ALESSIA
Nobody spoke for a long moment after Aiden said it.
"A council contract," Carter said finally, careful, the way he spoke when he wanted a sentence to be examined rather than reacted to. "Not Ethan's payroll. Ours."
"Not necessarily ours," Aiden said, though the correction sounded thin even to me. "A contract held by the pack council doesn't mean the council authorized this specific man's presence on Academy grounds today. Security firms subcontract. Individual guards get assigned to jobs their own superiors approve without council oversight on every posting."
"You don't believe that," Ryker said. Flat. Not a question.
Aiden was quiet for a moment. "No," he admitted. "I don't. A coincidence this precise — the timing, the building, the specific terminal he went for — isn't subco
