from them without comment. “Come inside, both of you. Rafe, my office.”
Rafe stepped forward, leading Devony. On Chase’s dismissal, Eli and Jax went back to whatever they’d been doing before Rafe’s arrival. And from within another room on the main floor of the mansion, Chase’s mate, Tavia, appeared along with Carys and her mate, Rune.
Carys gaped, a hopeful smile spreading over her beautiful face. “Rafe? Oh, my God!”
When she would have run to him in greeting, the dark-haired behemoth who was her blood-bonded mate held her back, his thick arm wrapped firmly, yet tenderly, around her midsection.
Although Carys was as unaware as anyone that his exile wasn’t permanent, it felt good to see she hadn’t lost faith in him. He only hoped her brother Aric and the rest of the warriors would be equally forgiving if and when he was able to return to the fold.
Of those in the room now, only Commander Chase and his mate Tavia were privy to the truth. Tavia strode up to Devony and him.
“Hello, Rafe.” Her soft gaze lit on Devony. “Hi. I’m Tavia Chase.”
“This is Devony Winters,” Rafe said when she seemed incapable of words. “Her parents and brother both worked for JUSTIS in London, at the headquarters.”
“Oh, I see,” Tavia said, a look of tender sympathy in her eyes.
“Devony’s Breed,” Rafe added. “She’s a daywalker.”
Carys’s eyes went wide. “Are you serious? That means we’re related.”
Tavia seemed less surprised, which indicated that Lucan had shared the information Rafe provided in his last report. Chase had obviously made his mate aware of the half-sister she had lost in the JUSTIS bombing, and the niece who had unexpectedly ended up in the middle of Rafe’s mission.
Through his bond with Devony, Rafe felt her jolt of elation as she looked at the older woman who shared her extraordinary bloodline. A small breath leaked out of her as she let go of his hand to accept Tavia’s in greeting. “I’m so pleased to meet you both.”
“Likewise, Devony.”
Chase nodded to his mate. “Tavia, would you and Carys like to chat with Devony while I talk privately with Rafe?”
“Of course. It would be our pleasure.”
“I’ll be right here,” Rafe told Devony when she glanced at him in question. Although the way Chase’s displeased gaze bore into him, he wasn’t sure he would have any of his ass left once the commander was through chewing it out.
He motioned toward his office. They moved inside and Rafe stood at attention on the other side of the desk while Chase dropped into his leather chair behind it.
“Go ahead and sit, son. We could be here a while.” As Rafe took the offered seat, Chase stared at him over steepled fingers. “I’m going to assume you’ve got a damn good reason for showing up here unannounced tonight, with a civilian female under your arm, no less. Let me go all the way out on a limb and suggest it might have something to do with the fact that you’re apparently fucking an Order asset. When Lucan gave you permission to keep the female in play if you needed to, I doubt this is what he had in mind.”
Shit. The accusation rankled, but it was the commander’s crude assessment of Devony that really put an edge in Rafe’s tone. “She is not just some asset, sir.”
Chase grunted. “I guess that answers the first part of my question.”
Rafe forged on, knowing there was no sense in trying to hide that he and Devony were involved. “She’s in danger. I wouldn’t have brought her here for anything less.”
“Am I supposed to be relieved to hear that?” Chase swore under his breath. “From what I understand, Lucan specifically told you to hold your cover with her. He’s not going to want to hear you defied an order by getting tangled up with her.”
“My cover is still intact,” Rafe muttered, feeling sick about that now. It had eaten at him nearly from the beginning, but especially now. “She doesn’t know I’m still a part of the Order. Coming here tonight and running up against Eli and Jax only confirmed my cover.”
“You care about this female.”
Rafe couldn’t deny it. Chase’s look of sober understanding said he didn’t need the confirmation, anyway.
“Tell me what happened tonight.”
Rafe gave him a rundown of the chain of disasters, from the stolen—and now missing—crates of liquid UV to the wholesale assassination of Cruz and his gang along with Judah LaSalle, the Order’s current best lead in their hunt for members of Opus Nostrum’s inner