CHAPTER 66

I slammed the door of the SUV shut behind me. My mood had continually soured as I'd made my way back to the meeting place. I just could shake the feeling that the pack was in trouble and all I was doing was betraying them at their weakest.

Aiden didn't say a word about my nudity, and, to his credit, he didn't admonish me for the lack of communication, or tell me I should have quit the task as soon as things started to go sideways. He said nothing at all, just leaned forward and pulled a set of sweats and a shirt from a compartment below the front seats and passed them to me.

I didn't realize how much I'd been expecting a scolding until the relief hit me when I realized it wasn't going to come.

I passed him the grappling hook and gloves. "I broke the rest of your tools," I told him.

He shrugged, "cost of business, you did manage to get the bugs in place I see." He tapped his laptop screen where thirteen mini screens showed the collection of data including temperature and vibration.

I nodded, but my heart wasn't in it anymore.

"What is it?"

I glanced at him. Aiden was an attractive man, the angles of light from where dawn was just cresting the horizon highlighted his high cheekbones and stubborn jaw. And giving his brilliant green eyes the illusion that they were blazing. He was intense, and his focus was entirely on me.

And I didn't trust him. Not quite. I supposed he would find out about the internal strife and the hit Anthony had ordered soon enough, but maybe there was something I could do for the pack first.

"I need to go into Boston. Alone."

"Alright, I'll have Joseph drop me at Hoventech and he can drive you in," he nodded to himself, and started tapping keys on the laptop. "Or you can take one of my cars yourself, if you'd rather."

"Could you drop me off now? Before going back to Hoventech?" I tried to sound casual, as if the answer didn't matter. I wasn't sure I wanted him to know how urgent this was.

"That's possible, but I just received word that your friend is awake, I thought you might want to talk to him first. And you should grab another temperature modulator from Caroline too, should you not?"

He was right. I frowned.

"You aren't trying to talk me out of it?"

He glanced up from whatever he was doing on the laptop and considered me, his head tilting slightly.

"Why would I do that?"

I shrugged, "we're working together, I assumed you would enforce some protection, protect your assets or whatever."

He closed the laptop and turned his body to face me.

"Raven, I am fully confident in your ability to take care of yourself. Every member of my team is an asset. And each of them are autonomous and skilled, I wouldn't get very far by stifling any of them by insisting on archaic protections. If you feel like you will need backup I can provide some, but if you tell me that whatever you are doing is something you can handle alone, I'm going to believe you."

Huh.

I had been prepared for more of a fight than that. Even Rob had limited my freedoms if he felt that what I was doing was dangerous.

"Alright," I accepted, "we'll go back to Hoventech first."

The hit wouldn't likely take place during the day anyway, Gunnar would likely be at one of the casinos he ran on the side, going over the nights profits. I had time.

And Darius was awake.

A small flutter stirred in my stomach. He'd been so close to death. The memory of his body torn apart, skin flayed to the bone shot guilt through me.
I should have gone with him. Instead I'd been trying to play nice with Anthony, to salvage what I could of our relationship. And Darius had almost died for it.

I wasn't sure if he'd forgive me for that. I wasn't sure I deserved forgiveness.

The drive back to Hoventech was quiet, with me stewing in my fears and worry and Aiden watching the scenery pass out the window. He didn't seem to mind my silence though, didn't interrupt or try to tell me I should feel differently. And he hadn't once asked what it was I was going to do in Boston. I might not have known Aiden for long, but I did know he was the master of information. Not knowing something had to be killing him. Yet he looked as relaxed and at peace as a man crammed into the back seat of an SUV could.

*He's probably already figured out how to spy on us*. My wolf huffed. But she wasn't angry, which I thought was curious.

She caught that thought. *Alpha's are really all alike, they all want control, in their own way. This one's just better at being subtle about it. No point being mad, I don't think it's something they can help. Besides, his tools have been very useful, have they not?*

*They have*. I acknowledged. Though I didn't like the implication that we were using him. It made me feel uneasy.

*Why not? He's using us. He admits it openly. A partnership should be useful to both parties.*

Okay. She wasn't wrong.

The sun was well above the horizon by the time we pulled into the compound. As soon as we opened our doors Aiden was immediately surrounded by several of his people, questions and directions flying. I stood for a moment not knowing if it was rude to just walk away, but he waved me off, so I made a beeline for the medical center.

The medical unit was in a bit of chaos when I entered, with nurses and medical staff rushing, a little frantically to and fro. A stretcher was rolled by, a young woman in tactical gear, blood soaked her torso and a large hole had been eaten out of her thigh, a hole that looked eerily similar to the one that had left my hip scarred.

I thought about the relaxed alpha who'd just spent the night monitoring my mission, who I'd just assumed was at peace while he was staring out the car window. While something major had obviously been going on with his people. Something major and violent.

I realized that underestimating Aiden would be a huge mistake.

"I'm sorry, dear, who are you looking for?" An elderly woman in scrubs and holding a clipboard caught my attention from across the room.

"A...man, Darius." I still hadn't clarified with Aiden whether the humans at his facility knew about werewolves or not, and there were definitely humans in earshot. "We brought him in yesterday, he was pretty torn up. I got word that he was awake?"

She gave me a sad smile.

"Yes he woke up almost an hour ago, but I'm afraid you're too late. He's gone."