Play of Passion

CHAPTER 43

Early the next morning, her heart smiling at the way she’d woken to find Drew sprawled all over her—and the bed—Indigo sat beside Joshua on the pebbled shore of the lake nearest the den.

The search for the cameras was ongoing in the mountains, with different men and women being rotated in each day, but she and Hawke had both agreed she needed to continue to work with their young. They didn’t want to lose all the progress they’d made to date.

“So?” she asked the boy beside her, examining his expression, his posture, for any hint that he continued to have problems with his wolf.

A quick smile. “I’m doing better. Hawke’s been keeping an eye on me, too.”

“Good.” Indigo’s wolf looked out at the boy, made a judgment. “Your wolf is still very near the surface.”

“Yeah, but Hawke said it’s like that for some of us.”

“He should know.” Hawke’s own wolf was difficult to spot, because his eyes never changed color—which, of course, was an answer in itself. “But he can control it. Has he been teaching you to handle your wolf when it gets pushy?”

Joshua nodded. “The things you’ve been teaching me—about focus and discipline—that’s helping as well. I think I’m coming to an understanding with my wolf.”

That made Indigo relax, because the boy was talking of his wolf as a partner, not a combatant. “I hear you’re seeing Molly,” she said, having made a few discreet inquiries after Drew hinted at it this morning.

Joshua’s eyes went wide right before a hot flush burned across his cheekbones. “Jesus, Indigo, do you have spies everywhere?”

“Yep.” Laughing at his embarrassment, she reached out to ruffle his hair. “She’s good for you, puppy. And too good for you.”

He bore the affection in silence but shot her a pleased look. “I know, but I’m keeping her anyway.” Such a smug expression, she couldn’t decide whether to laugh or growl. “She’s much more mature than I am,” he said bluntly, “so calm and easy with her wolf.”

Surprised at his insight, she looked at him. “That doesn’t bother you?”

“No.” His shoulders were relaxed, his lips curved. “My wolf wants to please hers so much, it behaves . . . and I think we’re both learning and becoming better from it.”

It was such an astute comment that Indigo was silent for a while. Because she, too, understood about learning from another wolf.

“So,” Joshua said into the silence, “are you and Drew going to mate?”

Indigo’s wolf flexed its claws. “Why exactly,” she said, looking at the boy who was very much her subordinate, “do you feel you have the right to ask me that question?”

Joshua winced at her tone. “Um, never mind. I’ll just go get a clue now.”

Her wolf resheathed its claws. “Don’t forget your session tomorrow.”

“I won’t.” A pause as he got to his feet. “And Indigo . . . thanks.”

Indigo sat there staring at the water long after he left. Mate. She knew Drew was it for her, but the idea of taking that final step . . . it made her breath catch in her throat, her wolf pace from side to side within her mind.

“Indigo!”

Startled, she looked up to see Mercy scrambling down the bank. Dressed in a white peasant blouse embroidered with red roses around the deep neckline and faded jeans, the DarkRiver sentinel’s freckles glowed against her creamy skin. Her red hair, in contrast, appeared lighter, shot with strands of blonde.

“When did you get back?” Indigo cried, rising to her feet and grabbing Mercy in a hug as the other woman reached the edge of the lake. Odd as it was, Mercy had somehow become one of her closest friends—and even odder, the feeling seemed to be mutual. They were both the lone high-ranking female dominants in a group of men in this area, and it was damn nice to have someone to talk to who understood the unique issues they had to face.

Drawing back from the hug, Mercy said, “Just now. Riley’s talking with Drew and Hawke, but I caught your scent and decided to follow you down here.”

“Want to sit?”

Nodding, Mercy took a seat on the pebbles beside her, her gaze on the tranquil surface of the lake. “It’s good to be home.”

Indigo shot her a glance. “Do you think of SnowDancer territory as home, too?”

“Anywhere Riley is,” Mercy said simply. “We stopped in at my parents’, too, on the way up. Oh, and the DarkRiver building—Dorian would’ve never forgiven me otherwise.”

Indigo laughed and asked a question she’d always wondered about. “Why did you and Dorian never . . . you know?”

“God, it would’ve been like sleeping with one of my brothers.” Mercy shuddered. “But hey, I’m not the one with all the hot news. You and Drew, huh? Riley told me he scented the mating dance.”

Indigo blew out a breath, tried to keep her words light in spite of the chaos of emotion within her. “I don’t know how it happened. He just sort of snuck up on me.”

Mercy patted her on the shoulder. “He’s got sneaky down pat. But”—a pause—“there’s a damn powerful heart in there, Indigo.”

“I know.” Swallowing, she glanced at Mercy’s suddenly solemn face. “I’m afraid, Mercy,” she said, admitting the truth to perhaps the only person who’d truly understand.

Mercy didn’t give her platitudes. Hooking her arms around her raised knees, she nodded. “It’s terrifying,” she said with frank honesty, “when you find yourself facing the one man who you know could cut through your defenses and lay you bare. Our animals don’t like that, don’t even like the idea of it.”

“That scared part of me wants to snarl at him until he decides I’m not worth the effort,” Indigo admitted. “But I know he’d never leave—and that makes me want to take his face in my hands and kiss the hell out of him.”

Mercy snorted. “That sounds like the kind of response Drew would provoke.” A pause, then the leopard sentinel said, “I don’t know if I should point this out, but . . . you do realize he’s not at full strength yet.”

Indigo whipped her head around so fast she got whiplash. “What?”

“Riley told me that Drew has gained in strength, in dominance, every year since he reached adulthood, and he shows no signs of stopping.”

Indigo had known that, vaguely—but she’d never really thought about the implications. “He could end up more dominant than me.” Her wolf sat stunned.

“Yep.” Mercy played with a pebble. “That bother you?”

Indigo opened her mouth to respond, closed it, thought about what she felt. “I’m no stranger to dealing with dominant men—and Drew’s plenty dominant now.” She’d learn and grow, as he would. “We’ll work out our own balance.”

“So you trust him, trust your relationship”—Mercy’s hair lifted in the breeze as she turned to look at Indigo—“but something’s still holding you back.”

“It’s nothing concrete, just . . .” Indigo squeezed her arms around her knees. “It feels like standing on the edge of a cliff, knowing all it’d take is one step to change everything forever.” Terror and excitement and a wild, wild hunger churned within her.

“The thing is,” Mercy said, “it’s so amazing when you give in and fall. If you can fight the panic, if you can fight your animal’s instinctive need to protect you against that kind of vulnerability, the prize is something—” She shook her head, a catch in her voice. “He’s my forever.”

Indigo felt her own eyes burn at the simple truth in that statement. It was as well that she heard male voices that instant. Riley, Drew, and Hawke all appeared out of the forest a moment later and began to make their way down the incline.

Drew was laughing at something Riley had said, his face tilted toward his brother. It was an ordinary moment, on an ordinary day. He was simply being Drew, with his easy smile and his way of teasing that had his brother scowling and Hawke grinning. And she felt the most insane urge to rise up, press her lips to that jaw, and mark him.

Mine, her wolf murmured for the first time, he’s mine.

Having left Indigo soon after his brother and Mercy’s arrival, to go up and spend several hours in the search area—while Indy briefed the honeymooners—Andrew returned home just as daylight was fading to find Brenna haunting the entrance. “What’s up, baby sis?” Hugging her, he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

She squeezed him tight. “I got a message from Judd to say he was back in the city and heading up.”

Moving aside, he stood with her by the entrance. “He too wiped out to do his ‘thing’? ”

Brenna nodded, leaning close enough to rest her cheek against his arm. “He found out some really disturbing stuff.”

Having seen Judd’s earlier reports, Andrew could well believe that. “I’ll wait with you.”

Brenna threw him a teasing look. “Go on, you’re all but salivating to get your paws on Indigo.”

“Hey, I resent that remark.” Leaning over to tug at her hair, he felt the wind shift to bring him a familiar scent. “Isn’t that—”

But Brenna was already gone, running out toward the scent that announced her mate was nearby. His wolf was happy for its sibling, but it wanted its own mate.

Brenna felt the rumble of the vehicle getting closer and guessed that Judd had picked up one of the cars the pack kept in the city. But she didn’t stop running toward him, knowing he’d sense her approach. And he did. The vehicle pulled off to the side of the track as she came around the corner, and her mate stepped out.

“Judd!” She flew into his arms, locking her own around his neck, her face buried in the warmth of his skin. Her wolf batted at his scent, delighted and drunk on the pleasure of his presence. Woman and wolf, they’d both missed him until they couldn’t breathe, though the mating bond had made things easier.

When he kissed the curve of her neck, his arms steel bands around her, she smiled and echoed the caress before pulling back enough that she could look at his face. “Baby, you look exhausted,” she said, noting the deep shadows under his eyes, the gaunt lines of his face. “Are you close to flaming out?” The last time he’d looked this bad, he’d been kicked into unconsciousness soon afterward, his power reserves wiped out.

“Yes,” Judd said, ducking his head as if he expected a severe talking-to.

“You need rest.” She’d yell at him later for not taking better care of himself. “Get back in the car and let me drive us home.”

“Bossy.”

She frowned at him when he refused to release her. “Someone has to be or you’ll run yourself into the ground.” Then, unable to resist, she cupped his face in her hands, his unshaven jaw rasping against her palms, and kissed him . . . and kissed him. Phantom fingers stroked intimately between her legs in time to the thrust of his tongue in her mouth and she gasped. “Stop that,” she said. “You’re running on empty as it is.”

He used his telekinesis to caress her once more before the sensation faded. “Unfortunately, you’re right. I can feel my brain shutting down.”

That decided it. She bullied her much bigger and stronger mate into the car and took them home. He insisted on a shower, but she made sure it was a quick one, pulling back the sheets so he could fall facedown on the futon after doing a haphazard job of drying himself. Picking up the towel he’d dropped on the floor, she rubbed it over his hair as he turned his face sideways on the pillow, his strong body sprawled naked across the bedding.

Her own body shimmered with flame at the temptation of him, and she couldn’t resist running the towel slowly over the sweep of his back and lower, patting him dry with loving motions. “Sleep,” she murmured, kissing the soft skin behind his ear. “I’ve got plans for you when you wake.”

“Stay.” It was an almost soundless request as sleep sucked him under, but she had no intention of doing anything else. Shucking off her clothes after putting away the towel, she crawled into bed beside her mate. Though he was lost in deepest sleep by then, he reached out and hauled her against the heat of his body.

For the first time since he’d left the den, she closed her eyes and fell into true, deep sleep.

Andrew had managed to corner Indigo in her office and was demanding a kiss in exchange for the little fossil he’d picked up for her when her cell phone started beeping in what he knew as the emergency code. He stood back as she took the call.

“What is it?” he asked after she hung up.

“Signs of Psy incursion in an entirely different location from where we’ve got most of our people,” Indigo said, leaving the office at a jog. “Equipment, scent of explosives.”

“Can we redirect our soldiers to that area?” he asked as he went with her to find Hawke.

She shook her head, told him the position of the site. “The terrain means we have a better chance of reaching it faster from here.” They walked into a small training room to find Hawke sparring hand to hand with a sweating Harley.

Dismissing the boy when he saw Indigo, Hawke came to join them. His wolf was in his voice by the time Indigo finished speaking, but his orders were cool, intelligent. “Prep a team. We won’t let them push us into responding half-assed, but neither are we going to sit back while they play games.”

“It’s a trap,” Indigo said, voicing what Andrew was thinking. “No question about it. They probably chose that location because they still have cameras there. They’ll be able to confirm if you’re with us before they strike.”

“Are you asking me to stay behind?” A soft question.

Andrew stepped up beside Indigo. “They can’t assassinate you if you’re not there.”

“How do you think the pack will take the knowledge that I sat here safe while my people walked into danger?”

Shit. Andrew looked at Indigo, saw the same realization on her face. Hawke’s lack of participation would do as much damage as his being hurt.

After that, it took only twenty minutes to put together a team. Indigo, Andrew, D’Arn, Riaz, and six other soldiers would go with Hawke, while Riley would organize a team to protect the den just in case. “Where’s Judd?” Riley asked.

“Down,” Indigo answered, “but that’s as well. We can’t risk exposing him—not unless it’s absolutely necessary.” As far as the rest of the world—especially the PsyNet—was concerned, the entire Lauren family was long dead.

Riley gave a swift nod. “I’ve let Mercy know what’s happening. She’ll get the word out to the cats that there might be trouble in the city, too.”

Grabbing high-powered weapons, they streamed out of the den and toward the area that looked to be the focal point of activity. The three SnowDancer sentries who’d detected the intrusion were already in position.

But the Psy had learned from their earlier mistakes when coming up against keen changeling senses. They teleported in just as the changeling group began to crest a rise at least a ten-minute walk from the site of the reported incursion.

The black-garbed men were shooting with high-impact projectile weapons as they appeared, the bullets designed to hit hard and splinter inside the body, ensuring the shrapnel would ricochet within walls of flesh, causing severe organ damage.

The SnowDancer group was directly in the line of fire.