Page 146 of Awakened

“I… apologize.” Dax basically has to force the words out between clenched teeth.

Branwen’s smile drops, and her expression turns serious. “You can shove your apology up your arse. Presuming there’s still room with the massive stick lodged up there.”

Damn… I find myself liking this female more and more every day.

Dax pinches the bridge of his nose and retakes his seat. “I’ll take that under advisement.”

He wakes up his computer, spinning his chair around to face the rest of us. “As I was saying, before we got wildly off-topic, I scrubbed Cage’s phone. There wasn’t much—mostly text messages between him and his father—but enough to make it clear they were both focused on the same thing.”

“They’ve been working with Varenthrall,” I surmise.

“So it would seem,” Dax agrees.

“So… what? Cage was sent here to spy on her? That doesn’t make sense. They could have no idea we’d even cross paths with Idril,” Caelan frowns, shaking his head.

“No, I think Idril’s appearance was just a happy coincidence for them. But what is clear is that Varenthrall’s work with the Severed may be recent, but whatever Cage and his father are working with him on started a long, long time ago. Look at this.”

He clicks through a few apps on the mirrored phone screen, and a hidden messaging app fills the screen with a slew of texts between Cage and his father. I read along as Dax points out the ones he’s highlighted.

I’m not going back to Turkey. That place is crawling with bugs. Tell V to find someone else to dig shit up this time. It’s not 1983, and I’m a Bastard now.

“A Bastard?” Silas snorts from his secluded cave of shadows. “If he’s a Bastard, my local parish priest is the Pope.”

“The delusion of self-grandeur is… concerning,” Dax mutters in agreement before scrolling and bringing up another text. “This one’s from his dad. Dated a year and a half ago.”

Things are going to start happening a lot faster now that the girl is getting older. Work harder to ingratiate yourself with that team. It’s important they listen to you. I don’t need to remind you what happens if the knights in shining armor start sniffing around V’s plans.

Then Cage’s response.

I know.

If you knew, I wouldn’t have to keep calling that caveman leader of theirs and begging him to give you more responsibility.

I said I’m on it. His guard dogs make it much harder than we thought to get near him.

“Well, a year and a half makes sense. The timeline lines up with what we found at Albertson’s house,” I point out, gesturing for Branwen to pass me the tin of cookies.

The texts between father and son get increasingly erratic from there. And when Idril shows up, they only get worse.

“As you can see, Cage took his assignment as a chance to prove to his father and Varenthrall that he could handle things on his own. Multiple texts are complaining about not needing a babysitter of his own anymore,” Dax flicks through a few pages of texts where a very immature-sounding Cage tries over and over to make a case for himself to his father before adding, “I think that when Caelan woke up he decided to act. To do something big and prove to his father and whoever else he’s answering to that he was ready for more responsibility.”

“So this is a much bigger operation than anyone initially believed,” Branwen says thoughtfully. “This isn’t simply a wealthy psychotic human working with Severed to traffic Omegas.”

“But we’ve known that,” I reply. “We know it has something to do with Idril’s blood. Something to do with her abilities and Varenthrall trying to pass those abilities on to other Omegas.”

“And breed them,” Silas points out. “Can’t forget that bit.”

“Fates forbid,” I grimace.

Branwen frowns. “Right, but how long has their little party of nutters been working together? And for what? Why breed Omegas? What’s the long-term goal here? And if Idril’s blood is so important… why leave her when they ran?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Dax answers. “And to find answers to those questions, we need intel. Which is where, I believe, you come in.”

Branwen nods. “Right then.”

“I can’t believe you fuckers thought it was a good idea to put Cage in charge of watching her,” Caelan snarls, cutting Branwen off before she even gets started. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

“Fates, do we have to do this right now?” Dax sighs.