Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 540

Chapter 540

KAEL

The morning briefing had started at eight and it was now nine-forty-seven and Jordan was on his third attempt to wrap up the security assessment in a way that communicated both thoroughness and urgency, and I could see exactly why because I could also see Nina's foot tapping under the table and the way Ivory's pen kept going back to the same notation she'd already made twice.

They were rushing.

This was not subtle. The rushing had a specific quality that I'd learned over many years of working with these people — the quality of a group that had somewhere they wanted to be and were managing the gap between professional obligation and personal priority with varying degrees of success.

Nina's success was highest. Her professional composure held through most situations and the rushing was visible only in the foot and the occasional slightly-faster-than-usual note-taking. Jordan's success was moderate — he was genuinely trying, the intelligence summary was complete and accurate, but the pace of it was about thirty percent faster than his normal briefing pace and I could feel him editing out the contextual additions he usually included. Ivory's success was lowest, which was unusual because Ivory's professional composure was generally excellent, but Ivory had a specific vulnerability which was that she got excited about things she was interested in and the excitement leaked through the clinical register in ways she didn't always fully register were happening.

She'd said *which brings us to the next point* four times in the last twenty minutes and each time the transition had been faster.

I knew what they were rushing toward.

I'd known since the beginning of the meeting, when all three of them had arrived simultaneously with the specific coordinated energy of people who'd had a prior conversation and had made a collective plan. Jordan had the intelligence files ready to present. Nina had the security update already organized in a format that front-loaded the conclusions rather than building toward them. Ivory had the root analysis in her hand and had clearly been up since before seven working through it, because the notes were fresh and the coffee cup was already at its third refill.

They were going to get through the briefing efficiently and then they were going to do the thing.

The thing was the book club.

I knew this because Jordan had said, when I'd come into the office at five minutes past eight: "The book club is happening today."

"The book club that everyone said no to," I'd said.

"The book club that has achieved critical mass," Jordan had said. "The conditions are now favorable."

"What conditions," I'd said.

"The conditions include," Jordan had said, counting on his fingers, "Killian having read chapter fourteen, you having confirmed the contents of chapter fourteen to Killian, Aria having been told about chapter fourteen by approximately four different people, and Ivory having been waiting for an opportunity to have this discussion since approximately the second month of the curse years." He'd paused. "The conditions are favorable."

"I didn't confirm anything," I'd said.

"You told him what the chapter was about," Jordan had said.

"Vela," I said. "When she arrived."

"Vela's presence at the gate," Ivory said. "Yes. We didn't understand the mechanism at the time. We were managing the kidnapping and the battle with the 210 wolve and the access question and we didn't fully analyze the timing." She paused. "Vela arrived at the gate, escaped from Aria and got back to the basement where we managed to subdue her and send her to the highly concentrated unescapable dungeon while we decided to fuck it all and go on a well deserved break. A week later, the full moon incident occurred. Vela had used the gate visit to establish the proximity connection she needed."

"She was measuring the pathway," Nina said.

"She was establishing the parameters," Ivory said. "Determining the strength and accessibility of the bond channel so she could calculate the casting requirements for the full moon activation." She set down the compound notes. "Which also tells us that the activation was always the plan. The gate visit wasn't about Vela seeking Aria out to kill her during the ambush on the pack. It was reconnaissance."

"She needed the ambvush to get inside," Jordan said.

"She needed the specific access that the attack gave her," Ivory said. "Direct access to the pack grounds, with a legitimate reason for being present that gave her time to take the measurements she needed." She looked at me. "The good news is that we now understand the mechanism. The bad news is that they can attempt the activation again at the next full moon."

"Two weeks," Nina said.

"Approximately," Ivory said. "The mechanism requires specific conditions but those conditions recur monthly."