Chapter 495

KAEL

Ivory had the expression she wore when she was very specifically not helping.

“If you weren’t cursed,” Ivory said, “would we have built a bunker?”

“No,” I said. “Obviously not.”

“So,” Ivory said.

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“So it’s still not my fault,” I said. “I was cursed by a witch to stop me from stopping child sacrifice. The bunker exists because of the witch. Not because of me.”

“You went to stop the child sacrifice,” Nina said.

“Because it was happening,” I said.

“Which you knew about,” Nina said.

“Because Nina’s security system identified it,” I said.

“Which you looked at,” Nina said.

“Because it’s my job as Alpha to look at-” I stopped.

Jordan pointed at me. “Alpha,” he said. “Your choice to be Alpha.”

“I was born to be Alpha,” I said.

“Still a choice,” Jordan said. “Technically.”

“It’s really not,” I said.

“Kael,” Nina said, and her voice had shifted into the gentle mode, the one she used when she was delivering a verdict she’d already decided was final. “It’s okay. We forgive you.”

“You forgive me,” I said.

“For the bunker situation,” she said. “We understand that you didn’t intend for your mate to be unable to access the pack’s emergency shelter. We know you would never knowingly-”

Aria started laughing.

She’d been on the windowsill this entire time with the expression of someone watching a performance and appreciating the craftsmanship, and whatever she’d been containing in the interest of not influencing the scene had apparently reached its limit. The laugh came out with the specific quality of someone who’d been holding it for thirty seconds and had lost the holding-it battle.

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“You find this funny,” I said to her.

“I find this very funny,” she said.

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“My mate,” I said, to the room, “cannot access the emergency shelter, and you’re telling me it’s my fault.”

“We forgive you,” Jordan said again. “It’s important that you hear that.”

“I didn’t do anything,” I said.

“We forgive you anyway,” Nina said. “The forgiveness is unconditional.”

“I don’t need forgiveness for something I didn’t-” I stopped. Breathed. Picked up my cards. “What about the modification. The existing system. When is it being modified so that Aria can access the bunker?”

“Elite is working on the specifications,” Nina said, reverting to the professional register. “The modification requires-” she looked at Elite, who’d been in the corner this entire time with her cards and her usual quality of having been present and paying attention while everyone else was performing.

“Adjusting the signature recognition parameters,” Elite said. “The system currently reads moon-adjacent power as an external threat. We need to add a secondary recognition layer that distinguishes Aria’s specific signature as internal and registered rather than external and hostile. It’s not technically complex. It requires two weeks of implementation and a recalibration test.”

“Two weeks,” I said.

“Approximately,” Elite said.

“And in the meantime,” I said.

“In the meantime,” Nina said, “the modification is in progress and Aria doesn’t need the bunker because there haven’t been any active threats for six days.”

“There haven’t been active threats for six days,” I said. “That’s a specific number. Not two weeks, not a month. Six days.”

“The current threat landscape is-” Elite started.

“Is what it is,” I said. “Which changes. Threat landscapes change.” I put down my cards. “Also. I just thought of something.”

“What,” Jordan said.

“I can’t access the bunker either,” I said.

Jordan made a sound. It was the sound of a very patient man.

“Kael.” he said.

“I can’t.” I said. “I don’t know where it is and the thing is resistant to me by design. So in an emergency—”

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You fight, Nina said.

“Yes, but if I needed the bunker-”

“You don’t need the bunker,” Jordan said. “The bunker is for the pack. You’re the Alpha. You’re outside the bunker dealing with whatever is generating the emergency.”

“Right.” I said. “And so is Aria. Who also can’t access it.”

“Also outside,” Jordan said.

“Both of us.” I said.

“Both of you,” Jordan confirmed.

“If something happened,” I said, “that required the pack to shelter—”

“The pack shelters,” Jordan said.

“And Aria and I,” I said.

“Are outside,” Jordan said.

“Together,” I said.

“Together,” Jordan agreed.

“Dealing with whatever it is,” I said.

“Dealing with whatever it is,” Jordan said.

“And you’re,” I said, “alright with that.”

Jordan exhaled in the way of a man who’d been asked a question he’d already processed extensively and was finding the having-to-process-it-again aspect trying.

“Kael,” he said.

“Yes,” I said.

“If there is anything,” he said, “that would require you to enter that bunker- anything, in the entire history of possible emergencies, that would result in the Alpha of Shadowmere needing the underground shelter rather than being the person who neutralizes whatever generated the emergency-”

“Yes,” I said.

“We’re toast,” Jordan said. “We’re completely and entirely toast. The threat that makes Kael run for the bunker is the threat that wins. It doesn’t matter where the bunker is.”

“That’s a comforting framing.” I said.

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“It’s an accurate framing.” Jordan said.

“What if it’s a witch,” I said.

The room went quiet.

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Not the performed quiet of the earlier exchange. The real kind – the specific silence of four people who’d lived through the curse and were not going to argue with that question.

“The witch situation,” Ivory said, after a moment, “is being addressed through proper channels. Vela is in holding. The remaining network connections are being mapped. The root modification-”

“Is not finished,” I said.

“Is not finished,” Ivory said. “But is being worked on. The root is dormant. It’s been dormant since the bond formed. Nothing in the current threat assessment suggests an active attempt at reactivation.”

“But if there were,” I said.

“Then we would deal with it,” Ivory said, with the flat certainty of someone who’d been dealing with things for four years and had not stopped. “As we deal with everything. Together. Not from a bunker.”