Delete: Volume 3 (Shifter Series) by Kim Curran

to me, cowed and nervous. Eyes darted between the two of us like spectators at a tennis match.
    “Captain Jones brought in the Red Hand’s second in command,” CP said, stepping forward. Her face was flushed and her fringe plastered to her face with sweat. “We were in and out before they knew what was happening. Nobody got as much as a scratch. You should have seen it, sir. She was incredible.” CP’s smile was spread so wide, it looked as if her head might flip in two. Aubrey had been smiling, but under the force of my stare, it faded into a complete blank.
    “He’s in the cells, Commandant,” she said quietly. “Awaiting interrogation.”
    The group, sensing my anger, all suddenly found something more important to be doing, leaving me standing in front of Aubrey, CP at her side, and my squad behind me.
    “Tyler,” Zac said, a subtle warning in his voice.
    I couldn’t remember having ever felt anger like this. Hot and indignant and all directed at the girl I knew I loved.
    “Nice work, Tyler.” The slap on my back was so hard, I spun around, fists instinctively raised, ready to fight.
    To his credit, Cain didn’t even flinch. He merely looked me up and down.
    “Two successes in a single day. Good work.”
    “Success,” I said, the word hissing between my teeth. “You call the death of two people a success?”
    “Extraction complete. I’d call that a success. The losses were…”
    “Don’t you dare,” I shouted. “Don’t you dare say collateral damage or wrap this up in military speak. They were my team and they’re dead because of me.”
    Cain grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the corner, away from Aubrey and the people watching. “Because of the enemy, Tyler. The enemy. They’re the ones who killed our people. Not you.”
    “I led them in there. I let them die and for what? To recover one spy, who probably doesn’t even know anything?”
    The pain in my leg and head was back, and with it, the cold, sickening realisation of what I’d done. Of who I’d become. I hadn’t recognised myself back at the tower, giving orders, making life-and-death decisions as easily as choosing what to have for breakfast. I’d killed a boy for the sake of the mission. It might not have been my bullet in his chest, but it might as well have been my finger on the trigger.
    “You did your duty, Tyler. As you’ve done time and time before and as you’ll do again.”
    I shook Cain off me, still quaking with anger. I couldn’t look at him. Because he was right: I had done this before. I sensed it, like a guilty memory surfacing after you’ve tried to hide it. The me I was here, he was ruthless and focused. He was a killer. And all because he believed in doing his duty.
    “Do we have a problem, Tyler?” Cain said.
    I finally looked at him. “No. We’re good.”
    He nodded and patted me on the shoulder. “It’s always tough losing men. But their sacrifice won’t be forgotten. It was all for the greater good.”
    “ Ad verum via ,” I mumbled.
    “Exactly. And with the intel Hedges has, we might be able to crush the Red Hand once and for all.”
    We both looked over at Hedges. He must have been strong and handsome once, but now he looked like a shell of a man, his face a bruised ruin, half-starved and broken. Could a man like this really be so important?
    You take power where you can find it, the buzzing voice in my head said.
    Power. Duty. Choices. I felt as pinned as when Frankie had taken over me. Only now, I was the one stopping me. I needed help. And I’d just flipped out at the one person I believed could help me.
    Aubrey stared at me, her gaze fixed and unreadable.
    I walked over to her. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have congratulated you. It’s only that…”
    “You have no reason to explain yourself to me, Commandant,” she said, which wasn’t the same as saying I didn’t need to apologise.
    “Still, I’m sorry.”
    She nodded. But there was no softening in her