Her head jerked up, all hesitation gone. “I’ll do it.”

Relief flooded me. “Are you sure? There’s no pressure. I can find another source.”

“I’ve seen what you can do. If he can make you better, stronger, then I’m glad to help. Things are tense in the pack right now,” she hedged. “You’re taking a risk staying here to help your friend. The least I can do is make that stay safer.”

“What are your plans for tonight?” Isaac interrupted.

“I, well, Cam…” Her fingers fluttered in an attempt to pluck the right words out of thin air. “Guard duty.”

His grunt of approval left her beaming, and he jabbed me in the side with his elbow. “How would you feel about getting in some practice?”

“Right now?” Even I heard the plaintive note in my voice.

The surveillance footage called to me, its siren song whispering I would unlock its mystery on the one hundred and first viewing, but a promise was a promise. The best thing I could do for Harlow today, right this very minute, was to keep an ear to the ground for any news hinting Charybdis had resurfaced while I got myself in fighting shape. The next time we met, he would pay for what he’d done.

“Yes.” He glanced at Dell. “Unless you two have something better to do.”

“Nope,” she chirped, inching closer to him. “I’m game for whatever you want to do.”

Oh brother.

Or maybe that should be oh cousin?

Chapter 5

Dell bounded after Isaac, leaving me to chew over whether their introduction was a wise one while I changed into yoga pants and a T-shirt. Dell was a good girl, and pack life meant she came with deep roots and ties to her community. Isaac was a drifter bound by honor to stay at his mother’s side, even while her own sense of duty demanded she accommodate me and my odd lifestyle. But Aunt Dell was no spring chicken, and Geminis lived a roughly human lifetime. One day the tethers binding him to me and my seminomadic lifestyle would be severed, and he would stretch his heart’s wings at last. The wanderlust in his soul was present in each twitch of his fingers, and I didn’t want Dell pinning hopes on him that would clatter to the ground when we left.

“This isn’t a date,” Isaac called when he spotted me. “You didn’t have to get all dolled up for me.”

Shadows flickered in his eyes, and I lifted an eyebrow. What had ruffled his feathers? His gaze speared Dell, a twitch in his jaw. His cheeks were flush, and hers were too. She wiped her lips with her thumb and shot me a wink.