Play of Passion

CHAPTER 26

Andrew was sure he’d had a rational thought a minute or so ago, but it was a distant memory. The lieutenant was making his brains leak out his ears, her tongue a fast, sleek dart in his mouth, her teeth sharp little accents on his lips, her hands brands against his skin. Groaning, he gripped her hips and gave in.

His reward was a kiss so hot, it turned his jeans uncomfortably tight. Unable to keep his hands still, he stroked up over her sweatshirt to close his hand around one lush breast. Her nipple was already pebbled behind the soft fabric of her bra, and he played with it through the clothing, wanting to learn each and every facet of what drove her crazy.

The sound took time to filter into his consciousness, the voice recognizable. Dorian, calling Indigo’s name. “Time to go back,” he murmured against those lush lips that had turned him into a willing slave.

“If you’re a very good boy,” Indigo murmured in a sexy, husky tone as she reached down to cup his straining cock for one electric second, “I might kiss you other places, too.”

He bit back a very blue word as she withdrew her hand and stepped back. “How the hell am I supposed to go back and face my little sister if I have a raging hard-on?”

“Poor baby.” Except her eyes were dancing with unfamiliar wickedness. “I’m sure you’ll think of something.” She walked away, her hips swiveling in a fashion that he knew was meant to shoot his already boiling temperature through the roof. Sexual frustration was a bitch, but his wolf smiled—because the lieutenant was playing with him again. And Indigo Riviere was a woman who played with very few.

Blowing out a breath, he gritted his teeth and counted to a thousand, somehow managing to get his body under control. “So, what did I miss?” he asked, rejoining the others where they crouched around the object.

“It’s a transmitter,” Dorian said, holding the steel orb in hand.

He met the leopard sentinel’s surfer blue eyes. “You sound very sure.”

But it was his sister who replied. “The tech is pretty common once you strip away the fancy exterior.”

“Range isn’t huge,” Dorian added. “Maybe five hundred meters or so.”

Brenna’s eyes met Andrew’s, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth that augured trouble—but her words were practical. “We think it’s meant to act as a locator beacon.”

“Locator for what?” Indigo murmured. “This area is wilderness. Aside from the forest creatures, only wolves come—”

A pointed cough from Dorian.

“Wolves and leopards,” Indigo said, shaking her head at the blond sentinel’s smirk, “are the only ones who come up here.” Lines formed between her brows. “The only ones who should. I wonder if the Psy we scented when we were with the juveniles were scouting for places to put these things.”

“Would make sense,” Brenna said. “You were a bit more east of here, but not that much lower down in terms of the elevation.”

Dorian’s hair flashed almost white in the harsh sunlight as he lowered his head to the device once more. “We can sweep the ground with high-strength scanners, but we have a logistical problem—den territory covers too wide an area.” A glance at Brenna.

Andrew’s sister nodded in confirmation. “We need to figure out some sort of specific region to search.”

“How long would the batteries last in those things?” Indigo asked. “Best guess?”

“I’ll confirm when we dismantle one, but three months would be the outer limits,” Brenna said, looking at Dorian.

He nodded and added, “The transmitting function sucks juice. Three for safety, but I’d say two months would be a more realistic estimate.”

Andrew saw where Indigo was going. “So we can probably eliminate all the areas where the snowpack has been pretty much solid for over two months.” That would take care of a good chunk of their territory.

“Yes.” Brenna’s eyes sparked. “A telekinetic could have moved the snow, but one, it’s a massive waste of power, and two, against all that white, any intruders would have stood out like sore thumbs to our satellite.”

Indigo nodded. “I agree—we can safely eliminate the snowpack areas for now. We can also eliminate all those areas that get a high amount of traffic.”

Andrew looked at his sister. “You got a piece of paper, Bren?”

“I think there’s a pad in this bag . . .” Turning to rummage in it, she made a sound of success. “Here it is. And a pen.”

“Thanks, baby sis.” Grinning at the kiss she blew him, he flipped open the pad and sketched the basic outline of their territory. “Okay, so this is here.” He made an X on the map. “The other one’s useless as a marker since it could’ve come from anywhere, but how about this?” He drew a rough semicircle, using their current spot as the center of the arc.

Indigo looked over his shoulder. “The entire area’s equidistant from the very edge of den territory.” She took a moment to think about it, nodded. “We’ve got enough light that we can test the theory at least.”

“We have two scanners,” Brenna reminded them, “so we can go in both directions.”

“Drew,” Indigo said, her tone crisp as she slipped into full work mode, “you go with Bren. I’ll work with Dorian.”

He knew what she was doing—pairing each tech expert with someone who could keep an eye on security, but he found he didn’t want her alone with the good-looking leopard male. Her eyes met his at that moment, and from the sudden frost in them, he knew she’d accurately read the hotly possessive urge. Gritting it back with sheer strength of will—and having to fight his wolf to do so—he turned to Brenna. “You need all the gear?”

“Just the scanner pack.” She slid the little computer into a carry bag and swung it crosswise over her body, the scanner itself held in her hand. “Dorian, are you okay using the—”

“No problem, sweetheart.” Setting the computer over his body the same way as Brenna, Dorian picked up the somewhat bulkier scanner. “It’ll do the trick, but the range is shorter,” he said to Indigo, “so we might cover less distance.”

Brenna began to move out. Andrew followed, forcing himself to keep his attention on his sister and not on a woman who was quietly furious with him. Brenna didn’t say anything until they were well out of earshot. “Judd told me.”

Andrew grunted, not in the mood to be teased.

“She’s a lieutenant, dumb-ass,” Brenna muttered. “Going all he-man on her isn’t exactly going to put you in her good book.”

He blinked. “You have eyes in the back of your head now?”

A beatific smile. “I have experience with hardheaded men—though I never thought I’d be giving you this little talk. I always thought Riley was the one who’d have trouble. And he went and got himself happily mated to a sentinel.”

Checking the area for threats and making the assessment that they were the only two out there, he allowed his attention to return to the subject of him and Indigo. “I couldn’t help it,” he muttered, feeling sulky and grumpy—though he’d have shown that to no one but the sister he’d watched over since she’d been but a babe. “My brain knew I was doing something stupid, but my hormones tell me to protect her—and right now, instinct is kicking reason’s whiny ass.”

Brenna shook her head, the late afternoon sun making the fine strands of her hair shimmer like spun gold. “The easy fix is that you grovel and she forgives you . . .”

“But?” He nudged her shoulder with his, his wolf willing to listen to her even if she was younger and far less dominant.

“But this is who she is,” Brenna murmured, her eyes troubled when she looked up. “You stood in front of a bullet for me, Drew.” Her voice hitched. “That’s who you are.”

“Hey.” He hugged her to him, kissing the top of her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Holding on to him for a couple more seconds, Brenna stepped back and started scanning again. “What I’m saying is that you protect—do you think you can handle, really handle, being with a woman who not only doesn’t need your protection, but for whom it would be an insult that you’d even offer?”

The words hit hard, cut deep. But the truth had nothing to do with his acceptance of Indigo’s rank.

“I’m jealous,” he admitted bluntly, to the one person with whom he could admit the vulnerability. “I know I don’t fit the image she has in her mind of her perfect partner, and it rubs me the wrong way whenever she interacts with another male who does fit that image.” A male who was probably far more acceptable to her wolf, for all that that wolf had accepted him on a certain level.

“Even though Dorian’s mated and a leopard to boot?”

“Yeah. Stupid, huh?”

“We’re all a little stupid when we’re in love.” Her machine beeped on the heels of her statement. “Hold up.”

He waited patiently while she did a deeper scan.

“Nothing,” she said after a minute. “It was set off by some metallic content in the rocks, I think.”

Dorian, Indigo thought, moved like the cat he was. All fluid and graceful. She’d have pegged him for a leopard even if she hadn’t known his changeling affiliation. Hamilton, the leopard she’d dated a couple of times a few months back, had moved with that same feline grace.

Sexy . . . except that it wasn’t for Indigo.

Of course, in human form, Dorian was also ridiculously attractive with his white-blond hair and eyes of electric blue. In the sharp mountain sunlight, his hair burned with pure white fire, drawing the eye. Hamilton, too, had made every female head turn when they’d gone out together in public.

Indigo had appreciated the visual impact—the same way she appreciated Hawke and Riaz. Her lungs had functioned just fine, her heart continuing to beat in a steady rhythm even when Hamilton kissed her. She’d allowed the caress, allowed him to slide his hand to her nape and hold her in place as he explored her mouth—because she’d wanted to know if there was any chance of chemistry. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

In comparison, Drew only had to—

“Earth to Lieutenant Legs.”

Indigo snapped her attention to Dorian. “You pick up something, Blondie?”

“Not sure.” A feline smile that made her instincts prickle in warning even before he said, “Is that a love bite I see on your neck?”

She wasn’t gullible enough to fall for that. “I know that’s a great big bunch of baloney I see on your face.”

The leopard male laughed, utterly unashamed of his blatant fishing as he returned his attention to the scanner. “I was trying for subtle.”

“Uh-huh.” Needing to burn off this restless energy, she looked at him. “Can you keep an eye around you while you scan?” He was one of the strongest cats in DarkRiver, and he trained in hand-to-hand combat with a former assassin—she was pretty sure there were very few things Dorian couldn’t handle.

He gave her a curious look. “Sure. You going somewhere?”

“I want to do a bit of a scout around—might see evidence of places being dug up.”

Dorian didn’t tell her that was a crapshoot, simply nodded. “Hey, Indigo.”

“What?”

“You can run,” Dorian said in a neutral tone that did nothing to lessen the intensity of his expression, “but sooner or later, you run out of places to run to.”

Already loping up the slight incline to her right, she didn’t answer. But his words circled around and around in her head as she sliced through the cold mountain air. Was that what she was doing? Running? It made her wolf shake its head in violent rejection; she’d always stood her ground, taken the hits as they came. Dorian was talking out of his ass. He was a cat, so really, why was she surprised?

That kept her going for a few more minutes, until her practical nature pointed out that it wasn’t the cat she was mad at. It was Drew. She’d seen that look, seen the way his hackles had risen when she’d given him the assignment. Though, to his credit, he’d kept his mouth shut. “Not too much credit, though,” she muttered under her breath. Because the fact was, he was a dominant predatory changeling male. The words “possessive,” “protective,” and “annoying” were indelibly etched into his profile.

Just as independence, control, and stubbornness were etched into hers.

There.

She was almost fifty meters away in the time it took her to realize what she’d seen. Stopping, she circled back to the clearing that bore several patches of spring green grass that were starting to brown—where the blades had been crushed . . . as if by the tread of heavy boots. She could see nothing that indicated a device might’ve been buried there, but she didn’t like the look of the place. Trusting her instincts, she marked the location in her mind, then ran back to get Dorian.

It took him less than ten seconds to find the transmitter. “Been here awhile,” he said as they began to dig using their claws. “Grass has grown up over it.”

“But these patches of crushed grass say the Psy returned recently, maybe to check up on it.” Narrow eyed, she felt her claw tap the edge of the device. “There.”

“Rusted a little, but otherwise in good condition,” Dorian said after they unearthed it, “and identical to the other one we found.” His gaze met hers. “What the hell are they planning?”

They met back at the starting point an hour later. Drew and Brenna had come up empty, but with the second device Indigo had found, they now had a better idea of how to structure the search radius.

“These objects can’t go anywhere near the den,” Indigo said. They’d spent too much time and effort hiding the exact location of the pack’s true home to give it away so easily. “Can you deactivate them?”

Brenna conferred with Dorian, then nodded. “No problem. Like I said, they’re fairly basic at the tech level. To be safe, I won’t even take the components down, but do all the work up here—the one Silvia found was a husk, so we’re safe on that front.”

Drew rubbed at his jaw, his eyes narrowed. “I don’t think we should deactivate them, not yet.”