family friend looking to surprise her with a book I just couldn’t remember the title of.

The bookstore owner’s reply confirmed what I’d suspected from her past purchases.

Leona was a regular, but she hadn’t been visiting alone.

She’d been bringing a human male with her consistently over the last few months.

Close enough that he bought out Leona’s entire wish list before her ‘old family friend’ had a chance.

A sudden violent abduction, the family claimed. Yet here was Leona, building relationships her family either didn’t know about or chose not to mention. The story wasn’t adding up.

The fourth day, I nearly incinerated my desk when Rava’s not-so-gentle “Are your ears blocked, idiot?” hit too close to the truth I was denying. I was an idiot—for claiming Talia, for running away, for thinking I could simply ignore the mate bond humming between us.

“What’s wrong with you lately?” Rava had demanded, perching on the edge of my desk. “You’re distracted. Irritable. Not sleeping.”

“I’m fine,” I’d growled.

“Bullshit.”

“Drop it, Rava.”

She’d studied me for a long moment, her expression softening. “Whatever it is, you know you can tell me, right? We’ve been through worse.”

The urge to confess everything had been overwhelming. To tell her about Talia, about the mate bond, about the mission Adron had forced on me. But the words stuck in my throat. How could I admit I’d mated the sister of the man who’d nearly destroyed us?

Rava would know why I did it. Know, and feel guilty for something done to her.

“I know,” I’d said instead. “Just got a lot on my mind.”

She hadn’t believed me, but she’d let it go.

On the fifth day of my slow descent into madness, I returned from a perimeter check that I’d used to finalize my plans for tracking down a small bed-and-breakfast near Niagara Falls.

The receptionist had confirmed a young ifrit woman matching Leona’s description had checked in yesterday, accompanied by a human male.

They’d paid for three nights in advance.

If I left now, I could be there before nightfall. But something held me back. The pieces of this puzzle suggested a very different picture than what Adron had painted. I needed to see for myself before making any decisions.

As I stepped through the warehouse doors, a familiar scent hit me.

Jasmine and embers.

My body responded instantly, heart rate spiking, skin flushing hot. I froze, every muscle locked tight. For a moment, I thought I’d finally cracked, that my brain had conjured her scent from nothing but desperate longing.

Then Talia’s voice cut through the room. “Where is my mate?”