Unmatched Wife: Not His To Claim Anymore novel Chapter 219

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Chapter 219

Chapter 219

CALLAHAN

Matthew’s stillness changed quality.

“You’re certain,” he said.

“I’m not certain,” I said, because precision mattered here. “I’m telling you what i saw and what I believe. The confidence level is high. The certainty level is not one hundred percent.” I paused. “But it’s high.”

Matthew moved to his desk but didn’t sit down. He put both hands flat on the surface and looked at nothing in particular above the window line, which was something he did when he was processing something that had shifted the ground under him.

“Thorne works for the Alpha King’s office,” he said.

“I know.”

“He’s been coordinating with us directly on the security situation following the assembly.”

“I know that too,” I said.

Matthew looked at me. “You’re telling me that the man who coordinates security intelligence between my pack and the Alpha King’s office may have been standing in my garden while people tried to take my son.”

“Yes,” I said. “That’s what I’m telling you.”

The room was quiet for a moment.

I had delivered difficult intelligence before. It was part of the work. The moment after delivery was always the most important one not because of what was said but because of what the person receiving it did with the first few seconds. What they reached for first told you what they were made of.

Matthew pushed off the desk and straightened up.

“Tell me everything,” he said. “From the beginning. Everything you saw that night and everything you’ve done since.”

I told him about the three locations.

The two warehouses and the basement site, the signs of occupation, the temperature differentials, the magical trace signatures

that I could my people had identified without being able to categorize them precisely. I told him my read on the limitations surveil further but that I couldn’t commit to an approach on locations that might be magically defended without backup that had the right capabilities.

I told him that this was why I needed to leave. Not because the job was done. Because doing the next part of the job properly required resources I couldn’t access from inside his guest room.

who they were and Matthew listened to all of it without interrupting. He asked two questions. The first was about my people

what specifically my contact had observed and how they had described how reliable. The second was about the magical trace

I answered both.

When I finished he went to the window and stood there with his hands behind his back, looking at the courtyard below where the morning activity was continuing in its ordinary way, people crossing the space with ordinary purposes, the pack in its daily functioning, all of it proceeding as it always proceeded while underneath it the ground was not what it appeared to be

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“Thurne has access to everything,” he said quietly. Not to me specifically. Thinking out loud in the way of someone who was following a thread to where it led. “Everything we’ve been told by the Alpha King’s office about the security situation. Everything we’ve shared back Every conversation about the attack, about Theo’sexposure, about what we’re doing to protect him.” He stopped. “If he’s been feeding that back to whoever is running this-

“Then they’ve known every move you’ve made since the assembly,” I said.

Matthew turned from the window.

#*

His face had settled into something I had not seen on him before. Not anger exactly. Something colder and more directed than anger. The expression of someone who had just understood the full shape of what had been done and was now focused entirely on what came next.

“You said you needed to make calls,” he said.

“Yes.”

“People who can handle the magical component.”

“Yes.”

“How long to get them here?”

2

“Depends who’s available,” I said. “Twenty-four to forty-eight hours if I reach the right people.”

He nodded. “Make the calls.” He looked at me steadily. “And Cal.”

I waited.

“You said you needed to leave to do this properly.” He held my eyes. “You can make calls from the guest room. Nothing about doing this properly requires you to not be in this house.”

I looked at him for a moment.

I thought about the morning. Theo at the kitchen table with his triceratops and his one-word answer and his juice glass and the things he hadn’t said. The specific weight of a child who was waiting for something without asking for it directly because he had learned that asking directly sometimes meant losing what you wanted.

I thought about what I had told myself about professional reasons and personal reasons and the policy I had about examining the second category too closely.

“I’m not going to be here indefinitely,” I said. “Once this is resolved.-”

“Once this is resolved we’ll figure out what comes next,” Matthew said. “Right now I need you to make your calls and I need to have a conversation with Klaus about Thorne that is going to require very careful handling, and both of those things are easier if you’re not forty minutes away.” He paused. “And Theo doesn’t need another change right now.”

He said the last part simply. No pressure in it. Just a fact being offered, plainly, by someone who had gotten better at saying true things plainly.

I picked up my phone from my jacket pocket.

“I’ll need a secure line,” I said.

“I’ll have one set up within the hour,” Matthew said.

I nodded.

He nodded.

We understood each other, which was something that had happened gradually over three weeks without either of us deciding to

Chapter 219

let ti happen, the way most useful things happened.

I thought about my packed bag sitting by the guest room door.

I was going to have to unpack it.

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Chapter 328