[Novel] Kiss of Snow

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Kiss of Snow
Author : Nalini Singh
Category : Romance, Fantasy
Source: books4u.me/read/kiss-of-snow/6936.html

Since the moment of her defection from the PsyNet and into the SnowDancer wolf pack, Sienna Lauren has had one weakness. Hawke. Alpha and dangerous, he compels her to madness.
Hawke is used to walking alone, having lost the woman who would’ve been his mate long ago. But Sienna fascinates the primal heart of him, even as he tells himself she is far too young to handle the wild fury of the wolf.
Then Sienna changes the rules and suddenly, there is no more distance, only the most intimate of battles between two people who were never meant to meet. Yet as they strip away each other’s secrets in a storm of raw emotion, they must also ready themselves for a far more vicious fight…
A deadly enemy is out to destroy SnowDancer, striking at everything they hold dear, but it is Sienna’s darkest secret that may yet savage the pack that is her home…and the alpha who is its heartbeat…

 

[books4u]

Kiss of Snow
Page 1​

X

1979.

The year the Psy race became Silent.

Became cold, without emotion, without mercy.

Hearts were broken, families torn apart.

But far more were saved.

From insanity.

From murder.

From viciousness such as unseen in the world today.

For the X-Psy, Silence was a gift beyond price, a gift that allowed at least some of their number to survive childhood, have a life. Yet over a hundred years after the icy wave of the Silence Protocol washed away violence and despair, madness and love, X-Psy are, and remain, living weapons. Silence is their safety switch. Without it . . .

There are some nightmares the world will never be ready to face.

Chapter 1

HAWKE FOLDED HIS arms and leaned back against the solid bulk of his desk, eyes on the two young females in front of him. Hands clasped behind themselves and legs slightly spread in the "resting" stance, Sienna and Maria looked like the SnowDancer soldiers they weremdash;except for the fact that their hair straggled in a wild mess around their faces, matted with mud, crushed leaves, and other forest debris. Then there was the torn clothing and the sharp, acrid scent of blood.

His wolf bared its teeth.

"Let me get this straight," he said in a calm tone that had Maria turning pale under skin that was a warm, smooth brown where it wasnrsquo;t bruised and bloody. "Instead of staying on watch and protecting the packrsquo;s defensive border, you two decided to have your own personal dominance battle."

Sienna, of course, met his gazemdash;something no wolf wouldrsquo;ve done in the circumstances. "It wmdash;"

"Be quiet," he snapped. "If you open your mouth again without permission, Irsquo;m putting both of you in the pen with the two-year-olds."

Those amazing cardinal eyesmdash;white stars on a background of vivid blackmdash;went a pure ebony, which he knew full well indicated fury, but she clenched her jaw. Maria, on the other hand, had gone even paler. Good.

"Maria," he said, focusing on the petite changeling whose size belied her skill and strength in both human and wolf form. "How old are you?"

Maria swallowed. "Twenty."

"Not a juvenile."

Mariarsquo;s thick black curls, heavy with mud, bounced dully as she shook her head.

"Then explain this to me."

"I canrsquo;t, sir."

"Right answer." No reason they could offer up would be a good enough excuse for the bullshit fight. "Who threw the first punch?"

Silence.

His wolf approved. It mattered little whorsquo;d incited the exchange when neither had walked away from it, and the fact of the matter was, theyrsquo;d been meant to work as a team, so theyrsquo;d take their punishment as a teammdash;with one caveat.

"Seven days," he said to Maria. "Confined to quarters except for one hour each day. No contact with anyone while yoursquo;re inside." It was a harsh punishmentmdash;wolves were creatures of Pack, of family, and Maria was one of the most bubbly, social wolves in the den. To force her to spend all that time alone was an indication of just how badly shersquo;d blundered. "The next time you decide to step off watch, I wonrsquo;t be so lenient."

Maria chanced meeting his gaze for a fleeting second before those rich brown eyes skated away, her dominance no match for his. "May I attend Lakersquo;s twenty-first?"

"If thatrsquo;s the use you want to make of your hour on the day." Yeah, it made him a bastard to force her to miss most of her boyfriendrsquo;s big party, especially when the two were taking the first, careful steps into a relationship, but shersquo;d known exactly what she was doing when she decided to engage in a pissing contest with a fellow soldier.

SnowDancer was strong as a pack because they watched each otherrsquo;s backs. Hawke would not allow stupidity or arrogance to eat away at a foundation hersquo;d rebuilt from the ground up after the bloody events that had stolen both his parents and savaged the pack so badly it had taken more than a decade of tight isolation for them to recover.

Holding on to his temper by a very thin thread, he turned his attention to Sienna. "You were," he said, the wolf very much in his voice, "specifically ordered not to get into any physical altercations."

Sienna said nothing in response. It didnrsquo;t mattermdash;her rage was a hot pulse against his skin, as raw and stormy as Sienna herself. When she was like this, the wildness of her barely contained, it was hard to believe shersquo;d come into his pack Silent, her emotions blockaded behind so much ice, it had infuriated his wolf.

Maria shifted on her feet when he didnrsquo;t immediately continue.

"You have something to say?" he asked the woman, who was one of the best novice soldiers in the pack when she didnrsquo;t let her temper get in the way.

"I started it." Color high on her cheekbones, shoulders tight. "She was just defendingmdash;"

"No." Siennarsquo;s tone was steady, resolute, the anger buried under a wall of frigid control. "Irsquo;ll take my share of the blame. I couldrsquo;ve walked away."

Hawke narrowed his eyes. "Maria, go."

The novice soldier hesitated for a second, but she was a subordinate wolf, her natural instinct to obey her alpha too powerful to resistmdash;even though it was clear she wanted to remain behind to support Sienna. Hawke noted and approved of the display of loyalty enough that he didnrsquo;t rebuke her for the hesitation.

The door closed behind her with a quiet snick that seemed shotgun-loud inside the officersquo;s heavy silence. Hawke waited to see what Sienna would do now that they were alone. To his surprise, she maintained her position.

Reaching forward, he gripped her chin, turning her face to the side so that the light fell on the smooth lines of it. "Yoursquo;re lucky you donrsquo;t have a broken cheekbone." The flesh around her eye was going to turn all shades of purple as it was. "Where else are you hurt?"

"Irsquo;m fine."

His fingers tightened on her jaw. "Where else are you hurt?"

"You didnrsquo;t ask Maria." Stubborn will in every word.

"Maria is a wolf, able to take five times the damage of a Psy female and keep going." Which was the reason Sienna had been ordered not to get into physical confrontations with the wolves. That and the fact that she didnrsquo;t have her lethal abilities under total control. "Either you answer the question, or I swear to God I really will put you in the pen." It would be the most humiliating of experiences and she knew it, every muscle in her body taut with viciously withheld anger.

"Bruised ribs," she gritted out at last, "bruised abdomen, wrenched shoulder. Nothingrsquo;s broken. It should all heal within the next week."

Dropping his grip on her chin, he said, "Hold out your arms."

A hesitation.

The wolf growled, loud enough that she flinched. "Sienna, Irsquo;ve given you a long leash since you came into the pack, but that ends today." Insubordination from a juvenile could be punished and forgiven. In an adult, in a soldier , it was a far more serious matter. Sienna was nineteen going on twenty, a ranked novicemdash;letting her actions slide wasnrsquo;t even an option. "Hold out your fucking arms."

Something in his tone mustrsquo;ve gotten through to her because she did as ordered. A few small cuts on that creamy skin kissed gold by the sun, but no gouges that wouldrsquo;ve spoken of claws. "So Maria managed to rein in the wolf." If she hadnrsquo;t, hersquo;d have kicked her right back into training. Losing control of your temper was one thing; losing control of your wolf was far more dangerous.

Siennarsquo;s hands fisted as she dropped them to her sides.

Looking up, he met those eyes of absolute, unbroken black. It was clear she was fighting the elemental impulse to go at him, but she continued to hold her position. "How far did you go?" Her control was impressivemdash;and it irritated him in a way it shouldnrsquo;t have. But then, nothing about Sienna Lauren had ever been easy.

"I didnrsquo;t use my abilities." The tendons in her neck stood out against the dirt-encrusted hue of her skin. "If I had, shersquo;d be dead."

"Which is why yoursquo;re in far more trouble than Maria." When hersquo;d given the Lauren family sanctuary after their defection from the cold sterility of the PsyNet, it had been under a number of strict conditions. One of those conditions had been a prohibition against using Psy abilities on packmates.

A significant number of things had changed since that time, and the Laurens were now an integral and accepted part of the pack. Siennarsquo;s uncle, Judd, was one of Hawkersquo;s lieutenants, and often used his telepathic and telekinetic abilities in defense of SnowDancer. Hawke had also never tied the hands of the two youngest Laurens, knowing Marlee and Toby would need their mental claws to defend themselves against their rambunctious wolf playmates.

But that freedom didnrsquo;t extend to Sienna, because Hawke knew exactly what she could do. The instant Judd accepted the lieutenant blood bond, keeping secrets from his alpha had become a question of loyalty and trust.

"Why?" Sienna lifted her chin. "I didnrsquo;t disobey the rule about using my abilities."

Naturally, shersquo;d challenge him. "But," he said, reining in the wolfrsquo;s snarling response to her defiance, "you did disobey a direct order in engaging in the fightmdash;you said it yourself, you couldrsquo;ve walked away."

White lines bracketed her mouth. "Would you have?"

"This isnrsquo;t about me." Hersquo;d been a young hothead once upon a time, and hersquo;d had his ass kicked for it . . . until everything had changed, his childhood wiped out in a surge of blood and pain and piercing sorrow. "We both know your lack of control couldrsquo;ve led to a far more serious outcome." The hell of it was, she knew that, toomdash;and still shersquo;d let herself cross the line. That angered Hawke more than anything else.

"I could be confined to DarkRiver land," Sienna said while he was considering how to deal with her, "if you donrsquo;t want me in the den."

 

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Kiss of Snow
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Hawke snorted at her reference to the leopard pack that was SnowDancerrsquo;s most trusted ally. "So you can hang out with your boyfriend? Nice try."

Siennarsquo;s skin flushed a dull red. "Kit isnrsquo;t my boyfriend."

Hawke wasnrsquo;t going to get into that conversation. Not now. Not ever. "You donrsquo;t get to have a say in your punishment." Hersquo;d spoiled her. It was his own damn fault it was coming back to bite him in the ass. "One week confined to quarters in the soldiers area, one hour out per day." Psy were much better at handling isolation than changelings, but he knew Sienna had changed since defecting from the PsyNet, become far more intertwined in the bonds of family, of Pack. "Second week spent working with the babies in the nursery, since thatrsquo;s the age yoursquo;ve been acting recently. No duty rotations until you can be trusted to stick to your task."

"Imdash;" She snapped her mouth shut when he raised an eyebrow.

"Three weeks," he said softly. "Third week yoursquo;ll spend in the kitchens as a dish hand."

Her cheeks burned a hotter shade, but she didnrsquo;t interrupt again.

"Dismissed."

It was only after shersquo;d gonemdash;the autumn and spice of her scent lingering in the air in a silent rebellion she wouldrsquo;ve undoubtedly enjoyed had she known about itmdash;that he loosened his hold on the wolf who was his more feral half.

It lunged for her scent.

Sucking in a harsh breath, Hawke fought the primal urge to go after her. Hersquo;d been battling the instinct for months, ever since the wolf decided that she was now an adult and, therefore, fair prey. The human half of him wasnrsquo;t having much success in changing the wolfrsquo;s mind, not when he had to fight the hunger to claim the most intimate of skin privileges every time she was in his presence.

"Christ." Picking up the sleek new sat phone the techs had issued him four weeks ago, he put through a call to DarkRiverrsquo;s alpha.

Lucas answered on the second ring. "What is it?"

"Sienna wonrsquo;t be heading down to spend time with you cats for a while." Aside from the distance Sienna apparently needed from the den, from him, shersquo;d been working with Lucasrsquo;s Psy mate, Sascha, to understand and gain control of her abilities. Butmdash;"I canrsquo;t let it go. Not this time."

"Understood." The answer of a fellow alpha.

Hawke sat on the edge of his desk, shoving a hand through his hair. "Can she handle it?" He knew she wouldnrsquo;t breakmdash;Sienna was too strong for that, a strength that acted like a drug on his wolfmdash;but the power that lived within her was so vast, it had to be treated as the wildest of beasts.

"Last time she was down," Lucas responded, "Sascha said she displayed an exceptional level of stability, nothing like when they first began to work together. Theyrsquo;re not having regular meetings anymore, so thatrsquo;s not an issue."

Mind at rest on that score at least, Hawke said, "Irsquo;ll make sure Judd keeps a psychic eye on her just in case." Sienna wouldnrsquo;t appreciate the oversight, but fact was factmdash;she was dangerous, and he had to consider the safety of the pack as a whole. As for the ferocity of his protective instincts when it came to her, he wasnrsquo;t about to lie and pretend they didnrsquo;t exist.

"Can I ask what happened?" Lucasrsquo;s tone was curious.

Hawke gave the cat a quick rundown. "Shersquo;s been worse this past month." Prior to that, her newfound stability had been noticedmdash;and approved ofmdash;by all the senior members of the pack. "Irsquo;ve got to start coming down hard on her or itrsquo;ll cause discontent in the den." Hierarchy was the glue that held a wolf pack together. As alpha, Hawke was at the top of that hierarchy. He could not, would not, accept rebellion from a subordinate.

"Yeah, I get it," Lucas replied. "Surprises me though. Shersquo;s the perfect soldier down here, doesnrsquo;t ever give me lip. Got a mind as sharp as a razor."

Hawke flexed and unflexed his claws. "Yeah, well, shersquo;s not yours."

A long, quiet pause. "I heard you were seeing someone."

"You want to gossip?" Hawke made no attempt to hide his irritation.

"Kit and the other novices saw you with some drop-dead gorgeous blonde a few weeks ago. At a restaurant down by Pier 39."

He thought back. "Shersquo;s a media consultant with CTX." SnowDancer and DarkRiver held majority shares in the communications company, an investment that was paying off big-time as even Psy began to search for news reports free of the crushing influence of their dictatorial ruling Council. "Wanted to talk to me about doing an interview."

"Whenrsquo;s it going to be on?"

"Next time you see a pig flying past the window." Hawke didnrsquo;t play for the cameras, and hersquo;d made damn sure Ms. Consultant understood that SnowDancer wasnrsquo;t planning to change its mean and carnivorous image to pretty and fluffy anytime soon. She could work with that or find another posimdash;A sudden thought sliced clean through his remembered annoyance, had his hand tightening on the phone. "Was Sienna with the novices?"

"Yep."

It was Hawke who paused this time, his wolf taking a watchful stance, caught between two competing needs. "Therersquo;s nothing I can do about that, Luc," he said at last, every muscle in his body taut to the point of pain.

"That was what Nate said."

The leopard sentinel was now happily mated with two cubs.

"Not the same." It wasnrsquo;t simply a question of agemdash;the brutal fact was that Hawkersquo;s mate was dead. Had died as a child. Sienna didnrsquo;t understand what that meant, how little he had to give her, give any woman. If he was selfish enough to succumb to the unnamed but powerful pull between them, he knew full well hersquo;d destroy her.

"Doesnrsquo;t mean you canrsquo;t be happy. Think about it." Luc hung up.

She hasnrsquo;t slept with him, you know . . . Donrsquo;t leave it too late, Hawke, or you might just lose her.

Indigorsquo;s words two months ago, speaking about Sienna and that cub who was stuck to her like glue whenever Hawke turned around. Aside from the fact the boy was a leopard, there was nothing wrong with Kit. Hersquo;d make the perfect mamdash;

A crunching sound.

His new sat phone bore a jagged ***** through the screen.

RECOVERED FROM COMPUTER 2(A) TAGS: PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE, FATHER, E-PSY, ACTION REQUIRED AND COMPLETED1

FROM: Alice lt;[emailnbsp;protected] /* */ gt;

TO: Dad lt;[emailnbsp;protected] /* */ gt;

DATE: September 26th, 1970 at 11:43pm

SUBJECT: News!!

Hi Dad,

I have the most exciting news. While Irsquo;m currently completing my thesis on E-Psy, Irsquo;ve just gained funding to do a second study on the rare X designation! The grant committee referenced my two papers last year and said that my outsiderrsquo;s view on Psy abilities had given rise to some unique conclusionsmdash;I suppose theyrsquo;re right. Irsquo;m not Psy after all. My Es never made me feel like an outsider, but thatrsquo;s their gift, isnrsquo;t it?

George, who will soon be a colleague rather than my supervisor, says Irsquo;m setting myself up for failure with this project since the Psy Council has been getting harder to deal with of late. Plus, so little is known about the Xs. But thatrsquo;s the point of it, I tell him. I might not be an archaeologist like you, Dad, but Irsquo;m exploring my own strange lands.

Speaking of George, hersquo;s working on a paper about the development of the Internet. Hersquo;s adamant it wouldnrsquo;t have developed as fast as it did had we not had the PsyNet as an example and impetus, and I have to agreemdash;funding alone came thick and fast in the early days because businesses wanted informational parity. He wants another anthropologistrsquo;s take on it, so I said I would forward it to Mom (will you tell her?).

I hope the sands of Egypt are being kind to you both.

Love,

Alice

Chapter 2

HER CALM FACADE shattering like so much glass the instant she was behind closed doors, Sienna kicked the back wall of the quarters shersquo;d been assigned in the area of the den set aside for unmated soldiers. She rarely used this room, preferring to live with her brother, Toby; uncle Walker; and cousin, Marlee. But now she was stuck in this small, sterile space for the next week.

Sienna, Irsquo;ve given you a long leash since you came into the pack, but that ends today.

She flinched at the echo of memory. Therersquo;d been nothing but the most cutting anger in those eyes of a blue so very pale, they were those of a husky given human form. Paired with that mane of silver-gold and, most of all, that alpha personality, Hawke was a man who invited female attention without effort.

Her hand fisted. Because today, he hadnrsquo;t seen a woman in front of him, but an unreliable member of the pack, one whorsquo;d put SnowDancer in danger with her actions. No punishment he couldrsquo;ve given her could compare to her own self-recrimination. The ice-cold knot of shame in her gut was a chill reminder of just how badly shersquo;d messed up. All this time and work, and when it came down to it, shersquo;d allowed her temper to overrule her rational mind.

"Damn it, Sienna." Thrusting her hands into her hair, she grimaced at the dried mud that flaked down her face, and began to strip. It took her less than a minute to bare herself to the skin. Stalking into the tiny shower, deeply grateful that the pack-minded wolves had set it up so everyone had private facilities, she washed the dirt, grass, and blood off her body before beginning to untangle the long, mud-stiff strands of her hair.

It took a long time.

Through it all, frustrationmdash;at herself, at her inability to let go of something that was tearing her apart piece by painful piecemdash;raged like a caged tiger within her. If the changelings had a beast inside of them, then so did she, and it was a far more vicious thing, far colder in its ability to destroy. Right now, that beast was focused inward, raking at her with searing claws. Lowering the water temperature, she shampooed her hair twice, then ran the conditioner through it, bringing it forward over her shoulder to make sure she got the ends. It was only when she was almost finished that she realized what she was seeing.

 

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Kiss of Snow
Page 3​

Grabbing a wet hunk of hair, she lifted it to her eyes and swore. The powerful resonance of her ability had neutralized the dye. Again. For the third time in a month. It spoke to a lack of control that worried her. Shersquo;d been so good since she began to spend a large amount of time in DarkRiver territory, her Psy abilities so stable that the fear that had locked around her throat since her defection had burned away in a storm of confidence.

Then shersquo;d seenmdash;"No."

Snapping off the water, she stepped out and picked up a large, fluffy towel Brenna had given her as part of a birthday gift. It was thick and luxuriant against her flesh, a sensory pleasure she couldnrsquo;t help but embrace . . . just like she couldnrsquo;t resist the compulsion that had led to her current situation.

She clenched her jaw so tight it shot a bolt of pain along the bone. But the sensory shock helped her shake off the gut-deep craving that never quite left her, and she concentrated on rubbing herself dry. The bathroom mirror, when she glanced at it, showed her a female of average height with hair of such a deep, deep red it appeared black when wet.

"Like the heart of ruby," Sascha had said the last time theyrsquo;d put in the dye, the empathrsquo;s hands gentle on Siennarsquo;s scalp. "Such a shame we have to cover it up."

Unfortunately, they didnrsquo;t have a choice in the matter. Her hair was too distinctive. Then again, Sienna thoughtmdash;staring at a face that had become refined in a very feminine way, all trace of childish softness having melted away while she hadnrsquo;t been lookingmdash;maybe it was safe now.

Her hair had in fact darkened in the years since her defection from the PsyNet. Aside from the changes in her face, her body was both noticeably curvier and more muscled. While she carried the muscle in a fluid way that didnrsquo;t bulk her up, no one who had known her while shersquo;d been jacked into the Net would recognize her now. Especially given the brown contact lenses she always wore outside of SnowDancer territory.

She hadnrsquo;t worn them today. The bruised eyes that looked back at her were those of a cardinal, a genetic marker that set her apart from the world in a way that couldnrsquo;t be explained, not even to another cardinal. Perhaps the only person who had ever come close to understanding the violence of what lived within her had been her mother, a cardinal telepath with her own demons. Siennarsquo;s brother, Toby, was a cardinal, too. Three in one family . . . it was extraordinary.

But not as extraordinary as a cardinal X surviving to adulthood.

A hard, rapping knock.

Jumping at the sound, she quickly pulled on underwear, a clean T-shirt, and the soft black pants she liked to wear at home. "Irsquo;m coming!" she called out when the pounding started again. Since her door had a note indicating she was confined to quarters, it could only be one of the senior members of the pack.

Damp hair tucked behind her ears, she opened the door to come face to face with a man who was unquestionably lethal. "Judd." It surprised her that he hadnrsquo;t rsquo;pathed to her instead of tracking her down.

Then he spoke. "Can you handle being confined?"

The edge of the door dug into her palm, a hard, cold bite. "He asked you to make sure of that, didnrsquo;t he?"

Judd Lauren mightrsquo;ve been her motherrsquo;s brother, but hersquo;d also been an Arrow, one of the Psy Councilrsquo;s most deadly assassins. He was better at maintaining a mask than anyone she knew, and now his face told her nothing. "Answer the question." His tone made it clear he was asking not as her uncle, but as a SnowDancer lieutenant.

She came to attention. "Irsquo;m fine." Her emotions were causing her shields to shudder as her thoughts ricocheted in a hundred different directions, but they were holding. That was all that mattered, because without her shields, shersquo;d be a far more destructive threat than any manmade weapon.

Juddrsquo;s eyes never moved off her, and she knew hersquo;d made his own assessment of her status even before he nodded. "You know what to do the instant therersquo;s a problem."

"Yes." Shersquo;d rsquo;path him, and hersquo;d teleport in, shoot to incapacitate. If the shock of pain didnrsquo;t splinter her psychic focus, hersquo;d aim for her head next. It sounded barbaric and she knew it would break something in him to do it, but someone had to act as the failsafe, a backup in case she could no longer stop herself. Because the fact was, she was a cardinal with a martial ability. There was a high chance her shields would lock down the instant she went live. Not even an Arrow would be able to break through on the psychic plane.

A physical attack was the sole avenue left. Her certainty that Judd would strike that blow if necessary was the only thing that allowed her to live without constantly fearing for the safety of everyone around her. Though notwithstanding her current situation, shersquo;d achieved near-perfect psychic discipline in the preceding months, something no one, not even she, had expected of an X outside Silence.

The reminder had her steeling her spine. "Irsquo;ll use the time alone to augment and refine the controls you and Sascha helped me develop." Judd wasnrsquo;t an X, but as a dangerously strong telekinetic, he understood the bone-deep fear that drove her to keep the vicious strength of her abilities trapped in the steel cage of her mind. It was also why hersquo;d kill her if it came down to it.

"Good." Leaning forward, he cupped her cheek, the gesture no longer as startling as it once mightrsquo;ve beenmdash;before Judd mated with a wolf who had survived her own nightmare. "I did wonder when you were going to push Hawke too far." Stroking his thumb over her cheekbone, he brushed a kiss on her forehead. "Take some of this time to think, Sienna, figure out where yoursquo;re heading."

Her emotions a tight knot in her chest, she closed the door after he left and walked back to the bathroom to pick up the brush on the shelf by the mirror. "Hawkersquo;s mate is dead," she made herself say to the woman who was her reflection, her fingers clenching to bloodless tightness around the carved wood of the handle. "He buried his heart with her."

Even in the face of that harsh truth, the brutal compulsion inside of her refused to be extinguished, to be contained. Like the destructive power of an X, it threatened to consume her until only ashes remained.

LARA was on her way out of the den when she ran into Judd Lauren. "Here," he said, hefting the medical kit she was in the process of slinging over her shoulder.

"Thanks." Noticing the direction hersquo;d come from, she said, "I heard Sienna and Maria returned from their watch hurt, but no onersquo;s called me. They okay?"

The Psy lieutenant followed her lead out of the den and into the searing sunshine and crisp air of the Sierra Nevada before answering, "Scratches and bruises, nothing major."

Her healerrsquo;s heart settling, she lifted her face to the painful clarity of the chrome blue sky. "Itrsquo;s days like this that make me glad to be a SnowDancer." To be a wolf.

"Brenna and I went for an early morning run, when the mist was rising up off the ground." Juddrsquo;s tone gentled in a way she knew he wasnrsquo;t aware of when he spoke of his mate.

"I love that time of day." When everything was fresh, the entire world a hushed secret. "Which direction did you go?"

"The other side of the lake," he answered as they moved on. "Somdash;whorsquo;s injured?"

She rolled her eyes. "Two of the juveniles were doing God knows what, and now I have a broken arm and three cracked ribs to heal."

"You donrsquo;t usually need this." He tapped the medical kit.

"Juveniles," Lara muttered, "occasionally need to learn a lesson about the fact that maybe they should take better care not to break their limbs. Irsquo;ll do some healing to ensure everything is as it should be, then cast the arm, strap the ribs." It would take longer to mend than if she used her gift to fully repair the injuries, but would do the boys no harm.

"The peripheral benefit is it keeps my medical skills from getting rusty, plus it allows me to hold my healing abilities in reserve in case we have a sudden critical injury." While Hawke could share his strength with her through their healer-alpha bond, her own body could only handle so much before it collapsed.

"Here." Judd pushed up a branch so she could pass underneath. Which was why she was in front when they entered the clearing, where one of the injured boys lay propped up against a tree, cradling his arm. The other sat cross-legged, clutching at his ribs. Brace was tall and lanky, though Joshua had put on a bit of muscle over the past couple of months. Right now, however, both looked like shamed six-year-olds.

The reason, Lara guessed as her heart thudded hard against her ribs, was the man standing with his arms folded, looking down at the two miscreants. "Walker." Shersquo;d scented the dark water and snow-dusted fir of his scent as she and Judd neared but had put it down to the fact that he was often in this area with the younger teensmdash;having been put in charge of the ten-to-thirteen-year-olds. A tough age for wolves, but Walker handled them without so much as raising his voice.

She could understand whymdash;quiet, intense Walker Lauren had a presence akin to that of any dominant wolf. "I didnrsquo;t expect to see you here." Her voice came out a little husky to her own ears, but no one else seemed to notice.

Walkerrsquo;s pale green eyes held hers for a long, tense second. "I was passing by when I glimpsed these two." His gaze shifted over her shoulder. "Irsquo;ll carry it back."

"We need to speakmdash;bring the kids for dinner." Judd melted away into the forest so fast, Lara didnrsquo;t even manage to turn around in time.

"Lara, it hurts." It was an almost apologetic voice.

Wrenching away the suffocating web of want and anger and hurt that had wrapped around her, she went to her knees. "Let me see, sweetheart," she said, checking first Brace, then Joshua. "Hold still for a second." Using the pressure injector, she gave them each a shot of painkiller.

She was vividly conscious of Walker hunkering down beside her, his body big, the scent of him as cool and reserved as the man himself. As she worked, he spoke to Joshua and Brace. Whatever theyrsquo;d done to get into trouble, the boysrsquo; wolves relaxed at once under his attention. Lara only wished her own wolf wasnrsquo;t so hypersensitive to his presence, until its fur rubbed up against the inside of her skinmdash;but sensitivity aside, the wolf maintained a wary distance. Both parts of her had learned their lesson when it came to Walker Lauren.

 

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"There," she said a while later as both boys checked out Bracersquo;s high-tech cast, made of a transparent plascrete. "Any pain or discomfort, you come to me straight away, you understand?"

"Thanks, Lara." A brilliant smile from Joshua followed by a kiss from each teenagermdash;one on either cheekmdash;before they got up and raced off, as if they hadnrsquo;t been fighting tears not long before.

Shaking her head even as her wolf did the same in affectionate amusement, Lara packed up her gear and watched Walker pick up the bag without effort. It took several attempts to get anything out through a throat gone dry as dust, but she was determined not to allow him to unsettle her. "Thanks."

A silent nod.

As they walked back, Lararsquo;s mind rebelled against her own resolution, drowning her in thoughts of that kiss the night Riaz returned to the den. The senior members of the pack had thrown the lieutenant an impromptu welcome-home party. The bubbles had been flowing, and Lara, who didnrsquo;t usually drink, had had a little too much champagne. It had given her the courage not only to argue with the tall Psy male whorsquo;d fascinated her since he first entered the den, but to drag him into a dark corner, go on tiptoe, and find his mouth with her own.

Hersquo;d kissed her back, slow and deep and with that powerful body held in fierce check, his hands curving around her ribs as he pulled her into the V of his thighs. The strong muscles in his neck had flexed under her fingers when he angled his head to deepen the kiss, the slight abrasiveness of his unshaven jaw rubbing a rough caress over her skin.

Big as he was, shersquo;d felt surrounded by him, overwhelmed in the most sensual of ways, his shoulders blocking out the world as he backed her to the wall. She mightrsquo;ve been buzzed, but shersquo;d never forget a single instant of that experience. Woman and wolf, every part of her had been stunned at her success . . . for the five short seconds it lasted.

Then Walker had lifted his head and nudged her back to the party. Shersquo;d thought he was acting the gentleman since she was a tad tipsy, but he would surely do what all dominants did when they wanted a woman, seek her out again when she was sober. He hadnrsquo;t called her the next morning, which hadnrsquo;t left her in the best of moods. But he had called her later that same afternoon.

Theyrsquo;d gone for a walk, her heart in her throat the entire time. Shersquo;d thought it was a beginning. Until Walker had stopped on the edge of a cliff that fell into a valley with dramatic suddenness, his dark blond hair pushed back by the breeze, and said, "What happened last night was a mistake, Lara." His tone had been gentle, and that had made it all the more terrible. "I apologize."

Ice crawled through her veins, but not wanting to make a mistake, shersquo;d asked, "Because I had too much champagne?"

The answer had been absolute, the rejection crystal clear. "No."

She thought she mightrsquo;ve made some smiling remark before excusing herself to walk back to the den alone, but all she could remember was the crushing black of her emotions. God, this man, hersquo;d hurt her. However, if it had been a simple case of unrequited attraction, shersquo;d have forgiven himmdash;as she knew too well, you couldnrsquo;t control who you fell for.

No, what had hurt and angered her was that it hadnrsquo;t all been in her head. She knew when a man wanted her, and Walker had wanted her . . . enough to kiss, apparently, but not to keep. If that was the case, he was plenty big and strong enough to have stopped her kiss before it ever touched his lips. He hadnrsquo;t. Hersquo;d held her as if she mattered before breaking her heart. And that, she couldnrsquo;t, wouldnrsquo;t forgive.

"Lara."

Glancing up at that face drawn in rough masculine lines, she shoved the memories back where they belonged: in the past. "Sorry," she said with a smile built out of pure pride. "I know the kitrsquo;s heavy. I can take it the rest of the way."

Walker ignored her attempt to keep the conversation casual. "We havenrsquo;t spoken for several weeks."

She knew he was referring to the late-night conversations theyrsquo;d had before the kiss. Walker was a night owl. Lara often stayed up late with her patients. Somehow, theyrsquo;d ended up having coffee around eleven most nightsmdash;with Walker keeping a telepathic eye on his daughter and nephew when Sienna wasnrsquo;t able to stay with them. They hadnrsquo;t talked about anything of particular note, but those nights had given her the courage to do something that didnrsquo;t come easily to a wolf who wasnrsquo;t a dominant.

Healers never weremdash;though they werenrsquo;t submissive, either. Normally, her packmatesrsquo; dominance simply didnrsquo;t affect Lara, though her wolf had the ability to put all of them, young or old, at ease. However, things didnrsquo;t work the same with Walker. Still, shersquo;d made the first move, chanced that kiss that had led to her humiliation.

Since his rejection, shersquo;d made sure to be busy or not in the infirmary around that time; the wound was too fresh. But time had passed, things had changed; she wasnrsquo;t only surviving, she was holding her own in this encounter. That didnrsquo;t mean she was about to allow Walker to make his way back into her life, not when she was ready to move on at last.

"Have you forgotten? We spoke when I patched Marlee up after she skinned her knee," she said with a laugh that sounded natural. "Actually"mdash;she held out her hand for the kitmdash;"if you donrsquo;t mind, Irsquo;d prefer to walk the rest of the distance alone. Itrsquo;ll give me some thinking time."

Walker stood unmoving, pale green eyes locked on her. "And if I do mind?"

An uncomfortable heaviness gathered in the air.

She didnrsquo;t understand why he was pushing this, but what she did know was that she wasnrsquo;t going to open the lid on that box. Not today or any other day. "If yoursquo;re okay to carry it back," she said, misunderstanding on purpose, "then thanks." With that and a cheery wave, she headed off into the woods in the direction of the waterfall.

There, she thought, it was done, that excruciating chapter of her life closed.

Chapter 3

COUNCILOR HENRY SCOTT had made the decision to sacrifice San Francisco two months ago, regardless of the economic and financial upheaval such destruction would cause. Now it was simply a case of putting the final pieces in place.

With that in mind, he turned away from the view of the busy streets visible through the window of the office he kept at his London residence, and to the man hersquo;d placed in charge of coordinating his military resourcesmdash;all of which had now been integrated into the streamlined structure of Pure Psy. The original civilian personnel had been quietly moved out of command positions.

Henry didnrsquo;t need a political party. He needed a weapon.

Which was why Vasquez was now in charge of all Pure Psy operations. There was nothing prepossessing about the manmdash;he stood a bare five feet four inches, with a build more akin to that of a gymnast than a soldier, and a face so unremarkable people forgot him within minutes of meeting him.

"How long," Henry asked, "before we can move on San Francisco and the surrounding changeling-held areas?"

"A month." Bringing up the files on the main comm screen, Vasquez gave Henry a précis of their current status as regarding men and weapons. "What the wolves call lsquo;den territoryrsquo; will be the most difficult to take, but Irsquo;m working on a possible solution."

Henry nodded, left it at that. Vasquez would be useless to him if he didnrsquo;t think for himselfmdash;something Henryrsquo;s "wife," Shoshanna, would do well to emulate when it came to her own advisors. She surrounded herself with flunkies, none of them with the intelligence of a gnat. Which was why Henry was running this, while Shoshanna thought she held the reins. "Are there any problems I need to be aware of?"

"No."

"In that case, wersquo;ll meet again in a weekrsquo;s time."

It was only after Vasquez left that Henry brought up another file. It was his investment portfolio, and once again, it was in worse shape than warranted. He didnrsquo;t have to be an expert to realize whose hand lay behind the slow, untraceable strangulation of his financesmdash;Nikita Duncan was a master at manipulating money. However, while her actions were certainly problematic, the losses were nowhere near enough to stop him. Hersquo;d take San Francisco soon enough, obliterating the base of her empire.

As for the changelings . . . they could not be allowed to live, not after their constant and continuing defiance. They believed themselves immune to the Councilrsquo;s reach to the extent that theyrsquo;d encouraged the conception of a hybrid with changeling blood, a fetus that if it came to term, would result in the dilution of the psychic abilities that made the Psy race the most powerful on the planet.

Henry wouldnrsquo;t permit it.

It was time the world went back to the way it had been for over a century, the way it should be, with the purest of Psy in power, and the other two races allowed to exist only so long as they followed Psy rule. When people thought of SnowDancer and DarkRiver, Henry wanted them to see the blood-soaked cost of noncompliance.

Chapter 4

THREE DAYS AFTER the situation with Maria and Sienna, Hawke found himself looking down at a small, big-eyed face. Going down on his haunches to meet that wildly curious gaze, he said, "Looking serious, Ben."

The five-and-half-year-old, who happened to be one of Hawkersquo;s favorite people in the den, nodded. "Didja really put Sinna in jail?"

Hawke bit the inside of his cheek. "Yep."

Brown eyes the same dark shade as Benrsquo;s motherrsquo;s, turned wolf-amber in shock. "How come?"

"She didnrsquo;t follow the rules."

Ben thought about it for a second, lines wrinkling up that baby-smooth forehead. "Is it like time-out for grown-ups?"

"Yep."

"Oh." A decisive nod. "Irsquo;ll tell Marlee."

"Is Marlee sad?" The girl was Siennarsquo;s cousin and part of his packmdash;Hawke wouldnrsquo;t allow her to be hurt.

Ben shook his head. "Her dad said that Sinna had been naughty and thatrsquo;s why she got put in jail, but Marlee said you wouldnrsquo;t put Sinna in jail and that Sinna was probably just grumpy and didnrsquo;t want to talk to anyone."

 

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Havingmdash;somehowmdash;followed all that, Hawke rose to his feet and tousled Benrsquo;s dark hair, the little boyrsquo;s head warm under his touch. "Shersquo;ll be out in a few days." And working in the nursery. The work itself, he knew, wouldnrsquo;t be a chore for her. She was a natural protector, and like any protector, wolf or not, she enjoyed watching over the pups. They, in turn, felt utterly safe with her.

So no, it would be no hardship for her to work in the nursery. It was the fact that shersquo;d been taken off the duties befitting and expected of her rank that was the punishmentmdash;a public indication that he didnrsquo;t have trust in her ability to do the job. The blow would strike hard at the pride she wore like armor, but his wolf had no doubts about her steel spine, her iron will. Sienna wouldnrsquo;t allow anything to crush her, especially not Hawke. On principle.

The thought made his wolf bare its canines in a feral grin. "Go on home, Benny."

The pup fell into step beside him instead, those short legs pumping as he ran to keep up. "Wherersquo;re you going?"

"Out."

"Can I come?"

"No."

"How come?"

Leaning down, Hawke picked Ben up under one arm like a football. "Because yoursquo;re too short."

Ben giggled and pretended to swim. "Irsquo;m taller than I was last week."

"Who says?"

"Mama."

Hawkersquo;s lips curved at the sheer love in that single word. "I guess it must be true, then. But yoursquo;re still too short."

A huge sigh. "When am I going to be tall enough?"

"Before you know it." Placing Ben down in front of the door that led to the White Zone, the safe play area for the kids, Hawke nudged him forward. "Go kick a ball around. Itrsquo;ll make you grow."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh."

Ben ran over to a clearing in the left section of the White Zone, to join in a game already in progress, one being watched over by an off-duty dominant whorsquo;d come to hang with the little ones. Half the pups were in human form, the other half wolf. Clearly this was changeling-rules football, which included judicious nipping to make those in human form drop the ball.

Normally, the sight of a wolf streaking away with a football in his mouth as his friends tried to bite down on his tail wouldrsquo;ve made Hawke laugh, join in. Today, his skin was too tight over his body, his own wolf edgy. Turning away, he headed into the hush of the forest, intending to work off the tension with some hard physical exercise. He hadnrsquo;t made it more than a hundred meters beyond the White Zone when he froze.

The damn cub had his hands on Sienna.

His claws were slicing out of his skin before hersquo;d processed the thought.

As he watched, Kit angled his body to tuck Sienna even closer, his hands cupping her face to draw her in for an open-mouthed kiss that lasted long enough to have Hawke considering dismemberment. But the young leopard male broke the kiss before Hawkersquo;s wolf took control, clasping Siennarsquo;s hand to tug her deeper into the dark green firs that covered this area, the spaces between the tall, straight trunks shadowed by late afternoon sunlight.

Hawke didnrsquo;t have to be a genius to figure out what the boy planned.

"Hawke!"

Retracting his claws, he attempted to wipe his expression clean as he turned to face a woman who was one of his most trusted friends.

And could be a royal pain in the ass.

Indigo frowned as she closed the distance between them. "Was Kit here?" A pause as she obviously caught a second scent. "Ah, Siennarsquo;s using her free hour."

"Did you need me for something?" He held his hand out for the datapad by her side. "Is there a problem with the extended patrols?" Theyrsquo;d set up the patrols deep in the forested interior and along the isolated mountain edges of den territory, after Councilor Henry Scottrsquo;s games a couple of months backmdash;games that had almost stolen the life of Indigorsquo;s mate, Drew.

Things had been quiet since then, but the pack wasnrsquo;t about to drop its guard, especially when it appeared the Psy Councilors had their knives out for each other. Like it or not, the Psy were the most powerful race on the planet. If they imploded, the repercussions would make everyone bleed. "Indigo, I donrsquo;t have all day." Sharp words.

The lieutenantrsquo;s response was to fold her arms, her namesake eyes bright with challenge. "The young males are starting to show signs of aggression. You know why."

"Irsquo;ll take care of it." It was a statement brimming with dominance, one that wouldrsquo;ve made almost any other individual tuck tail and run.

Indigo gave him an easy, dangerous smile. "I know all you have to do is snap your fingers and women throw themselves into your bedmdash;" She held up a hand when he growled. "Irsquo;m not saying you use your position, but the fact that yoursquo;re alpha, the reason why yoursquo;re alphamdash;your strength, your speed, your sheer dominancemdash;thatrsquo;s potent stuff. Not to mention your pretty face."

It was a struggle to keep his focus when the back of his neck burned with the snarling awareness of what was going on not far into the forest. "Thanks for the pep talk." It came out wolf rough.

"Shut up." Indigo was one of only two people in the den who could say that to his face and not get herself in seriously deep shit, and she used that knowledge ruthlessly. "I know damn well you could go and scratch that itch right now if you wanted to, but why donrsquo;t you think about whether scratching it with just any packmatemdash;even one you likemdash;will have any effect whatsoever."

KIT halted now that they were out of range of keen changeling hearingmdash;even that of a wolf so close to his animal that his senses were more acute than normal. Because while Kit was happy to prod at Hawke, he also had a healthy respect for the SnowDancer alpha and wasnrsquo;t about to push him beyond a certain point.

That fact mightrsquo;ve annoyed his leopard had it been another dominant male closer to his own age, but just as Kitrsquo;s leopard knew its own strength, man and leopard both also knew that Hawke was a predatory changeling male in the prime of his life. The wolf alpha would wipe the floor with Kit without so much as breaking a sweat.

Sienna tugged her hand out of his. "Why did you do that?" Curious, not angry.

"Donrsquo;t say my kisses arenrsquo;t nice?" He couldnrsquo;t resist the tease.

Folding her arms, she pinned him with one of those looks shersquo;d picked up from her mentor, Indigo. "That was the problem, as I seem to recall."

Kitrsquo;s pride winced. Just a littlemdash;before his leopard shrugged it off with feline confidence. "Want to try again? It was only one kiss."

Shadows clouded her expression, turning her gaze to midnight. "Kit, Imdash;" Eyes narrowing as she glimpsed the grin tugging at his lips, she mimed throwing something at his head. "Not funny."

Laughing, he pulled her body against his with one arm around her neck, deeply conscious that such informal skin privileges came hard for her, that he was one of the few people she trusted in this waymdash;enough to have allowed him to spring a kiss on her. "How could I resist, Sin? Yoursquo;re so adorable and earnest."

She elbowed him. Hard. Wincing, he continued to hold her by his side. "So, still no chemistry, huh?" He nuzzled the top of her head with his chin. "Pity. Because you know yoursquo;re smoking hot."

"Also not funny."

"Wasnrsquo;t a lie." He knew from the slight shake of her head that she thought he was spouting a whole boatload of shit, but the fact was, Sienna was gorgeousmdash;in a way every dominant changeling male in both packs had noticed.

Hers wasnrsquo;t a delicate feminine beauty, for all that she was small and fine-boned. No, Sienna carried within her a deep, deep core of strength that had etched itself onto her face. This was a woman who would stand her ground, come what may. And to a predatory changeling male, that was both purest temptation and the most enticing challenge.

He got another intriguing glimpse of that internal strength when she pushed away to face him once more. "You didnrsquo;t answer my question."

"I scented Hawke walking out," he said, eyes never moving off her . . . so he saw the immediate stiffening of her shoulders, the pinched tightness around the lush curves of her mouth.

When she spoke, her voice held a husky undertone that stroked over his senses like rough silk. "Did he see us?"

"Yes." Leaning against an old lodgepole pine, the trunk clear of branches high up into the canopy, he hooked his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans, thinking again that chemistry was a bitch. But disappointing as it was that there were no fireworks between him and Siennamdash;oh, therersquo;d been sparks, sure, but not enough to satisfy either one of themmdash;he had the rock solid feeling that their friendship was here to stay. And Kit took care of his friends. "Donrsquo;t look at me that way."

Arms crossed over her chest once more, she pinned him with an angry stare. "You know I donrsquo;t like to play games."

Yes, he did. Sienna was smart on a whole different level than the majority of people, but shersquo;d also spent most of her life in Silence. The conditioning designed to suppress her feelings, her very heart, had left her with huge gaps in her emotional educationmdash;which was why she needed friends to watch her back, especially now. "There are games, and then there are strategic moves." He shook his head when she would have spoken. "Predatory changelings are possessive; itrsquo;s part of the package. Alphas take that to an entirely new level."

"That doesnrsquo;t apply here." A hard angle to her jaw, those arms so defensively folded. But she didnrsquo;t try to pretend she didnrsquo;t know what he was talking about. "He doesnrsquo;t see me as an adult female, not in that way."

"Hence my helping hand . . . or lips, as the case may be." Walking over, he tugged on her braid because not touching someone he cared about was incomprehensible to his leopard. "Trust me, kitten. I know when a man wants to rip my head off." Followed by various other parts of his anatomy. "Hawke was ready to make leopard mincemeat of my insides and feed it to those feral wolves who follow him around like hersquo;s their alpha, too."

 

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"Even if you are correct"mdash;tight words, tendons pulled taut along her jawmdash;"it wonrsquo;t matter. Hersquo;s made up his mind."

That, Kit agreed, was a problem. Because if there was one thing he knew about the wolf alpha, it was that Hawkersquo;s will was as intractable and immoveable as granite.

HAWKE finished the last of the two hundred crunches hersquo;d set for himself, and sat up. It was three a.m. and his body was still buzzed, in spite of the fact that hersquo;d been in the small indoor gym for over an hour, doing everything he could to exhaust himself. "Hell," he grunted.

Getting up, he wiped off his face using a towel, then flicked on the entertainment screen on the wall, programming it to show financial reports. Cooper and Jem, in concert with a dedicated team, did the day-to-day caretaking of SnowDancerrsquo;s investments, but Hawke made sure he stayed up to date as the two lieutenants often used him as a sounding board.

But today, all he saw was gibberish, his brain hazed by a sexual hunger so raw and wild, he knew hersquo;d have to take care of it or his wolf would begin to fight him, inciting a dangerous level of aggression in all the unmated males in the pack. Right now, they were edgy but the level was still manageable. If Hawkersquo;s wolf slipped the leash . . . Shoving his hands through his hair, he was about to reach for the water bottle when he heard someone enter the training room next door.

Likely one of the night-shift soldiers, he thought. Taking a long drink, he put the bottle on a nearby bench as he pushed through the connecting door into the other room, intending to ask if theyrsquo;d be up for a sparring session. Riley was the only one in the den who could take on Hawke at full strength and make him hurt, but Hawke often practiced with other packmatesmdash;just made sure to rein his strength back a fraction.

He halted three steps into the room, the scent of autumn fire, of some rich exotic spice twining around him, as the door closed with a quiet snick at his back. She hadnrsquo;t seen him, the woman dressed in black gi pants and a deep green tank top who moved with such fluid grace in the center of the room. The precise, stylized movements spoke not of combat, but of an attempt to find peace.

Shersquo;d pulled her waist-length hair into a neat braid, and the dark rope gleamed with ruby red highlights. It made him feel like a cradle-robbing bastard, but he couldnrsquo;t help but imagine those silken strands spread out all over his hands . . . over his pillow. Fuck. He should turn around right this second and walk out. There was a reason he made sure never to be alone with her in this kind of a mood.

But it was too late.

She went motionless, the stance of prey scenting a predator. When she turned, it was with wary cautiousness. Not a word passed her lips, but he knew he was intruding on her allotted free hour for the day to comemdash;because whatever else she did, Sienna never lied, never tried to get out of punishment once shersquo;d broken the rules.

He shouldrsquo;ve left. Instead, he shoved aside the voice of reason and walked to her, aware of her spine going stiff, her shoulders squaring. But it was the sheen of perspiration across her collarbones that fascinated him. The wolf wanted to lick, see if she tasted of the spice so hot and sweet in her scent.

In spite of what might have gone on in the forest earlier, the leopard cub hadnrsquo;t managed to imprint his scent into her skin. It was all Sienna. Swallowing his growl of satisfaction, he reined in the primal impulse to taste, to take. "Your arm," he murmured, moving to stand behind her and stroking his hand down that arm to raise it, "should be straight on that final turn. Yoursquo;re dropping it."

Her pulse thudded hard and fast against the delicate skin of her neck, and it was all he could do not to drop his head and bite down on it. Not to hurt. Just a nip. Just enough to leave a mark. "Like this." He moved his hand along the smooth warmth of her arm until it was straight. "Do you see?"

No sound as she angled her head to one side. He knew she hadnrsquo;t meant it to be, but it was an invitation to his wolf, the offering of that vulnerable part of her. He could close his hand around her throat, close his teeth around her jugular, anything he wanted. He was so much stronger than her that he could do that no matter what, but conquering wasnrsquo;t the same as surrender. "Do it again," he whispered. "I want to watch."

It took every ounce of will he had to drop her arm, to not accept the unintended invitation and take them both to the floor in a tangle of skin and heat. But he couldnrsquo;t stop himself from running the knuckles of one hand down her throat as he stepped away, his gut tight, his body so damn hard he might as well have been made of steel. He moved until he was in prime position to watch her, and then he waited. She did nothing for a long, still moment, and he thought she would deny him this.

But then Sienna began to move.

And his wolf stopped pacing.

Chapter 5

HUNDREDS OF MILES away, in the barren heart of another continent, an Arrow named Aden scanned his gaze over a desert wasteland that was a rich rust red under sunlight, but now glimmered silver in the glow of the moon. "Why do you always come here?" he asked the fellow member of the squad whorsquo;d teleported him to the location.

"Therersquo;s clarity here," Vasic said, looking out at the rolling vista of sand dunes, his eyes a piercing silver that echoed the brilliance of the moon.

"Therersquo;s nothing here."

Vasic merely shook his head. "Pure Psy."

"A possible problem." Aden sometimes wondered if he and Vasic hadnrsquo;t formed an inadvertent subconscious telepathic connection, they understood each other so effortlessly.

"Perhaps," Vasic said with unerring accuracy, "it was when we were placed in training as children. Bonds are more easily formed prior to complete Silence."

Aden preferred not to think about those days. A child was weak, simple to break. He was no longer that child. "Pure Psy," he said, returning to the reason for this meeting.

"Gutierrez and Suhana are already inside and reporting back. We may lose Abbot and Sione."

"Thatrsquo;s not unexpected." The two Arrows both had unstable abilities.

"No."

Aden watched as a tiny insect crawled across the sand at his feet. "The adherents of Pure Psy say they seek to preserve the integrity of Silence." The insect stumbled, turned onto its back.

Vasic righted the creature with a delicate touch of Tk, and it hurried into its burrow. "What is said and what is done are often two different things."

"Yes." More than a century ago, Zaid Adelaja had formed the Arrow Squad to watch over Silence, to ensure it would never fall and shatter the PsyNet. But now . . . "We will have to make a choice soon."

Going down on his haunches, Vasic picked up a handful of sand, the silica catching the moonlight as it passed through his fingers. "Yes."

What neither of them said was that it was a choice that might well change the face of the PsyNet forever.

Chapter 6

THE INDULGENCE OF the previous night came back to bite Hawke the next morning. His wolf had had a taste of Sienna Lauren, and it was through with waiting. It wanted her, and it wanted her now. The scent of hermdash;the maddening spice and steel of itmdash;lingered in his skin until he drew it in with every breath.

He couldnrsquo;t allow himself to surrender to the compulsion. Everything else aside, she was nineteen years old, for Christrsquo;s sake, nowhere near mature enough to handle either man or wolf, especially given the razorrsquo;s edge he was walking right now. More than likely, hersquo;d terrify her.

His jaw tightened.

Making a decision, he packed up some gear and strode down to the underground garage where SnowDancer stored its vehicles. "Irsquo;ll be back in two weeks," he told Riley when the lieutenant met him beside the camo green all-wheel-drive. "Irsquo;m going to head up to the mountains, make sure we havenrsquo;t missed any vulnerable spots along the perimeter."

It was a legitimate way to burn off his frustration, especially given the extra patrols theyrsquo;d been running in that region. Riley would simply switch Hawke in for one of the other soldiers and reassign their packmate a task closer to the denmdash;no one would complain since the mountain shifts tended to be quiet and lonely. "Hold the fort." His unflinching trust in his lieutenants was the only reason he could consider being out of the den for such an extended period.

"Donrsquo;t I always?" Riley folded his arms, those dark brown eyes watching Hawke with a patient calm that did nothing to hide the incisive mind behind them. "You have your sat phone in case we need you?"

Hawke held it up. Nothing would keep him from returning to the den if called, whether through technology or through the music of a wolfrsquo;s howl.

Riley pulled a small datapad out of his pocket. "Irsquo;m promoting Tai from senior novice status to full soldier."

"I had a feeling." The young male had gained a maturity this year that would hold him in good stead when it came to his new responsibilities. "Irsquo;ll make sure to speak to him when I get back."

A nod. "As for Mariamdash;shersquo;ll be on supervised shifts after shersquo;s out of confinement."

"Good."

"Siennarsquo;s going to be spoiling for a fight when her punishment is done."

Hawke dumped his gear in the truck with more force than necessary. "No more long leash for her, Riley. She steps out of line, slap her back into it."

His most senior lieutenant, his friend, raised an eyebrow. "You know what I said about taking you down if you so much as looked at her?" A reminder that both Riley and Drew considered Sienna family and thus theirs to protect. "Well, Irsquo;ll still beat you bloody if you hurt her, but I wonrsquo;t stand in your way if you want to court hermdash;shersquo;s no longer as vulnerable as she was back then."

Getting into the driverrsquo;s seat, Hawke brought up the manual steering wheel and reached back to slide the door closed, his actions rough with the wolfrsquo;s fury at being denied. "Doesnrsquo;t matter." He couldnrsquo;t let it matter. Not and live with himself.

 

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"Yeah?" Riley braced his arms on the doorrsquo;s window frame, his expression as relaxed as if they were talking about the most mundane den matter . . . except for his eyes. Those eyes, they saw everything. "Then why the hell are you about to drive up into the most godforsaken corner of den territory and go lone wolf?"

He started the engine. "You know why. I need to run it off." Hawke knew full well that he could seduce Sienna, and not only that, that he could make her enjoy itmdash;it wasnrsquo;t arrogance but simple fact. The sexual attraction between them wasnrsquo;t in question. Her skin had burned with the heat of it last night, her pulse a thudding erotic beat hersquo;d hungered to trace across every intimate inch of her body. Add his experience to that, and he had not a single doubt in his mind that he could bring Sienna Lauren sweetly into his bed, take what both man and wolf craved until it was no longer a claw tearing at his gut.

His hands flexed on the wheel at the idea of it, his mind cascading with images of limbs intertwined on tangled sheets, her skin a smooth cream kissed by gold against his darker flesh. But that was where those images would remainmdash;locked within his mind. Because he was no lover for an innocent who didnrsquo;t understand the sheer depth of the demands hersquo;d make on her . . . even knowing he could never give her the bond that would make up for the raw intensity of all hersquo;d take.

SIENNA scrubbed the large pot used in the communal kitchen that fed most of the unmated adult wolves in the den, her energetic movements driven by aggravation. "We have high-tech abilities," she muttered. "Why do we need to blacken pots?" Three days into the third week of her punishment and she was building serious muscle from the hard labor.

"Because," Tai said from beside her, where he was stacking plates, "some things only taste right when cooked in a pot. So says Aisha and her word is law." Unlike her, Tai wasnrsquo;t in trouble, simply doing his shift in the kitchens, which was why he was so annoyingly cheerful.

"Four more days and Irsquo;m free," she said under her breath, focusing on the manual task in an effort to fight the memory of Hawkersquo;s hands on her skin, his breath so hot against her temple, her neck.

Shersquo;d spent the day following their encounter in a knot of anticipation . . . only to find that hersquo;d left the den. Her hands moved harder on the pot, the force of it turning the scourer black. She wasnrsquo;t wolf, but she understood exactly what he was doing. That night in the training room would not be repeatedmdash;hersquo;d have considered it a lapse of judgment on his part, conduct unbecoming an alpha. Sienna Lauren was not a suitable lover for the man who was the heart of SnowDancer.

Her knuckles scraped against the inside of the pot, but she hardly noticed, her chest ached from so deep within. Once, the intensity of her response would have set off a wave of dissonance, shards of agony designed to remind her of the need to maintain Silence, but Judd had helped her remove the final emotion triggers six months ago.

Sienna had resisted taking that step for almost a yearmdash;since Judd first worked out how to disable the pain protocols. The only reason shersquo;d finally agreed to the removal had been because of the increasing strength of the dissonance. There had been a risk it could begin to cause permanent and irreversible brain injury. Now Sienna was free to feel everything . . . including the bone-deep terror that the X-marker might yet make her a mass murderer.

"Hey." A nudge from Tai.

"What?" she asked, rinsing off the pot.

"You shouldnrsquo;t take it so hard, you know." His muscled body was warm against hers as he leaned into her for a second. "I got busted off my sentry duties one time after I did something stupid. It happens."

Touched by his attempt to make her feel better, she pushed away the knot of frustrated anger, which never seemed to go away. "I heard you went out with Evie again." Putting the pot on the drying board, she started on the next one.

Tai pushed himself up to perch on the counter, long legs almost touching the floor. His shoulders had filled out in the past year, and he had, she realized, become a big man, almost as big as Hawkemdash;

No. She would not think about him. He certainly hadnrsquo;t had any problem walking away from her. "So?"

"If you tell anyone I admitted this," Tai said, "Irsquo;ll call you a liar without any compunction whatsoever." Throwing the dish towel over his shoulder, he pinned her with a scowl that did nothing to detract from the exotic lines of his face.

"Irsquo;m good at keeping secrets." It was a survival skill. No one, shersquo;d realized at an early age, wanted to know a monster.

"I want to write goddamn poetry to her"mdash;Tairsquo;s embarrassed voice, breaking into her thoughtsmdash;"fucking serenade her and steal a kiss under moonlight, cover her room in candlelight just to see her smile, hold her all night long so I can breathe in her scent as I wake."

Siennarsquo;s hands had stopped moving with his first startling statement. "Thatrsquo;s beautiful." Her heart pulsed with a fragile need she hadnrsquo;t even known she had until that moment.

Tairsquo;s slightly uptilted eyes were sheepish when he said, "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Swallowing the strange, incomprehensible softness inside of her, she added, "Maybe not all of it at once, though."

"If I survive Indigo," Tai muttered. "Shersquo;s so freaking protective, itrsquo;s like running a gauntlet each time I dare ask Evie out."

"Can you blame her? Eviersquo;s so gentle." Sienna had been certain Evie would be horrified by her when Indigo insisted on introducing Sienna to her sistermdash;but in spite of her too-kind heart, Evie had a well-hidden streak of mischief. It had made them fast friends and, once upon a time, accomplices in some of the most spectacular stunts ever pulled in the den.

Tai nodded. "I think that potrsquo;s done."

Handing it over so he could dry and put it away, she wiped down the sink and made a quick getaway. It wasnrsquo;t until she was outside in the dark green shadow of the forest giants that she realized how much shersquo;d missed the crisp air of the Sierra during her hours in the kitchens. Before defecting to SnowDancer, shersquo;d spent her days inside high-rise buildings, in the middle of a city, and known no different. Now shersquo;d tasted not only the wild, rugged beauty of the mountains, but learned what it was to have friends, to have family in more than just blood.

"Irsquo;ve made my decision," she said to the man whorsquo;d come to stand beside her with an assassinrsquo;s quiet grace. "No matter what, I wonrsquo;t return to the PsyNet, to Silence." It had been an option shersquo;d been forced to consider when it appeared her abilities were spiraling out into chaos and destruction.

"How good," Judd said instead of responding to her statement, "is your control?"

"Strong as steel." Her time away from the den, in the care of other defectors, including one who was a genius at shield construction, had given her a second chance. She would never forget the death that lived within her, butmdash;"Irsquo;m going to make it, Judd. Irsquo;m going to spit in the face of that bastard who sentenced us all to die."

Judd said nothing to strike at Siennarsquo;s confidence, aware shersquo;d need every ounce of it if she was going to survive the coming darknessmdash;because he knew something she didnrsquo;t. It was a truth hersquo;d carried in his heart for years, a truth he would never, ever share with her. To do so might well turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Hersquo;d hacked into secret Council archives when Sienna had been ten, helped by fellow Arrows whorsquo;d understood that his niece might one day end up in the squad. Only he had read the files that went back 150 years, and so only he knew the brutal facts: The longest any X-Psy had ever survived, even under Silence, was to age twenty-five.

That twenty-five-year-old X had registered as 3.4 on the Gradient.

Sienna was off the charts.

HAWKE had spent his first week in the mountains avoiding contact with even the sentries. Hersquo;d known he wasnrsquo;t fit company for anyone. The feral wolves, too, had given him a wide berth after he snarled at them . . . though they still came to huddle around him at night, all of them sleeping in a big pile of fur. It was difficult to maintain a bad temper in the face of such fierce affection, but Hawkersquo;s wolf was riding him hard.

The dreams sure as hell didnrsquo;t help.

Ruby red fire and smooth sun gold skin; autumn and that rare, wild spice. The echoes of her haunted him until he couldnrsquo;t close his eyes without it whispering over his senses, a fleeting silken touch.

So vivid were the dreams that he woke hard as stone and furious with himself for his lack of control. As a result, he was leaner and feeling a hell of a lot meaner when he returned to the den. Hersquo;d run himself to exhaustion, and though his wolf was behaving, he knew it would take only the slightest provocation, the slightest touch, to send him over the edge. And still, he had to fight the compulsion to track her down, make sure she knew he was back. "Fuck."

Throwing his gear on the floor of his bedroom, hersquo;d pulled off his T-shirt in preparation for a shower when he scented a familiar female. Snarling, he stalked to the door and wrenched it open. "Not a word," he snapped at Indigo.

Freshly showered and dressed in jeans teamed with a plain white T-shirt, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, Indigo favored him with a slow smile before running her eyes down his body, up again. "I guess that whole not sleeping thing has its advantages."

Hawke bared his teeth. "Go gawk at your mate."

A snort. "If Drew was here, do you think yoursquo;d rate a glance?"

"Go away."

"I willmdash;after I get what I want."

"What?"

"Hold on." Indigo shifted to glance down the corridor. "Here she is."

"Sorry," Yuki said, neat and pressed in a suit that told him she was heading to work. "Thought we were meeting in your office." Reaching into her satchel, she withdrew a printed form attached to a clipboard.

 

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Indigo took it, shoved it at him. "I decided to beard the rabid wolf in his den."

Growling, Hawke grabbed the pen. "What is it?" he asked, signing without reading. That was a trust reserved for the lieutenants. If it got to a point where he didnrsquo;t have total faith in them, then the pack was in serious trouble. That had happened only once in their history, and Hawke was determined to never let those painful events taint the relationship he had with his men and women. "Donrsquo;t usually need a lawyer to witness things."

"Do for this," Indigo said, scrawling her name beside his, then handing Yuki the pen so she could follow suit. "It gives Riley power of attorney over your worldly goods in exigent circumstances."

He looked up. "Indigo."

"Irsquo;m serious. It also gives him the right to make life-or-death decisions on your behalf should events warrant it."

"Since when is that necessary in a pack?" Pack was one. Pack was family.

"Since Judd pointed out that if you get incapacitated," Yuki said with a frown, "itrsquo;d make things a lot less complicated if we had the legal papers. Otherwise, anyone who wanted to undermine the pack could use the opportunity to throw roadblocks in our path. Irsquo;m annoyed I didnrsquo;t think of it myself."

Hawke had to agree it made sense. Especially since . . . Oh. "Itrsquo;s because I have no next of kin." No parents. No siblings. No mate.

Yuki shot him a sharp glance, an abrupt reminder that Eliasrsquo;s loyal mate and Sakurarsquo;s loving mother was also a pit-bull for her biggest and most demanding clientmdash;the SnowDancer pack. "Irsquo;d rather we never had to use these papers, so donrsquo;t get hurt." Putting the clipboard and its contents back into her bag, she looked at her watch, her glossy black hair swinging to brush her jaw. "Have to run, got a meeting in Sacramento." The last words were called out over her shoulder as she left.

"I second everything Yuki said." Indigo leaned forward as if to embrace him. When he stepped back without meaning to, she narrowed her eyes. "Yoursquo;re in a shitload of trouble if you donrsquo;t trust yourself to touch a packmate in whom you have no sexual interest whatsoever."

"I told you Irsquo;d take care of it."

Realization had her lips flattening into a thin line. "Damn it, Hawke." Arms folded, she shook her head. "I know what yoursquo;re planning, that you think yoursquo;re protecting hermdash;but you do this and Sienna will never forgive you. You sure you want to end any chance the two of you might have?"

He caught her gaze, allowing the wolfrsquo;s dominance out to play. She held it longer than anyone else aside from Riley could have.

"Damn it." Blinking as she looked away, she sighed. "Yoursquo;re a stubborn bastard, you know that?"

"I am who I am." And what he was, was a man who needed to satiate his sexual hunger before his wolf took the decision out of his hands. Because that wolf would track only one scent.

RECOVERED FROM COMPUTER 2(A) TAGS: PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE, FATHER, ACTION NOT REQUIRED

FROM: Alice lt;[emailnbsp;protected] /* */ gt;

TO: Dad lt;[emailnbsp;protected] /* */ gt;

DATE: March 16th, 1971 at 10:13pm

SUBJECT: re: Your Mother

Dear Dad,

Tell Mom the reason I never e-mail her is because she gets the phone calls. I must be fair or one of you will accuse me of favoritism.

Before I forgetmdash;thank you both for the gift. The sculpture is extraordinary and will look perfect in my study. You and Mom know me too well.

You were asking about my new project. Irsquo;ve barely begun and while my Psy colleagues have agreed to publicize my call for information on the PsyNet, Irsquo;ve already hit the first hurdlemdash;the sheer rarity of X-Psy. I only have two signed up to participate so far, but Irsquo;m not giving up. That isnrsquo;t the Eldridge way.

Say hello to the pharaohs for me.

Love,

Alice

Chapter 7

"I KNOW HErsquo;D chew me up and spit me out, but God, itrsquo;s all I can do not to strip myself naked and beg for him to bite me any way and anywhere he wants."

Overhearing that heartfelt feminine sentiment, Sienna dropped her fourth dish of the day. The chief cook, Aisha, raised a hand and pointed, banishing her to the sinks. She went without argumentmdash;scrubbing the hated pots was all shersquo;d been good for since the moment shersquo;d learned of Hawkersquo;s return, her brain scrambled like the eggs Marlee and Toby loved to eat on Sunday mornings.

As if shersquo;d conjured him up by thinking of him, her brother appeared at her elbow. "Wow, thatrsquo;s a big pot, Sienna."

Deep warmth spread through her veins. For Toby, shersquo;d do anything. Born with a slight empathic gift, he was goodness, was heart. He made her want to be good, toomdash;even though she knew that to be an impossible goal. X-Psy were born for, and useful for, only one thing.

Destruction.

A hand on her forearm. "Sienna."

Dropping the pot, she bent to wrap her soapy arms around that gangly preteen body that was no longer that of the child shersquo;d tickled into bed just last year. "How do you always know?" she whispered into his hair.

His arms locked around her neck. "I can see you in our net," he said, speaking of the psychic network that tied all the members of the family to each other. It provided the biofeedback needed by their Psy minds, was what had kept them alive when theyrsquo;d defected from the sprawling vastness of the PsyNet. "Your mind goes all icy."

She heard the fear in his tone. Any time she got "icy," as he put it, Toby got afraid. Because he understood what she was on an instinctive level that meant shersquo;d never been able to protect him from the harsh truthmdash;Toby saw the monster within and still he loved her, still he needed her.

"Donrsquo;t go back to the Net, Sienna." A plea. "Please."

"I wonrsquo;t, Toby. I wonrsquo;t." Her earlier intent solidified into stone. If, in spite of everything, she failed to contain her ability, then she would, as Councilor Ming LeBon had once put it, take herself "out of the equation." Her death would hurt Toby, but it wouldnrsquo;t savage himmdash;not like if he had to watch her turn cold, a Silent stranger who rejected his love as if it was a worthless token. I love you, Toby. A telepathic communication between siblings, as easy as a breath.

Irsquo;m so glad yoursquo;re my sister, Sienna.

They held the embrace a long time. Though Aisha ran a tight ship, she didnrsquo;t tell Sienna to get a move on. Aisharsquo;s eyes smiled when she glimpsed themmdash;the wolves understood touch, understood affection. They couldnrsquo;t know how much it meant to Sienna that she could openly hold the boy who was a living, breathing piece of her heart.

Since the moment of his birth, shersquo;d had to hide, had to bury everything she felt when it came to Toby. If Ming had discovered the searing depth of a love that had defied Silence itself, the bastard wouldnrsquo;t have done anything to her. Shersquo;d been too important. But he might well have ended Tobyrsquo;s life to "safeguard" Siennarsquo;s Silence.

She wouldrsquo;ve killed him for it, of course.

Hiding that dark thought in a secret corner of her mind where Toby would never sense it, she drew back and brushed his hair out of his eyes as she had a habit of doing. "Why arenrsquo;t you in school?" Toby attended the small internal school for ages five to thirteenmdash;the older teenagers generally went to a high school outside den territory, except for a few whorsquo;d chosen distance learning.

"We got the afternoon off todayrsquo;cause the teachers got a meeting."

"Toby, your grammar is atrocious." His enunciation and grammar had been PsyNet perfect when they defectedmdash;she much preferred him this way.

"Aw, Sienna." Two kisses, one on each cheek. "Can you help me with my homework after you get out of the kitchen?"

"Sure." She rose back up to her full height. "What subject?"

"Science. I have to build a volcano." Cardinal eyes gleamed. "Itrsquo;s going to explode and everything."

Her hand clenched on the scourer shersquo;d just picked up. "Wow." Forcing her fingers to relax, she nodded to the fruit bowl. "Eat an apple. Itrsquo;s good for you."

Toby made a face but obeyed. "Canrsquo;t I have a cookie instead?"

"No."

"Abuse." But he was smiling as he bit into the shiny red fruit, the smile turning into a grin when Aisha slipped him a palm-sized oatmeal raisin cookie.

"Finish the apple first," the cook ordered, tousling his hair.

"Thanks, Aisha," Toby said before looking back at Sienna, his eyes sparkling in a way that wouldrsquo;ve startled her if she hadnrsquo;t seen Sascha Duncanrsquo;s eyes do the same thing. Because the stars were no longer white. Not quite. It was as if Tobyrsquo;s eyes shimmered with color . . . with life.

Sometimes, Sienna thought Toby had been sent into the world to balance the scales, an antidote to the sister who loved him to the depths of her soul, but who could create only pain, only suffering, only horror.

HAWKE blocked Eliasrsquo;s kick and put the senior soldier on his back. "Damn it, Eli. Yoursquo;re leaving yourself wide open."

Elias lay on the ground, chest heaving. "No, Irsquo;m not. Yoursquo;re just not pulling any punches." He winced. "Irsquo;m going to set Yuki on youmdash;she doesnrsquo;t like it when you beat me up."

Unamused, Hawke waited as the other man rolled to his feet. "You said you wanted to spar so you could figure out what you needed to work on."

"I take it back." Elias braced himself with his hands on his knees. "The single person who can spar with you in this kind of a mood is Riley." Rising fully, he shoved a hand through dark brown hair damp with sweat. "I need to give you my report anyway."

Hawkersquo;s wolf was tensed and ready for action, but he drew in a long, deep breath, brought the animal under control. "Problems in the city?" DarkRiver and SnowDancer had both kept a constant and visible presence in San Francisco ever since the attempted bombings the previous year.

 

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"I dunno." Elias rubbed his jaw. "The leopards always get the best intel, so you should liaise with them, but my instincts are itching. I canrsquo;t quite put a finger on itmdash;the thing is, you know wersquo;ve got more than the usual number of Psy coming into the area."

"Yeah. Side effect of Nikita deciding she no longer supports Silence." Not out of the goodness of her heart, but simply because it made the most political sense. Sascharsquo;s mother was one cold bitch. "They causing trouble?"

"No, quiet as church mice." Elias fell into step beside him as Hawke began to make his way to the training run. The obstacle course would give him a much-needed physical outlet before he headed inside to talk to Tomás about a couple of people Hawke wanted to send to the lieutenant for training.

"But with so many of them coming in," Elias continued, "itrsquo;s hard to pinpoint the friendlies from the others."

Hawke had raised the same concern with Lucas not long ago. "The Rats," he said, referring to the small changeling group that ran a very effective spy network, "know to keep an eye out for any unusual Psy activity, but Irsquo;ll have Luc talk to them, have them amp up their efforts." He trusted Eliasrsquo;s instincts. The soldier was one of his most capable men, not dominant enough to be a lieutenant, but smart and experiencedmdash;and more important, he had a head as stable as Rileyrsquo;s.

"Thanks." Elias looked at the training run, blew out a breath. "Jesus, Riaz is a sadist. What the hell are those spike things? They werenrsquo;t there last time."

"Time me." Hawkersquo;s wolf bared its teeth in anticipation. Riaz had outdone himself this time. As Hawke ran up the first incline, he hoped like hell that Eliasrsquo;s gut was wrong for once, but given the events of the past few monthsmdash;and the fact that every F-Psy on the planet was apparently forecasting warmdash;he knew that to be a bleak hope.

WALKER went to retie the ribbon around his daughterrsquo;s ponytail, playing a game with her on the LaurenNet as he did so. She was fascinated by the unusual twisting motion at the center of the mental star that was his mind, and kept getting distracted.

Hersquo;d been something of a puzzle to the staff at the Psy-Med hospital, too. No one had ever been able to explain the reason for the odd moving helix that had become apparent long after he was past childhood. There had been discussions about studying it further, but when it became clear the twist neither detracted from, nor added any strength to his already strong telepathic range, the issue was put aside.

It had, however, proven an excellent gauge of a childrsquo;s psychic developmentmdash;to the extent that Walker had come to believe that to be the reason for it. Since his telepathic touch worked particularly well with the young and the helix had developed soon after he began teaching, it made sense. As it was, while Toby had matured to the point where he could ignore the distraction of the motion, Marlee hadnrsquo;t.

Almost, he encouraged on the psychic plane as the ribbon slipped out of his grasp on the physical. Picking it up, he said, "You know Irsquo;m not good at this." His hands were too big, too clumsy for such a delicate task. "Why didnrsquo;t you ask Sienna?"

Waiting until he finished and moved around to crouch in front of her, she wrapped an arm around his neck. "I like it when you do it." A wide smile.

In the three years since their family had defected from the PsyNet, Walker had learned many thingsmdash;how to live in a world without Silence, how to manage the dominance challenges within a wolf pack, how to look after Marlee and Toby in a way for which he had no template. But the one thing he still hadnrsquo;t learned was how to handle the overload of emotion caused by his daughterrsquo;s smile.

When she threw both arms around his neck in a spontaneous embrace, it only caused the tightness in his chest to growmdash;until it filled every part of him. Wrapping his own arms around her, he rose to his feet. She made a startled sound. "Irsquo;m too big!"

"Yoursquo;ll always be my child." He wished he could say the soft, sweet words he heard changeling parents say constantly to their children, but hersquo;d been an inmate of Silence for four long decades. The words were hard to form, to get out. But it was incredibly easy to lift his hand, to stroke away the baby-fine strands of hair that had escaped Marleersquo;s ponytail, to press a kiss to her temple.

When she said, "Can we go see if Tobyrsquo;s volcano is ready?" he could no more deny her than he could stop breathing.

It was another punch to the heart to walk into the large rec room near the family quarters to see Toby and Sienna with their heads bent together over a lopsided volcano. This, he thought as Marlee wiggled out of his arms to join her cousins, all of them frowning over the lack of symmetry, this was why hersquo;d survived defection from the PsyNet.

To watch over his daughter and the son of a sister hersquo;d never been allowed to love. And Sienna, too, for all that shersquo;d been forced to be an adult before shersquo;d ever been a child. They were his reason for being, for existing. As for the kiss that had threatened to make him forget the rest of the world for one blinding, pleasure-drunk moment . . . hersquo;d made the right decision.

Even if the sensations from that single searing contact continued to haunt him two long months later.

HAWKE stared at Matthiasrsquo;s face on the comm screen the next morning. "Yoursquo;re certain?"

"Yes," the lieutenant answered. "Definite indications of weapons coming into the country on a large scale. Theyrsquo;ve been doing it bit by bitmdash;Irsquo;m guessing some of it has been teleported in. But theyrsquo;ve also been bringing in armaments via ship."

"Any idea who?"

"No."

"Irsquo;ll check with Nikita and Anthony." It was odd to say that, odder yet to know that SnowDancer had any kind of a working relationship with two members of the Psy Council. "Any reason why I shouldnrsquo;t share this with the cats?" The SnowDancer-DarkRiver alliance was all but cemented in stone; however, they were still two predatory changeling packs. Total, unquestioning trust would take decades.

"No. They have good contacts, better than we do in the city." Matthias frowned. "I think you should also tell the falcons to keep an eye outmdash;they see things from up high that we might not."

Hawke agreed. The alliance with WindHaven was new but very much functional. "Send me the details. Irsquo;ll have a look and pass on the necessary info."

"Yoursquo;ll have it in the next couple of hours." Matthias went to sign off, then paused. "Howrsquo;re Indigo and the young pup?"

The "young pup," Drew, was Hawkersquo;s eyes and ears in the pack, as well as SnowDancerrsquo;s tracker. "I caught them in a storage closet not long ago. They werenrsquo;t exactly looking for supplies." His wolf bared its teeth in amusement.

Matthias howled with laughter. "Donrsquo;t you fucking try to convince me you didnrsquo;t scent what was going on?"

"I was very discreet." Hawke grinned. "I just opened the door a ***** and asked them to keep it down."

"And got a mop thrown at your head, I bet."

"Actually, it was a giant roll of threadmdash;mending supplies closet." Shaking his head, he answered the question more seriously. "Their mating, added to Riley and Mercyrsquo;s, Cooperrsquo;s with Grace, and Juddrsquo;s with Brenna, is good, really good for the stability of the pack." Having his lieutenants in such strong pairings soothed his wolfrsquo;s frustration at not being able to give SnowDancer the security of a mated alpha pair.

"Yeah, everyonersquo;s more settled." Matthias leaned back a little. "I might head down to the den sometime next month. That work?"

Hawke noddedmdash;all his lieutenants passed through the den at least once every couple of months, to ensure the pack stayed connected in spite of the massive breadth of their territory. "Have you spoken to Alexei lately?"

"You caught that, did you? Told him you would." Matthiasrsquo;s expression was wry. "Hersquo;s fine, just frustrated at the recent dominance challenges from out-of-towners."

Unfortunately for Alexei, he had the face of a young golden god. People who didnrsquo;t know him had a tendency to focus on that face and ignore the fact that his dominance was a quiet, powerful pulse beneath the skin. "Anything I need to discuss with the other alphas?" Dominance challenges between packs happened every so often, mostly when a strong wolf was seeking to create a new pack or searching for a mate, but poor Alexei tended to bear the brunt of them.

"Naw." Matthias shook his head, dark hair catching the light. "Our Russian Bridegroom wipes the floor with the idiotsmdash;then ropes them in as senior soldiers."

"He know you call him that?"

"Do I look like a moron? Alexei might be pretty, but hersquo;s also a mean sucker."

Laughing, Hawke ended the call after a few more quick words. His wolf had been prowling beneath his skin the entire time, if not content, then at least not snarling. Now, it urged him to get outside, to shift and run through the wild heart of SnowDancer territory. Hawke growled low in his throat, fighting the instinct.

The wolf pushed. The human held firm. However, the strength of the urge made it plain he could no longer avoid taking this stepmdash;he had to do something about his sexual hunger before the primal part of him seized total control. Picking up the phone, he made a call.

"Hello." A husky female voice.

"Rosalie, itrsquo;s Hawke."

Chapter 8

HAVING SERVED THE last hour of her punishment doing the evening shift in the kitchens, Sienna took ten minutes in the night air before walking back inside to the apartment she shared with Walker and the kids. Her uncle had just sent Toby to bed when she arrived, so she ducked in to say good night, peeking in at an already fast asleep Marlee as well, the younger girlrsquo;s bedtime being earlier.

However, that took a bare few minutes, and she was alone in her room all too soon. The instant she was, the thoughts shersquo;d been avoiding all day crashed down on her with the violence of a Sierra thunderstorm.

 

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Shersquo;d tried not to listen, not to hear, but she knew Hawke had been seen in the company of the luscious, sexy, and experienced Rosalie both yesterday and today. The wolvesrsquo; penchant for gossip being what it was, she also knew conflicting schedules meant he probably hadnrsquo;t been to bed with her yet . . . but it wasnrsquo;t likely to be long before he did. Perhaps even tonight.

Raw, dark power rippled through her body, gathering in her fingertips. An instantrsquo;s loss of control and shersquo;d destroy this wall, collapse the ceiling. Gritting her teeth, she fought the fury that made her an X, a fury that whispered that Rosalie and her ilk were nothing, would crumble to dust in the face of the deadly strength that had once made Sienna so very, very valuable to Ming. It was a horrible thought, and it brought her back.

So did the pain.

Brutal and blinding.

She could still taste the shock that had rippled through Juddrsquo;s telepathic touch when theyrsquo;d first discovered the second intricate level of dissonance programming. But that hidden knife blade of pain had made perfect sense to Siennamdash;it wasnrsquo;t tied to emotion and had nothing to do with Silence except in that the mechanism had been developed as a result of the Protocol. Instead, this level of dissonance only kicked in when her X abilities triggered without her conscious awareness, a blaring warning that she was about to go active.

Now, the spike of agony down her spine had her close to blanking out, white dots floating in her vision. She rode the razorrsquo;s edge, allowing the dissonance to dig in its vicious claws until she staggered and brought herself back to her room in the family quarters . . . a room shersquo;d hung with Tobyrsquo;s graphic art and Marleersquo;s watercolor paintings.

Nausea curdled her stomach, bile burning the back of her throat. She was moving to throw clothes and personal items into a duffel even as her body continued to tremble with the aftereffects of the dissonancemdash;she had faith in her ability to control her "gift," but she was still an X. Mistakes happened.

Walker was sitting at the dining table, making notes on a datapad when she came out. "Going somewhere?" Cool green eyes held her to the spot.

"Irsquo;m moving to my quarters in the soldiers section on a permanent basis." Her fingers clenched on the canvas handles of the bag. "Irsquo;ll talk to Toby and Marlee tomorrow, explain." The words hurt coming out, emotion a rock in her throat.

Walker rose to his feet. "Theyrsquo;ll be fine. They understand your position in the pack." He didnrsquo;t ask the question, but she felt compelled to answer anyway. That was the thing with Walkermdash;he wasnrsquo;t her father, had never tried to take that role, but he was, to all intents and purposes, the patriarch of the Lauren family.

"Irsquo;m emotionally unstable and itrsquo;s affecting my psychic control," she admitted, a cold sweat breaking out along her spine. "If I suffer a shield breach, I donrsquo;t want to be anywhere near where I could hurt them."

"Do you need to return to DarkRiver?"

"No." Distance wasnrsquo;t going to do it any longermdash;not when shersquo;d be thinking about Hawke the entire time anyway. At least here, shersquo;d know as soon as he took Rosalie to his bed, not spend her days with the possibility eating away at her insides as she waited for it to be confirmed. "Irsquo;ll take care of it."

"Sienna," Walker said when she was almost to the door, "yoursquo;re not alone. Never forget that."

She nodded, but as she headed down the corridors toward the area of the den set aside for unmated soldiers, she knew the words for a lie. She was alone in a way none of her family could understand.

Sienna Lauren.

Designation: X.

Rating on the Gradient: Cardinal.

She was, in fact, the only cardinal X ever to survive to adulthood according to the records in the PsyNet. Perhaps the only cardinal X ever to have been born. The mutation was raremdash;so rare that she hadnrsquo;t been properly classified until she was five.

Shersquo;d almost killed her mother that day.

Dropping the duffel on the bed when she reached her quarters, she shoved the unbearable memory to the darkest recesses of her mind and sat cross-legged on the floor to do mental exercises designed to wrench her abilities back under the strictest control. An hour later, her T-shirt was plastered to her body, her hair sticking to her face, but shersquo;d safely corralled the raging ferocity of her power.

It was as she was stepping out of the shower that she got the call and invite. "Irsquo;m in," she said, because staying here with the gnawing cruelty of her own thoughts was not an option.

Hanging up, she pulled on some panties before beginning to rummage through her clothesmdash;both what shersquo;d carried over in the duffel and the things shersquo;d stored in the closet here, most of them items she rarely wore. First, skintight jeans. They were all but painted onto her body by the time she managed to twist, shimmy, and curse her way into themmdash;shersquo;d never have bought them on her own, but one of the leopards near her own age, Nicki, had dragged her along on a shopping expedition not long ago.

Sienna had glanced down at the plain jeans and gray sweatshirt shersquo;d been wearing at the time. "Whatrsquo;s wrong with the way I dress?"

The petite honey blondersquo;s response had been a despairing shake of the head. "It says yoursquo;re two hundred and counting."

Sometimes, Sienna felt exactly that, but that day, shersquo;d given in to Nicki and gone wild. Kit had whistled the first time hersquo;d seen her in the jeans, while Cory had fallen to his knees, hand over his heart. Sienna hadnrsquo;t yet worn them around the wolves . . . around Hawke, but her pride wouldnrsquo;t allow her to sit in her room while he put those strong hands all over another woman.

Her own hands fisted. No. No. No.

He wasnrsquo;t hers, had made it clear in a hundred different ways that he didnrsquo;t want to be hers. Fine.

Jeans on, she clipped on a red satin bra edged with white lacemdash;one that plumped up her chest in a way that had had her arguing with Nicki in the dressing room. "I canrsquo;t wear this. Itrsquo;s like Irsquo;m advertising!"

"Sweetie, if I had ta-tas like that, Irsquo;d advertise, too." Nicki had looked down at her own smaller breasts with a mournful sigh.

"Jase seems to like yours fine."

A peach-colored blush. "Now, tops. Come on."

Sienna pulled out one of the resulting purchases and slipped it on. A black shirt with long sleeves, it fit snug to her body and made it unmistakable that she had curves. The buttons were snaps of pounded metal, the only other decoration two tiny black pockets with the same type of buttons above her breasts. While she didnrsquo;t usually wear things that followed her shape with such caressing closeness, she had to admit she liked the way the shirt made her feel.

Sexy.

Then there were the boots. Slick and black, they encased her legs to the knees, the heels wickedly spiked.

Her cell phone beeped as she was zipping up the second boot. "Hello."

"Sin, itrsquo;s Evie. You ready?"

"Almost." She paused. "We are getting dressed up, right?"

"Of course! Irsquo;m wearing my silver dress."

Eviersquo;s enthusiasm had Sienna setting her jaw, determination arcing through her veins. "That dress will get you arrested."

Her best friend laughed. "You know yoursquo;d bail me out. See you in ten!"

Hanging up, Sienna quickly put in her special contacts, hiding the night-sky gaze that betrayed her identity, then pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail. Shersquo;d spoken to Indigo and her own family about her hair, and everyone had agreed the unusual color was no longer an issue, it had changed so much since shersquo;d joined the den. Added to the fact that her friends had taken to calling her "Sin," plus the contacts, it turned her into someone Ming LeBon wouldnrsquo;t even consider worthy of his attention.

That done, she pulled out the cosmetics case Juddrsquo;s mate, Brenna, had given her, making up her eyes in a "smoky" way shersquo;d learned from Indigo. Nicki had liked the effect so much, shersquo;d asked Sienna to teach her. That had felt goodmdash;being able to share such an innocent thing with a friend. It had made her feel young, not the old woman shersquo;d been since the day she first understood why Ming LeBon wanted her by his side, his own personal monster on a psychic leash.

"Stop," she ordered the brown-eyed woman in the mirror. "Not tonight. Be young and carefree tonight. Dance, drink, and laugh." With that, she slicked on poppy red lip color, grabbed a small purse, and stepped out.

"Oh, Jesus Christ, thank you God."

Startled by the masculine exclamation, she looked up to find herself facing Riordan, a novice soldier a year older than her. "Are you coming out with us?" she asked, closing her door.

"If I wasnrsquo;t, I damn well would be now." He offered her his arm, bare below the short sleeves of a stone gray shirt that looked good on his muscular frame. "Paint yourself to my side, Sin. Real close. I think I feel a chill coming on."

Shaking her head, she began to walk down the hall, her heels clicking on the floor. A few seconds later, she realized he was trailing behind her. "Whatrsquo;s the holdup?" Glancing back, she caught him red-handed. "Are you staring at my butt?"

Riordan didnrsquo;t bother to pretend innocence, his deep brown eyes full of wicked appreciation. "Hey, itrsquo;s a nice butt. And those jeans, oh, mama."

It was exactly the confidence boost she needed. If Hawke refused to acknowledge the pulse of attraction between themmdash;though shersquo;d waited years to grow old enough for him, years where shersquo;d blocked her ears to the gossip about who he was with and whenmdash;then she wasnrsquo;t going to take it lying down. "Pick your tongue up off the floor, and letrsquo;s go. Evie, Tai, and Cadence are probably already in the garage."

She was proven right. But they werenrsquo;t the only ones. Maria was there, too, along with her boyfriend, Lake.

"Hey," the other woman said, a tentative smile on her face. "I wanted to say sorry. It sucks that you got a worse punishment than me."

 

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Sienna shrugged. "My own fault." It would be the last time she let her near-painful response to Hawke get in the way of how she lived her life. "No hard feelings."

"Could we just . . ." Maria angled her head.

Nodding, Sienna stepped a little distance away from the others so she and Maria could talk in private. "I understand," she said once they were out of hearing range. "We fought because your wolf wanted to establish dominance."

"Yeah, well, that didnrsquo;t go so great." A self-deprecating grin. "But what I said about you being cold-bloodedmdash;"

"Itrsquo;s fine." On edge and angry with herself for being unable to forget Hawke, shersquo;d been feeling raw, vulnerable, had struck out at Mariarsquo;s jibe without stopping to consider the fact that the very state of her emotions made the accusation patently untrue.

"No." Maria put a hand on her arm. "Itrsquo;s not fine and we both know itrsquo;s not true. I was talking any bullshit I could to goad you into a fight. My only excuse is that wolves my age tend to be dickheads."

Siennarsquo;s lips twitched. "Difficult since you donrsquo;t possess that particular body part, either on your head or elsewhere."

Maria snorted. "I dunnomdash;I did a pretty good job of acting it." Tucking her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, she rocked back on her heels. "I was meant to be your partner and I fucked with you." No smile now, dark eyes solemn. "Itrsquo;ll never happen again. I want you to know Irsquo;d have you at my back anytime."

"Same," Sienna said without hesitation. In the PsyNet, shersquo;d have looked for the betrayal hidden behind the contrition, but shersquo;d been in SnowDancer long enough to see Mariarsquo;s words for what they weremdash;a declaration of both loyalty and friendship. "And it wasnrsquo;t all you, you know. I was looking for a fight." Maria had just provided a handy excuse.

"You sure have a mean kick," the other soldier said as they headed back.

"Judd makes me train with him."

"I donrsquo;t know whether to be jealous or offer commiseration."

They were both laughing when they reached the rest of the group.

"Now that thatrsquo;s sorted"mdash;Evie wrapped her arms around their waists, her personality evident in the radiance of her smilemdash;"are we ready to dance?"

Not only was Sienna ready to dance, but if a man made a move on her tonight . . . well, she might just let him. She was through with waiting.

ALONE in the apartment but for the sleeping children, Walker found himself looking at the sat phone hersquo;d recently been issued courtesy of his position as "Head Wrangler" for the ten-to-thirteen-year-olds.

The phone came preloaded with contact information for the other senior members of SnowDancer. Flicking through the directory, he stopped at Lararsquo;s name. The healer would be a good sounding board when it came to his concerns about Siennarsquo;s emotional statemdash;Lara was one of the most sensitive people in the pack.

His thumb hesitated over the Call button, the sensual echo of that kiss the night of the party causing every one of his muscles to go taut in a waiting kind of expectation. Unlike the changelings, he wasnrsquo;t a man driven by the desire to touch, but Lara made him react in unexpected and uncomfortable ways. He wasnrsquo;t used to having his body respond in such an undisciplined manner, but more, he wasnrsquo;t used to having the reins slip from his grasp when it came to his mental reaction.

So many weeks later and he could still feel the softness of her skin beneath his fingertips, the warm seduction of her body under his palm, the sweetness of her lips parting as they met his own. She was small but curvy in a way that had made him want to stroke his hands over her at his leisure, to explore the intriguing shadows and arcs of her body. Hersquo;d kept his hands from roaming that night . . . but not his mind.

He glanced at the phone again.

If he called her, she would come. He hadnrsquo;t been an Arrow like Judd, but hersquo;d had his own reasons for learning to read peoplemdash;he knew that in spite of the fact that their friendship appeared irreparably damaged, Lara had the softest of hearts. The second he mentioned his concern about Sienna, hersquo;d have her immediate attention. And the instant she was in his quarters . . . images of kiss-wet lips, of a warm feminine form under his hands.

His body grew hard.

It was an unwelcome reminder of how she impacted him, how she skewed the rules on which hersquo;d rebuilt his life. He took his finger off the Call button . . . and got up. There was a chance he could catch her at the infirmary.

BY midnight, fighting the constant compulsion to track down Sienna had gnawed Hawkersquo;s temper to a fine edge. It wasnrsquo;t the best of times for him to receive a call from the manager of Wild, the changeling-owned bar and dance club that sat in a small but popular nightlife area just beyond the edge of den territory.

"Hawke, I need you to come pick up your pups."

Hawke rubbed his forehead. The only time José ever called him was when things had progressed to breaking point. "How much?"

"No bill for damages," José said to his surprise. "But if you donrsquo;t get here soon, yoursquo;ll probably be bailing a few of them out of jail." The deer changelingmdash;a dominant bull who could bash heads with the best of them, for all that he was non-predatorymdash;hung up.

"Shit." Already dressed in jeans and a T-shirt since hersquo;d been wide awake, he pulled on well-worn work boots, then buzzed Riley.

His lieutenant was not impressed. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Yeah, yeah. How many of them went down to Wild tonight?" Riley would know. Riley knew everything.

"Seven, but Ebony and Amos were in San Francisco for a security run"mdash;a small pausemdash;"and the systemrsquo;s not showing them logging back into the den, so they probably took a detour."

"Thanks."

"Yoursquo;ll need a second driver."

"Stay snuggled up to Mercy," Hawke said, already halfway to the garage. "Irsquo;ll get one of the night-shift people."

"Donrsquo;t be too hard on them."

Hawke paused. "What?"

"Yoursquo;re in a mean mood, Hawke. Donrsquo;t take it out on them."

Growling, Hawke snapped the phone shut. He was alpha for a reasonmdash;and part of it was that he knew how to handle his people. Of course, Riley was also his most senior lieutenant for a reason. "Shit." Jogging the rest of the way to the garage, he volunteered Elias as the second driver. "Were they driving when they went down?"

Elias checked the computronic log. "Yep. Two vehicles. GPS says theyrsquo;re both parked a five-minute walk from the club."

"Good. Wersquo;ll drive one downmdash;you can bring up the second. One of the soldiers on city security tomorrow can swing by and pick up the other."

The drive took more than an hour, and Hawke hoped like hell the young group hadnrsquo;t gotten into worse trouble in the meantime. Since Josérsquo;s radar was finely tuned, chances were good hersquo;d alerted Hawke in plenty of time.

Parking the vehicle a block away, he and Elias made it to Wild around one thirty in the morning. The bouncer, one of Josérsquo;s big, strapping cousins, raised his hand in a wave when he saw them. "That pretty little one with the cherry-tinted hair"mdash;he whistledmdash;"where you been hiding her?"

Hawke went motionless.

Chapter 9

"WHATrsquo;S THE TROUBLE?" he asked, the wolf in his voice.

The other male avoided his eyes, as if aware Hawke was too much on edge to accept even the slightest challenge. "Go in and see."

Entering the bar, he stayed to the shadows as he took in the lay of the land. The place was full of humans and changelingsmdash;leopard, wolf, deer, swan, even a Rat. Their scents were clear threads to him, even entangled as they were in the confined space. Most of the non-predatories stuck together, while the predatories did the same. But wolf and leopard were mingling. Plenty.

Ebony was currently happily pasted up against a cat, while Riordan was all but devouring a leopard girl with his eyes as the two of them stood talking a small distance from the dance floor. Eviemdash;oh, dear God, but Indigo was going to blow a gasketmdash;was dressed in a tiny strapless dress made from some sparkly fabric that only just covered everything that should be covered. She was also giggling and drunk, a frothy pink cocktail in hand. Tai sat holding her against his chest, looking sober. Maybe there was hope for them yet.

Maria, Cadie, and the rest were out front, cheering.

At Sienna.

Who was dancing on the bar.

In fuck-you boots and a shirt that barely contained her breasts.

Eyes going wolf, Hawke began to stride through the crowd. A few aggressive young males turned to give him a talking-to . . . and froze, their gazes jerking away when they met the dominance in his own. Even the humans understood, going pale as they moved out of his path as fast as possible.

He realized part of the reason for Josérsquo;s call when he saw the human men lined up along the bar, all of them with a look in their eye that said theyrsquo;d spill blood to possess the woman who danced with such wild, sensual grace. The SnowDancer males would, of course, have defended her with fists and claws the instant anyone tried to touch her.

And Josérsquo;s bar wouldrsquo;ve been trashed in minutes.

Then there were the leopard and wolf males giving each other dirty looks as interpack flirting took place. Riordan was being watched by at least three cats with violence on their minds, while Lake and Amos were currently glaring with intent at Ebonyrsquo;s dance partner.

The entire thing had the makings of a clusterfuck.

Shoving away the humans at the bar with rough hands, he reached out and gripped one leather-covered ankle.

Sienna stopped moving.

"Down," he growled, meeting brown eyes so much less extraordinary than the truth of her cardinal gaze. "Now."

Music still pumped but the bar had gone silent.

 

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Sienna didnrsquo;t immediately obey, and that just infuriated the wolf. "Last warning, baby."

Holding his gaze, Sienna said, "Irsquo;m not breaking any of the Pack rules."

Every single person in the bar sucked in a breath.

Hawke didnrsquo;t pay them any attention. Hersquo;d had enough. A single, precisely timed tug and he tilted her off balance. As she fell, he caught her, throwing her over his shoulder. "Out!" he ordered the other wolves as he left.

Sienna, having apparently recovered from the loss of breath caused by his sudden move, began to wiggle and twist. "Let me go!"

He tapped her behind, a short, sharp shock that had her freezing. "Donrsquo;t make me any more pissed than I am right now."

"Bully." It was muttered under her breath, but he heard it. "Yoursquo;ve got no right to punish me. None."

He tightened his hold on her as they hit the cold night air. "You want to talk punishment, fine. What the fuck did you think you were doing on that bar? Were you trying to cause a riot?"

"I was having fun." Heaving breaths. "Put me down. I canrsquo;t breathe with your shoulder in my stomach."

"Tough." He didnrsquo;t take his hands off her until he dumped her in the front passenger seat of the vehicle hersquo;d driven down. "In," he ordered her friends, all of whom had obeyed his order to leave.

Tai raised his hand, one arm around a suddenly sober-appearing Eviersquo;s waist as he tucked her into the heat of his body. "I havenrsquo;t had a single drink. I can drive the other truck."

Hawkersquo;s nose told him the young soldier was telling the truth. "Fine." He looked over the others. "Yoursquo;re lucky José called me before a punch was thrown."

Guilt on several male faces, while the women frowned. The men knew damn well what had been building in that bar.

"Next time I get a call like this, Irsquo;m instituting a curfew. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

As everyone dispersed, splitting themselves between Eliasrsquo;s truck and the one Tai was going to be driving, Hawke realized he was about to spend over an hour alone in a confined space with a female hersquo;d made every effort to avoid ever since she hit eighteen. A female who was almost spilling out of her shirt, allowing him glimpses of red satin against creamy gold skin.

Great, just fucking great.

SIENNA glared out the window as her friends scattered. "Traitor," she mouthed to Evie when the other woman glanced back.

Evie winked at her. "Give him hell . . . baby," Evie mouthed back.

Siennarsquo;s cheeks flamed as she remembered Hawke using the endearment in that taut, angry tone, which had raised every hair on her body. It probably meant nothing, except that he saw her as exactly that. A child. It didnrsquo;t matter what she did, how mature she acted, he only seemed to pay attention to her at her worst moments.

Like tonight.

No, she thought, furious with himmdash;and with herself for continuing to let him affect her this way, that hadnrsquo;t been a bad moment. Shersquo;d been having fun. Enjoying herself as she had every right to do. He was probably fuming because hersquo;d been pulled out of Rosaliersquo;s bed. Her nails dug into her palms. If shersquo;d had claws, theyrsquo;d have been out right then, slicing savagely though the seats.

"Not a word," he snapped as he got into the driverrsquo;s seat. "Did you know what you were doing up on that bar?" Not giving her a chance to answer, he continued, "Most of those men were ready to grab you and strip you naked right there."

Her simmering temper ignited. "I know how to defend myself, thanks to Indigo. And dancing wasnrsquo;t a crime last time I checked."

"I said, not a damn word." His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he drove them out of the popular nightlife area.

She snorted, too mad to be thinking about the sanity of challenging a predatory changeling male in the grip of pure raging fury. "How about instead of orders, Mr. Alpha Wolf, you actually stop hiding and talk to me?"

"Donrsquo;t push me, little girl." Quiet, quiet words.

The tone made every muscle in her body go tense, but shersquo;d been trained by a cold-blooded Councilor. Fear was something with which she had intimate familiaritymdash;and it wasnrsquo;t hot, not like the emotion that burned through her veins at this moment. "You think I should just keep doing as Irsquo;m told?" she asked. "Is that what gets you off?"

"One," he said with such calm, she knew she was in the vehicle with a predator barely on the leash. "Irsquo;ll give you one free pass because yoursquo;re drunkmdash;"

"I didnrsquo;t have a single alcoholic beverage." Alcohol had unpredictable effects on Psy abilities, and she couldnrsquo;t afford to lose even an ounce of mental control. "Irsquo;m angry at you because you get to win all the arguments by using your alpha status to shut me down."

A dangerous pause. So dangerous that Sienna snapped her mouth closed, swallowing the words that wanted to escape.

Until he brought the truck to a halt deep in an unfamiliar part of den territory. The night was pitch-black, starless, and moonless, the trees murky shadows that seemed to form an impenetrable wall around them. "Why are we stopping?"

"You wanted to talk. Wersquo;ll talk."

Her palms went damp at that smooth, silky tone.

"Irsquo;m putting aside my lsquo;alpha status.rsquo; "

Oh, he was furious.

"So letrsquo;s see if you can win this argument." Turning in his seat, he leaned his arm along the back of hers. "Now explain to me how you wouldrsquo;ve stopped a massive fistfight in the bar tonight."

"Thatrsquo;s not on me," she said, trying to breathe past the sheer power of him. "The women were an excusemdash;the males were itching to go at each other since the minute we walked in. Theyrsquo;re always playing dominance games."

"So you knew that, and still you amped up the sexual energy in the room?"

The truck was suddenly too small, too confined, Hawkersquo;s hotly masculine scent seeping into her very pores, touching parts of her no man had ever stroked. "It wasnrsquo;t my responsibility."

"Oh?"

"No." A sudden crash of anger. "Irsquo;m not accountable for everyone! Maybe I wanted to have fun for a change. Maybe I wanted to not be in control for a few short minutes! Maybe I just wanted to dance."

Hawkersquo;s lashes came down. When they lifted back up, his gaze was night-glow, a brilliant ice blue shot with light. She sucked in a breath, realizing she was talking to the wolf now.

"You want to dance?" Husky words that stroked along her skin like the softest fur.

She nodded.

"Then we dance." Reaching out, he switched on the vehiclersquo;s sound system and input a selection before stepping out.

Her door opened as a slow, smoky ballad began to play. "Come." An invitationmdash;but mostly a demand.

"My shoes," she blurted out, anger buried under a wave of nervous anticipation.

"The groundrsquo;s dry. They wonrsquo;t sink in."

Not sure this wasnrsquo;t all a dream, she placed her hand in his and, fighting the wild rush of sensation engendered by his touch and his scent, allowed him to tug her around to the front of the vehicle. Breaking the hold, he put his hands on her hips and pulled her forward, his breath a heated caress across her cheek as he bent to speak against her ear. "Arms around my neck."

The command released her voice. "I thought you werenrsquo;t being alpha here."

"Irsquo;m not."

Oh.

As she raised her arms, she realized her boots gave her enough height to cup his nape with one hand, while she placed the other on the muscled warmth of his shoulder. When he shifted position so that his jaw rubbed against her temple, her heart began to thud fast as a jackhammer.

This close, he was all hot, hard heat. Pure muscle and strength . . . and temptation. Always, hersquo;d been her temptation. He was the reason her Silence had shattered into innumerable shards the instant shersquo;d walked into SnowDancer territory. She shouldrsquo;ve kept her distance, but she couldnrsquo;t. Just oncemdash;just for a little whilemdash;she wanted him to be hers.

Teeth nipped at her ear.

She jumped.

"Pay attention." A rumbling growl.

Her nipples tightened to stiff points she hoped he couldnrsquo;t feel. It was beyond tempting to spread the hand on his nape upward, into the thick, silver-gold silk of his hair, but she didnrsquo;t dare break the moment. He had such beautiful hair, the same color as his pelt in wolf form. That told her more about how close his wolf was to the surface than anything else.

"Sienna." A deep murmur against her skin, his lips brushing her temple. "This canrsquo;t be. You know that."

Her blood was thunder in her ears, her skin stretching taut over a body hypersensitized by a raw, near-painful craving. "Is it because Irsquo;m Psy?" she forced herself to ask. Hawke hated the Psymdash;that much she knew, though she didnrsquo;t know the reason behind the depth of his animosity. The fact that hersquo;d accepted the Lauren family as deeply into the pack as he had was nothing short of miraculous.

A low growl that had her going motionless. "Itrsquo;s because yoursquo;re barely grown." He stroked his hand down her back, as if in reassurance.

But she wasnrsquo;t ready to be soothed. "I havenrsquo;t been a child since the day they came for me when I was five." A cardinal X could not be allowed to live outside of Council control. "Ming LeBon sure didnrsquo;t sing me any lullabies."

Hawkersquo;s hand pressed against her lower back, big and warm and shockingly intimate through the thin fabric of her shirt. "Five?" The wolf was so apparent in his voice, she had to focus to understand him. "You were a baby."

She laughed and knew it held no humor. "Cardinals are trained from before we gain the ability to speak." The years shersquo;d spent with her mother, the commands had been gentle, given by a woman who had wanted her child to learn to protect herself on the psychic plane. Aware shersquo;d have drowned under the deluge of voices otherwise, Sienna had never resented the instruction; she missed her motherrsquo;s touch to this day. "The first conscious thought I remember having was about the need to shield."

 

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But when theyrsquo;d discovered she was an X, the shields theyrsquo;d put around her had been brutal prison walls, unlike anything shersquo;d known. Shersquo;d been so small, so scared. Even her brave, strong mother, with her gentle telepathic touch, was gone, unable to reach Sienna through the hard carapace of Mingrsquo;s creation. It had probably been for the bestmdash;Kristine had stood no chance against a daughter whorsquo;d put her in intensive care with a simple childish display of temper.

"Did you ever play?" Hawkersquo;s voice so rough, his body so muscular and overwhelming.

She had never felt more feminine, never felt more like a sexual creature. "No."

A pause. "Siennamdash;"

"No," she said. "No more questions. Not tonight." She wanted to dance with him, be a woman in the arms of a man who made every part of her awaken in a hunger shersquo;d never expected to feel and who, for this magical moment, was hers.

His jaw, heavy with stubble, rubbed against her temple again as he shifted his hold to press her closer. Then, as the music played, as the night grew softer and quieter, they danced.

RECOVERED FROM COMPUTER 2(A) TAGS: PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE, FATHER, ACTION NOT REQUIRED

FROM: Alice lt;[emailnbsp;protected] /* */ gt;

TO: Dad lt;[emailnbsp;protected] /* */ gt;

DATE: November 5th, 1971 at 11:14pm

SUBJECT: re: re: JA Article

I protest! I did very much enjoy your paper in the Journal of Archaeology, and it has nothing to do with being your daughtermdash;I totally agree with you about your interpretation of the newly discovered glyphs. Cho is wrong. I know it and you know it.

Dad, I wanted to talk to you about something else, too, something thatrsquo;s troubling me. I now have four Xs enrolled in my study (Gradients 3 through to 4.2), and from everything the Psy academics tell me, it means Irsquo;ve done astonishingly well. The designation is so rare that if there were ten living X-Psy at any given time, it would be considered a miracle.

That isnrsquo;t what worries me. Of the four Irsquo;ve located, none are over the age of sixteen. There was a fifth known X, one of the boys tells me, a girl he met on the PsyNet. I got the impression he had a crush on her. The heartbreaking thing is, she died just short of her nineteenth birthday when her power consumed her.

I donrsquo;t want to see my Xs die.

Alice

Chapter 10

HAWKErsquo;S WOLF WASNrsquo;T riding him as hard as it had been doing for the past week when he drove down to DarkRiver territory the next morningmdash;to talk to Lucas about the weapons coming into the area, to see if DarkRiver had any news on possible Pure Psy operatives in the city. It didnrsquo;t take much thought to figure out that the wildness in him had been temporarily sated by the contact hersquo;d allowed himself with Sienna.

Hersquo;d been so angry at hermdash;always pushing his buttons, that girl. But then hersquo;d taken her into his arms, and all that anger had blazed into a darker, hotly possessive need that had urged him to bend his head, bite down on the throbbing pulse in her neck, leave a mark.

God, that shirt. One tug and those snaps wouldrsquo;ve come apart, revealing the gold-kissed cream of her skin. Hersquo;d wanted to taste her, stroke her, pet her. Simply holding her, simply dancing with her, had driven his wolf half to madness . . . but he would have shredded anyone whorsquo;d dared interrupt that slow dance stolen in the silken shadows of night.

"Your pelt," a lazy voice drawled as he walked into the clearing around Lucasrsquo;s home, "would make a nice coat for my mate."

Giving Vaughn a desultory finger where the amber-haired sentinel stood in the shade of a large juniper tree, its trunk a rich reddish brown, Hawke said, "I can scent Lucmdash;he inside?" He nodded at the cabin below another large tree, an unoccupied aerie perched in its branches.

"Yep. Donrsquo;t even think about going in."

"Do I look like Irsquo;ve had a lobotomy?" Lucasrsquo;s mate, Sascha, was heavily pregnant. As a result, the leopard alpharsquo;s protective tendencies had moved into the lethal range. "Irsquo;ll wait here. Hersquo;ll scent me soon enough."

Lucas exited the cabin on the heels of that statement. "Sascharsquo;s sleeping," he said, angling his head toward the forest. "Vaughn."

"I wonrsquo;t take my eye off the place."

"How is she?" Hawke asked as they stepped deeper into the dappled sunshine filtering through the canopy.

"Ready to give birth." A chuckle. "Unfortunately, the baby is comfortable right where he or she is."

"You still donrsquo;t know the gender?" Hawke wouldnrsquo;t have had the selfcontrol to hold outmdash;and yeah, it hurt like a bitch to know hersquo;d never have the chance to test that theory, but that didnrsquo;t dim his joy for the leopard alpha. "If I ask Sascha, will she tell me?"

"Try it." A feral grin that was all teeth. "So, fill me in on these weapons shipments your people have detected."

Hawke gave him a quick rundown. "My gut says the Scottsmdash;everything points to themmdash;are going to mount an assault this time. Full-out, open."

"Not surprising, given that they and the others have tried covert ops a number of times and failed." Lucas halted on the moss-covered verge beside a small, clear stream. "Sascha spoke to her mothermdash;therersquo;s definite Pure Psy activity in the city, but theyrsquo;re being very careful. Theyrsquo;re well aware that not only are they not welcome, but that the last operative ended up with his brains leaking out his ears after Nikita found him out."

Hawke didnrsquo;t like Nikita Duncan, but he could appreciate the womanrsquo;s efficiency in taking care of a threat. "Thatrsquo;ll make them harder to pinpoint."

"Rats are spread out across the city. Smallest sign of a Pure Psy base and wersquo;ll know." The leopard alpha glanced at Hawke. "Are you planning on moving your vulnerable out?"

"Not at this stage." Hawke had already discussed it with his lieutenants. "Therersquo;s no overt threat yet, and wersquo;re wolves, Luc." Evacuating their home on such flimsy grounds would demoralize any predatory changeling, dominant or not. "If and when there is a credible threat, thatrsquo;s when wersquo;ll evacuate the noncombatants." The escape plans had been drafted long ago, could be put into motion within an hour, and the entire den cleared of their vulnerable within four. It would take far longer than that for any invader to break through SnowDancerrsquo;s first line of defense.

Lucasrsquo;s eyes gleamed cat-green in the muted light of the forest. "We made the same decision. I want Mercy to liaise with Riley to coordinate our evacuation plans. Work for you?"

"Do it. I think we should give WindHaven a heads-up, too." The falcons could provide air support if necessary. "Irsquo;ll have Drew talk to them," he said when Luc nodded.

"I hear your boyrsquo;s been out to the Canyon."

"Falcons love Drewmdash;I think he even had an indecent proposal or three."

Lucasrsquo;s head turned toward the cabin. "Indigo know?"

"I didnrsquo;t want bloodshed." Hawke fell in step with the other alpha as he began to head back. "Sascha awake?"

"Yeah."

A pang of envy uncurled in Hawkersquo;s gut. He wondered what it would be like to be connected to a person with such intimacy. Yes, he was alpha, linked to his lieutenants and, to a lesser extent, to the rest of his pack. But it wasnrsquo;t the same. None of them were his.

A rush of memory, a sleek feminine body pressed against his own, the scent of wild spice in his every breath as the rapid tattoo of her pulse sang a sirensong to his dominant nature. The wolf whispered that she could be his, only his, until possessive hunger pulsed through him, turning his muscles rigid.

He parted with Lucas at the clearing, digging his claws into his palms to cut through the compulsion. The scent of blood licked into the air, and he let it overwhelm the burn of sexual need for the moment. It wouldnrsquo;t last, he was fully aware of that. If he knew what was good for him, for his pack, hersquo;d finish what hersquo;d started a couple of days ago and take a lover. A lover who knew the score, who wouldnrsquo;t look at him in the morning with eyes bruised with the knowledge that hersquo;d given her all he could.

There was nothing else left in him.

HAVING done a half-day shift on perimeter security, Sienna was home in plenty of time to work on an academic project and have dinner with Marlee and Toby. "Theyrsquo;re both in bed," she told Walker when her uncle walked in the door after a later shift.

Walker shrugged off his jacket to reveal solid shoulders covered in a rough denim shirt. "Irsquo;ve got it now."

Instead of leaving, she heated up a meal, put it on the table. Walker, having ducked into his bedroom to kick off his shoes and wash up, came in as she was placing a glass of water beside his plate. Putting his hand on the back of her head, he leaned down to press his lips to her forehead, much as shersquo;d done with Toby and Marlee. "Yoursquo;re troubled."

It almost broke her, the tender way he held her. "Itrsquo;s nothing." She couldnrsquo;t bear to discuss last night with anyone, to share the painful magic of a dance, a touch that might never be repeated and yet that had branded her. She could still feel the rough kiss of Hawkersquo;s jaw against her temple, his hand so big and warm on her lower back, his chest a hard, muscled wall that flexed against her breasts.

Drawing back, Walker looked at her with pale green eyes that saw too much, but he didnrsquo;t push. Relief a crashing wave inside of her, she said a quick good-bye and shrugged into her own jacket, deciding to go for a walk under the starlit sky. That same sky had been pure midnight when Hawke took her into his arms, as if the universe itself was conspiring to allow them to steal a single hidden moment.

"Sienna!"

Startled, she turned to see Maria running her way. "Are you off to do your shift?"

A bounce of loose, silky curls as the other novice nodded. "So, you going to tell me what happened with you and Hawke last night?"

 

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"Nothing." Nothing but a slow, heartbreaking dance that had destroyed her illusions about her ability to get over a man who refused to even consider the idea that maybe, just maybe, there werenrsquo;t as many years between them as he believed.

Thankfully, Maria took her words at face value. "You had the early shift, right? Mustrsquo;ve been hard getting up after staying up so late."

"It was fine." There had been no need to get upmdash;she hadnrsquo;t slept since returning to the den. "Actually, do you mind if I run down with you? Irsquo;m not tired enough to sleep yet." If she slept, shersquo;d dream, the scent of Hawke haunting her in the soft dark.

"Companyrsquo;s always welcome." It was the answer of a wolf.

They ran down in companionable silence to the perimeter section where Maria was taking over from Lake. Breathing hard but not winded, Sienna gave the two of them privacy as they touched each other in that affectionate wolf waymdash;nose to nose, body to body, the kiss an extension of the full-body contact.

Sienna had done her own shift in a different area of den territory, so there were new things to explore here. But still she almost missed it: a pen, gleaming and dark. Guessing it had fallen out of a packmatersquo;s pocket, she picked it upmdash;the pack was scrupulous about ensuring no garbage littered their land. It wasnrsquo;t until it was in her hand that she realized the sleek metallic cylinder wasnrsquo;t a pen at all but a high-powered torch, an expensive item.

The SnowDancers had a small number of them. Used almost exclusively by non-changeling members of the packmdash;the wolvesrsquo; night vision was better than any illumination the torches could providemdash;they were logged in and out with meticulous precision. Someone was probably in trouble for losing this. Sliding it into a pocket, she walked over to join Lake as he got ready to return to the den.

Body exhausted enough that there was a chance of a dreamless sleep, she parted with him at the entrance and went to log in the torch . . . to discover each and every one of the packrsquo;s set sitting in the box where they were stored. Hairs rising on the back of her neck, she made a call to Maria. "Can you do me a favor?" she asked when the other woman answered.

"What do you need?"

"Go about a hundred meters east of where Lake was standing when we arrived, tell me what you scent."

No sounds except for rustling as Maria jogged over. Then, "Psy. I smell Psy."

HAWKE finished checking out the section where Sienna had found the torch. Like Maria, he immediately caught the harsh metallic scent exuded by some Psymdash;as if theyrsquo;d gone so deep into Silence, theyrsquo;d lost their humanity. Nothing but the most brittle cold remained.

Sienna hadnrsquo;t been cold.

Warm and curvy and muscled in a supple feminine way, shersquo;d surprised him with the softness of her. Theyrsquo;d always been antagonists, always fought. To have her so sweet and lush against him had been a gift, walking away pure torture. His wolf didnrsquo;t understand why hersquo;d done somdash;to the animal, she smelled like a mature female. It didnrsquo;t comprehend that she was a young girl barely become a woman.

I havenrsquo;t been a child since the day they came for me when I was five.

The memory incited a killing rage within him. Hersquo;d always known shersquo;d been conditioned into Silence as a child, but until shersquo;d said that, he hadnrsquo;t understood the painful depth of what her gift had demanded from her.

Shersquo;d never played.

How was that possible? Play was as necessary for a wolf as breathing.

She played with us.

It was the wolfrsquo;s voice. Scowling, he went to reject the assertion. Sienna had driven him crazy with her tricks since moving into the den. The party shersquo;d thrown to celebrate her eighteenth birthday had ended up with a lot of naked wolves freezing their asses off in the lake, their clothes scattered over so many acres, he didnrsquo;t ever want to know that the hell theyrsquo;d been doing.

If her intent had been to drive him to the asylummdash;

"You confirm it?"

Hersquo;d scented Riley nearing, didnrsquo;t startle. "Yeah. Definitely Psy."

"Damn." A harsh exhalation. "Theyrsquo;re really going to do this."

"Any word from our sources?"

"Lucas spoke to Nikita. She says tensions are increasing in the Council, and itrsquo;s out in the open now. Henry and Shoshanna Scott are making it clear they think the two of them should lead. Anyone who argues differently is in their sights."

"We donrsquo;t need to be in the middle of a Psy war." His duty was to protect his peoplemdash;the Psy could destroy themselves for all he cared . . . as theyrsquo;d once almost destroyed SnowDancer.

Riley said, "No," but his tone brought up another question.

Hawke stared at the pine needlendash;strewn land in front of him, the ground otherwise clear because of the heavy canopy. "Yoursquo;re thinking the same thing I ammdash;no way is this going to be contained to the Psy."

"Like Max pointed out," he said, naming Nikitarsquo;s human security chief, "this regionrsquo;s already seen as interlinked. No matter what, they wonrsquo;t leave us be." A shrug. "And fact is, wersquo;ve bitten back and bitten hard. I think at least part of the Council has decided we have too much power to be allowed to continue as we are."

Hawke knew that. He also understood that Nikita and Anthony were the lesser of two evils, but it still pissed him off that the pack had been forced to work with a couple of Councilors. "Letrsquo;s increase the security patrols around the boundary. Donrsquo;t worry too much about the border with DarkRiver, but we need to let them know the Psy might be sniffing around even though it looks like theyrsquo;re focused on us."

Riley nodded, his gaze thoughtful. Hawke waited for the lieutenant to speak. Riley and Indigo were the solid foundation on which he stoodmdash;Riley had been there since before Hawke became alpha at fifteen. At the time, Hawke had had the strength of the remaining lieutenants around him, but hersquo;d gone most often to the level-headed teenager who was his best friend. Indigo, a little younger, had entered the picture a few years later but had become Hawkersquo;s left arm as Riley was his right. Theyrsquo;d pulled Hawke back from the edge more than once, pushed him when necessary, and offered support without question. It was a gift, one he never took for granted.

"Irsquo;m going to ask Kenji and Alexei to fine-tune our strategic plan," Riley said. "The fact it appears theyrsquo;re running physical reconnaissance in our territory argues for a rapid escalation. We need to be ready."

Hawke nodded. The two lieutenants had the best tactical minds in the pack. "Use Drew as well. He might be able to pinpoint areas of vulnerability we might otherwise miss." The SnowDancer tracker wasnrsquo;t only Hawkersquo;s eyes and ears among the most vulnerable in the pack; hersquo;d also become a clearinghouse for all kinds of information.

"Irsquo;ll grab him for the comm-conference with Kenji and Alexei tomorrow," Riley said, then glanced at Hawke. "I hear you went dancing last night."

The words made every muscle in his body go tight, but he kept his tone even. "Irsquo;ve had a talk with the young males and so has Lucas. That kind of bullshit wonrsquo;t be tolerated." A little posturing between young dominants was expected and accepted. Hard physical violence? No.

"Alliance?"

"Rock solid. This isnrsquo;t about thatmdash;itrsquo;s because of you and Mercy." Everyone was still trying to work out the rules for the whole interpack dating thing, juveniles and older adults included. Add in testosterone and you got last night. "Not that I donrsquo;t appreciate you stealing us a leopard sentinel."

Riley didnrsquo;t smile at the familiar joke, perceptive eyes trained on Hawke. "Why did José call you and not Lucas if both groups were making trouble?"

"José switches between us. Luc gets the next postmidnight call."

A silence filled only with the rustle of the trees as a stiff wind blew through the canopy.

"You need to talk about it?" Riley asked after the forest had gone quiet again.

"Nothing to talk about."

Rileyrsquo;s nickname wasnrsquo;t The Wall for nothing. "Yoursquo;ve never been one to ignore a problem."

"Not a problem."

"Then why does the gym log show you there half the night, every night?"

Hawke growled low in his throat. "Keeping tabs on me?"

"Itrsquo;s my job." Rileyrsquo;s temper remained even. "I let you go lone wolf up in the mountains, but if you think Irsquo;ll watch you self-destruct, you donrsquo;t know me."

Hawkersquo;s wolf snarled, but he and Riley had too much history between them for him to shrug off the concernmdash;and what it meant. "Can you cover for me tomorrow afternoon?"

"You donrsquo;t have to ask." That the other man didnrsquo;t question Hawke about what it was he was planning to do, told him exactly how well his lieutenant knew him.

Chapter 11

SASCHA RUBBED THE hard mound of her pregnant belly and stared at the jar of Moreno cherry jam. "No. Absolutely not," she said to the child in her womb.

The baby wiggled, its emotions sparking of hunger.

Groaning, she picked up the jar, unscrewed it, and spooned up the jam. It shouldrsquo;ve tasted far too sweet, far too rich. Instead, it was ambrosia on her tongue. Unable to stifle a moan of greedy pleasure, she leaned against the counter in the staff kitchen at DarkRiver HQ and licked the spoon. It was tempting to eat a second spoonful, but in spite of the babyrsquo;s ravenous urgings, she closed the lid and put the jam away. Itrsquo;s not good for you, she told her child. We already had chocolate-cherry ice cream.

"You missed a spot." Lucas crooked a finger from the doorway.

Leaving the spoon in the dishwasher, she walked over. "Did I?"

"Hmm." He leaned over to lick up the jam with a quick, catlike flick of his tongue, his hand stroking with gentle possessiveness over her abdomen. "Mmm, cherries."

 

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Laughter in her mind, pure delight. Their baby knew its daddy.

"You look more beautiful every day," he murmured in her ear, his breath warm, his body so sensually familiar.

Sascha ran her hand up over his shoulder to close around his nape. "Charm me some more."

A chuckle, wicked words that made her toes curl. "Dorianrsquo;s ready to drive you home," he finally said. "But maybe I should come instead."

"Irsquo;ll never get any work done then." Unable to resist that look in his panther-green eyes, she pulled him forward to claim a single deep kiss. "Now, behave."

Laughing, he put one hand on her lower back and walked her down to the elevator. "I want to have a sentinel meeting tonight to discuss the security issues. You up for it?"

"Irsquo;ll order the pizza." Nuzzling her face against his neck when he stopped to press the down arrow, she heard a couple of wolf whistles at her back.

Lucas grinned. "Howrsquo;s our little princess?"

Hersquo;d asked her not to tell him the sex of their child, but he was convinced it was a girl. "The babymdash;which may or may not be a girl," she teased, "is quite active and interested in the world this morning." Their child had an inquisitive mind. "High level of psychic activity."

Lucas waited until they were inside the elevator to say, "Any idea what type?"

"Strong telepathy," Sascha said, "but hard to know other than that. Irsquo;ll have a chat with the Shine medic, see if he has any ideas about how best to measure the babyrsquo;s psychic abilities." The Psy race, focused as it was on "purebred" Psy, didnrsquo;t have the protocols in place to deal with a child who would carry its fatherrsquo;s wild changeling blood intermingled with Sascharsquo;s own.

Shine, on the other hand, was made up of the descendants of Psy whorsquo;d defected from the Net at the inception of Silence and intermarried/mated with the human and changeling populations. "Irsquo;ll need to make certain I teach our child the correct shielding procedures." Her heart ached with a sudden, potent rush of emotion. Shersquo;d never expected to be a mother, having decided long ago that she wouldnrsquo;t sentence a child to the same half life shersquo;d lived in the Net. Then Lucas had appeared in her life. You are my heart.

He wasnrsquo;t a telepath, but their mating bond had grown even deeper during the pregnancy, and she knew he heard her. Turning, he took her into his arms. The words he whispered were raw, rough, the love words of an alpha to his mate. Lucas could charm, but this was who he was at the core, and she adored him. "Come home early tonight," she said against his mouth when they parted.

Kisses on her closed eyelids, her nose, the corners of her lips. "Anything you want."

A couple of hours later, her body and soul were still humming in bone-deep contentment when someone knocked on the cabin door. The sole reason Sascha didnrsquo;t send out an immediate alert was that she recognized the mental signature of the man on the other side. Opening it, she smiled. "Why do you live to aggravate my security?"

Judd Lauren glanced over his shoulder to where a scowling DarkRiver soldier had materialized out of the trees. "Itrsquo;s good to keep them on their toes. Can you talk?" he asked after she waved the sentry away.

Knowing the reason for the unexpected visit, she nodded at the outdoor furniture situated neatly under the eaves of the cabin. "Letrsquo;s sit outside." Another manrsquo;s scent inside the house would infuriate Lucasrsquo;s panther right now. While Sascha had no problem confronting her mate when he got too overprotective, she also understood he was a predatory changeling male driven by the most primal instinctsmdash;expecting him to act human would be to ask him to deny an integral part of himself. "So," she said after bringing out a pot of vanilla-scented tea and taking a seat, "the Eldridge book."

Expressionless brown eyes met her own, but Sascha had felt Judd Laurenrsquo;s heart, knew the former Arrow had the capacity to feel, to love with violent intensity. "Are you any closer to locating it?" he asked now.

"No." The second Eldridge manuscript, meant to be the result of a research project on X-Psy, was half myth, half legend. Both DarkRiver and SnowDancer were working every single Psy contact they had to discover the truth of it, because if it existed, it might contain clues that would help Sienna learn how to handle her abilitiesmdash;as Alice Eldridgersquo;s first book had done for Sascha.

But, Sascha thought, cupping her hands around the porcelain teacup, though she hadnrsquo;t known it at the time, shersquo;d never been as alone as Sienna. Dormant they might be, but there were thousands of E-Psy in the Net. There were no other cardinal X-Psy. "How is she?"

Judd took a sip of his tea, made a startlingly male facemdash;somehow, she didnrsquo;t expect that kind of thing from a former assassinmdash;and put it right back down. "Shersquo;s maintaining," he said. "The issue right now isnrsquo;t with her psychic control, itrsquo;s with her emotional stability."

Sascha read between the lines. "Maybe I should have a talk with her." Sienna had become very much a part of Sascharsquo;s family in the time shersquo;d spent in DarkRiver, and Sascha wanted to see for herself how the other cardinal was handling things with a man as dominant and as strong as Sascharsquo;s own mate. A man whose heart carried so many scars that Sascha wouldrsquo;ve warned Sienna away . . . except that Sienna bore her own.

Juddrsquo;s fingers curled into a fist on the table, and for a moment, Sascha thought he might betray the emotions that had to be tearing at his heart, but all he said was, "Irsquo;ll bring her down tonight."

Reassured by the knowledge that hersquo;d confide in Brenna even if he spoke to no one else, she put down her own cup. "Irsquo;m hardly an invalid." He was as bad as a leopard. "Irsquo;ll drive up with Lucas."

"He isnrsquo;t liable to permit you that far from the heart of DarkRiver territory. Give the man some peace."

"Judd! No wonder you fit in so well with the wolves." Laughing, she decided it might actually be better for Sienna to have a break from the den. "Fine, wersquo;ll do it your way."

As the former Arrow melted into the forest, on his way to see a small boy whorsquo;d been born with the same gift that made Judd so lethal, Sascha poured another cup of tea and considered the mysterious Eldridge manuscript. She, Faith, and Ashaya had all exhausted their sources, to no avail. Shersquo;d even chanced trusting the director of Shine with the questionmdash;but Devrsquo;s people hadnrsquo;t had an X in the original group of defectors and knew close to nothing about them.

As far as the mainstream world was concerned, there was no such thing as an X-Psy.

MID-AFTERNOON the day after Sienna had alerted them to the Psy incursion, Hawke crouched in a sun-drenched corner of a small clearing ringed by ancient sequoias with roots the thickness of a grown manrsquo;s body and dotted with a myriad wild blooms adapted to the cold mountain climate. "Hey, Rissa."

The only reply was silence. But it was a peaceful silence. As this place was peaceful, a haven whenever he needed one. And today, he needed it desperately.

"They all think," he said, clearing away a few stray leaves to uncover a delicate patch of wildflowers the shade of the sky at noon, "that Irsquo;m being stubborn without reason. They donrsquo;t understand Irsquo;m protecting her." He was brutally attracted to Sienna. That much, hersquo;d admitted to himself if no one else. But the cruel fact was, he could give her little beyond a physical relationship. "I gave my heart to you a long time ago."

Theresa had been five years old when she died in an avalanche. Hersquo;d been ten. Too young to love her the way a man loves a woman, or even the way a boy loves a girl. But the wolf had understood from the moment they met who she was to him, who she would becomemdash;his mate.

Theyrsquo;d been best friends since that instant, the connection between them a bright, shining thread, their relationship full of laughter and a delight that was beyond innocent. It had been nothing like the tumultuous nature of the craving that raked him with blade-sharp claws anytime he was in Siennarsquo;s vicinity. The scent of her alone could send his wolf insane, the taste of her a lingering, maddening spice on his tongue.

"Wolves only mate once, Rissa," he said, using the old childhood pet name hersquo;d been responsible for coining. "Everyone knows that."

But we never mated.

The voice he heard in his mind when he thought of Theresa was never that of the child shersquo;d been, but of the woman she wouldrsquo;ve become. A woman full of warmth and gentleness, a woman who wouldnrsquo;t have been a soldier but a maternal female, part of the beating heart of the pack.

"Doesnrsquo;t matter," he murmured, refusing to give up a truth that had shaped so much of his life. "You were my mate. We wouldrsquo;ve mated when we grew old enough."

The wind whispered through the trees, through his hair. It was a touch hersquo;d felt a thousand times over the years, and always, it had left him centered and calm. Today, however, as he rose to his feet and walked away from the final resting place of the girl who wouldrsquo;ve owned his heart as a woman, he felt strangely dissatisfied, off-kilter.

It wasnrsquo;t a sensation either man or wolf enjoyed.

SIENNA was ready to head down to DarkRiver territory with Judd around eight that evening. Seeing Riordan as she left her quarters, she lifted a hand. "Hi."

"Hey." He stopped a few feet away, shifting from foot to foot and avoiding her gaze. "You okay? Hawke was pretty pissed when he came down to Wild the other night."

"You know he wouldnrsquo;t hurt any of us." She made no attempt to hide her shock that hersquo;d even asked the question, it was so incomprehensible.

Riordan colored, looked up. "Uh, yeah. Thatrsquo;s not what I was talking about."

Sienna stared.

"Jeez, Sin he made it clear you were his."

A punch of memorymdash;a hard male body holding her close enough to kiss, his voice an intimate roughness against her senses, his hands so big and hot on her skin. "No," she forced out, "therersquo;s nothing there." He wouldnrsquo;t permit there to be.

 

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"You sure?" Riordanrsquo;s eyes crinkled at the corners. "Thing is, no one else is going to come near you now."

"Yoursquo;re joking."

A shrug, a hand thrust through chocolate-dark curls. "Hersquo;s the alpha, babe. Only an idiot would try to poach on his territory."

She gritted her teeth. "I. Am. Not. His. Territory."

"Hey, look, isnrsquo;t that Marlee?"

Sienna turned automatically. Riordan was nowhere to be seen when she realized shersquo;d been had and swiveled back to face him. "Chicken!" she called out before continuing on her way.

She ran into Evie not far from the exit, flat out asked her if the other novice had been spouting bullshit.

Her friend winced. "Um, no. Hawke definitely had the alpha-possessive vibe going on."

"He doesnrsquo;t want me." Not enough to see past his preconceptions. Her jaw tightened, her muscles tensing as if in readiness for a fight. Stubborn, arrogant, infuriating man!

"Hey." Evie put her hand on Siennarsquo;s arm. "Maybe thatrsquo;s good newsmdash;seriously, any woman who takes him on is going to need brass balls. Big ones."

"Are you saying mine are too small?" It was easier to be flip, to stoke the heat of her frustrated anger than to acknowledge the hurt inside of her, the bruise that kept growing ever bigger in spite of all her vows to not allow this pull toward Hawke to savage her.

"Smartass." Laughing, Evie shook her head. "Look, if there really is nothing going on, he has to make sure the Pack males know that. Otherwise, not only will your dating life go into a death spiral inside the pack, the boys will scare off any other male, changeling or human, who dares look in your direction."

"No?" Sienna had no interest in dating anyone else, but she would not be humiliated by being claimed by Hawke and then left unwanted.

"Yoursquo;ve been around the XY component of SnowDancer for several years." Evie raised her eyebrows. "What do you think?"

"Pack males stick together."

With that thought circling in her mind, she wasnrsquo;t in any mood to see Hawke walking out of the trees near the White Zone, where shersquo;d gone to wait for Judd. His wolf-pale eyes spotted her at once, and he changed direction to block out the night in front of her. "Where are you going?" he asked, as if he had every right to know.

"None of your business." A dangerous silence greeted her words . . . and she couldnrsquo;t help herself. "Unless yoursquo;re pulling rank?"

A silence that had her skin stretching tight over her bones, her heartbeat hammering in her ears.

"Had to push, didnrsquo;t you, Sienna?" Stepping close, close enough that she had to tip her head back to meet his gaze, he took a long, deep breath. "You changed your shampoo."

A sudden, melting warmth invaded her body at the sound of his voicemdash;as if he was savoring the scent. "Lara had some samples she gave out to the women in the break room this morning." The SnowDancer healer had been in an edgy kind of mood, so Sienna had kept her mouth shut and taken the sample when it was shoved into her hand. "Itrsquo;s wild apples." She had no idea why shersquo;d said that, why she continued to speak to him.

"I like it." He lifted his hand to run a strand of her hair through his fingers.

Fighting every cell in her body, she stepped back. "Stop it. No touching. No acting possessive."

Hawkersquo;s wolf prowled to the surface, a primal presence behind the human skin. "Oh?"

"All or nothing." She held her ground though she was shaking inside, her blood going alternately hot and cold. "If you want me, take me. Or let me go."

A slow blink, the force of his personality a pulse against her skin, a near physical push. If shersquo;d been smart, she wouldrsquo;ve backed down, but this was her emotional life on the line, and shersquo;d fought too hard to surrender it to anyone. Even an alpha wolf used to dominance. "I just found out," she said through a throat that was suddenly bone dry, "that none of the boys are going to ask me out after the scene you pulled at Wild.

"Take out an ad if you need to," she continued when the wolf just watched her without blinking, "but make sure they know Irsquo;m not yours." Her need for him was a claw ripping at her insides. When he finally slept with Rosalie or another packmate, it would savage hermdash;she couldnrsquo;t control that, but she damn well could ensure she didnrsquo;t have to suffer the humiliation of being publicly discarded.

A low growl that made the hairs on the back of her neck rise. Staying in place was hard, so hard, when all she wanted to do was back down and crawl all over him. No. No more. He plans to take a lover. The mental reminder of what he intended to do to sate his wolfrsquo;s touch-hunger was the last straw. "I mean it, Hawke." She was done with throwing herself at a man who didnrsquo;t want her.

"So decisive," he murmured in that calm tone that had adrenaline flooding her body, the primitive part of her brain conscious she was in the presence of a predator. "Got your eye on someone?"

She didnrsquo;t know what made her say it. "No. But I have no plans to die a virgin."

Chapter 12

HAWKE WENT PREDATOR-STILL. "Kitrsquo;s been a good boy, has he?"

"Again, none of your business." Refusing to be intimidated, she glanced over his shoulder. "Excuse me, my ridersquo;s here."

Hawke stepped sideways to block her. "No."

Her body threatened to lock her into place, so strong was the impact of him. Only her fury kept her going. "Move."

Ignoring her command, he continued to hold her gaze with that wild wolf one even as he directed his next words to Judd, whorsquo;d just hopped out of the SUV. "Where are you taking her?"

"We were heading down to see Sascha, but Irsquo;ve just had a contact I need to chase up fast." Judd looked at Sienna. "Okay if we delay this till tomorrow?"

"Sure."

"No need." Hawke smiled and held his hand back for the keys. "I can drive her to the cats."

Sienna stared at Judd, sending him telepathic messages that seemed to go unheard. "No, thatrsquo;s fine," she said out loud. "I can waimdash;"

But Judd was already handing Hawke the keys. "Better you go down tonight," he said. "Since the visitrsquo;s been cleared with Sascharsquo;s security."

"I can drive," she pointed out through gritted teeth to the wolf blocking her way. "Judd was only coming with me because he wanted to take part in the discussion." She held out a hand. "I donrsquo;t need a babysitter."

To her shock, it was Judd who stopped her escape attempt. "Itrsquo;s late. Yoursquo;ve never driven this route in the darkmdash;and itrsquo;ll be darker still by the time you head back."

What is wrong with you?! she telepathed. I cannot be in a car alone with him. Especially when those ice blue eyes had gone slightly aglow.

Deal with it. It was a pitiless response. If you need that to be an order from a lieutenant, then consider it done.

She clenched her jaw, but no way in hell was she about to disobey an order and bring her maturity into question yet again. So either she allowed Hawke to drive, or she stayed put. It was tempting to seize the latter option, but not only did she want to see Sascha, she would not give Hawke the satisfaction of knowing hersquo;d derailed her plans. "Irsquo;ll wait in the car."

She was ensconced in the passenger seat, her wireless speaker buds in her ears, by the time Hawke finished talking with Judd and got into the driverrsquo;s seat. He didnrsquo;t say anything until hersquo;d turned the SUV around and they were on their way. Then he leaned over and pulled out the bud on his side.

"Hey!"

But hersquo;d managed to grab the tiny music player from her lap, too, throwing it over his shoulder into the backseat. "I donrsquo;t like being ignored."

She set her jaw and twisted in her seat, reaching for the player. He let her find it . . . to take it off her an instant later with changeling speed. It landed on the backseat again, along with the bud still in his hand. "Next time, I throw it out the window."

"I couldmdash;" She let out an aggravated breath and removed the remaining bud, placing it on a tray on the dash. "Now whorsquo;s being childish?"

He shrugged, relaxing into the seat when she made no further effort to retrieve the music player. "Country and western?" he said as he navigated the forest track SnowDancer kept deliberately crude, with plenty of lowhanging foliage to deter the use of hover facilitiesmdash;to make sure no one could sneak up on the den by ground vehicle. "I wouldrsquo;ve picked you as a rock rsquo;nrsquo; roll kind of girl."

She ignored him in favor of staring out the window.

Except it was hard to ignore over two-hundred pounds of muscled male wolf when he didnrsquo;t want to be ignored. Reaching out, he tugged on a strand of her hair. "Tell me about Kit."

She pushed away his hand, well aware she succeeded only because he let her. "Kit is smart, sexy, and gorgeous. A total package." He was also wickedly funny and could be charming in a way only a feline could be. Too bad she had the terrible taste to hunger for a wolf instead.

Hawkersquo;s hands tightened on the manual steering wheel. "A real prince."

"You could learn something from him."

"Careful." A quiet warning. "You only get to push so far."

She was too mad and sad and hurting to care. "Wow," she said with a wide-eyed look of mock amazement, "you lasted an entire two minutes before pulling rank."

To her shock, he laughed. It was an open, uninhibited sound, and it held her absolute and utter attention. Hawke rarely laughed like that, and never with her. With such open joy, his wolf in his voice, in his face. "You can be a real brat."

It was difficult to maintain a tough front when his laugh had wrapped around her like a rough caress, eroding her defenses to nothing, but she couldnrsquo;t let him see that, see how very vulnerable she was when it came to him. "Doesnrsquo;t make me wrong."

 

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"Fine," he said. "When itrsquo;s just us, therersquo;s no rank, no alpha, no soldier. Only Hawke and Sienna."

Shersquo;d never, in a million years, expected to succeed in getting him to put aside the hierarchy. Her breath stuck in her throat, her palms suddenly damp.

"Lost for words?" A glance of ice blue before he returned his attention to the forest track.

Since Hawkersquo;s eyes never changed color, no matter his form, most people found it impossible to tell whether they were talking to the man or the wolf. Sienna always knew. Always. The power inside of her recognized the same wild energy in the wolf who was Hawkersquo;s other half. "No," she said at last, "just wondering how long yoursquo;ll be able to **** it before you fall back on those rules."

"Keep pushing, baby," he murmured in that low, deep voice that touched places in her body it had no business touching. "Wersquo;ll see what it gets you."

"Frustration!" she said, throwing caution to the winds on an adrenalinefueled rush of courage. "Thatrsquo;s all itrsquo;s ever gotten me. If sexual attraction followed any kind of a logical rule, Irsquo;d be in bed with Kit right now instead of sitting next to a man too scared to take a chance."

A charged silence.

Sienna couldnrsquo;t believe shersquo;d said that. It was going too far, even for her. Hawke was alphamdash;whether or not the rules were currently in operation between themmdash;which meant he was dominant beyond any Psy or human man, and most changeling males, too. Men like that did not like having their strength questioned on any level.

"After your meeting with Sascha," he said, his tone silky with menace, "thatrsquo;s when wersquo;ll talk about fear."

Sienna leaned back in her seat, trying to control her racing heartbeat. He could hear it, of that she had no doubt. But she was Psy, had been Ming LeBonrsquo;s protégée. She wasnrsquo;t about to let anyone scare her offmdash;not even a predatory changeling wolf so lethal, the feral wolves treated him as their leader.

Brass balls. Big ones.

The memory of Eviersquo;s words gave her a slightly hysterical confidence, but it was confidence nonetheless. Using every ounce of the will that had allowed her to retain a personality even in Mingrsquo;s tender care, she wrenched her heartbeat and breathing under control. It had nothing to do with what she felt and everything to do with playing a very dangerous game with a predator who had much bigger teeth.

A growl filled the vehicle, filled her senses, just as they entered the lane that led to a small clearing not far from Lucas and Sascharsquo;s home. "You taste of ice."

"Itrsquo;s necessary," she said with manufactured calm. "You know it is." Hersquo;d caught her in an active state not long before she left the den to spend several months with the cats, seen firsthand what she could do. Shersquo;d chosen an isolated section to attempt her experiments at harnessing the fury of the X-marker, but an hour into it, shersquo;d turned around and there he was, a huge wolf, proud and beautiful.

Now, he didnrsquo;t answer as he brought the vehicle to a halt. Getting out, she took a deep breath, feeling as if shersquo;d escaped the lair of the very big, very bad wolf. Then she met Hawkersquo;s eyes across the hood of the SUV. Oh God. All eyes of ice blue and hair of silver-gold, he was her every fantasy come to life.

And he was focused on her to the exclusion of all else.

She wet dry lips, saw his eyes follow the movement. "Stop it."

A faint smile that made every tiny hair on her body rise in quivering attention. "How fast can you run?" A wolfrsquo;s question.

"Irsquo;m not running from you." She held her ground.

"Wersquo;ll see." Pushing off the SUV, he led the way to the cabin.

"You need to go away while Irsquo;m talking with Sascha," she said after she was certain the wolf wasnrsquo;t about to make good on its threat.

To her surprise, he made no argument. "Irsquo;ll go for a run. Luc doesnrsquo;t like me close to Sascha at the moment."

"Really?" Startled, she looked toward where the DarkRiver alpha was waiting with his mate, a small light illuminating the outdoor seating area. "I thought you two had trust."

"His mate is pregnant. It changes the balance." Raising his hand in hello to the alpha couple, he glanced at her. "Irsquo;ll be back in an hour. Enough time?"

She didnrsquo;t trust his sudden cooperation but tried to keep her own tone just as businesslike. "Twenty more minutes?"

"Fine." Then he was gone, a sleek shadow in the dark.

Her heart slipped the vise of her rigid mental control to slam against her chest at witnessing his incredible speed. If Hawke ever did chase her, shersquo;d better hope she had one hell of a head start. Then again, it might be more fun to get caught.

"Sienna." Lucasrsquo;s voice broke through her stunned realization that she wasnrsquo;t as averse to the idea of playing prey to Hawkersquo;s wolf as shersquo;d thought.

Closing the distance to the cabin, she smiled, hoping her distraction didnrsquo;t show. "Hi."

"Grab a seat." The leopard rose from his own chair. "Irsquo;ll stay out of earshot and make sure the sentinels are, too."

Sienna knew the reason for the courtesy was because his mating bond with Sascha meant hersquo;d know the instant she felt in any way threatened. "Thanks."

Lucas left with silent feline grace. Getting to her feet at the same instant, Sascha motioned for Sienna to follow her inside. "Warmer there. Plus, I have your favorite chocolate-caramel slice."

A spark of childish joy. "Really?" It was hard for her to resist sweetsmdash;in the Net, shersquo;d been disallowed anything sensual, including food. Since getting out, she wanted to gorge. On food, on feeling . . . but mostly on Hawke.

Heat bloomed low in her body, and she had to focus to catch Sascharsquo;s next words.

"I had Lucas hide it in the aerie before the sentinels got here for a meeting tonight. Otherwise"mdash;a warm laughmdash;"yoursquo;d have been lucky to scrape up a crumb. Sit. Irsquo;ll get the tea."

Sienna nudged Sascha down instead. "Irsquo;ll do itmdash;I know where everything is." Bringing the pot to the table, she put it aside to steep while Sascha cut the slice.

"So," the empath said, putting the rich chocolaty treat on her plate, "Hawke wants to chase you."

Sienna froze. "Lucas heard that from all the way over here?"

"Uh-huh. And Hawke knew he would."

It took Sienna several seconds to process the implications of that statement. "He told me flat out that there couldnrsquo;t be anything between us." Yet hersquo;d just come perilously close to staking another claim.

"Hmm."

"What?" It was a relief to be able to talk this over with Sascha. While Indigo had become her friend and guide in many ways, Hawke was the one subject Sienna hesitated to discuss with her, not wanting to put the lieutenant in an awkward position.

"I heard what happened at Wild."

"I could still kick him for that." Pouring the tea, she pushed one of the quirky tulip-shaped cups toward Sascha. "He treated me as if I was ten years old." Except for when hersquo;d tapped her butt, kept his hand there. Her thighs clenched at the memory.

"There is that, isnrsquo;t there?" Sascharsquo;s tone was gentle. "The age issue."

"Nothing I can do about that. Irsquo;m always going to be younger." Afraid shersquo;d break the teacup with the force of her grip, she put it down. "But," she added, voice vibrating with feeling, "Irsquo;ve not only survived and gained control of my abilities, Irsquo;ve done so outside the PsyNet. Hardly the act of a child." Shersquo;d earned the right to live her life as she pleased. "Irsquo;m not about to let His Wolf Highness disregard all that because it makes it easier for him to not recognizemdash;"

Sienna bit off her words, but Sascha didnrsquo;t need them. From the moment shersquo;d seen the young X with Hawke, shersquo;d felt it, that tug between them. It had had no name at the start, no definition. Even now, it remained a raw, nameless thing, but it was powerful. Powerful enough to have Hawke overriding his own decisions about keeping Sienna at a distance, powerful enough to have dragged him out of the shadows.

The first time Sascha had touched Hawke with her empathic senses, shersquo;d felt such blood rage shersquo;d been staggered by it. This man, shersquo;d thought, would never love, not so long as that anger was a red haze across his vision. But then shersquo;d seen him with Sienna. Month by month, year by year, the strange alchemy of their adversarial relationship had removed the poison of that anger until what remained was a gleaming, honed blade, still lethal, but far healthier.

However, Sascha had sensed something else that night when Hawke asked her to prove her claim to the E-designation. It was a truth shersquo;d never say aloud, an empathic secret shersquo;d never share, but there was a deep loneliness within the wolf alpha, a part of himself he kept separate even from his beloved pack. If Sienna could reach that wild, broken heart . . .

"An alpha," Sascha began, wanting to give the other cardinal all the help she could, "needs his woman to come to him stripped bare of all pretense. No barriers. No emotional shields. I am the one person Lucas knows is his without question, the one person who will stand by him no matter what, whorsquo;ll tell him the truth even if itrsquo;s harsh."

Sienna, to her credit, didnrsquo;t shy from the frank discussion. Instead, those starlit eyes turned midnight in intense concentration. "What about the sentinels?"

"That, too, is a rare kind of trust, but . . ." The bond was near impossible to explain to someone else, but Sienna needed to understand, so Sascha found the words. "With me, hersquo;s never, ever my alpha. Hersquo;s simply Lucas, the man who holds my heart."

"Isnrsquo;t that . . . Doesnrsquo;t that depth of vulnerability put you in a weaker position, given an alpharsquo;s natural dominance?"

 

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"No, because he gives the same back." Loved her with all the untamed power and fierce devotion of the pantherrsquo;s heart. "He gives more."

"I donrsquo;t know if I can have that kind of a relationship with Hawke," Sienna murmured, "even if I manage to make him listen, make him see." Not discouragement, more a contemplative statement. "Hersquo;s not like Lucas."

Sascha waited.

"I understand Lucas could and would kill me with a single blow if he considered me a threat to you or the rest of the pack," Sienna said, "but he smiles and laughs and plays."

"Hawkersquo;s done more than his share of teasing." Sascha couldnrsquo;t count the number of times the wolf had flirted with her in order to annoy Lucas.

Sienna pushed the chocolate slice around her plate. "He never plays with me."

"Wolves have a strange sense of play according to my mate." Sascha shook her head. "He lets you drive him crazy, doesnrsquo;t he?"

"He punished me."

Sascha laughed at the disgruntled statement. "You probably deserved it."

"Yes, I did." A scowl that Sascha guessed was self-directed. "But hersquo;s given me the green light to ignore the hierarchy while wersquo;re alone together."

Sascha sat up, her amazement so huge that the baby kicked, wanting in on the secret. Smoothing her hand over her belly at the same time that she soothed their childrsquo;s active mind, she used her other hand to touch Siennarsquo;s. "In that case," she said, hope a brilliant spark inside of her, "ambush him if you have to, but get him alone."

Chapter 13

ALMOST READY FOR her date, Lara smoothed the dress over her hips. It was a bright sunshine yellow, an impulse buy shersquo;d been certain would spend a short life languishing in her closet before she gave it away. But Drew of all people had convinced her to give it a go, and what do you know, it looked stunning against the natural dark tan of her skin.

The design itself wasnrsquo;t fancy. The dress had a simple square neck and thick straps, the bodice fitted down to her waist, where it flared out in a gentle swirl. A feminine dress reminiscent of the 1950s, she thought, putting on earrings shersquo;d bought from a street stall during a trip to New York. The tiny fall of sunflowers glinted cheerfully through the corkscrew curls of her black hair.

After slipping on a thin gold bracelet, she pulled on the strappy sandals shersquo;d bought on the same frustration-and-nervous-anticipation-fueled shopping trip that had resulted in the yellow dress. A wrap to ward off the evening air and a sweet little vintage purse beaded with vibrant color finished off the look. Maybe shersquo;d never win any modeling awards, she thought with determined confidence, but she looked pretty.

The knock came a second later.

Opening the door, she said, "Yoursquo;re right on time," to the man on the other side.

Kieran flashed that trademark playful smile of his, a deep dimple creasing one cheek. "Wouldnrsquo;t want to be late when I finally got the prettiest woman in the den to agree to go on a date."

With his skin a lighter shade of brown than her own and hypnotic gray-green eyes courtesy of his Tajik father, Kieran was an unashamed flirt. He was also several years younger than her and had broken more hearts in the den than most of the other men combined . . . but Kieran also knew how to make a woman feel beautiful, desired.

Tonight, after not having been out with a man for six monthsmdash;since the first night Walker had stopped by for a late-night coffeemdash;Lara needed to feel exactly that. "Where are you taking me?"

"I thought that Italian restaurant by Wild. I know you love their gelato."

"You did your homework." She slid her arm into his, appreciating him though he didnrsquo;t make her wolf freeze in quiet, panicked anticipation when he was near, didnrsquo;t make her heart skip a beat.

Kieran responded as they rounded the corner, but his words were lost in the crash of white noise inside her head. She saw Walker coming down the corridor, the faded blue of his jeans a contrast to the deep navy of his shirt. Masculine and confident, he walked with the stride of a man at ease with his body . . . a body that was all lean muscle and strength.

She hadnrsquo;t seen him since their conversation in the forest, though she knew hersquo;d come looking for her the other night. It was pure luck she hadnrsquo;t been inmdash;but even if she had been, she wouldrsquo;ve handled it. The time for avoiding Walker was over, and while she couldnrsquo;t see them resuming their friendship, there was no reason they couldnrsquo;t maintain a cordial relationship. "Hi," she said when he stopped.

Those light green eyes skimmed over her and to Kieran, before returning to her. "The temperaturersquo;s dropped," he said. "You should take a coat."

Kieran laughed, slid his arm around her. "Hey, man, if she has a coat, how am I supposed to use the cold to get her to cuddle close?"

Walker left with a curt nod.

It was only after he was gone that Lara realized shersquo;d stopped breathing.

HAWKE had meant to stay the hell away from Sienna after he returned from visiting Theresa. So he had no idea why he was waiting for her at the car ninety minutes after having dropped her off, anticipation a slow burn in every cell of his body.

It was no surprise to see Lucas walking toward him. "Did you get my message?" the leopard alpha asked as he got closer.

"Yeah. Revised evac plan looks good to me." On one point he and Lucas were in glorious agreementmdash;it was damn fine to have a sentinel-lieutenant mating. Not that Riley and Mercy particularly enjoyed their glee. "Itrsquo;ll get everyone out faster."

Lucas shoved a hand through his shoulder-length hair. "We shouldnrsquo;t need to consider an evacuation from our own land, but the bastards have been getting smarter and more focused with each attempt. Learning more about us."

"So have we. If it does come down to war, itrsquo;s going to be a level playing field." That wasnrsquo;t false confidencemdash;Hawke had made certain SnowDancer would never again be a defenseless target. Hersquo;d been fifteen when hersquo;d taken control of the pack, but hersquo;d understood the grim reality of Psy power better than anyone, his childhood having ended in a spray of blood and betrayal caused by the cold psychic race.

Then, hersquo;d hated them all. Now he knew it was only the Council and its flunkies that were the enemy. "I was thinking I should go say hello to Sascha darling." In truth, his mind was on another woman, one with hair of ruby red and a mouth that had a way of saying things that both amused and incensed his wolf.

"Go for it." Unruffled words, eyes gleaming cat-green.

Hawke smiled, his wolf finding the idea of poking at the leopard alpha an amusing distraction from his compulsion to run a certain Psy to ground. "What if she invites me? I should call out, let her know Irsquo;d like to see her."

A languid shrug. "If you want your teeth in your gullet, go ahead."

"You sure you want to make Sascha mad?" The wolf laughed husky and low at Lucasrsquo;s battle-ready stance. "I am one of her favorite people, after all."

Instead of snarling, the other alpha started to smile a very feline kind of a smile. "You know, I think maybe I should invite Kit over. Hersquo;d love to see Sienna again."

Hawke growled before he could stop himself. The damn leopard grinned.

"Funny," Hawke muttered.

"From my perspective, it was hilarious." Lucas unfolded his arms, sliding his hands into the pockets of the black cargo pants he wore with a T-shirt of a shade that matched his eyes. Hawke knew without asking that Sascha had bought that T-shirt.

"Theyrsquo;re not dating, but hersquo;s very protective of her," Lucas said as Hawke was about to rib him on his sartorial elegance in retaliation for the other manrsquo;s quip, "just so you know."

Hawke didnrsquo;t bother to respond to thatmdash;hersquo;d eat the baby cat alpha for breakfast. "What did José say when you talked to him?"

"Guess." Lucas shook his head. "Come over for a beer tomorrow afternoon. Sascha will be at Tammyrsquo;s. Wersquo;ll talk."

It was strange, that hersquo;d become almost-friends with this alpha whorsquo;d once been an adversary. "Irsquo;ll see if I can swing it. Might have a comm-meeting."

Lucas nodded the instant before Hawke caught the first hint of an exquisitely familiar scent on the breeze. Autumn leaves and spice and strength. His wolf stretched out at the intoxication of it. Maybe she wasnrsquo;t his mate, but the animal wasnrsquo;t bothered. It still wanted the man to take her, to claim her. To bite her.

Jesus.

"Did you two have a good visit?" Lucas asked, walking over to touch the back of his hand to Siennarsquo;s cheek in a gentle caress.

The only reason Hawkersquo;s wolf didnrsquo;t eviscerate the other male was because Lucasrsquo;s mate was walking with Sienna. And Sascha could get even a demon to behave. Mostly. "Hello, Sascha darling," he murmured, dropping his voice into bedroom territory. "Miss me?"

"Terrible man," Sascha said, trying to get around her mate. Lucas refused to let her pass. "Both of you." But she allowed Luc to wrap her in his arms, press his lips to her temple.

"Did I ever tell you I knew another empath once?" Hawke said, buying himself time to temper his response to Sienna. "She was part of SnowDancer when I was a child, mated to a wolf long before Silence." Zia had been near to a hundred and thirty, a low-Gradient E, but one of the first to notice that something was wrong in the pack. If only people had listened.

Sascharsquo;s eyes went huge. "No, you didnrsquo;t! Why donrsquo;tmdash;"

Lucas squeezed her. "Hersquo;s trying to lure you with his stories. Go away, wolf."

"Lucas!"

Sienna was smiling as she looked at the couple, but that smile faded when she met his gaze.

It made him wonder what she saw. "Letrsquo;s go."

She got into the SUV without a word, and they headed off after waving good-bye to Lucas and Sascha. Uncomfortable as his relationship was with Sienna, Hawke liked being around hermdash;a fact he was positive would surprise her. But when she wasnrsquo;t fighting with him, she was smart, with a wit the wolf found endlessly amusing. "Want to go for a run?" he asked as they hit the edge of den territory. "I promise not to chase you."

 

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A lush burst of feminine arousal had him gritting his teeth to fight his bodyrsquo;s instinctive response. "Irsquo;m nowhere near fast as you," she said at last. "Not like Judd."

"Donrsquo;t have to go fast." He shrugged, the wolf happy because she hadnrsquo;t said no. "Sometimes, itrsquo;s just about feeling the wind against your face, the earth under your feet."

She tugged the sleeves of her checked shirt to her fingertips. "Okay."

"Itrsquo;s cold out." The Sierra Nevada had slipped into the quiet beauty of night, the heat of the sunrsquo;s rays long gone. "There should be a sweatshirt in the back you can wear."

Twisting in her seat, she reached for the sweatshirt . . . and her music player. Shooting him a dirty look, she put the little device in the space on the dash and undid her safety belt long enough to pull on the large gray sweatshirt.

That quickly, she was covered in his scent.

Watching her roll up the sleeves to her wrists, he hid his possessive satisfaction behind a lazy comment. "Yoursquo;re kinda small, Sienna." She never seemed that way, her personality that of someone much larger and strongermdash;he bet if he asked people in the den to describe her, most would give her at least half a foot of extra height, more muscle.

"Maybe yoursquo;re too big." She continued to fold up the sleeves with methodical precision.

Grinning at being so politely insulted, he didnrsquo;t say anything until hersquo;d parked the vehicle a little ways from the den. Sienna was more than strong enough to cover the remaining distance on foot. "Ready?"

She was already opening her door. "I donrsquo;t recognize this area."

He wasnrsquo;t surprised. Den territory was a vast, sprawling wilderness, most of it inaccessible to vehiclesmdash;and unlike the wolves, Sienna couldnrsquo;t explore as much area on foot. "I want to show you something."

She clambered over a fallen tree on the path, and he had to stop himself from reaching over and picking her up, caressing her waist with his hands as he slid her oh-so-slowly to her feet. Her movements were smooth and lithemdash;Indigo had done a good job with her training, but it was Siennarsquo;s will that had led to her becoming as good as she was. Hawke knew the offensive capability of each and every soldier in the pack, andmdash;putting aside her psychic abilitiesmdash;Sienna was exceptional for someone who wasnrsquo;t changeling.

"A little farther," he said when they reached a stand of conifers intertwined with a delicate dark green vine.

Picking up a small pinecone off the forest floor, Sienna rubbed her thumb over the rough edges. "Are you doing anything tomorrow night?"

He caught the nervous bite in her scent, caught, too, the determination. His gut clenched. "Sienna." Hurting her was the last thing he wanted to do, but he wouldnrsquo;t lead her on. "I have plans."

Cardinal eyes slammed into his. "Rosalie?" A single frigid word.

His wolf peeled back its lips. "Shersquo;s an adult wolf, who happens to be a friend."

"As opposed to an immature girl you canrsquo;t stand." A challenge, the gauntlet thrown.

He picked it up. "I need something she can give me." Rosalie was wolf enough to accept and offer the physical intimacy his own wolf craved without expecting a depth of commitment he simply couldnrsquo;t give . . . and much as he valued her friendship, Rosalie didnrsquo;t tempt him to brand her with his claim, even knowing it would destroy her in the end.

THE pinecone dug into Siennarsquo;s palm, but she hardly felt it against the pain of the body blow Hawke had just delivered. Why had she asked the question when shersquo;d known the answer? It was nothing a Psymdash;a true Psymdash;wouldrsquo;ve ever done. But when it came to this man, she had as little control as the child he called her. "Is it enough?" she asked with a fury that sought to draw blood. "Just the physical act."

"Donrsquo;t try and bring it down to that." Cold, cold words. "Yoursquo;ve been in the den long enough to know we donrsquo;t use each other."

No, they didnrsquo;t. That made it so much harder to bear. With wolves, sexual contact was warm and joyful and treasured. Rosalie would lie with Hawke with a packmatersquo;s genuine affection, luxuriating in having a partner who could ease her own physical needs so very wellmdash;because while Sienna might be inexperienced, she understood that Hawke would never leave a woman unsatisfied. He was too much the dominant male to accept anything but total erotic surrender in bed.

And when he and Rosalie parted, whether it was after a day or after a month, it would be with smiles and laughter. Shersquo;d seen the same with other members of the pack, knew that several of her friends were involved in affectionate, sensual relationships that wouldnrsquo;t be permanentmdash;but would be respected and cherished.

"Irsquo;m sorry," she forced herself to say, nausea curdling her stomach. "That was uncalled for." Chest so tight it ached, she said, "Is this the way to the den?" glad that her voice came out calm, betraying none of the hurt that had her curling into a fetal ball inside her mind. Because it didnrsquo;t matter how much time alone she had with him if she had to spend her nights knowing those strong hands were stroking over another womanrsquo;s skin, another womanrsquo;s breasts.

"No"mdash;his voice a slow caress, an unintended tauntmdash;"itrsquo;s a small detour."

"Irsquo;d like to go back." At that moment, the last thing she wanted was to be here, with him, not when she could almost hate him for what he was able to do to her.

"Throwing a tantrum, Sienna?" Ruthless words, that caressing tone suddenly a blade. "I thought yoursquo;d retired the spoiled brat act."

How would you feel if the woman you wanted beyond all others planned to take another man into her bed? She didnrsquo;t yell the words, holding on to her tattered pride. Enough. Just . . . enough. Some things, a woman could not accept and live with herself. "Why are we here?" she asked in a voice touched with ice. "Why are we walking under the stars, late at night?"

Wolf-pale eyes gleaming at her in the dark, the gaze of a man used to getting exactly what he wanted. "Wersquo;re packmates. Itrsquo;s a beautiful night. Simple as that."

"Bullshit." A harsh renunciation that scraped her throat raw. "Yoursquo;re giving me just enough to make sure I canrsquo;t forget you and not enough to go against your all-important principles. Well, fuck you." Quiet, quiet words, because she would not scream and yell, would not allow him to see her break. "I donrsquo;t want the crumbs from your table." Turning on her heel, she started heading through the trees in the direction she thought would lead home.

"Sienna."

She could not, would not, stop. If she did, hersquo;d see the tears burning at the backs of her eyes, see what he did to her, and her humiliation would be complete.

"Stop right now."

The words were right against her ear, the wolf having moved with preternatural speed. It was too much. She snapped.

HAWKE was about to close his hand around Siennarsquo;s nape when she twisted to face him, her eyes devoid of stars. Knowing what she could do, he expected an attack, but she took a deep breath, dropped her head . . . and went up in flames.

A violent red licked with streamers of amber, the inferno gave off no heat, and yet he knew without a doubt that it was lethal beyond anything known to man. Fighting the wolfrsquo;s frenzied attempts to reach out, to protect, he forced himself to stand in place and look, really look. She was fine inside the blaze. No, not fine. Every muscle in her body was rigid, her hair blowing off her face in a savage psychic breeze, but whatever the fire demanded from her, her skin remained untouched.

Even being able to see her safe, the ten seconds she spent in the heart of flame were the longest of his life. "Do that again," he growled the instant the fire blinked out, "and I swear Irsquo;ll throw you into the lake."

She raised her head, embers continuing to flicker in her eyes. "Irsquo;d like to see you try."

The wolf wasnrsquo;t used to being so flatly challenged. "What the fuck was that?" Hersquo;d seen her exercising her ability before, but never like this, until she was consumed by it.

"A simple energy release." She began to walk away from him again.

His wolf saw red. "Baby, ifmdash;"

"Donrsquo;t. Call. Me. Baby." Turning on her heel, she stared at him, her gaze potent with such destructive power, lesser men mightrsquo;ve trembled.

But he was an alpha wolf, and if Sienna thought she was going to make him back off, she had another thing coming. "Irsquo;ll call you anything I damn well please." He stepped into her personal space, until she had to either step back or have her breasts brush against his chest with every breath.

She held her ground, paradoxically pleasing the wolf. "The only man," she said, her words wrapped in that cold darkness he hadnrsquo;t seen in her since the first few days after her defection, "Irsquo;ll allow to use that particular endearment will be my lover. You are no longer in the running for the position."

The rage that tore through him was a ravaging beast full of claws and teeth. But he bit back the primal demands that wanted to escape. And said the words that would keep her with him a while longer. Yeah, he was a selfish prick, but hersquo;d never argued otherwise. Not when it came to Sienna Lauren. "Irsquo;ve never shown anyone else this spot."

The cold dark retreated to reveal the stars in her eyes. "Yoursquo;re playing me." A stark vulnerability in her face, her soul stripped bare.

It didnrsquo;t rock him how much he wanted what he saw in hermdash;the need had become an unrelenting ache by now. "Doesnrsquo;t make it any less true." His wolf waited, tense.

When she fell into step beside him again, he clenched his hand to keep from reaching out to fist it in the jewel-dark silk of her hair, to tug her close, close enough that he could rub his face against it . . . close enough that he could pet and cajole her into melting into him. "Do all Xs have hair like yours?" he asked, needing to hear the sound of her voice if he couldnrsquo;t have the touch of her skin.