Sleep had become a stranger to Daisy.

She lay in the dark with her eyes open and her mind going at full speed, turning the same thoughts over and over, the way your tongue keeps finding a sore tooth even when you know it’s only going to hurt.

Damon’s report about Seraphine’s success in the city had hit her somewhere tender and deep, not because it surprised her exactly, but because success like that meant visibility. And visibility meant exposure. And exposure was the one thing Daisy absolutely could not afford.

What was really keeping her awake, though, was that Seraphine had been standing right in front of Ravyn and hadn’t said a word about everything she knew about Daisy. She’d had every reason to, even the perfect opening, and yet, she’d let it pass.

The more Daisy turned that over, the more certain she became that it wasn’t mercy. It wasn’t even restraint. It was patience. Seraphine was building toward something, arranging pieces in an order Daisy couldn’t quite see yet, and that patience was scarier than any explosion would’ve been.

There was only one conclusion. Seraphine had to be stopped before whatever she was building came together.

Daisy’s mind went quickly to a name, someone inside the pack, who owed her, and would move without too many questions. Quickly, she sent the mind link before she had time to second-guess herself, her claws lengthening slowly against the sheets.

’Contact rogue assassins. Seraphine has to be gone tonight.’

The response came back fast, and the hesitation inside it made her claws press harder. ’Tonight? Who treats the paralyzed pack members if she’s gone?’

’She already made the cure,’ Daisy said through mind link, flat, and final. The voice of someone who’d run the numbers. ’She’s served her purpose. Raymond can take it from where she stopped. But if you don’t do this, and the truth about that night comes out, you won’t just be watching me go down. You’ll be right there with me.’

She paused the mind link, letting everything sink in before adding, ’Banished. Everything gone.’

She let that sit exactly one beat before adding another reminder. ’And think about Bryan. Ravyn is training him for Alpha. You want that taken from him?’

The silence stretched out just long enough to feel real, and then it broke.

’No. We’ve been waiting for Bryan, just until he’s old enough, and then Ravyn’s role doesn’t matter anymore. I’ll handle Luna Seraphine. You have my word.’

The smile that moved across Daisy’s face was slow and deeply satisfied. She’d done it before, taken a situation that should have destroyed her and turned it into the very thing that had made Ravyn hate the woman he should’ve been protecting, and she was going to finish it, clean, and final.

What she hadn’t realized was Seraphine’s absolute refusal to ever be anywhere alone as soon as she returned, even if it was just for a short while.

Hours passed. The mind link she was waiting for finally came in, and it didn’t bring what she wanted.

’Luna Seraphine has protection. Both Alpha Voren and Alpha Ravyn. The first attempt failed. But I’ve reached the real contacts. The assassin rogues. They’ll find a window when she’s alone and it’ll be done before anyone knows.’

The news settled into Daisy’s chest like something she had to physically absorb.

She pressed her lips together, sitting with the quiet, simmering frustration of a woman who could not figure out how Seraphine always seemed to be one step ahead, like her instincts ran on better software.

’Make sure none of these traces back to me,’ she said through mind link, firmer than she felt.

’They’ve been paid well enough that they’d rather go down than give us up. As long as they catch her alone, and I mean, away from those Alphas, there’s nothing either of them can do.’

Daisy let out a slow breath, something close to relief bleeding into the edges of it. She was still holding onto it when footsteps came down the hall, unhurried, familiar.

’I have to go,’ she said, cutting the mindlink.

The door opened and Ravyn walked in, and there was nothing warm in his face. besides, he was naked, moving through the room without looking at her, and headed to the bathroom without a word.

"Rav." She went to him, touched his arm lightly. "You look upset."

"I don’t want to talk about it." He kept walking.

She stood in the middle of the room and watched the bathroom door close and sat with the particular quiet that settles in a chest when something has been there long enough to start feeling like a permanent condition.

There had been a time Ravyn would come home and talked to her. Not about everything, but enough. Enough that she’d felt like she was inside his life instead of standing at the edge of it, looking in. That version of him kept feeling further and further away.

She waited. When he came out, hair still damp, the residue of whatever the night had been still sitting in his shoulders, she moved behind him without saying anything and started working her hands into the tension there.

He went still for a moment, and then slowly, gradually, like something finally giving way, the tightness released, and a low sound of relief came out of him before he’d decided to let it.

She eased him down onto his back, and for a while the room held only the two of them. No Seraphine, no plans running quiet and parallel underneath everything, just them.

Their lips pressed together, and their moans filling the room.

Hours later, his phone rang. Ravyn was pulled out of sleep before he was ready, saw Voren’s name on the screen, and felt the full weight of the night come back to him all at once.

"Voren." His voice was still rough. "Is Seraphine alright?"

The name landed in the dark room like a stone dropped in still water. Daisy’s eyes opened.

And on the other end of the line, Voren’s voice came through carrying something cold enough to travel right through the phone and settle in the center of Ravyn’s chest before he’d even fully understood what he was hearing.