Tora savored the look on Aspen’s face as she made her way through tunnel one. In an uncharacteristic change of heart, she’d decided to throw caution aside and move their friendship to the next level. She shook her head, chastising herself. Who was she kidding? She hadn’t decided anything. She was drawn to the Myriad, like a moth to a flame. She couldn’t stop herself. Their connection was fierce…raw…primitive. Resisting that type of attraction was simply beyond her control.
She’d read about this in her youth—in one of the ancient Shroud texts her father had kept in his collection—but she hadn’t given it any real thought since then. Myriads hadn’t been around, so it had never been worth her time to contemplate. Until now.
The text had claimed there was a certain process a Myriad would initiate when choosing a mate. Myriads were known to be particularly adept at finding their soul mate. Tora had never believed in soul mates. She believed Shrouds fell in and out of love at will, just like humans. Love, to her, was like a revolving door. You were either falling in love—pushing the door forward from the outside while trying desperately to get inside; in love—trapped inside the enclosed space between the entrance and exit but too blinded by the thrill of being there to realize the door had stopped moving; or falling out of love—the door would resume its forward motion as you were granted sweet release from quarters that, over time, grew to feel unbearably confining.
Tora had never been in love. Not once. She had finally come to believe that kind of nonsense just wasn’t for her.
Ironically enough, when referencing the Myriad’s hunt for a soul mate, the ancient text had likened the Myriad to a lion—one that had fatally maimed its prey before allowing it to escape. The prey would then run off, believing it had escaped with its life. All the lion had to do at that point was follow the scent of blood until the prey succumbed to its injuries.
Something told her she was the prey in this scenario. Damn.
* * *
Aspen looked up and frowned as Tora waltzed into the kitchen wearing her Spider-Man earmuffs. Those earmuffs sure got around. Maybe they were like a boomerang and would eventually return to their rightful owner.
All hands were on deck helping with meal prep. They had decided on salad, garlic bread, and rigatoni topped with Oscar’s top-secret marinara that was tangy, sweet, and spicy all in one bite. She had never tasted another that could even come close to rivaling the deliciousness of his sauce. All in all, Oscar was an incredible cook. She’d already decided he would launch his own restaurant after he retired. She just hadn’t told him yet.
Aspen watched Tora from the corner of her eye as she quickly intuited where she was needed. Efficient as ever, Tora went straight to the industrial-sized oven as the timer marched down to zero. She grabbed a red oven mitt from the counter and was already withdrawing the last of four baking sheets when the timer sounded its alarm. The aroma of fresh-baked garlic bread filled the kitchen.
Tora was someone Aspen knew she could count on. She was strong, smart, independent, hardworking, opinionated, and damn sexy—Aspen’s equal in every way. Minus the sexy part. Tora definitely had one up on her there. That kiss. She just couldn’t get it out of her mind.
Oscar sidled up beside her. “Are we feeding mutant Shrouds with itty bitty mouths?”
“Huh?”
He glanced at the stack of veggies on her cutting board and raised an eyebrow. She’d unwittingly chopped every single piece into teeny tiny slivers. “Easier to digest this way,” she lied.
He shook his head and sighed. “Have you kissed her yet?”
“I am not talking to you about this, Pop. We’ve been down this road. Remember?” Anytime she made even the tiniest reference to being intimate with someone, Oscar would get this look that made her think he could go into cardiac arrest at any moment. She remembered the months he’d wasted trying to convince her to become a nun instead of a cop, despite the fact that neither of them was a practicing Catholic.
“Good, because I really don’t want to hear about it. All I’m saying is, if you haven’t kissed her yet, you should probably do it soon.”
“I didn’t know there was an expiration date on that sort of thing.” She grabbed a green pepper from the pile. “And for your information, she kissed me. Pretty forcefully, I might add. She threw me against the wall and—”
“TMI.” Oscar winced.
“My bad. Sorry, Pop.”
He plucked a knife from the chopping block, grabbed a pepper, and began slicing alongside her like a professional hibachi chef.
She stared at his hands, mesmerized by the speed with which he chopped. How come he wasn’t missing any fingers? “You trying to make me look bad here, Pop?”
“There are certain things you need to know”—he lowered his voice to a whisper—“when it comes to choosing a Shroud mate. Things I’ve never prepared you for.”
“Who said anything about choosing a mate?” she whispered back. “All we did was kiss.”
“But you’re a Shroud now. Everything will be…different,” he said vaguely. “We should sit down after dinner and talk.”
“Is this, like, the talk?” she teased. “I can’t watch you go through that again, Pop. I don’t think your heart could take it a second time around.”
“I’ll be okay.” He nervously cleared his throat. Some sweat was already beading on his upper lip. “Is it hot in here?”
“You’re too valuable, Pop. We need you for this fight. I can’t afford to lose any of my soldiers before the battle even starts.” She spotted Helga across the kitchen and smiled at her. “Why don’t you pass this one off to Helga?”
“Really?” he said, his face suddenly filling with hope. “You’d be willing to let Helga talk to you about this?”
“Why not?” She shrugged. “She did a pretty good job the first time around.” Oscar had made numerous attempts to talk to Aspen about sex when she was a teenager. It always ended in disaster. She remembered the time he fainted in the kitchen and smacked his head so hard against the table on the way down that he knocked himself unconscious. Another time, he choked on an apple, and she was forced to do the Heimlich. There was also the time he wrecked his patrol car after he’d decided that talking about it over the phone might be easier than a face-to-face conversation. She could go on and on. Out of genuine concern for Oscar’s safety, Aspen had been the one to suggest turning the job over to Helga. She’d been seeing her for weekly therapy sessions anyway, so it was no big deal. Helga had handled it like a pro.
“Super.” Oscar slapped her on the back. “I owe you one, kiddo.”
She threw a glance at Tora. “Get me my earmuffs back, and we’ll call it even.”
* * *
Alpha Genesis gathered around the table for dinner. The only one missing was Skye. Aspen had no idea how long the newborns would sleep, but she was secretly relieved Skye had been sidelined. What she was about to propose to the group would be dangerous. She didn’t want Skye involved at all.
She took a sizeable helping from the pasta bowl and passed it to Oscar. When Tora handed her the garlic bread without taking any, Aspen hesitated, momentarily conflicted between her love for garlic bread and her desire to kiss Tora again. After much deliberation, she passed the platter to Oscar without taking a piece. He raised an eyebrow in question but said nothing. She’d be damned if she was the only one with garlic breath later.
“Who made the salad?” Hank had already removed his ball cap before taking a seat at the table. His thick graying hair was a prizewinning example of hat head.
Oscar wasted no time in pointing his finger at Aspen, so she kicked him under the table.
Hank leaned so close to his salad bowl that his nose was practically touching it. “The vegetables are microscopic. I need a magnifying glass to see them.” He looked over at Aspen. “Did you think you were feeding a family of mice?” he asked, casting a glance at Michael. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Michael said with a wave of his hand.
Tora updated the group on her recent trip to the surface to evacuate the parents and remaining hospital staff. She also told them about Edna.
Everyone set their forks down and lowered their heads. They shared a moment of silence in Edna’s honor.
“How could they kill a helpless little old lady?” Liam asked, looking up.
“Edna was little and old, but she was hardly helpless. In fact, she was our largest and most powerful Shroud here at the sanctuary.” Tora had tears in her eyes. “She did everything she could to stop them. She managed to crush more than a few soldiers on her way out and even impaled a few with her tusks.”
“Way to go, Edna!” Beckett cheered, clapping and whistling loudly. Everyone else joined in with gusto. A long round of applause ensued for their fallen comrade.
Tora looked around at everyone. Aspen could tell she was touched by their support.
Wineglass in hand, Miller stood from the table. “To Edna.”
Everyone stood and raised a glass.
“Welcome to Alpha Genesis, Edna,” Oscar said as they all clinked glasses.
They took their seats with forlorn expressions and began eating in earnest.
Beckett was the first to break the silence. “So, the SEA is here already?”
“Dad, we knew they were coming sooner or later,” Liam said. “No big surprise there.”
Beckett sighed. “Guess I was hoping we’d have more time to prepare.”
“What if they found that hidden door in the cabin’s basement?” Tony asked, already going for seconds. “Couldn’t they be in the tunnels by now?”
Tora shook her head. “We have security cameras with motion detectors at each entry point. Any unauthorized activity would’ve triggered a silent alarm. I would have been notified immediately on this.” She held up her watch. “Whenever someone enters the sanctuary, I must manually disarm the system, camera by camera, as they make their way through the tunnels on foot.”
“Are you the only one with access to the system?” Oscar asked.
Tora nodded at Michael near the end of the table. “We both have one.”
Michael pushed up his sleeve to reveal a watch identical to Tora’s.
Aspen wasn’t familiar at all with the ins and outs of the security system in place down here. Learning how everything worked would be time-consuming. Right now, her efforts were needed elsewhere. Tora clearly trusted Michael, and so did she. She hadn’t known him long, but instincts told her he was solid. “The good news is this place is built like a fortress, so that’ll buy us some time,” she said. “But it would be foolish to believe the sanctuary’s impenetrable. Soldiers will breach the perimeter. That’s what we need to prepare for.”
Oscar turned to Tora. “I’m sure your security system is more than adequate, but I’d feel better if we posted some actual Shroud bodies in the tunnels.”
“Good idea, Pop.” Aspen had been thinking the same.
“We don’t want to spread ourselves too far or too thin,” he went on. “At the very least, we should implement a rotating post outside both entrances to chamber one.” He set eyes on the eight members of his wolf pack. “Four-hour shifts,” he announced, centering his attention on Derby and Rivera. “My men and I will assume that responsibility.”
Without a word, Derby and Rivera stood from the table, carried their empty plates to the sink, and headed off to their respective posts.
Mrs. B raised her hand. “How long until the newborns are ready to help us win this fight?”
Mrs. B’s optimism put a smile on Aspen’s face. Some things never changed. That same optimism got Aspen through high school. When she was convinced she’d flunk the science final that would bar her graduation, Mrs. B bought her a cap and gown and gave them to her the day before her test. “Hopefully soon,” she replied with a reassuring smile.
“What about you?” Tony set his fork down and pierced her with the same challenging gaze she remembered from her days at the academy. “Myriads come equipped with certain abilities, right? Do you have any superpowers that would give us an edge against the SEA?”
She shook her head. “Nothing yet,” she said, not quite ready to share the details of her visions.
There was a collective pause around the table as they all regarded her.
“Does anyone know where SEA headquarters are located?” She was itching to find out.
Gazes darted around the table as, one by one, they all shook their heads and shrugged. No one seemed to know. Not even Oscar.
Tora finally answered in her no-nonsense tone, “Their headquarters are in Vermont.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t we in Vermont?” Hank asked, scratching his head.
Tora nodded. “They’re about an hour away.”
Aspen couldn’t believe it. “Your father built this sanctuary right under their noses?”
“They weren’t the SEA back then, but my father believed they were plenty dangerous. I advised him against building here, but he said this location made the most sense so he could—”
“Keep an eye on them,” Aspen and Oscar finished in unison. She locked eyes with Oscar. Putting the sanctuary here was a brilliant idea. The SEA would never suspect any Shroud would be brazen enough to hide on their home turf.
“And you never thought to mention this fact before now?” Hank asked, incredulous. “For instance, before all of us got our asses in the car and drove here?”
“I didn’t want to scare anyone. I wanted all of you to feel safe here.”
“Kind of impossible to feel safe with the SEA right on top of us.” Hank gazed up at the rock ceiling. “Now it feels like they’re walking on our grave.”