Chapter 170: Welco To Snow Team
Felicity flipped another piece of at, then seed to rember sothing, her head tilting slightly before she turned back around again, still crouched near the fire.
"Oh, by the way," she said, smiling like she hadn’t just redirected an entire line of questioning. "My na’s Felicity. What’s yours?"
Dimitri froze a shift, a re calibration, a mont where the man who led one of the strongest teams left in the world adjusted to being addressed like this, directly, without fear, without hesitation, without the weight most people carried when speaking to him.
"Dimitri," he said.
She bead.
"Nice to et you." The simplicity of it landed harder than anything else in the conversation.
Dimitri inclined his head slightly, then gestured, his voice steady as he continued. "Richard, Dawn, Thane and Exile."
Each na followed with a brief acknowledgnt, the structure of introduction grounding the mont in sothing familiar, sothing almost normal despite everything else pressing around it.
Felicity nodded at each of them like she was eting neighbors instead of n who could dismantle most threats in minutes.
"Hi, Welco to Snow Team" she said warmly.
Exile did not respond imdiately he couldn’t, because now she had a voice, a face and she had said hi to him, she was real and none of it aligned with what his body had been preparing for.
Lucan’s arm shifted slightly, sliding more securely across her shoulder, his thumb brushing once against her upper arm in a slow, absent motion that wasn’t absent at all.
Victor saw it.
Lucan saw that Victor saw it, neither of them looked away, between them, sothing quiet and sharp tightened.
Felicity turned back to the grill again, humming softly, already focused on the next batch, entirely unaware of the way the space around her had shifted again, the way attention had narrowed, the way control was being tested in small, precise incrents. Felicity smiled to herself as she cooked, completely content a and around her, every single man in that space understood, with increasing clarity, that this was not stabilizing anything at all.
The fire settled into a steady burn, the initial chaos of food and movent giving way to sothing that almost resembled calm, if you ignored the way every man present was still tracking Felicity’s position with a level of awareness that bordered on instinct.
She moved easily between them, that was the problem. cautious? no, not even reserved, not asured in the way soone should have been in the middle of two high tier teams who were still in the process of deciding exactly what they were to each other. Felicity carried plates, passed food, crouched beside the fire to flip at, stood again to hand it out, her attention moving wherever it was needed without hesitation, without fear, without the understanding that every small action she took was being interpreted ten different ways at once.
She handed the next plate not to Victor, not to Ivan, not to any of the n who had already established their place around her, she handed it to Richard.
"Here," she said, smiling like it was the most natural thing in the world. "You haven’t eaten yet."
Richard blinked once, then accepted it with a quiet, "Thank you."
Snow Team felt it imdiately, not as anger, not even as offense, but as sothing tighter, sothing that pressed inward instead of outward. It wasn’t about the food. It wasn’t about hierarchy. It was about the way she gave it.
Victor’s gaze flicked toward her, then to Richard, then away again, controlled, asured, but not untouched.
Voss noticed it too, his expression flattening just slightly before he dragged a hand through his hair and exhaled under his breath like he had expected sothing like this and still wasn’t enjoying it.
Damien didn’t look up, but his grip on the tongs tightened just enough to register.
Ivan stayed still watching, always watching.
Felicity didn’t stop she turned, already grabbing another portion, stepping toward Dawn this ti, then Thane, then even after the briefest hesitation Exile, holding out food with that sa bright, open warmth that did not differentiate between danger and safety the way it probably should have.
Exile froze when she got close, not because he wanted to because his body stopped cooperating.
"Here," she said again, softer this ti, like she had sensed sothing in him that needed gentleness instead of energy.
His hand moved carefully and he took it, for a mont, everything in him went quiet.
Across the fire, Sarge watched that exchange with a narrowing gaze, sothing sharp settling behind his eyes that had not been there before.
Kai, oblivious or choosing to be, leaned slightly toward Thane. "See," he said, voice low but animated. "This is what I was talking about, it’s not just us, it’s everyone, it’s structural."
Pope nodded like this was a confird theory. "You’re already halfway gone."
Thane didn’t answer imdiately because he was watching her.
Not the way Exile was, not the way Lucan was, not the way the husbands were, but sothing else, sothing quieter and more dangerous in its own way. His gaze followed the way she moved, the way she shifted between people, the way she smiled without calculation, and sothing in his chest tightened in a way that had nothing to do with instinct and everything to do with sothing far more complicated.
Luna tugged at his sleeve.
He looked down.
The small silver cub had sohow made her way over, her bright eyes fixed on him with open expectation "Up," she demanded.
Thane blinked.
Then, without thinking too hard about it, he crouched and lifted her easily, settling her against his side with practiced familiarity.
"You’ve done this before," Felicity said, appearing beside him again like she had been drawn there by the interaction.
Thane glanced at her, then at the cub in his arms, his expression shifting just slightly.
"I have younger siblings," he said, the admission ca easier than he expected, but it was a sad one, as he had no idea where they were and if they were alive.
Luna settled against him imdiately, comfortable, unbothered, like she had known him longer than five seconds. Frost followed a mont later, less graceful but equally determined, climbing up with assistance from Thane’s free hand.
Felicity’s entire face softened.
"That’s so cute," she squealed.
Thane huffed quietly, sothing almost embarrassed slipping through his usual control. "They’re... loud."
"They’re perfect," she corrected, reaching out to brush a hand over Luna’s head before stepping back again, already turning toward sothing else that needed her attention.
Thane watched her go, that was the mistake.
Across the fire, Sarge had gone very still, it wasn’t obvious and not to most people, but to the n who knew him, who had fought beside him, who understood the way he held tension in his body before it broke, it was unmistakable.
Tommy noticed first "Hey buddy," he said under his breath, nudging him lightly. "Relax."
Sarge didn’t respond his gaze stayed on Thane, on the way he held the cubs, he was spiraling his jaw tightened, he thought about the way she had smiled at him.
Felicity, still completely unaware of the slow fracture forming at the edges of her little gathering, clapped her hands once lightly.
"Okay, next batch is ready," she said, bright again, pulling attention back to herself without even trying.
that was the real problem because every ti she did that, every ti she moved, every ti she smiled, every ti she gave sothing of herself without restraint, she pulled them tighter.
Snow Team was used to that pull.
Leaf Team was not.
And the difference between those two states was starting to show. Thane adjusted Luna slightly in his arms as Frost settled more comfortably against his side, his gaze flicking once more toward Felicity as she laughed at sothing Tommy said, her shoulders relaxing, her entire presence open in a way that made everything else feel sharper by comparison.
"She’s..." he started, then stopped.
Kai leaned in imdiately. "Say it."
Thane didn’t look at him, he didn’t need to.
"I see it," he said quietly.
Pope grinned. "There it is."
Dawn’s gaze shifted toward him, sothing unreadable in his expression.
Felicity moved away from them then, heading back toward the fire, her attention already caught by Voss, she went and sat on his lap and gave him a cuddle. leaving Thane standing there with two cubs and a thought he had not intended to form.
Sarge stepped forward close enough that only Thane would hear him his voice was low and far more serious than anything he had said all day "She’s mine," he said quietly.
Thane’s head turned, slowly in a way you want to do a double take.
Sarge’s gaze didn’t waver "i don’t care what you say," he continued, just as calm, just as steady. "She’s mine."
The air between them tightened.
Sarge’s expression didn’t change not even a little "you’ve made a grave mistake," he said.
the tension stopped pretending to be subtle.
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