by Nalini Singh
“Hawke!” Her outraged cry came a second later. “Give that back!”
Huffing in laughter, he upped his pace.
An infuriated scream echoed on the air currents, but Sienna didn’t come after him. When he glanced back, he saw her pulling on his shirt—which happened to be torn down one side thanks to her angry, impatient hands earlier. Using the torn halves, she tied the shirt off at the side of her abdomen, then smirked at him and picked up his jeans.
“Guess you don’t need these?” she said before balling them up and throwing them over the side of the rise.
Dropping her T-shirt, he loped back to her and, without warning, nipped her butt. She yelped, clamped a hand over the part he’d bitten, turned to look at him with temper in her eyes. “You are in trouble.”
Fire arced a half centimeter from his nose.
Making a sound more common to a startled pup than a tough-as-nails alpha, he jumped back . . . to hear his mate laughing so hard she could barely take a breath. When he growled again, she just laughed harder. And then she was on her knees and her hands were in his fur and she was pressing her face to his while the jeweled dark red of her hair fell around him and life was perfect.
• • •
HAWKE kept Sienna company all night on her security shift. After their run through the area assigned to her, she told him about her lunch with Kit, the baby cat alpha she insisted on having as a friend.
“Stop growling.” She glared at him from her standing watch position.
He was sitting in wolf form beside her, his fur rippling in the breeze.
He growled again, just to rile her up.
Eyes glinting, she pointed at him. “I think you’ve been hanging around cats too much. You’re getting sly.”
This time, his growl was one of insult.
Her lips twitched. “Got you.” Coming down on one knee to run her hand through the silver-gold of his fur, while still keeping an eye on her watch area, she said, “City’s angry but calm. Word’s gotten around about how quickly the attempted kidnapping was defused, and that’s helping turn aggression into pride.”
Hawke nodded. Strange as it was for a changeling to accept, the humans in the city felt a certain ownership in DarkRiver in the sense that it was their pack that held such power. That extended to SnowDancer in the regions where the wolves held sway. The oddest thing was that a number of local Psy seemed to believe the same, feeling more loyalty toward the packs than they did toward the Ruling Coalition. It wasn’t something either Hawke or Lucas had expected or were used to, but as alphas they saw the pragmatic benefits.
And as two men born with powerful protective drives, they refused to let down the people who’d given them their trust—even if those people weren’t pack. That, too, was a situation Hawke could’ve never predicted. Changeling alphas didn’t run for mayor or for any other political office for good reason; their primary and primal focus was the pack.
The latter would never change, but the line of communication between the packs and the other residents of their territories was stronger and more in use than it had ever before been. A threat to any part of that territory was considered a threat to the packs, and as such, their actions protected all who called it home.
“There’s no more news yet on exactly who was behind the mercenaries,” Sienna added. “At least not as far as Kit knows.” Rising to her feet again, she began to walk the perimeter.
He walked beside her.
“Leila Savea remains missing.” Sienna’s tone turned somber. “It’s going to take a miracle to find her, isn’t it?” Her eyes met his, the sorrow in them potent.
She, too, had once been trapped in a nightmare.
Hawke wished he could tell her that they would find the vanished BlackSea changeling, but Sienna didn’t want empty comfort, had experienced too much harsh reality to accept it.
Instead of giving her words that meant nothing, he held her gaze until she nodded, understanding his promise: No one would stop looking for Leila Savea until they either found her . . . or her body. If, for some unfathomable reason, others stopped, SnowDancer would pick up the baton.
Together, they began to walk again.
At times they talked, but mostly, they just enjoyed being together. As night turned to the gray before dawn, Tai came to relieve Sienna. The young soldier with his big shoulders and slightly slanted eyes of blue-green grinned a hello at Hawke, but he had the good sense not to attempt to tease his alpha about being out all night with his mate. Hawke wasn’t above teasing, but Tai was too young to have earned the right to that much informality.
Sienna had always been the single exception to that rule. From the day she’d entered the den, she’d seemed to make it her mission to drive Hawke insane. He should’ve known then and there that she was destined to be his mate.
“Why are you smiling?”
Still in wolf form, he glanced up at her question.
“It doesn’t matter what form you wear. I know.” An answer to his unspoken question. “I can feel it inside.” She touched a fist to her heart. “Something’s amusing you.”
He bolted into a run without warning, challenging her to keep up with him. Laughing, she pounded toward the den alongside him. They both knew he was throttling his speed for her, but that took none of the pleasure out of it. His wolf loved running with her.
Racing through the dew-laden quiet of the White Zone, they pelted into the den and past startled packmates who jumped out of the way. One yelled out, “Act your age not your shoe size!”
Another growled, “Dignity, Hawke!”
Both of those hecklers were his friends, their words tinged with laughter as well as joy that Hawke had found a mate, found happiness.
Continuing to race through the corridors that were quiet except for the early risers, they tumbled into their quarters together and Sienna locked the door behind them. Hawke shifted in the seconds it took her to do that. Scooping her up in his arms the next instant, he ran into the bedroom to throw her on the bed.
Her hair haloed around her in a ruby-red fan, her face flushed from their run and her breathing rough. “That was fun!”
Coming down over her, he took a morning kiss, his wolf rumbling inside his chest. “I was smiling because I was thinking about what a pain in the butt you were as a teenager.”
“You liked me even then.” She poked at his shoulder. “Admit it.”
“Never.” He grinned and pushed off the bed before her wandering hands made it impossible for him to do anything but strip her naked, make her sigh his name. “You need to eat and then you need to sleep.”
A scowl. “You going to sleep with me?”
Hawke was fully capable of going without sleep, but since SnowDancer wasn’t at any kind of emergency alert, he didn’t need to. “Yes, Sienna Lauren Snow,” he said, drawing out her name because he liked the way it sounded. “I’ll be sleeping with you.”
She sat up and reached back to quickly braid her hair. “Good. Let’s go get breakfast.”
Hawke had recovered the jeans Sienna had thrown over the rise, but had left them—and her T-shirt—cached for later retrieval. Grabbing another pair, he hauled them on, then shrugged into an old black tee before taking her hand.
In sync, with no more need for any further discussion, they made their way together to the room where breakfast was laid out for those packmates coming off night shift or going out on an early-morning shift.
“Sin!” Sienna’s best friend, Evie, waved them over to a table where she sat alone, nursing a cup of coffee. “Hi, Hawke.”
“Good morning.” Bending, he pressed a kiss to her temple, her hair cool black silk under his touch and her eyes deepest gray.
It was extraordinary how differently he saw Evie and Sienna, though they were near the same age. Indigo’s submissive sister was so young in the life she’d lived, so innoc
ent. The alpha in him felt only protectiveness when he looked at Evie, could never imagine seeing her as a woman.
Sienna . . . wolf and man, he’d always accepted her as a strong opponent, even when she’d been too young for him to see her as anything else.
“What are you doing up?” Sienna asked her friend as Evie rose to pour Sienna and Hawke coffee from the carafe on the counter.
Hawke accepted the small gift with a smile of thanks. Had he insisted on getting his own coffee, she’d have lost that sunny light in her eyes, started to feel redundant. She wasn’t. No submissive was. Dominants were the fighters of a pack. Submissives took care of creating the home they protected.
It was a perfect balance in a healthy pack.
“I had breakfast with Tai.” Evie’s cheeks flushed with happiness. “He told me he was taking over from you, so I thought I’d wait.”
Hawke had just accepted a hot bacon roll Evie passed over from the tray that must’ve been brought in a bare minute earlier, when his attention was caught by another woman who’d walked into the otherwise empty room. Alice Eldridge. A gifted human researcher who’d been forcibly put into cryonic sleep for over a hundred years and had woken to find everyone she’d ever known was dead.
Her hair had grown back in the ensuing time, the spiral curls rich brown and gold against brown skin that had regained its glow. Her body, too, was no longer skin and bones. She’d taken up climbing again, regained the lithe muscle tone she’d had before her long sleep. But Alice’s eyes continued to hold a relentless sadness. Unable to see a member of his pack that way, Hawke put down his roll and, leaving Sienna chatting to Evie, walked over to Alice.
She hadn’t yet accepted that she was a SnowDancer, wasn’t sure what her place was in the world, but she was still his responsibility. Not saying a word, he wrapped his arms gently around her, loosely enough that she could escape should she want. She froze like a startled deer.
One second. Two. Three.
A cautious movement.
Alice placed her head against his chest and slid her arms around him.
He tightened his embrace.
All changelings knew that, sometimes, touch could heal what words never could.
“Thank you,” she whispered afterward. “I . . . why does that make me feel safe? You’re a stranger, really.”
Because even a human recognized the power in an alpha wolf. “You’re one of mine,” Hawke told her. “Part of this family. Don’t forget that.”
A shaky smile before Alice nodded and joined the rest of them for breakfast.
Smiling, Evie got her tea and a roll before whispering, “I heard a rumor that a certain dominant is going to ask you out today.”
Alice groaned, her lingering sadness fading—at least for now—under a wave of aggravation. Exactly as Evie had likely intended, even if it hadn’t been a conscious thought on her part. Submissives were good at that, at giving others what they needed to get back on an even keel.
“What is it with wolves?” Alice said with a feminine snarl of which Hawke’s wolf approved. “I’ve made it crystal clear that I’m not anywhere near ready to date.”
Swallowing a bite of her own roll, Sienna shook her head. “You say that and certain wolves hear ‘oh, she wants me to try harder.’”
Hawke wisely kept his mouth shut and started on a second roll, having already demolished the first. Evie got up to refresh his coffee, but her attention was on the conversation.
“So I should just go on a date and be awful?” Alice asked. “Bore the man to tears by talking about esoteric research papers on bat guano or the health properties of wheatgrass?” Her eyes gleamed. “It holds a certain appeal.”
Shaking her head, Evie said, “No, because then all the others will think they can do a better job and it’ll become a contest to see who can make you have a good time on a date.”
“Yeah.” Sienna nodded. “Also, if the male in question makes a real effort on the date, he might get his feelings hurt and then you’ll have to figure out how to deal with a moping wolf.”
Alice stared at Hawke’s mate. “While the fact I’m turning the men down flat isn’t hurting anyone’s feelings?”
Both Sienna and Evie shook their heads, with Evie the one who explained. “Wolves love a good chase. I mean, did you hear what Drew did while he was courting my sister?”
The resulting conversation actually had Alice laughing. “No, he didn’t!” she said several times, only to be met by confirmations that yes, Drew did go there, and yes, he did do that.
Content to be around his mate and packmates, Hawke just grinned and listened.
• • •
AS a result of their lingering over breakfast, he was awake when a call came through that Indigo thought he should answer. He’d just been about to strip for bed, had his T-shirt balled up in one hand.
“Psy called Pax Marshall,” his lieutenant said over the comm. “He’s got a proposal and I figured you’d want to take his measure.”
She was right—Pax Marshall wasn’t simply another CEO. He was a ruthless male who’d risen to the top of his family hierarchy at only twenty-four years of age and, according to Judd’s intel, was considered one of the new powers in the Net.
Whether he has any loyalty to anyone but himself is up for question. But if he doesn’t have blood on his hands, I’d be very surprised.
Judd’s words fresh in his mind, Hawke pulled his T-shirt back on and said, “Transfer Marshall through.”
Chapter 22
THAT AFTERNOON, SNOWDANCER Lieutenant Cooper was on his way out of the den he commanded on the northern edge of the San Gabriel mountains when he got a call from his alpha. Hawke told him that Pax Marshall, head of the Marshall Group, had proposed a joint business venture in a location in Arizona that was almost right up against the border for which Cooper was responsible.
“I don’t trust him,” Hawke said flatly. “Word in the PsyNet is that Pax would cut his own mother’s throat to get ahead.” That insight had no doubt come from Judd.
Cooper shrugged. “Judd’s buddy Krychek isn’t exactly cuddly.” Yet, quite aside from his friendship with a SnowDancer lieutenant or the times Krychek had offered assistance to San Francisco, the male rumored to have murdered his way up the ladder had a mate who worked daily with empaths.
“Exactly.” Hawke’s eyes gleamed wolf-blue. “Talk to Marshall, see if we can work with him. If this is a real opportunity, dig into the ethics of the entire deal.”
“Always.” Cooper folded his arms, the deep bronze of his skin soaking in the sunlight that poured through the window of his office, that office hidden high in a natural curve of the mountain that held the den. “Lucas’s cub all right?” His wolf growled, still enraged at the idea of anyone harming a child.
Hawke thrust a hand through his hair. “Yeah, bastards didn’t touch Naya. Lucas’s people are still turning over rocks, but an ocelot pack named SkyElm has come up in the investigation. Keep an ear to the ground for any intel about them.”
“Consider it done.” Unfortunately, Cooper had nothing new to report to Hawke on the Consortium situation. His alpha had asked him to investigate the shadowy group using his financial contacts, see if he could pick up any kind of a trail. “These particular cockroaches are very good at hiding,” he told Hawke. “Someone thought this through, locked down all the information.”
“Keep working on it. I’ll update you on anything that comes up on this end.”
Meeting ended, Cooper went looking for Judd—the other lieutenant had arrived in Cooper’s den midmorning, together with his mate, who happened to be close friends with a technician based in this den. The visit was so the women could catch up, but it also gave Judd and Cooper an opportunity to spend time together. They knew each other as all the lieutenants knew one another, but it was inevitable that they’d be closer to the lieutenants they wor
ked with on a daily basis.
For Cooper, that was Jem, Kenji, and Tomás.
Still, his wolf liked Judd. So did the human side of Cooper. The other lieutenant had proven his loyalty to the pack—and his strong, intelligent mate looked at him with her heart in her eyes. A man who’d earned a SnowDancer woman’s admiration and respect? He was all right in Cooper’s book.
“Judd,” he said, spotting the other man on his way out of the den.
The former Arrow was dressed in what looked like workout gear. Of course, it was all black. Arrows never got over that, apparently.
“Got a minute?” Cooper asked.
“Several if you need them.” Brown eyes flecked with gold met Cooper’s. “I was just planning to try the new obstacle course your trainers put in. I hear it’s good.”
“Fiendish is a better description.” Cooper scowled. “Diabolical is another.”
“Excellent.”
Walking outside with his fellow lieutenant, Cooper led him in the direction of the course. “Pax Marshall, can you give me the full lowdown? He wants to talk business with us.”
“A previously little-known individual who suddenly rose to prominence in his family group,” Judd said. “Instinct tells me he was the power behind the throne before he took it over, at least for the final twelve months of his predecessor’s reign.”
Judd paused as Cooper caught an errant ball and threw it back to the kids playing nearby. “It’s rumored he engineered his father’s death in a car crash, but no proof. Could be propaganda he himself started—Psy both fear and admire callous expediency when it’s used in a smart fashion.”
Cooper rubbed at his jaw, his thumb brushing over the scar that marked his left cheek. “He’s young. Twenty-four, right?”
“Yes. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating him though.” Judd’s tone was a cool warning. “Aside from being extremely intelligent, he’s a Gradient 9 telepath.”
Cooper whistled, aware that the Psy Gradient went up to ten. Cardinals were all off the scale, but he’d heard it said that some of the most dangerous people in the Net were just below cardinal status. Judd was the perfect example.