by Nalini Singh
“Grab a seat, both of you,” Hawke said, sitting down in his own chair. “Have you heard from Riley, Drew?”
Andrew slid into a seat beside Indigo, stretching his legs out in front. “Got a text saying they’re planning to visit Rio de Janeiro today. Oh, and that he’s already in love with Mercy’s grandmother. Since she hasn’t clawed his guts open yet, he thinks she might like him back.”
Hawke grinned. “Poor Riley. I hope he survives.”
“He knew what he was getting into when he mated with a dominant female,” Indigo said, tapping a finger on the arm of her chair. “If he has the sense to continue to treat Mercy as exactly what she is, I’m sure her family will have no problem with him.”
Andrew knew the words were directed at him. Yeah, they cut. But they also shored up his determination. Because no way in hell was last night going to be the final word on their relationship. “You know the two cats who came up here?” he said out loud, mentally vowing to melt that icy control, and more, to make her see him. “The ones who thought they might have a shot with Mercy?”
“Eduardo and Joaquin?” Hawke said, his hair catching the light as he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. “What about them?”
“They took Riley out drinking last night.”
The three of them digested that for a second . . . before grins appeared on all their faces, segueing slowly into chuckles, then outright laughter—including from the lieutenant sitting so straight and stiff next to him. His wolf bared its teeth in a feral smile. Indy might think she could freeze him out like she could everyone else, but just wait.
After they’d gotten the amusement out of their system, Hawke picked up a notepad. “Okay, with Riley and Mercy both away, we’ve got to move some things around. I need you”—glancing at Andrew—“to do a few extra security shifts.”
“No problem.” While his position as Hawke’s eyes and ears in the wider pack had him on the road much of the time, he also functioned as a senior-level soldier during the times he was in the den.
Hawke made a note. “Indigo, you good with continuing to coordinate our resources?”
“Yes.” Indigo’s tone was calm, practical, with not the slightest hint of the passionate nature he’d glimpsed for a brief moment last night. “Are you handling the liaison with the leopards?”
Hawke’s scowl had Andrew fighting a grin. “Yeah. Do you know how many juveniles I had to spring from cat territory yesterday? Five,” he said without waiting for an answer. “They’d gotten the bright idea to catch a leopard juvenile in animal form and cover him in blue and silver paint.”
Andrew snorted. “At least they chose the pack’s colors.”
“Yeah, too bad for them that the ‘juvenile’ they caught was actually a full-fledged female soldier who just happens to be slightly smaller in size.”
Indigo’s wince was a hiss of air. “How bad did she slice them up?”
“They’ll live.” Hawke’s wolf was in his eyes, clearly amused. “My punishment was probably worse. I doused the idiots in their own paint and told them they’re not allowed to shift to get rid of it. It washes off in the shower, or it doesn’t come off.”
That, Andrew thought, explained the sheepish-looking teenager he’d seen on the way here, his hair sticking up in stiff blue spikes. “You want me to handle any of that?”
“No.” Hawke shook his head. “Indigo or I will move you around as we see a gap. Riaz will be arriving later today, so we’ll have another lieutenant soon, but he’ll need a few days to rest and get himself up to speed.”
Indigo leaned forward a bare fraction. “I didn’t know he was coming home.”
Andrew’s wolf growled a warning inside his mind at the sign of her interest in the other man. Riaz, he knew, was around Indigo’s age and ranked just below her in the hierarchy. The male had spent most of the past couple of years away from SnowDancer territory, roaming through various parts of the country and the world to gather information; to function as the pack’s business representative when necessary; and more recently, to initiate contact and/or informal alliances with other changeling groups.
But none of that was important to his wolf. What made its fur bristle was one simple, inescapable fact: Riaz and Indigo had once been lovers. His hand clenched on the arm of his chair, his claws slicing out to dig into the leather-synth. He retracted the physical evidence of his emotions before anyone could notice, but there was nothing he could do about the claws slicing at the insides of his skin as the wolf paced, a low growl humming at the back of its throat.
The intensity of his response surprised even him.
“When’d Riaz get back into the country?” While he continued to fight the wolf’s primal urges, Andrew knew without conceit that no one would guess he was having trouble maintaining an even keel—that ability to slide under the radar was a skill he’d had all his life. But he’d truly honed it to perfection in the months following his sister Brenna’s abduction and torture. Riley had had nightmares. Andrew . . . Andrew had run himself into exhaustion every night for weeks. Alone. “Last I heard, he was in Europe.”
“He was,” Hawke said, interrupting the dark wash of memory. “Landed in New York only a few hours ago. Should be in San Francisco by this afternoon.”
“I’ll pick him up,” Indigo volunteered.
Andrew flexed his hand on the side of his chair hidden from Indigo’s view, his claws slicing in and out. “Is that everything?” He needed to escape the intoxication and provocation of Indigo’s scent, get a handle on himself before he did something else stupid.
Hawke shook his head. “I’ve got something I want you two to do.” Settling back, he blew out a breath. “The thing with Joshua? Shouldn’t have happened. And it’s a pack issue, not a case of one or two individuals dropping the ball.”
Andrew relaxed a fraction as his wolf’s protective drive toward the pack overcame its more primitive instincts. “We’ve been so busy with protecting SnowDancer against the Council that we haven’t paid enough attention to the young ones.”
“Drew is right.” Indigo braced her forearms on her thighs, her scowl apparent in the tone of her voice. “We’ve been focusing on training up the older soldiers, the dominants, to the detriment of the other ranks, and that’s not how a healthy pack, how our pack, is supposed to work.” She sounded both angry and frustrated—with herself, Andrew knew. “Why the hell didn’t we notice the problem earlier?”
“Someone did. I told him it wasn’t a priority.”
Startled, Indigo followed Hawke’s gaze to Drew, who shrugged in that fluid way he had. “I should’ve pushed you harder on the point,” he said to their alpha, “but it didn’t seem necessary at the time—and Joshua was shoved over the edge by a highly volatile situation. None of the others are anywhere near that stage. I would’ve made you pay attention if it was that bad.”
Indigo wasn’t used to finding herself out of the loop. It irritated her, but more, it made her wonder exactly how much more she didn’t know about the things Drew did for the pack, for Hawke. Sitting up straight, she folded her arms and pinned him with her gaze. “How is it that you’re so on top of what’s happening with the juveniles?”
“People talk to me.” Easy words, but there was an edge to them, his wolf baring its teeth in response to her aggressive tone. “It’s not just the den kids,” he continued. “There are a few out in the wider territory who are struggling in various ways.”
“Get them up here by the weekend,” Hawke said, pale eyes dangerously intent.
Indigo wondered what he saw, but she didn’t ask. Because she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Drew had changed the status quo last night, changed it in a way that left only confusion and a restless fury in its wake. It wasn’t a feeling she appreciated. “What’re you planning?” she asked Hawke, determined to find her balance again. Other wolves might enjoy chaos, but Indigo, wolf and woman both, preferred order. Hierarchy was the solid core of that order. No wolf pack as stro
ng as SnowDancer could survive without it.
Now Hawke, the man at the top of that chain of command, said, “I want you two to take the affected juveniles up into the mountains for a couple of days, give them some intense one-on-one attention, find out if there are more serious issues below the surface that we need to be handling.” He pushed across a piece of paper. “These are the names Drew gave me last time. Add any others you think might benefit. If we have too many, we can split them into two groups.”
Indigo’s wolf saw the sense in what he was suggesting—bonding was at the heart of a healthy pack. And at present, things were relaxed enough that they could take time out to nurture those in danger of faltering. But the idea of spending that much time alone with the young male sitting to her left rubbed her fur the wrong way. Before last night, she’d have gone with him without a blink, trusting him to do what was necessary—and not act the ass.
However, below all that—the frustrated anger, the inability to understand why he’d done what he had—she was still a SnowDancer lieutenant. “They’ll want to see you, too,” she said to Hawke.
“I’m clearing the decks so I can join you for at least one of the days.” His facial muscles tensed without warning.
A second later, Indigo caught a familiar scent on the air currents. Not long after that, a pretty girl with brown eyes, her hair tamed into a long braid, poked her head around the corner. “Oh, I’ll come ba—” she began at seeing the three of them.
“No. We’re just finishing up.” Drew rose to his feet with a muscular grace Indigo had always known about, having sparred with him more than once. They’d also done any number of climbs together, both of them enjoying the thrill that came with pitting themselves against the peaks of the Sierra Nevada. But she’d never truly seen that grace until this moment.
The sudden awareness of him as a male, and not only that, but as a strong, handsome male, unsettled what balance she’d managed to regain. For the first time, she found herself seriously worried that things would never return to the way they’d once been—that their friendship had died in his room last night. The thought shook her enough that she had to make a conscious effort to catch Drew’s next words.
“We’ll finalize the list today,” he said to Hawke. “We can decide the details, time of departure, et cetera, once we’ve contacted everyone. That work, Indy?”
Her concern was swept away under a surge of annoyance as she wondered if the damn copper-eyed wolf thought he could smooth things over with so little effort. “Fine. You take care of contacting the out-of-towners; I’ll do the juveniles in the den.”
Andrew nodded and headed toward the door, sentient to the rising tension level in the room—and it wasn’t all his and Indigo’s fault. Sienna gave him a small smile as he came close to where she waited in the doorway. Even after all these months, it was strange to see her with those eyes and that brown hair that was nothing close to her spectacular true shade. But no matter the shell she’d had to don to allow her to move safely in the outside world, her personality shone through. Quiet, determined . . . and with a little bit of hellion thrown in for spice.
Leaning down, he cupped her jaw in his hand and kissed her on the cheek. “How are you doing, little sister?” The question wasn’t a simple courtesy. She’d been in trouble, her psychic abilities starting to spiral out of control before she’d moved away from the den to spend time in the care of the DarkRiver leopards.
“Good.”
“That’s all I get after I sent you a whole box of premium chocolate-cherry cookies?” he said, feigning extreme disappointment. “Just ‘good’?”
Furrows appeared between her brows, dark little lines that marred the beauty of her sun-dipped skin. “Drew.”
But when he grinned and took her into his arms, she not only allowed the affection, she slid her own arms around him. It had taken him months of patient care to get her to trust him with her body in that way. “Is that leopard boy . . . what’s his name”—Andrew pretended to think—“that’s right, Kit. Is Kit treating you right?” He murmured the question at a volume Hawke was certain to overhear, knowing full well he was throwing the cat among the pigeons.
“Drew.” Sienna pulled back, fisting a hand on his chest. Her eyes sparked fire at him, and for an instant he could almost see through the dark brown of her contact lenses and to the night-sky eyes beyond. White stars on a spread of black velvet, it was said that the eyes of a cardinal Psy reflected the stark, sprawling beauty of the PsyNet.
Leaning down, he kissed her other cheek and—dropping his voice low enough that it would skate under even his alpha’s acute hearing—said, “Give him hell, sweetheart. Then come tell me about it.” Ruffling her hair, he finally let her pass and exited the office.
Indigo fell into step beside him a second later. “The famous Andrew Kincaid charm in action?” Her question was sharp . . . but held an undertone of amusement. Because she’d been close enough to hear what he’d said to Sienna at the end.
His wolf wasn’t fooled—the ice hadn’t melted. It had simply been eclipsed momentarily by the wolf’s curious nature. “Sienna could do with some charming.” The Psy girl—young woman now—had been through things that would’ve broken far older and stronger men, been scarred by them. “If Hawke would figure that out, he’d be much happier.”
Indigo snorted. “Yeah, I can just see him pulling charm out of a hat.”
Andrew angled his body toward her. He’d planned to apologize for his behavior last night as soon as they had privacy, but as he went to open his mouth, he glimpsed a fleeting expectation in her eyes. The lieutenant was waiting for him to say it. When he did, she’d forgive him—both because she wasn’t the kind of woman to hold a grudge and because it would shove them firmly back into the roles she’d decided were the only acceptable ones.
His wolf went quiet, thinking.
Better, he thought, feeling sneaky and downright delighted with himself, far better to keep her angry and thinking about him. Oh, there was no question he’d been a dick and needed to apologize, but he’d do so in a time and place of his own choosing—and in a way that would further his cause, not hers. “See you later, Indy.”
He was almost sure he heard a low feminine snarl as he strolled off down the corridor.
His wolf peeled back its lips in a feral grin.
CHAPTER 5
Sienna ran her hands self-consciously over her hair, wondering how badly Drew had messed it up. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.” The words came out stiff, jerky. No matter how composed she was around everyone else—until more than one wolf in the den had called her an “old soul”—she got to Hawke and it all fell apart.
He rose to his feet, his desk between them. “We were done.” Ice blue eyes swept over her face . . . her cheeks—which she knew were ridiculously freckled after all the time she’d been spending out of doors.
“I didn’t know you and Drew were close.” It was a question phrased as a statement.
She fought the urge to cover up the cheeks he continued to stare at and shrugged—a very human or changeling motion, something she’d picked up after spending almost three years outside the PsyNet. Once, she wouldn’t have answered Hawke’s implied question, awaiting a direct query. But once, she’d been Silent, her emotions chilled like so much ice . . . not full of so much fire that it terrified her.
“Drew figures that since his sister is mated to my uncle,” she said, focusing on a spot beyond Hawke’s shoulder in an effort to regain her equilibrium, “that gives him the right to claim me as family.” She was a cardinal Psy, her psychic power blinding, but she still couldn’t figure out how Drew had snuck in under her defenses and made room for himself in her life. She just knew she’d miss him horribly if he ever left. “But,” she said, her voice stupidly breathy, “he says he’s not old enough to be an uncle, so he’s decided to treat me like another younger sister.”
Most people would’ve rolled their eyes at the convoluted reasoning, but Hawke simply nodde
d, as if it made perfect sense. Of course, to him, it probably did. The predatory changelings she knew were all big on family—and she had to admit, it was . . . nice to be treated with such easy affection by those she trusted. Drew understood that she was powerful, that she could cause incredible damage, and yet he continued to tease her as mercilessly as he did his real sister, Brenna.
Sometimes, Sienna even teased him back. Self-defense, she called it.
“Do you want permission to return to DarkRiver land?” Hawke asked, and his voice was as cool as Drew’s had been warm, shattering what stability she’d managed to recapture. But no, she thought, remembering what Sascha had told her the last time she’d spent the night in the home of the woman who was a fellow defector from the PsyNet—and an empath able to sense and heal emotional hurts.
No one can take from you what you don’t want to give. It is your choice.
And, she thought, steeling her spine, she chose not to let this strange compulsion toward a man who wasn’t interested, who would never be interested, break her. “I wanted to say thank you,” she said, controlling her volatile emotions by reciting a calming mantra she’d learned during her conditioning in the PsyNet, “for letting me spend so much time with the cats.”
Hawke finally walked out from behind that desk he always kept as an impassable wall between them. And that quickly, everything shifted, her shields trembling under the impact of him.
“Has it helped?” he asked.
“Yes.” She would not give in, not today. “My control over my abilities is far better.” Because he wasn’t constantly there, wasn’t breaking through her defenses with nothing but his presence. “Sascha and Faith have been helping me refine and strengthen my shields.”