Chapter 1
Cordelia's POV
The Enforcement Corps hauled me out of my apartment in the middle of the night and dumped me at the Southside Precinct.
The subordinate I'd trained myself had scratch marks all over her neck and collarbone, and she was shaking so hard she could barely stay on her feet.
The second she saw me, she pointed and started screaming that my mate had raped her.
"Director Cordelia, I've always looked up to you. You can't sic your mate on me just because I disagreed with you in a meeting!"
My brain just went blank. Because I don't have a mate.
It was pouring outside. I sat on a cold metal chair in the interrogation room, a harsh white light glaring down at me.
Daisy, my best engineer, sat kitty-corner from me in the victim's chair. Somebody had draped an oversized men's coat over her shoulders. Her hair was a mess and she wouldn't stop shaking.
"Ms. Cordelia. You want to tell us what happened tonight?" Captain Wayne slammed a folder down on the table. He was a thick-shouldered Delta, and he made no effort to hide how much he despised me.
I didn't look at the folder. I looked at Daisy.
She started as an intern who couldn't even draw a basic alchemical matrix. I brought her up to lead engineer myself. I'd signed her promotion recommendation earlier this month.
Now she was sitting there pinning something I never did on me.
"Tell you what?" I said.
"Don't play dumb." Wayne leaned in over the table. "Three hours ago, in the parking garage under the Rosewood Avenue Grand Hotel, your mate violently assaulted Ms. Daisy. We've got the fluid samples from the scene and her medical exam right here."
He tossed a stack of photos in front of me.
Torn clothes. Daisy's face, soaked with tears.
"Director Cordelia..." Daisy let out a sharp, broken sob. "I know how you are at the office. I've always respected you. But I said one thing you didn't like in a project meeting this afternoon, and you had your mate come after me for it? My reputation's ruined. It's over."
She cried until she could barely breathe. The two young officers next to her looked like they wanted to comfort her. When they turned to me, they looked like they wanted to tear me apart.
Watching her put on the act, I almost wanted to laugh.
I didn't raise my voice. "Daisy. You sure about this? My mate assaulted you? You sure you didn't just have a weird dream?"
"What is wrong with you? You're going to sit there and insult the victim?" Wayne barked.
"Sorry, I'm just a little thrown," I said, spreading my hands, not bothering to keep the sarcasm out of it. "I'm twenty-eight and I've never dated anyone. Never even held a guy's hand. So where'd I get a mate to send after her?"
The room went quiet for about a second.
Then Daisy started shrieking. "You liar! Cordelia, you'll say anything to get out of this! Your personnel file says you have a mate, it's right there in the system! You talk about him at the office all the time, how he cooks for you, how he takes out your trash! You posted a picture of him on your story!"
She spun toward Wayne. "Captain, I have proof. I've got screenshots from the company system."
She fumbled her phone out and pulled up the images, then shoved it at him.
She wasn't lying about that part. It was my onboarding file. Mate Status: mated.
I'd typed that in on my first day so HR would stop shoving me into the Imperial Pairing Program, and so I'd have an excuse to turn down the endless weekend overtime.
Never occurred to me it would end up being the one piece of evidence solid enough to land me in an interrogation room.
Wayne looked at the screenshots and laughed under his breath. "The evidence is right here, Ms. Cordelia. Got anything else?"
"Captain." I sighed. "Do me a favor. Pull up the Imperial Gene Registry, run my citizen ID, and check my physiological status."
Wayne frowned. He clearly thought I was grasping at straws. But he walked over to the terminal anyway and typed in my number one-handed.
The system chimed.
His eyes moved across the screen and the smirk died on his face. He rubbed his eyes and leaned in, like he couldn't read what was in front of him.
"This... how is that possible?" Wayne said, mostly to himself.
