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Chapter thirty-six

Felix

A nnabella slept curled against me like a wild thing that had finally found a safe den, her breathing deep and even, one arm thrown possessively across my chest.

The warehouse’s security lights bled through the blinds, painting thin amber stripes across her skin. In the half-darkness, the distinctive silver streak in her hair looked like a battle scar—beautiful and fierce, just like her.

My fingers itched to trace it, to feel its texture against my skin again.

To memorize every detail of her face—the way her lashes fanned against her cheeks, the slight furrow between her brows that never quite disappeared, even in sleep, the soft curve of her mouth that had been crying my name an hour ago.

Fuck. I was so screwed.

She stirred slightly, unconsciously pressing closer, and her scent—that intoxicating mix of magic and moonlight—wrapped around me like a drug. My wolf practically purred with contentment, wanting nothing more than to stay curled protectively around her and guard her sleep.

But I had to move.

Carefully, I eased my arm from beneath Annabella’s head, tucking the blanket around her shoulders before I dressed silently and slipped out.

One hour until Lydia repeated Talia’s blood test. One hour to contact Gideon and figure out how the hell I was going to salvage this clusterfuck without destroying the woman sleeping in that bed.

I listened for footsteps as I eased Annabella’s door closed. The ripper attack had left everyone jumpy as hell, but for now, the warehouse had settled into an uneasy quiet.

I found Mira hunched over the desk where she’d set up her mobile command center—two salvaged laptops and that tablet she treated like a lifeline. Her normally pristine hair was a disaster, dark circles under her eyes making her look about fifteen instead of twenty.

“You’re up late,” she said without looking at me.

“So are you.” I leaned against the doorframe, studying her. “How are you holding up?”

She shrugged, a jerky movement that spoke of too much caffeine and not enough sleep. “Been better. Been worse.”

“Everything quiet out there?”

“Lydia and Vivienne are cackling around their cauldrons, trying to find a way to forcibly extract memories rather than just wipe them.”

Cackling? I frowned. Mira was normally on friendly terms with Lydia. Maybe Vivienne’s comments were getting to Mira, too.

“Duke’s setting up additional sensor arrays around a hundred-meter perimeter. Should give us more warning next time.”

Perfect. An excuse to get outside without raising suspicions. “Duke out there now?”

“He’s working on the northern perimeter. Been at it for an hour. The idiot refuses to rest despite the cut on his chest.”

“I’ll do a sweep. Then I’ll circle back and help Duke with the sensors.”

“Good luck with that,” she snorted. “He’s in a mood.”

I shrugged. “When is he ever not in a mood?’

“Too true, brother.”

Ten minutes later, I was three blocks away, the night air sharp in my lungs.

I slipped into the back alley behind a 24-hour laundromat, where the rhythmic thump of industrial dryers masked any sound I might make.

Beneath the dumpster, wedged inside a waterproof envelope taped to the underside, was another burner phone.

I dialed Gideon.

He answered on the second ring. “Identify.”

“What the fuck, Gid?”

“Well, hello to you too, sunshine,” Gideon drawled. “Change of plans came from Talia herself. Her call, not mine. Woman’s got brass balls the size of Kansas, I’ll give her that.”

“You let her be captured! For fuck’s sak—”

“It was her decision. She thought it was worth the risk. Seems we need your little operation shut down faster than expected. Kane’s been busy—three Council members have flipped their votes on Shifter regulations just this week.

We need you back here. The quickest way was to make sure Talia got taken so we could flush out the location of where they’re doing the spells.

I take it that is why you’re calling, Sammy boy. With the location?”

I gritted my teeth. “Yes. But they’re running her blood work again in thirty minutes. If the Mentem Clypeus has cleared her system—”

“They’ll scramble her brains like Sunday eggs.” For once, Gideon’s voice held no trace of his usual dark humor. “Shit. That’s cutting it close.”

“You think? Where’s the extraction team?”

“That’s the other problem. Talia’s capture has given some of the Council’s more ambitious members a golden opportunity to eliminate a political rival. They’re tying up extraction resources, sending teams on wild goose chases based on bullshit intelligence.”

The pieces clicked together. “Kane’s orchestrating this.”

“Brilliant deduction, Sherlock. Yes, almost certainly, our friend Victor is pulling strings. I can scrape together a team I trust in about three hours—unofficial, off the books.”

For fuck’s sake. Everything about this op was a clusterfuck.

Three hours. I closed my eyes, calculating. “I’ll have to stall them.”

“There’s my clever boy. Give me the coordinates.”

I gave him the address and detailed entry points, then hesitated, my thumb hovering over the end call button. The words caught in my throat for a second before I forced them out.

“Gid, when your team comes… what’s the protocol for the targets?”

“We secure the asset, neutralize threats, apprehend hostiles.”

“They’re not all…” I stopped, not even sure what I was trying to say. Not hostile? Not a threat? Annabella helped capture Council members. She ran a guerrilla group targeting the Council. By any objective measure, she was the enemy.

And yet.

“Annabella. The leader. She’s being used,” I said finally. “She’s been manipulated by Webster, told a trough of lies about the Council and the Webster Incident.”

The line went silent for three beats.

“Yeah, and?” Gideon said. “Shaw, tell me you’re not doing what I think you’re doing.”

“I’m just saying we should consider—”

“No. We shouldn’t consider anything except getting Talia out. Your job isn’t to save Annabella or any other lost lamb that took up arms against the Council and fucking destroyed the lives of five of our members. It’s to complete the fucking mission.”

My fingers tightened around the phone. “What if I could turn her? If she knew what he was really doing—”

“Holy howling fuck.” Gideon’s exasperation crackled through the connection. “You think she’s going to take your word over Webster’s? The man who’s had her wrapped around his finger for years?”

He had a point. The same one I’d been wrestling with. What made me think she’d believe me? What made me think I could undo years of Webster’s programming in a single conversation?

But I had to try. The alternative—leaving her to face the Council’s justice—was unthinkable.

“I could show her proof,” I insisted. “The evidence we’ve collected. Webster’s ripple research. Financial connections. Test facilities. All of it.”

“And how exactly do you plan to explain having Council intelligence without exposing yourself?” Gideon countered.

I stayed silent.

“Motherfucker, Shaw! You want to blow this whole fucking operation? Put all of us—put Talia—at risk, for what? A piece of ass that’s got you thinking with your dick instead of your brain?

Wake the fuck up! She’s not going to spread her legs in gratitude when you tell her you’ve been lying this entire time. ”

My grip tightened on the phone, a growl building in my chest.

“Don’t talk about Annabella like that.”

“She’s the enemy, Shaw. Not your mate. Not your friend. Just a pretty little soldier on the wrong fucking side who tempted you into her bed while you played pretend.”

Every word felt like claws across my skin, not because he might be right, but because she would hate me when I told her the truth.

The things we’d done… It had been hot and beautiful and fucking amazing.

And a complete fucking betrayal when it wasn’t me doing those things.

It was Felix, some made-up fucker who didn’t even exist. She’d let Felix in, and now what?

I was going to go back and tell her it was all an operation.

That I was really Sam Shaw, and she had no fucking clue who I really was.

Gideon’s voice softened. “I get it. I’ve been there. You’ve been under deep; it’s messing with your head. Making you see things that aren’t there.”

“That’s not—”

“Your voice changes when you talk about her, Shaw. Did you know that? Goes all soft around the edges. I’ve seen this before—operatives who start seeing their assets as something more.”

Irritation flared hot in my chest. “I’m not compromised.”

“Good. Now prove it. Complete the mission. Stop trying to save someone who doesn’t want saving.”

But that was the problem; she didn’t know she needed saving.

Annabella thought she was the hero of her own story, fighting against an unjust system to protect her sister.

Would she feel differently if I could show her the truth about Webster?

The evidence of his ripple operations, the bodies he’d left in his wake?

Maybe Gideon was right. Maybe I was just rationalizing feelings I had no business having. But I couldn’t shake the image of Annabella’s face when she’d talked about Ellie, the fierce protectiveness, the vulnerability that she showed no one else.

“Three hours,” Gideon said firmly. “We come in at 0525. If you compromise this operation for some misguided hero complex—”

“I won’t,” I cut him off, not sure if I was lying.

“See that you don’t. And Shaw? If you get yourself killed trying to save someone who’d just as soon put a knife in your back, I’m not explaining it to your brothers.”

The line went dead.

I dismantled the phone, scattering pieces in separate dumpsters as I made my way back toward the warehouse, my thoughts a tangled mess.

If I told Annabella the truth, I’d be betraying my oath to the Council. If I kept silent, I’d be betraying her even more than I’d already done.

There was a third option, one that made my wolf pace restlessly beneath my skin: knock Annabella out and kidnap her before the extraction team arrived.

Then help her disappear. Maybe even disappear with her.

The fantasy lasted about ten seconds before reality crashed back.

Even if Annabella didn’t tear my throat out the moment I revealed who I really was, she’d never abandon her crew and as soon as she realized the Council had them, she’d launch a rescue mission.

No, I had to get Talia free, and the whole fucking team out of there before Gideon showed up.

The only hope of doing that was to tell Annabella the truth, force her to listen to me.

She’d want to protect her crew above all else, and that might give me the chance to get them all out of there without them harming Talia and before the extraction team arrived.

Right.

Okay.

Telling Annabella the truth. I could do that. If I hustled, I could get back before she woke. I could wake her up gently, kiss her one last time, and then tell her everything.

The thought should have horrified me. Instead, it felt like the first good idea I’d had in years.