She studied him for a long moment, then nodded.“Okay.”She glanced around, looking slightly confused.
Dorian recognized the issue straight away.“Your room is here,” he walked over and opened the door that led to the main suite.“You have your own bathroom.Help yourself to whatever is in there.I placed your bag in there earlier.”
She smiled at him, something that made his stomach flutter a little, then moved into the room, her door closed softly behind her.
The silence that followed wasn’t empty.
It was charged.
Rafe exhaled slowly.“Thank God she said yes to staying here.”
“I know,” Dorian said.“It would have made it more difficult to keep her safe if she wasn’t here.”
Rafe’s phone vibrated on the counter before he could say anything else.
He glanced at the screen and swore softly.“It’s Vincent.”
Dorian straightened as Rafe put the call on speaker.
“We’ve just finished correlating timestamps” Vincent said without preamble, his voice sharp even through the speaker.“Christian Bidois went dark twelve hours before Philly.Clean break.No panic indicators.”
Rafe dragged a hand over his face.“So, he wasn’t running.”
“No,” Vincent replied.“He was positioning himself for a stronger strike.”
Dorian’s jaw set as the word landed.“That’s not a coincidence.If he went dark that clean, it means he had cover—resources, timing, people clearing his path.That puts this squarely in E.S.E.territory ...and it means Riley wasn’t targeted because she was convenient.She was chosen.”
“Exactly.”
In true Vincent style, he hung up immediately, no doubt already planning their next steps.
Dorian leaned against the counter, grounding himself as his wolf paced beneath his skin.There was a lot to think about, and working out what to do next, but now the bond within him tugged—not tearing them apart like it did when it first slammed into place, just letting them know it was there.
“She felt it when it first came into being,” Rafe said quietly.“I saw her confusion.”
Dorian nodded.“And yet she didn’t run.”
The city glowed beyond the windows, vast and indifferent.
Dorian broke the silence.“Command also mentioned unexplained leaks.Something from the civilian side and media-adjacent.”
Rafe’s mouth thinned.“Media?Why am I thinking reputation management.”
“Or prep work,” Dorian said.“Someone testing the ground before they move.”
Rafe glanced down the hallway.“If Christian was assigned a role as part of that work...”
“Then she wasn’t the end goal,” Dorian finished.“Perhaps just convenient or fortuitous.”
That settled like lead.
“I’ll take the first watch,” Dorian said.“You should rest.”
Rafe snorted softly.“You planning to sleep?”
“No.”
Rafe clapped his shoulder once, solid and grounding.“Wake me if anything changes.”