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Judd made his decision then and there He had to leave the den before Brenna unknowingly set off his abilities She had no idea of the horror she could unleash

He wasn’t an assassin by choice He was one because he couldn’t be anything else

Judd found Hawke before dawn the nextup the cracks in his conditioning - it was all that protected those around hie of his ability "I want out," he told the alpha He wasn’t used to asking for permission, would have just walked out had he been alone, but he wasn’t His unexplained disappearance would impact Walker, Sienna, and the kids’ position in the den

Hawke raised an eyebrow "What does your fa to do with it" A complete truth "Walker’s settled and able to steer theh any turbulence I’m a disruptive influence" As the recent , eyes looked toward the Psy, toward hirated into the pack to some extent" While he’d made every effort not to

The SnowDancer alpha didn’t look convinced "Why now?"

Judd had already decided to tell a truth It was simply not the one that mattered "In the Net, I held a rank equal to those of your lieutenants I knew that should we survive our defection, I’d lose that It was a price I chose to pay" To save the children fro death that was rehabilitation

"So what’s changed?"

"I didn’t count on the fact that the enforced idleness, the effectual caging of my abilities, would have a consequence" Also true Despite the covert work he’d been doing - both for the Ghost and to earn inco It was, he told himself, the reason why Brenna had been able to crack his shields with relatively little effort He’d already been compromised "Those idle psychic in to act without my conscious control"

"Like our beasts"

"Yes" He’d seen wolves go rogue, seen the da" Hawke leaned back against the dark wood of his desk, pale eyes nize control when I see it And yours is precision-tuned"

No other option was feasible for his subdesignation However, that wasn’t souessed at my position in the Net," he said instead "I ho I was because ressive abilities have to be utilized on a regular basis to ward off loss of control"

"How are you planning to do that?" No overt suspicion, but the i second, Judd considered calling attention to the insult, but then stifled the reaction as irrelevant To the wolves, he was an ene the PsyNet - it would mean death for my family should the Council realize eren’t executed alked into your territory I can, however, blend in with the general populace and go freelance"

"As what?"

He met those cold wolf eyes "As a man who cleans up certain kinds of messes, what else?" A brutal choice but one that would serve to keep his abilities in check

"I can’t let an assassin loose on the fucking public" Hawke shoved a hand through hair alold color of his pelt in wolf form

Judd didn’t see the need to point out that he’d already been working foroff alarms The clients never saw him He never met them And he didn’t kill for them Not yet "No ork," he said "I’d work in surveillance and protection in this state for the next three or four years"

Until Sienna beca over some of what he did to keep the LaurenNet functional, he couldn’t go far The fah biofeedback to keep them all alive No Psy could survive without that feedback If he put distance between himself and the others, it would strain the already thin fabric of a networkmore room for mistakes "I won’t practice my profession in your territory"

"What happens when Sienna grows up?" Hawke asked astutely

"I’ mercenary work in the African states" In the deepest, darkest jungles where changelings held sway and where there were no Psy, no one who nize him And no woht with merciless reality - the day Brenna truly saw his he had done, he would lose her smile anyway

"There is another option" Hawke’s eyes were predator-still, watchful "You could work as a SnowDancer soldier That would allow you to use your abilities, correct?"

"Enough to blow off the erous steam" The instant the words left his lips, Judd knew he should’ve lied So why hadn’t he? He looked inward and found his shields solid Yet so him behave in opposition to his own decision to leave the den "However, it’s not a viable option in my case None of you trust me - it would be a farce"