“Have you thought of using CDNs?”
All eyes turned to the source of the voice—Snake.
Lizzie flicked an annoyed glance at him. “Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course I used CDNs.”
“Ah.” Snake dashed behind the desk to stand over Lizzie. He peered down at her screen. “Let me see.”
The female let out an exasperated sighed and tapped on the keyboard. “Go ahead.”
The Lone Wolf tapped his chin and narrowed his eyes. “Hmmm. You don’t have enough servers. And the networks are too far apart, thus the latency in your data. Here, let me—”
“Hey!” Lizzie protested when he grabbed her keyboard. “Do you even know what you’re doing, you caveman?”
“Lucky for you, I can access a couple more CDNs run by friends of mine.” Ignoring her protests, he tapped on the keyboards for several seconds. “Aha! Yes!” He fist-pumped in the air and then handed her back the keyboard. “See what you can do with that.”
She sent him dagger eyes but grabbed the keyboard anyway, then went back to typing. “Oh!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Holy guacamole, you did it!” Lizzie hopped to her feet and kissed him on the cheek. “Now we’re cooking! Pull up a chair and help me with this. We can get through this quicker together.” Snake grabbed a stool and positioned himself on the PC behind Lizzie as her fingers moved like lightning across the keyboard.
Cross picked up a soft growl behind him. Wyatt bared his teeth for a second before he cleared his throat and tugged at the knot on his tie. “I should go check on what’s happening upstairs,” Wyatt mumbled.
“Good idea,” Lucas said. “We should all go. Lizzie, call us as soon as you get anything.”
But Lizzie was too busy and simply waved them away. Everyone else proceeded to go up to the top floor where the main command center was located.
If it was busy downstairs, then it was even more hectic up here. Cross saw that the conference room was turned into some kind of war room. It was crowded too, as several people sat on the chairs or simply propped themselves up against the corners as they listened to the woman speaking at the front of the room.
“… and so, if we need San Francisco, they’re our closest—Alpha!” Mika Westbrooke greeted, but she frowned once she saw Ransom and Hawk. “What’s going on?”
“I brought help,” Cross said and quickly introduced them to everyone. “Looks like we’ve got a full house.”
All the members of GI were there—Mika, her mate Delacroix, Killian Jones, his son, Arch, Cliff Forrest, and Jacob Martin, but so were Julianna, Duncan, Elise, and Reed. Plus, there were two more people he didn’t know—a woman who looked to be in her mid-forties and a young girl who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen—though he did recognize them from a few days ago when he appeared in the Alpha’s office and his association with the ring had been outed.
“You weren’t formally introduced,” Mika began. “But this is Delacroix’s aunt and cousin, Gabrielle Beaumont, and her daughter, Marina. They also happen to be powerful witches, and they’re here to help too.”
The young girl looked at him, and her face lit up. “You fixed your glow!” she said happily.
Cross eyed her curiously. “What do you mean, glow?”
Lucas cleared his throat. “Can we do this later? We do have more important things to take care of right now.”
“Of course, Alpha,” he said.
“Now,” Lucas began. “Mika, let us know what your team’s been up to.”
“Right,” she said. “Let me continue. Now this.…”
Cross, Ransom, and Hawk each found an empty spot in the back of the conference room. As they settled in, however, Cross only half listened to what Mika was explaining. Worry was beginning to nag at his brain. There was something wrong. He didn’t know why, but he could feel it.
What disturbed him was the presence of two people in particular: Was it a coincidence that two of the people in Gunnar’s vision—Julianna and Elise—were here in New York while they were about to launch a full-scale attack on the mages?
Over a year ago, he and the two females had accidentally traveled back in time when they all touched the dagger dipped in Lucas’s blood and powered by Elise’s electricity-generating abilities. Though they were lost in time, it was Gunnar’s vision that told him that eventually all three of them would find their way back to the present, and so they did. But did that mean that Gunnar’s vision was about to come true?
It was a good thing Sabrina was safe back in Zhobghadi. She would be annoyed at him—maybe even hate him, but there was no way he was going to just let the mages take her. If they got ahold of her and the ring, then that would mean the premonition really would happen.
But, no one could get to her in Zhobghadi. Despite that pit forming in his stomach, he told himself that everything would be all right.
Beside him, Ransom shifted his weight from one foot to the other but didn’t say a word. The Lone Wolf had been quiet the entire time, acting like his usual aloof self. However, Cross did notice him glancing at Lucas every now and then, and when he did, that look came back on his face. Was it loathing? Hatred? It seemed strange. Ransom surely had many enemies, but there was something visceral about the way he looked at the Alpha. Cross only hoped Gunnar was correct in insisting he be brought back here. He didn’t have the time or the energy to watch over Ransom while fighting the mages.
The rest of the day was spent planning and rounding up their resources, creating several plans
