by Nalini Singh
“We’re going to leave it as Rowan Quinn for now,” Annie said, a stark poignancy to her. “If I ever find the boy who saved my life, I want to use his name as Rowan’s middle name.”
Sascha could understand Annie’s desire to honor that unknown telekinetic boy—if he hadn’t lifted the train off Annie, she wouldn’t be here today, wouldn’t have a mate or a child. And the world would’ve missed out on the beauty and gentleness of Annie’s spirit.
“Zach understands.” Allowing Tally to take Rowan for a cuddle, Annie ran her fingers through the hair of her still-scowling mate, who growled at her even as he continued to massage her thigh.
“What I don’t understand is why you keep overdoing it,” Zach said, then looked at Sascha. “This morning, I stumble bleary-eyed into the kitchen, thanks to the alarm clock called Rowan, and what do I see but my mate on a stepladder trying to fix a malfunctioning kitchen light.”
Screwing up her nose, Annie pulled at the hair she’d been petting. “I was being nice, letting you sleep in.”
“You were giving me a heart attack, that’s what you were doing. It’s like you’re taking lessons from Mercy.”
Tamsyn frowned from where she stood on the cooking side of the counter. “How bad is your leg, Annie?”
“Not too bad really.”
Zach spoke without stopping the massage. “In Annie terms, ‘not too bad’ equals ‘yeah, it hurts like a bitch.’”
“Zach’s exaggerating.” Even as Annie glared at her mate, she was petting his shoulders with the caressing touch of a woman who sensed her mate’s very real worry and was trying to alleviate it. “It hurts but nothing major.”
Tamsyn’s response was a “hmm” of sound.
Leaving Clay to look after the vegetables she’d put on to stir-fry, the healer retrieved a scanner from her kit and, coming down beside Zach, ran it over Annie’s thigh and lower leg. “No signs of strain or degradation in the plassteel itself,” she said, referring to the way Annie’s leg had been rebuilt after the train accident, “but I see a little inflammation in the tissue around it.”
Her eyes met Annie’s. “I can give you a localized and gentle anti-inflammatory that’ll alleviate that and make you more comfortable.”
Annie bit down on her lower lip. “Will it—”
“It won’t have any impact on Rowan,” Tamsyn promised. “You can continue to nurse him.”
Nodding, Annie allowed the healer to administer the anti-inflammatory. Afterward, Tamsyn gave a preloaded injector to Zach before talking to both Zach and Annie. “There are ten doses in there. You can use it a couple of times a week without issue—and less discomfort means less stress on you, which is good for your cub, so do use it.” The last words were an order.
Annie smiled. “Yes, Tamsyn.”
“You’re getting as cheeky as your students,” Tamsyn said, rising to her feet to press a kiss to Annie’s cheek just as Lucas arrived.
So did Dorian, Ashaya, and Keenan. The three had detoured to run an errand after the couple picked up Keenan from the tea party, then decided to swing by. Tamsyn was delighted to have so many packmates in her space, put a couple of them to work helping her prep for dinner.
“Dev might’ve inadvertently pointed me to a possible lead on Leila Savea,” Lucas told them after claiming a hot, wet kiss from Sascha that left her flushed and breathless and happy he was here, safe and strong and with his heart beating under her palm.
She felt his own protective need to be certain of her welfare in the way he held her snug against his side. The only reason he hadn’t hunted down Naya was because they could hear their cub giggling wildly as she played a game with the other young children that had them all in hysterics.
But where her and Lucas’s impact on one another was an exchange between mates, he also had a subtle effect on the others in the room. Each and every one of their packmates had become more calm and steady in his presence. For an empath, it was fascinating to witness the primal impact of an alpha—but for Sascha, a member of DarkRiver, it was simply right.
Lucas was the pack’s alpha. This was what he did.
Today, as they listened, he laid out the trail of bread crumbs and connections that had put a bull’s-eye on the estate next to the IceRock pack’s territory. “I spoke to Miane, let her know. We’re just waiting on the images from IceRock.”
That wasn’t the only news he had.
Sascha listened intently as he shared the report from Jamie. “I had a quick chat with Bastien on the way over,” he added afterward. “He says the transfer of the twenty-five thousand to the captain was as highly sophisticated as the financial transactions purportedly completed by the SkyElm alpha. He’s started pulling things apart, is hoping to get a bead on the person at the end of the money trail.”
Sascha couldn’t wait for that to happen; she’d accepted that Naya would always attract attention, some of it dangerous, but she wanted at least one threat off the table.
“Couple of Trinity things came in while you were meeting with Hawke,” Nathan said after they’d discussed Jamie’s information. “I handled it. Basically, Ming’s continuing to stir up trouble but Hawke’s keeping him too busy shoring up his business interests for it to do much damage.”
Sascha had been impressed by Hawke’s plan when Lucas first shared it. She was even more impressed by how well all the people who hated the venomous ex-Councilor had worked together to thwart him. As the daughter of a former Councilor herself, Sascha knew enough about Ming to know the combat telepath treasured only one thing more than his psychic skill—his tactical intelligence. To have that so publicly beaten would burn.
“I also wanted to discuss Jon,” Lucas said after glancing outside to ensure the kids were all still out there. “I think we should offer him the chance to attend a training camp with the Forgotten. Dev’s people have come up with techniques that might help him get a better handle on his abilities.”
Talin’s expression was tight, but she nodded. “I’ll talk to him,” she said, and Sascha knew she was having to fight her protective instincts to even consider the idea of allowing Jon to go that far away.
Pulling her back against his chest with his arm around her front, Clay nuzzled gently at her. “We can discuss it with him tomorrow. No need to mess with his mood today.”
No one argued, well aware that while the idea was a good one, Jon might well prefer not to go. He’d been lost and alone too long, tended to stick tight to his family and packmates. Today the teen ended up the de facto babysitter when the children eventually decamped to the large living area to play with toys.
He wandered into the kitchen twenty minutes after that, while dinner was still cooking.
Tamsyn pointed to the fridge without looking up. “Leftover lasagna from last night. All yours.”
A grin split Jon’s face. Taking the lasagna and a fork that Nathan passed over, he would’ve left to return to the living area if Nathan hadn’t made him heat up the lasagna. The teenager had already taken the first bite before he left the room.
“Do all teenage boys eat like that?” Sascha asked, wondering where it all went. Jon was thinner than he’d ever been.
Tamsyn nodded. So did Clay and Nathan, Lucas and Dorian.
“My foster brothers used to get hungry every two hours,” Talin shared. “Ma Larkspur bought sandwich fixings by the bucketload.”
“I once ate an entire roast chicken my mom had cooked specifically so she could make sandwiches the next day.” Dorian winced. “Boy, was she mad when she woke up to a pile of bones.”
“But he’s so thin.” Sascha couldn’t help but worry, saw the same concern in the blue-gray of Ashaya’s gaze. “Are you sure he’s not sick?”
Nathan disappeared for a minute, to return with a photograph. It was of a skinny teen with black hair and midnight blue eyes. “Is this you?” Sascha couldn’t believe it, Nat
han was so strongly muscular now.
“Skinny as a beanpole until I was about sixteen, seventeen.” The senior sentinel touched her cheek with the easy skin privileges of a packmate, including Ashaya in his reassuring look. “Don’t worry about the boy. Tamsyn’s keeping an eye on him—he’s just going through a growth spurt.”
“I guess,” Ashaya murmured, “we never noticed in the PsyNet because our diet was based on nutrition bars and drinks.”
Sascha saw what the scientist was saying. “The menu plans must’ve compensated for that teenage growth spurt, allowed for extra calories when teens needed it.”
“You caught the tail end of it with Kit,” Tamsyn pointed out. “He had his main growth spurt earlier, but he was still eating the pack out of house and home until he turned twenty-one.” The last was said with so much love that Sascha knew Tamsyn would’ve fed the young male had he turned up every single day.
That was when Lucas’s phone rang. “IceRock just sent through the images,” he said after he’d hung up following a short conversation.
He checked the download, then forwarded it to Miane, giving her a call to alert her it was coming through. Simply taking over the operation wasn’t on the agenda, not when it was one of Miane’s people who was being held hostage. If BlackSea asked, Sascha knew DarkRiver would respond.
Until then, they’d wait and hope that Leila Savea’s captivity was about to end.
Chapter 38
HAWKE WAS ABOUT to hold a working dinner with his lieutenants when he received a message from Lucas updating him on the hunt for Leila Savea and on the BlackSea op currently being planned. Sliding away his phone, he decided to give his people a little more time to talk before they began to discuss that situation among others—including the unexpected wrench Lucas had thrown into Trinity by proposing an “adjunct” or provisional signatory status.
The DarkRiver alpha had sent the idea only to SnowDancer and the Arrows at this stage, for their input. Hawke’s initial reaction had been a firm “hell, no.” He couldn’t understand why the fuck Lucas would propose something that could give Ming a way in should he want to take it; it was Riley who’d made him see the reason behind Lucas’s idea.
“Trinity is about creating a world without divisions,” his best friend and lieutenant had said. “There has to be a way for former enemies to prove themselves, or Trinity fails before it ever really begins.”
Hawke wasn’t sure he was civilized enough to accept such rational necessities, but since they had Ming on the ropes, he was at least willing to listen to feedback from the rest of his lieutenants. Having Riley’s calm presence anchor the discussion was partially why this SnowDancer meeting was about to take place in DarkRiver territory.
He and the lieutenants who were based in the Sierra Nevada den had arrived a couple of minutes ago with insulated carriers holding dinner, to find both Mercy and Riley strolling outside their cabin, soaking up the red-orange rays of the setting sun. Alone with Mercy when Riley was pulled into a back-slapping hug by Riaz, Hawke leaned down as if to kiss her on the cheek.
She growled low in her throat. “Try it, wolf, and lose your face.”
Grinning, he instead gave her what he’d been holding behind his back. “A little present.”
Another growl as she narrowed her eyes. “Why are you giving me gifts?”
“Your pupcubs are half SnowDancer.”
Mercy’s eyes went to where Riley was laughing with Riaz, Indigo, and Judd, the four lieutenants apparently deeply amused by something. Expression softening, she turned her cheek slightly. “You may kiss me,” she said, like a queen bestowing a favor. “But only because you moved your lieutenant meeting all the way down here mostly so Riley could see everyone.”
Hawke didn’t dispute her interpretation of his actions because she was dead right. The agenda for the meeting offered a good excuse, but this was really about looking after a packmate who’d given so much to SnowDancer. Accepting the invitation to kiss Mercy, an invitation she’d never before extended, he drew in her scent. His wolf considered her part of his pack, especially now, when she carried the twinned scents of leopard and wolf far more strongly than usual. “Open your present.”
Gaze suspicious again, she took a seat in an outdoor chair, then tore away the wrapping paper to pick up the baby-sized item on top. It was a legless one-piece bodysuit in SnowDancer blue, with “SnowDancers Rule” written on the front in white and a wolf silhouette on the back in the same shade.
The next item was a tiny white T-shirt with wolves gamboling all over it.
Mercy looked up, her lips trying not to curve. “You’re doing this to mess with Lucas.”
“I’m astonished you’d say that.” Hawke pressed a hand to his heart. “I’m just proud of my soon-to-be-new packmates.”
Shaking her head, Mercy gave in to her smile as she continued to go through the miniature pieces of clothing, all of them SnowDancer branded . . . except for the last set, every one of which had “Pupcub” written across the front, above a cartoon of an adorable half wolf–half leopard pupcub drawn by Toby.
The thirteen-year-old had shown it to Sienna, who’d shown it to Hawke.
The rest was history.
Mercy’s face lit up. “Riley! Come look!” She held up a little yellow jumpsuit that came complete with a hood that sported two pointed ears.
Cheeks creasing in a deep grin, Riley said, “Perfect.”
The other lieutenants hadn’t seen the gift pack, came over to go through it together with Riley and Mercy, all of them laughing as they debated their favorites. Including Riaz. The dark-haired lieutenant with eyes of beaten gold had been in one hell of a good mood for the past month, stayed that way throughout the working dinner—where Mercy told them what Nathan had said about the terrible error in building Trinity on a foundation of exclusion.
The words hit hard, made them all think.
Hawke was still chewing over the implications when he and the others left Riley and Mercy’s home in the rugged SUV they’d driven down in together. Reaching SnowDancer territory, they decided to park the SUV in a lower area and run the last section home. It was such a clear night, the stars crystalline, that the wolf wanted to throw back its head and howl, but Hawke stayed in human form for now, as did the others.
It was easy enough for him to fall in beside Riaz, while Indigo and Judd ran ahead. “The idea of giving former enemies a way to prove their good intentions is never going to make sense to my wolf.”
“It took a human to stop the Territorial Wars for a reason,” was the lieutenant’s answer. “I’m fucking impressed Lucas was able to fight his own instincts enough to put the proposal together.”
Hawke was quiet for a while, the wind cool against his face as they ran. “Having a cub, being responsible for that vulnerable life, it changes a man.” He’d seen it in Lucas, only now understood the depth of that change—to give Naya an undivided world, Lucas was willing to battle even his panther’s most primal urges.
Because the cats? They were as possessive and as territorial as Hawke’s wolves, and they did not forgive anyone who’d harmed their own. “Five years is a long time,” he mused. “Plenty of room for people to fuck up if they’re trying to game the system.” Arrogant bastards like Ming LeBon would never have the patience to stay “clean” that long.
“And just because an asshole signs the accord doesn’t mean we have to work with them.” Riaz’s voice was familiar in the night, as familiar as the dark woodsmoke edged with citrus that was his natural scent. “Open communication doesn’t mean open access.”
“Yeah.” Hawke pushed his hair off his face, decided the adjunct proposal was one he’d have to sleep on. This would not be an easy or uncomplicated decision. “In other matters,” he said to the man who ran beside him, “you’re scaring people with your happy.”
Riaz’s laugh was all wolf, his eyes night-gl
ow in the darkness when they met Hawke’s. “You’ve figured it out, haven’t you?”
“I’ve got some clue. You want to tell me if I’m right?”
“You know how I had that mating tug toward Lisette?” Riaz asked. “Like she was meant to be my mate?”
Hawke nodded, aware that lingering remnant of a relationship that had never been and never would be, had deeply frustrated Riaz. Wolf and man, both parts of Riaz had chosen Adria, loved the senior soldier with a furious passion.
“It’s gone.” Riaz’s tone was jubilant. “Like it stretched so thin it just broke.”
Hawke’s wolf opened its jaws in a lupine grin. “I’m guessing this doesn’t worry you.”
“Are you kidding? It bugged the hell out of me. I love Adria, and that tug, it was like a splinter stuck under my skin.”
Hawke could hear Riaz’s scowl in his voice.
“Lisette and I had a chance once, sure,” the lieutenant added, “but that chance passed. Adria’s my woman, the only one I want. The suggestion that it might be otherwise pissed me off every fucking day.”
“I get it.” A predatory changeling who truly loved, loved all in. “People have always wondered what would happen if a changeling found his mate but chose to walk away.”
“I don’t know that my experience would apply to everyone,” Riaz said after they’d navigated around a large rock in their path. “I mean, the whole situation was messed up. Lisette being human and madly in love with her husband, for one. That would’ve never happened if she’d been changeling. It was all off from the start.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” If a changeling was in love, the mating bond couldn’t come into play with anyone else—it was a law written in stone. Hawke knew of no exceptions. “You just did things backward,” he said in realization. “Your love for Adria pushed the possibility of the mating bond with anyone else out.”
“Damn straight.” Riaz’s tone held wolfish satisfaction.