Page 67 of The Werewolf's Deputy
“I’ll go with you. We can talk once you figure out what’s going on.”
Nodding sharply, Jonah laced their fingers together, hurrying to follow the mage who spun on his heel the minute Jonah agreed and took off again. They got lucky, slipping into a crowded elevator before the doors shut and Emmett used the proximity to clock Jonah’s scent just to get a better read on him.
He smelled like salt and heartache, like he’d been crying, but he also smelled like relief and joy and anticipation, along with a healthy dose of anxiety, probably because of whatever was happening with Roz. The heartache was duller, fading, and when Emmett rested his head on top of Jonah’s because he felt like he needed to steal a cuddle or he’d go insane, the happy scents got heavier and more pronounced, along with a new one Emmett hadn’t tracked on him yet. He didn’t have a chance to figure out what it was before they arrived at the Cyber Security floor, but he’d figure it out eventually.
Once all this was over, he and Jonah were going to talk. He didn't care if he had to go all caveman and toss Jonah over his shoulder to steal him away, he was done waiting to have the conversation they should have had weeks ago.
The Cyber Security floor was almost finished, a few desks already set up, and the computers being moved on top of them, but the floor looked empty, and it was only when he heard cursing from Roz’s office that he realized where everyone was.
“No! Don’t touch that! I swear to the gods, if you touch that, I’ll hurt you! How do you not know the basics? Where the hell is Jonah?”
Jonah rushed into the room, moving to Roz’s line of sight so she could see him. She latched onto him immediately, dragging him over to a desk next to hers that was already set up with a computer, an employee Emmett hadn’t met yet sitting in front of it. Roz shoved him away, pushing Jonah to take his place.
“There’s a breach, and these idiots don’t know how to handle it. And they keep talking behind me! Sit. We’re working this together.”
Jonah looked startled, his mouth opened in protest, but Roz wasn’t looking at him, which made it impossible for her to hear him even if he did. “We need to block them in first, stop them from getting anywhere. Look for failed login attempts, spikes in activity, that kind of thing, then cut off access.”
Jonah hesitated for a long second, taking in what she said, then, to Emmett’s surprise, he nodded sharply and spun in his seat, facing the monitor in front of him. His fingers flew across the keyboard, monitoring windows pulling up and disappearing in quick succession. He tapped two fingers on Roz’s desk, catching her attention, then pointed at his screen. They didn’t speak, but they didn't have to. She pulled up the same information, and they worked in tandem, doing whatever crazy techno science they needed to do to stop the attack.
He realized belatedly that he needed to inform Ronan about the breach attempt, so he stepped back a few feet, pulling out his phone and putting it to his ear.
“Yeah?” Ronan murmured, his voice sounding distracted.
“Ronan. We’ve got a cyber security breach attempt happening right now. Roz and Jonah are on it, but I thought you’d want to know.”
Ronan’s voice sharpened, his full attention on Emmett now. “How long has it been going on? Did they get in? Do we need to pull the plug on anything?”
He relayed the questions to Jonah, who answered without pulling his gaze away from the screen. “They’re trying to go for Research. They’ve gotten into the system, but so far we’ve kept them out of confidential files. Do not unplug anything. They’ll just try again once the system is back up.” He tapped the desk again to get Roz’s attention, turning his head enough to speak toher without looking away from the screen. “I think we can corner them with enough firewalls, at least block them long enough for us to get ahead of them.”
Roz nodded. “Let’s do it. Shut down all access.” She glanced back at Emmett for a second. “Might want to tell the higher ups. Research is about to get locked out of their system.”
Emmett grimaced. That sounded not fun. He spoke into the phone again. “Ronan?”
“I heard. Alistair is already informing Elijah. You’re with Jonah, right? Run upstairs to IT. They’re going to get bombarded with calls and tickets in a second. Then I want you back in that office. I want to know what’s happening.”
“Done,” Emmett agreed, hanging up. He put a hand on Jonah’s shoulder, squeezing for a second, and hope started bouncing around in his chest when Jonah paused what he was doing long enough to reach for Emmett’s hand and squeeze it back. Then he went back to typing.
“I’ll be back. I need to inform IT.” He turned, looking at the other people in the room. They all looked a little shell shocked and confused. “What are you guys supposed to be doing right now?”
They shrugged. “There aren’t enough systems up right now for us to help. We were setting them up in the main room, but they’re not fully done yet.”
“Go do that,” Jonah instructed over his shoulder. “As soon as one is up, someone hop on and start gathering information. We’ll need to know how they got in and what they were looking for.”
They didn’t argue, taking off at a fast clip back to the main room to get the job done. Emmett shot one last proud look at Jonah’s back before running upstairs. His once terrified mate was now calling the shots. Once the chaos was over, he was going to make sure Jonah saw just how far he’d come.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Once he got back downstairs, which took longer than it should have because IT was already getting a mass of calls by the time Emmett got up there, several of the new cyber security personnel were online, and the room was filled with the tapping of keys. When he crept back into Roz’s office, the flashing red on the screens was gone, and she and Jonah were hard at work. There was a new page up, a chat they seemed to be using to communicate, which made sense. Something like that would ensure Jonah didn’t have to keep interrupting Roz to speak to her.
He didn't want to interrupt, but he had promised Ronan an update, so he silently moved closer, putting his hand on Jonah’s shoulder like he had before. Jonah glanced up, shooting him a quick smile, then turned back to the screen again.
“We managed to isolate them and lock them out. Now we have to close up all the holes they made getting in. It might take a bit…” He trailed off, looking up at Emmett again with an apologetic frown. Emmett smiled at him, his tail swishing lightly.
“I’m not going anywhere. We’ll talk after. Just do what you need to do.”
Jonah looked relieved. Emmett didn’t want to read too much into it, they hadn’t talked yet, but he couldn’t help but be hopeful. He’d said being away from Emmett sucked. That meant he didn’t want to end things, right?
Emmett ended up leaning against the wall by the door, acting as security while fielding calls from the rest of the security team. Roz hadn’t just frozen the system in the main building’s research, she’d done it for every single research project they had. Every division was locked out of everything from data to blueprints, and they couldn’t have access back until someone on the Cyber Security team cleared it and found no backdoors or access points. Not that Emmett fully understood what they were looking for but it sounded complicated, and the way Jonah’s fingers moved on the keyboard made him think the process wasn’t a simple one.
