by Nalini Singh
“How about Jenson?”
Grace shook her head. “Jenson’s still apprentice level.” He might panic under the kind of pressure at the station. “I’ll go—air is my secondary specialization, and I have plenty of on-the-ground experience.” She frowned. “Jenson should be able to deal with anything that comes up here, but call Paul in L.A. and have him provide remote backup and guidance. If you can’t get hold of Paul, call Zang at the San Rafael den or Shae at the main den.”
Ten minutes later, she threw an overnight bag in a truck and sent Cooper a message.
Heading to hydro station. Staying overnight.
Chapter 12
SHE WAS TWENTY minutes away when he called on the car’s system.
“Are you driving up alone?”
His protectiveness warmed her. “Yes, but the winds are manageable.” Though she could feel them buffeting the heavy all-wheel drive vehicle she’d signed out. “I’ll be safe under shelter before the storm breaks.”
“Call me when you get to the station.”
“You stay safe, too.” She knew he’d be the first one out in the fury if anything happened. “Have you got a satellite phone?” Proving the adage that trouble came in threes, the main comm tower had gone down forty minutes ago, leaving a huge dead zone as far as normal mobile reception. The only good news was that thanks to underground cabling, the den’s hardwired lines remained functional.
“Yes. You?”
“No, but Elizabeth and Diego both do.” Personnel who worked regularly in isolated areas were issued them as a matter of course after a packwide mandate.
“Take care, Grace. I’ll be pissed off otherwise.”
For some reason, that bad-tempered statement made her smile. “Same.”
She reached the station as the wind was kicking up, and found the techs both outside, attempting to coax a wild wolf and her tiny pups out of a tree hollow that wouldn’t protect them from the raging force of the storm. Aware the female would react better to her, Grace waved Elizabeth and Diego away and held out a hand. It took ten minutes in the driving rain before the wolf gripped one of her pups in her teeth and gave her to Grace. Grace cuddled the pup close and led the mother—who gripped the second pup by the scruff of its neck—into the station.
“Could I borrow one of your sat phones?” she asked after they’d dried off and created a nest of blankets for the wild wolves. “My cell’s got no signal.” She’d double-checked to be certain.
Red hair in a halo around her face, Elizabeth glanced at Diego with a distinctly guilty expression. “I forgot mine in the rush to get up here, but Diego’s way more organiz—”
Loud swearing from her partner. “I had it in my pocket, must’ve lost it while we were outside.”
Since it was their sole means of communication with the den, they decided to go back out into the now-pitch-black night to look for it—only to be shoved back inside by the gale force wind that turned even the smallest object into a deadly projectile. A heavy broken-off branch nearly took off Elizabeth’s head before Grace wrenched her out of the way.
“Hell!” Shoving the door shut with their help, Diego bolted it, leaving the branch where it had crashed into the opposite wall. “That’s it, we’re stuck here till the storm passes.”
Grace thought of the concern in Cooper’s voice and hoped he wouldn’t worry too much when he didn’t hear from her, even as her wolf fretted about him in turn. “I better get to work on the air”—she picked up the wolf pup clawing at her work boot, took it back to its exasperated mother—“or we’ll have to open a window.”
The other two laughed but it was strained—built into the side of a small hill, with only a doorway to reveal it was there, the control station had no windows. All three of them knew that with the unpredictable air glitches, there was no way of knowing for certain how much breathable air was left in the bowels of the facility, two levels below this one…the area that housed the sophisticated computronics needed to run the hydro station.
• • •
COOPER carried in the soldier who’d broken his leg when he slipped in the muddy terrain and deposited him in the infirmary. “Are they all in?” he asked Shamus, using a towel to wipe off the wet, a touch of blood saturating the fabric from a piece of debris that had whipped across his face.
“Yes. Or accounted for—few are bunkered down in the perimeter shelters, but they’ve called in and nobody’s alone.”
The words did nothing to ease the ugly knot in Cooper’s abdomen. “Any word from the station?”
Shamus’s expression turned grim. “No, but we’ve had no power fluctuations, so—” He stopped talking as the lights flickered. A second later, a low hum filled the air, the generators kicking in.
Bile coated the back of Cooper’s throat, a cold sweat breaking out along his spine. “I’m going up there. You’re in charge.” He knew the senior soldier could handle anything that occurred in his absence.
“Jesus, Cooper. Be sensible.”
“Would you be if it was Emma up there?”
“Shit.” The other man shoved a hand through his hair. “Take the armored all-wheel drive. Thing’s a tank.”
Cooper shook his head, impatient to start moving. “I’ll make better time in wolf form, be lower to the ground.”
“If you need to bring someone back…”
Someone hurt…or dead.
He nodded, unable to voice the thought that was a razor in his throat.
Shamus walked with him to the garage. “Turn on the tracking signal so we can keep an eye on you.”
“Done.” As he drove, he tried to focus only on the weather and the track, in spite of the scrabbling panic that clawed at him, filling his mind with images of fire and melting flesh.
He knew that was stupid, that even if something had gone wrong at the station, it would’ve involved a slow suffocation as the air turned to poison, not an explosion. It didn’t matter. Fire was his horror and it was what haunted him.
Crash!
Wrenching the wheel, he barely avoided the tree smashing to the earth, his wolf’s eyes scouring the wind-and rain-lashed dark for signs of further danger.
Be safe, Grace. Be safe.
They were the most agonizing three hours of his adult life, the journey taking twice the time it should have. When he pulled up in front of the door of the control station, it was to see the vehicle he knew Grace had checked out of the garage flipped over and smashed into a tree.
His heart turning to ice, he fought through the wind toward it, the rain knives against his skin.
• • •
GRACE sat in silence, fiddling with a conduit. Elizabeth and Diego had both bedded down in bedroom cubicles at the end of the corridor, and the rambunctious wolf pups had exhausted themselves at last, but she couldn’t sleep. Her gut was all twisted up, as if something was horribly wrong. But when she checked the air systems indicator on the wall—set to sound a piercing audio alarm if it detected a problem—it was to see everything was as it should be. No abnormal CO2 readings, the air breathable.
She’d repaired it, knew this one at least was functioning fine now. Regardless, she verified the readings with the small hand-held unit she’d brought up. Discovering no discrepancy, she walked over, ensured the wild wolves were okay. The mother raised her head when Grace petted one of her babies but didn’t protest. Knowing she shouldn’t wake the pup, she took her hand from his baby-soft fur and stood…just as a banging came on the door.
The mother wolf sat up, ears pricked.
“It’s a branch,” Grace murmured, but the sound came again, the rhythm too precise.
Was someone out there?
When she saw Cooper’s face through the reinforced glass at the top of the door, she threw back the bolts so fast she tore off a nail, scenting the air with blood. “Cooper!” Her cry was lost in the howl of the wind as he came in, shoving the door shut again with the force of his body as she reengaged the bolts.
The mother wolf growle
d but a single violent snarl from Cooper and she backed down, wrapping herself protectively around her babies. Whipping back toward Grace, his eyes wolf-yellow and feral, Cooper grabbed her, burying his face against her hair, the water from his rain-drenched clothes seeping into her as she clung to him. He didn’t say a word, just held her with raw ferocity.
Tears blurring her eyes, she hugged him as tight as she could. “You shouldn’t have driven in this. You shouldn’t.” Fear for him had her heart stuttering, her wolf pushing at her skin to get closer to him.
Lips against her temple, on her cheek, her mouth, a hungry, desperate kiss.
When Cooper drew back, glanced around, his gaze still inhuman, she found the breath to say. “They’re asleep.” Dragging him to an unoccupied cubicle, she stepped out to grab towels from a nearby supplies cabinet, snagging the portable air gauge at the same time.
He watched her every move and when she returned, pulled her in and shut the door. The space was tiny, but putting the gauge on the shelf above the bed after turning up the volume on the audio alarm, she sat cross-legged on the mattress as he dried his face and hair, began to pull off his clothes. She removed her sweater and set it aside, the rest of her only a touch damp.
“The three of us talked about it,” she said, speaking to fill the terrible silence, “and decided not to go down into the computronic center. If the station malfunctions and the den loses power, it won’t be a total disaster—we’re wolves, we’ll handle it, and we can always jerry-rig something if necessary for places like the infirmary.”
No one, Grace had pointed out to Elizabeth and Diego when the techs argued with her, would thank them for dying when it could’ve been avoided. “If there’s a problem while we’re on this level, we have the option of opening the door, even if it means dealing with the wind.”
She tried not to stare as Cooper stripped down to the dark bronze of his skin, wrapped the towel around his hips, and came to sit beside her. Still not saying a word, he picked her up and put her in his lap. “You didn’t call.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Shaken by the tone of his voice, she told him what had happened, stroking his face, his shoulders in an attempt to pet, to comfort. “I’m okay. I’m fine.”
It seemed to take forever before his skin warmed, the rigid tension in his muscles melting away. “Are you going to tell me?” she asked, rubbing her cheek against his when he finally relaxed his hold on her.
He didn’t speak for a long time, but she didn’t shove at his defenses. Not now, not when he was so very vulnerable. Instead, she continued to touch him, soothe him. “It’s okay,” she murmured. “I can wait.” Kisses on his temple, his cheek. “Let me make you some coffee.”
He shook his head. “No…it’s time.” A rasp in his voice, his next words vibrating with old emotion. “When I was sixteen, my parents went out of state for a wedding. They told me no staying up late and gorging on pizza and burgers. Then my mom let it slip she’d made my favorite pizzas, frozen the packages, and my dad put double credits into my comm and games account, even though I hadn’t earned them by doing extra chores.”
Grace could hear his love for his parents in every word. “Lucky.”
“I was.” A quiet, somber agreement. “Normally, I’d have invited Riaz over for company, but he was grounded. Saturday, I ate, played games, watched X-rated movies after hacking into the comm’s parental guidance controls—and sent Riaz a message to brag about my genius since he’d lost his entertainment privileges.” A faint smile. “Mid-morning the next day, I went for a long run with him and our other friends, didn’t come back in till around four, when it started to rain.”
She knew something horrible was coming but didn’t interrupt, knowing he needed her to listen, to understand.
“The wedding was on Saturday night. Mom and Dad left before dawn on Saturday morning, planned to drive back Sunday.” He swallowed, the strong muscles of his throat moving. “My mom kissed me good-bye while I was still in bed. And my dad rubbed the top of my head in that way dads do.”
She could almost see him, a juvenile young and lanky, his eyes sleepy as he said good-bye to his parents.
“Then they were gone.” The words sounded terribly final. “I got a message from Mom around ten Sunday morning saying they were on their way. When they didn’t arrive by seven p.m. as planned, I didn’t worry. I figured they’d taken a detour that looked interesting. We always did that even when we went running in wolf form.” A shuddering breath. “But when they weren’t home by nine and hadn’t called, I started to call them. Over and over.
“I told myself I was being stupid to be so worried, but there was this stone in my stomach that kept getting heavier. I’d contacted the seniors in the pack and they tried, too, even got in touch with Enforcement to see if my folks’ car had been logged passing a tolling station, but…nothing.”
Grace’s heart ached for the frightened boy he’d been.
“I stayed up all night, waiting by the den entrance in wolf form as the pack rang friends, hospitals, restaurants, and diners along the way. It was raining and every time a vehicle appeared, I’d run out to see if it was them. It never was.” His voice broke. “We managed to track them to a restaurant halfway home, but then it was as if they’d vanished. Eighteen hours.” Stone-rough words. “That’s how long I waited for them to come home before their vehicle was found at the bottom of a ravine.”
Tears rolling down her cheeks, Grace hugged him tight. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Cooper.” She understood what it was to lose her parents, understood what it was to wake up and not have them be there.
Damp against her neck, one of his hands fisted in her hair. “They’d taken that detour, along a rural road with hardly any traffic. Their car was up to safety specs, had all the anti-skid, anti-collision technology, but something made them swerve into the barrier—maybe an animal—and their car, it exploded as it hit the bottom of the ravine. It shouldn’t have. A freak accident, the authorities said. They told me my parents must’ve died on impact, but I could see they couldn’t be certain. The fire…”
“I know it hurts.” She stroked her hand down his nape. “I know.”
Cooper lifted his head, held her gaze with eyes gone night-glow. “I’m getting you a sat phone, and if you ever forget it, I will never forgive you.”
“I won’t forget, I promise.”
For the first time, he was the one who broke the piercing eye contact. “No. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this—I don’t want to control you, Grace.” He brushed his thumb across her cheeks, wiping away the remnants of her tears. “I know the problem is mine, so if you want to take off and leave the phone behind, or if you’re pissed at me and don’t want to talk, I’ll deal.”
She heard the taut thread in his voice, knew what her silence would cost him, knew, too that he’d never blame her for it. “It doesn’t bother me, Cooper.” Honest in her choice, she kissed him, his shoulders hot silk under her hands. “I like being cared for, like knowing that you watch out for me.”
It made her wolf feel secure on the innermost level, and she had no quarrel with who she was, what made her happy—and one of those things was giving her man what he needed to feel the same. “Even if we’re fighting, I’ll send you bad-tempered text messages now and then. My way of caring for you.” As integral to her personality as protecting her was to his. “Let me, okay? Don’t do the proud dominant thing and get mad at me for it.”
God, Cooper thought, she was beautiful. Taking something that had almost crushed him, threatened to shred his pride, and turning it around so that he was the one giving her a gift. “How did you get so strong, Grace?” Strong enough to not care about being perceived as weak by those who didn’t know better, didn’t understand the beauty of her spirit.
Her smile was slow and just for him. “I have to be—I plan to play bad-girl games with a lieutenant.”
In her thrall, he ran his fingers under the edge of her T-shirt, touched soft, silky skin, the co
ntact easing the agony of memory. “Any particular lieutenant?”
“Oh…I was thinking Matthias is quite a hun— Eek!” She landed on her back on the bed, with him braced over her, though he was careful to keep the majority of his weight off her.
“Take that back.” He knew she was playing with him in an effort to lessen his hurt and loved her even more for it.
An impenitent glance. “Make me.”
“Grr.” He nipped at her neck, remembering too late that he had to be careful of that vulnerable spot…but she giggled, then slapped a hand over her mouth.
Chapter 13
“WE HAVE TO be quiet.” A whisper. “Elizabeth and Diego are only two cubicles down.”
Cooper ran his hand down her body, so delighted that he didn’t care who heard them, the lingering shadow of pain eclipsed by searing joy. “What’s my incentive?” he asked, luxuriating in the scent of her. Warm and luscious and pure woman. His woman.
A hand curling over his nape, fingers touching his lips. “Cooper.”
That voice, that tone. “Nu-huh,” he said, throat dry. “You are not seducing me on this tiny bed.” He wanted to take his time with her, wanted her to feel free to scream.
She nuzzled at his throat in response, licking and sucking. And he knew he was a goner. Growling low in his throat, more a vibration than sound, he reached down and fisted his erection, his towel long since gone. It wasn’t for pleasure but to force himself to slow the hell down. No wolf female would be impressed by a man who spilled all over her at her first touch.
“That’s my job.” A husky protest, her hand moving down his body.
Releasing himself, he halted her. “Wait, I want skin.”
She raised her arms above her head at the blunt demand, let him tug the T-shirt over her body to expose lush breasts in a simple black sports bra, the neckline a deep vee. “I wanted to wear lace for you,” she whispered, a touch of color on her cheeks.