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Chapter one

Annabella

Present day

Not that I appreciated the subtlety at the moment. I tapped my finger against the ceramic mug, watching steam rise from coffee I had no intention of drinking. My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin, sensing my impatience and trying to claw its way to the surface.

Stay down , I ordered silently, ignoring the ache that spread through my muscles as I suppressed that part of myself. Years of practice had made the pain familiar, if not easier.

“She’s late,” Duke grumbled from beside me, his scent sharp with annoyance. At six foot four and built like a linebacker on steroids, he made the café chair look like doll furniture. “If she’s not here in five minutes, I say we leave.”

“She’s not late, we’re early.”

Duke wasn’t exactly patient at the best of times. Add in the fact that he hadn’t wanted to take this meeting in the first place, and I was somewhat amazed I’d even gotten him to sit here for the last ten minutes.

“This contact is our best lead for expanding the team, and Serena said this guy has skills.”

Serena owned a store downtown that catered to witches—which meant she had her finger on the pulse of anyone looking for work or stirring up trouble in the city.

When she’d called about having the perfect candidate for our team, I’d jumped at it.

Serena had a reputation for weeding out the low-lives and fame seekers, and we desperately needed someone solid.

Another witch on the team would be even better.

“Yeah? Well, I still don’t know why we need to expand the team.”

I managed not to sigh. We’d been through this at least ten times just this week, mainly after he’d scared off all the other people we’d interviewed.

“Because our missions are getting more complicated, the Council is taking extra measures to protect their members since we took Reynolds, and we need someone else to cover our backs.”

Lydia, the brains behind the mind-wiping spell we’d been using against Council members, didn’t look up from examining her flawless manicure when she said, “I still maintain this is an unnecessary risk. Five operatives is already pushing security protocols. Our mission parameters are clear: identify, extract, and process Council targets. Not recruit strangers.”

“Simon thought it was a good idea.”

That shut her up, as I knew it would. She’d been finding little ways to undermine my authority lately, but she would never go against Simon.

From across the table, Zeke, the other witch on our team, passed a steaming cup of herbal tea toward me.

“Try this instead of that coffee you’re not drinking,” he said with a gentle smile. “Chamomile and lavender. Might help with the…” He made a subtle gesture toward my hand, which I realized was trembling slightly from the effort of keeping my wolf contained.

I accepted the tea with a nod of thanks, appreciating how Zeke never openly mentioned my constant struggle.

Being half-witch, half-werewolf was rare, and it made me a target from both communities.

Keeping my wolf suppressed was my choice—but Zeke was the only one who knew how much of a struggle it was.

Beside Zeke, Mira scrolled through her tablet, her tall, black platform boots tapping against the chair legs. Mira was the only human in our group, but what she lacked in supernatural abilities, she made up for in technical brilliance and unwavering loyalty.

“Perimeter’s clear. No unusual activity on traffic cams.” She glanced up, pushing her rainbow-tipped hair out of her eyes. “You know, for a back-street café, this place has surprisingly good Wi-Fi. We should hold more clandestine meetings here.”

I nodded absently but my gaze had drifted to the window, scanning the afternoon foot traffic on Broadway.

A flash of movement across the street caught my eye—a man in a hoodie whose body couldn’t decide what it wanted to do.

He’d shuffle forward, then jerk to a stop, shoulders hunching as his weight shifted from foot to foot.

His fingers twitched at his sides as he whipped his head up and down the street, movements too sharp, too frequent, almost birdlike.

Duke tensed beside me. “What?”

He always paid attention to what I was paying attention to. It could be suffocating and flipping annoying, but it also made him exceptional at security for our team.

I jerked my head toward the window at the ripple addict. “Ripper across the street. And looks like he’s meeting someone.”

The media had started calling individual ripple addicts “rippers” after a particularly brutal attack in Detroit last year.

When they worked together—which was happening more and more—the authorities called them “Ripper Packs,” though it was a bastardization of the term.

They weren’t real Packs with bonds and hierarchy.

Just desperate addicts who’d learned that coordinated strikes yielded better results than solo raids.

The others turned to look, except Lydia, who sighed dramatically. “And this concerns us how, exactly?”

“It’s probably nothing,” Zeke said diplomatically, though I caught the concern in his scent. As our team’s healer, I knew he was as worried as I was about the spreading ripple crisis in the conclave cities.

I watched as a sleek black SUV pulled up to the curb. The passenger window rolled down, and the twitching Shifter approached.

My jaw tightened. Ripple was ravaging Shifter communities across the conclave cities, especially here in Kansas City.

What had once been a model for human-Shifter integration was now fracturing under the strain of the drug epidemic.

The synthetic compound prevented Shifters from accessing their animal forms while simultaneously creating an addiction that drove werewolves to break Pack bonds and, in some cases, triggered bloodlust—turning normal Shifters into uncontrollable killers.

“We need to stop that transaction,” I said, already rising from my seat.

Lydia’s eyes flashed with irritation. “Absolutely not. We have a mission, and this isn’t it.”

“It’s a ripple deal,” I countered. “Look at him; he’s close to losing control.”

“Not our problem.”

Duke cracked his knuckles, a predatory smile spreading across his face. “I don’t know. I could do with a good workout.”

I glanced at my watch. “Serena isn’t due for another five minutes. We have time.”

Decision made, I turned to Mira. “Watch our six, maintain comms. If Serena shows with the new candidate, tell her we’ll be right back.”