AS IF ON CUE, Johnson entered the house with several bags that wafted a Chinese food scent over the room.

Robby came out of the kitchen with plates and silverware in case any of us were inept at using chopsticks.

Despite the recent conversation about rats, I found my stomach growling at the prospect of General Tso’s chicken over fried rice. A part of me balked because eating real food would result in the same pains I encountered last night, but a stubborn part of me that enjoyed food fought back and won that small battle.

I grabbed a plate and instead of piling on the food like I would have before I was turned into this nightmare, I put two spoonfuls of rice on my plate and just a couple pieces of chicken and a thoroughly coated broccoli head from the box of the spicy dish, and returned to my seat with one of the forks.

“No chopsticks?” Robby said through a mouthful, as if I were committing a major sin.

“Nah.” I didn’t feel like working that hard, even though it was me who taught him how to use chopsticks in our younger days in the agency.

“You feeling okay?” His eyebrow cocked and he studied me closer, looking for breaks in my psyche, like I might fall apart at any moment.

“Yes. I just am not feeling the chopsticks.” I shrugged.

Before he could launch into one of my own famous tirades about how it was sacrilege to eat Chinese with a fork, Judy’s phone rang.

She answered and excused herself into the kitchen with a “Hello, Mom,” before she disappeared.

She stepped back into the doorway and the vibes she emitted pulled all our attention back to her as she ended the call. The panic in her eyes made me suddenly stressed, as though whatever she was about to say would change our circumstances again.

“What is it?” Johnson asked as he stood.

Judy’s frantic gaze jumped from him to us and then back as she swallowed hard. “My parents are on their way over.”

“You couldn’t meet them somewhere?” I asked as her panic seemed to spread through all of us. I hadn’t even finished my measly meal.

She shook her head. “They want to see the place.” Her voice cracked. She glanced around, as if the place were in severe disarray. She crossed and started closing boxes and handing them to Johnson. “Put these in the refrigerator,” she barked.

Robby grabbed the General Tso’s box before she could snag it. “I need food.”

“Fine,” Judy said in the tone that made it absolutely not fine. Her frantic attempt to clean up put me more on edge, too.

I took Robby’s hand. “We’ll chill in our bedroom.” I pulled him toward the stairs.

“That’s the main bedroom,” she squeaked with wide eyes.

“And?” Robby asked with chopsticks stuck in the paper carton in his hand and the scent of spicy chicken wrapping around us.

“And they are going to expect that to be our bedroom.” She ran her free hand through her hair as her gaze darted between the two of us.

“With our scents on everything in there?” I asked, drawing a gasp in response.

“Jesus. They are going to smell her,” she said to Johnson. That only proved to fluster her even more and she turned, marching off with the rest of the food.

Johnson cleared the dishes just as quickly, and we followed them to the kitchen doorway.

“The Chinese food does a good job of masking scents,” Johnson said to soothe her as he rinsed the dishes and dropped them in the dishwasher.

“You’re going to have to make something up,” Robby said. “Like Johnson wasn’t comfortable getting it on in his old alpha’s bedroom, so you chose the guest room.”

“What if they want to stay here?” Her hands shook as they ran through her hair, messing up her perfect hairdo.

“Take a breath,” I said calmly, and she did. “That’s right, and another.” When she seemed calmer, I added, “They can’t stay here.”

She nodded. At least that wasn’t an argument.

“How long are you two going to stay here, anyway?” Johnson crossed his arms. “It’s been a couple weeks. Shouldn’t you be moving on?”

Robby’s eyes narrowed, and his cheeks flared red. “This is my home. Not yours. I am allowing you to remain here. I’m allowing you to remain the alpha of our pack. Isn’t that enough?” He radiated with his alpha vibes and both Judy and Johnson cowered from it.

Johnson forced his gaze to Robby’s. “I was named alpha of the pack.”

Robby leaned forward with a growl as his teeth made an appearance. “Are you challenging me?”

Johnson paused and looked at the floor. He shook his head.

“Fine. We are going to our bedroom. You do whatever it takes to keep your parents away from that room. Understand?” Robby’s glare pierced into Judy. He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he dragged me upstairs and into the bedroom, closing the door behind him.

He took a seat on the end of the bed with the food container grasped in his hand tight enough to nearly crush the box.

“You need to breathe, too.” I pointed at him. “Otherwise, that shit is going to go everywhere. And you’re still throwing out your alpha vibes. That’s a surefire way to set off alarms with her parents.” I crossed to him and rubbed his shoulders.

He closed his eyes. “You’d think I’d be better by now,” he muttered under his breath.

“You can’t undo six months of psychological warfare in a blink.”

He opened his eyes and met my gaze. “You’ve seemed to be able to do that.” His lips tilted in a smirk. “With the exception of last night, you seem to be handling all that shit fine.”

He had no idea. He slept nights; even though he tossed and yelled out from his own nightmares, he still remained ensnared in the depths of sleep. Not me. I stared at the ceiling, waiting for his outbursts because I couldn’t find it in me to fall into my own horrid dreams where Robby no longer existed and the world burned with my fury.

What seemed like ages ago, I had made a promise to never keep a secret from Robby. “I don’t sleep much.”

His eyebrow rose and before he could speak, the doorbell rang. Judy’s parents were here, and it was time to keep quiet.

I pointed to the chairs in the corner by his bookcase. He nodded and we crossed. I chose a book to try to get lost in while Robby finished what was left in the box in record time.

The creak of the stairs caught our attention, and we both froze. I glanced at Robby in horror. We should have locked the damn door.

The handle on the door started to move.

“Don’t go in there!” Judy’s shrill voice rang out at the top of the stairs, making me jump.

“Why not?” a male voice asked.

“Because we...don’t go in there.” Judy’s voice strained against the words falling from her lips. She wasn’t a good liar, and her pitch left even me wondering what had crawled up her ass.

“Isn’t this the master bedroom?” the same voice asked.

I could only deduce this was Judy’s father because it certainly wasn’t Johnson.

“Our room is down here.” She left the question unanswered.

“Can we see this room before we head down the hall?” her mother asked.

Judy’s reaction would have had me wanting to see what was behind the door, too. I stiffened in the chair and traded a glance with Robby. He still stared at the empty container in his hand, but his head had tilted, as though he waited for the door to open and was formulating some sort of excuse.

“It’s not in any condition to be seen. Besides, Johnson tries to avoid going in there unless he absolutely has to,” Judy said in a string of fast words.

A pause fell on the group.

“It was my alpha’s bedroom,” Johnson mumbled. “I’m having issues renovating, and I’d rather you not see my colossal mess until it’s done.”

“I might be able to help,” Judy’s father said, and the handle started to turn.

“I’d rather not.” Johnson’s voice gathered a sharper edge.

“You need to get over yourself, man.” A male voice scoffed, and the handle continued to turn.

“No. This is my home, and you will honor my rules. I will show you our bedroom once I have finished my renovations.” Johnson’s voice boomed outside the door, and the handle stopped moving. “I’m sorry. It’s just I couldn’t stay in the room with my alpha’s essence so embedded in everything, so...I started tearing down the walls and it just got overwhelming.”

I could almost hear his apologetic shrug and see his eyes begging for understanding.

“I was his beta, so it’s a matter of respect,” he finally said, which made zero sense in the scheme of the conversation, but it seemed to appease the in-laws.

“You must have been so upset,” her mother said. “Dying at the hands of that vampire bitch must make you want to see her filleted in the sunshine,” Judy’s mother said. Her voice held such disdain. “It was such a sad ending for someone you couldn’t speak more highly of.”

Robby and I traded a glance. What had everyone been told? And where the hell did they get their information?

“His death threw the entire pack, and I’m still mourning him. But let’s talk about more pleasant things, like what you’re doing in the city.” His voice drifted farther away from the bedroom.

I looked back at Robby and mouthed, “What the fuck?”

That wasn’t what he had said before. He had said they lost the alpha connection, and they assumed he was dead. But for Judy’s folks to hear such concrete specifics left me irritated. It was as if the way Cassius had intended for Robby to die was somehow leaked.

And now my curiosity made my skin itch. I wanted to know when they were fed that bullshit.

Robby shrugged. He didn’t seem surprised, but a dull anger bloomed in his eyes, as if he were coming to some sort of conclusion that left him just as cold as the look on his face.

The timing mattered.

Their voices got louder again, as if they had finished their tour of the upstairs.

“...been told to stand down while the ancients are here, but I’m not so sure we should.” Johnson’s voice carried as they got closer.

Robby and I traded another glance, and we both leaned toward the door.

“Vampires should be put down,” Judy’s father said, and I could only imagine the sneer on his face. “No matter where they are from. They are still cold-blooded killers.”

In all our years at the agency, no one had ever told us to stand down. It didn’t matter whether the offending monsters were dignitaries or even heads of state from other countries. If they sustained life by draining others of theirs, and had the balls to step into our city, they were a target. So, hearing that someone in the agency had altered the rules of engagement bordered on insanity.

The creak of the stairs followed, and their voices moved farther away, but that didn’t settle the itch to barge out and question them until they spilled everything they knew. After all, if the information came from the agency, that meant there was someone compromised near the top echelon, and it would explain Johnson’s lack of loyalty to the agency.

If they were compromised, what the hell did that mean for us?