Twin Wolf Trouble (Shifter Squad Six 2) by Anya Nowlan Page A

halves of the same mind, working together and plotting and scheming. Unnerving. I can’t imagine what they’ll be like as teenagers. And how about Raze and Rhone? Is Rhone still saying no to everything?”
    “Of course! He wouldn’t have it any other way,” Madeline said, grinning happily. “But they’re good. A lot of work. Don’t get me wrong, I miss sleep. I miss it so much. But I’m lucky that I can work from home for now and I have the time to spend with them. I’d love having some help, but it is what it is, hmm?”
    “I still say you should find those daddies of theirs,” Fiona said, giving Madeline a subdued look.
    “I know what you think, Fiona. But it can’t happen. They’ll never know they are fathers and I’ll never see them again. It’s for the best.”
    “Oh come on, even one-night stands can be found in this day and age! Nothing’s private anymore,” Fiona protested, nibbling on a carrot stick. “You know how important first-borns are to shifters.”
    Madeline mutely nodded, concentrating on her drink. Yes, of course she knew. And it was partially because she knew it so well that she wasn’t going to expend any energy looking for the men who had given her the biggest blessings in her life. They’d made it abundantly clear that there could be no future for them.
    A happy life was not built on one adrenaline-filled day and one long, sweaty night. It needed more. She’d never use her kids to rope in men who weren’t ready for it. Especially if it could put their lives, and hers, in danger.
    After Arizona, Tex’s and Thatch’s employers had grilled her for a few days about what, if anything, she knew. She gave them partial sketches from memory of the two men she’d seen and confirmed and reconfirmed everything she remembered from the train. After that, she’d spent a miserable week locked up in relative comfort, wondering what would happen next.
    The Firm set her up with a new identity, Adley Aldridge, a mild-mannered biochemist originally from Idaho, bought her a tiny home in a suburb of Chicago, and gotten her a low-level tech job at Xavian Technologies Limited. For all of that, she was entirely grateful, if a bit bitter that things ever got that far to begin with.
    The job was especially welcome. She’d been on the final stretch of finishing her PhD in the field anyway, and though she’d hoped to continue in academia, it was clear that there was too much risk of exposure there. So she got a good desk job at Xavian, one of the biggest research units running on private funding, to do biochemical research and generally complete any task her supervisors gave her. Charlie, her direct superior, was a nice enough guy and a brilliant scientist himself, putting all his time and effort into developing more targeted, precision explosives.
    It wasn’t exactly something Madeline had dreamed for herself, having thought that she’d go into medical research one day, but it paid her bills and kept her kids safe and sound. That was a huge thing for her these days, and definitely not something she took for granted.
    “I do. But it won’t happen. Not now, not ever. Besides, I have a good thing going with my boys. We have each other. That’s all that matters,” Madeline said, rolling the wine around in the glass.
    “I know you can do it all on your own, Adley. You’re Superwoman. I was still crying into a pillow because my little angels both had big damn heads, while you were already getting out of the hospital and calling your boss to let him know you’d be back working in a few days. Insane. But what I’m saying is, it doesn’t have to be this hard,” Fiona said sagely.
    They’d both stopped breastfeeding about a month ago, as shifter babies tended to go for solid foods much faster. That was when their little wine get-togethers started. Once, maybe twice a week, Fiona would run over to Madeline’s place and they’d have drinks, discuss the daily terror of having twin boys, and generally