Play of Passion

CHAPTER 47

Indigo touched her lips to Drew’s. They were soft, warm, as if he was simply resting. He’d shifted into human form spontaneously earlier that morning, and they were all hoping that meant he was about to break through the comalike sleep that had held him in thrall. She hated seeing him so quiet, so still.

Drew was never quiet. He was energy and life and mischief.

“Indigo?” Lara asked. “You okay?”

“Yes.” No. “What’s this?” she asked, distracting the healer by gesturing at something on Drew’s bedside table.

“What?”

She held up a small yellow action figure, complete with fangs and claws.

“Ben.” Lara smiled. “He keeps sneaking in here and leaving his soldiers to ‘guard’ Drew.”

“See, Drew,” Indigo said as Lara left to check on Silvia, who was well on the way to recovery, “you have to wake up now. What’s Ben going to play with if he gives you all his soldiers?”

She was brushing Drew’s hair off his face when she caught Riley’s scent. The other lieutenant came in and took his brother’s hand. “How is he?”

Riley always asked her, not Lara. Because he was mated. And he’d almost lost his mate once. “Strong,” Indigo said, “so strong that when I fall asleep, I swear he’s curled up around me.” Sometimes she woke feeling as if she’d been rubbing her face against thick, lustrous fur the shade of silver-birch bark. It comforted her in sleep . . . and caused incredible desolation when she woke.

Meeting her gaze in silent understanding, Riley leaned down to whisper something in Drew’s ear before leaving several minutes later. Brenna had already been by that morning and would likely return again within the hour.

Lara touched Indigo’s shoulder some time afterward. “Come have a cup of coffee.”

Indigo shook her head.

“Fine, then I’m pulling rank,” Lara said in a steely voice. “You will get up right now, sit your ass down at my desk, and eat what I put in front of you.”

Startled, Indigo stared at Lara. “You can only pull rank when a pack member is in danger of harming herself.” In that situation, Lara outranked even Hawke.

Lara poked Indigo in the ribs. “When was the last time you ate?” She didn’t wait for a response. “If you don’t do this voluntarily, I’ll call Hawke and Riaz and have them hog-tie you to a chair. Then I’ll spoon-feed you, and after that, I’ll pump you full of narcotics so that you get at least eight solid hours of rest.”

Indigo’s wolf wanted to snarl, but it loved the pack healer too much. “You play mean, Lara.” Bending down, she pressed her lips to Drew’s. “I’ll be back after I satisfy General Lara.” It was hard to pull herself away, harder still to stuff food down her gullet.

It took her ten minutes—because Lara refused to let her go until she’d finished every bite. “Drew, sweetie, I have some bad news,” Lara said, after Indigo returned to his side. “Your mate’s lost twenty pounds and looks like a fish stick. You’re going to find yourself mated to a skeleton if you don’t open those baby blues.”

Indigo scowled, but her response was lost in a rush of noise as Riley, Brenna, and Judd all returned, along with Hawke and a couple of the teenagers who’d gone up into the mountains with her and Drew. Too many people—but this was how they healed.

By touch. By Pack.

Hawke asked Lara for an update, and the healer began to speak, but Indigo was focused only on Drew . . . and her wolf caught it the instant his breathing changed.

Then she heard the sweetest sound of all.

“Where’s Indy?” It was a groggy question.

A whirl of sounds and scents crashed against Andrew’s senses. He felt Lara’s warm hands on his face, his chest, heard his sister’s cry of welcome, saw Hawke’s distinctive hair glint in the light, but—

There she was.

“Hey.” Memories tumbled into him, pain and anguish . . . and the incredible power of someone holding him to life.

His mate.

She didn’t say a word, just pushed past Lara to crawl into bed beside him, her face buried in his neck. His heart almost stopped. She’d done it in front of everyone, his strong, private, incredibly proud mate. And then he didn’t care, because he could feel damp heat against his skin. “Out,” he snapped.

Everyone left.

“Indy, please don’t cry.” He couldn’t stand it. Indigo was tough to her bones; he’d never seen her cry. “Please, baby, please.”

Her hand clenched on his shoulder, her tears heartbreakingly silent.

He stroked one hand into her hair, a little lost, but determined to give his mate what she needed. “I promise not to get shot again. Twice in one lifetime should be enough to fulfill anyone’s quota.” He kissed the parts of her face he could see, her ear, the corner of her eye. “Baby, you have to stop.”

His wolf was going insane inside him, scratching and clawing in distress. Giving in to the animal—and ignoring the sharp aches and twinges of his body—he shifted to take her mouth in a kiss that was a passionate mix of apology, possession, and sheer tenderness. When he finally allowed her to breathe, her eyes glittered up at him, a bright, brilliant indigo.

Unable to bear the sight of the tear trails that marked her cheeks, he kissed them off. “I’m sorry,” he said against her lips.

“You should be.” A husky reprimand, his Indigo coming back to sparking life. “If you make me go through that again”—her fingers clenching in his hair, holding him close—“so help me, God, I’m going to kick your ass three ways to Sunday.”

He bent his head and let her tell him off, hiding the wolf’s smile against her neck. Because her hands were stroking over his body even as she spoke, her legs locked around him. Sighing because he was home, he closed his eyes and gave in to the demands of his bruised and battered body.

Indigo knew the instant Drew fell asleep, sprawled over her in a big, gorgeous spread of muscled male flesh. Feeling her throat thicken again at the thought of how close she’d come to losing him, she pressed a kiss to his temple and forced herself to unhook her legs from around him, afraid she’d put pressure on his wounds.

“Is it safe to come in?” It was a whisper from the doorway.

Indigo nodded at Lara. “He’s out.”

Lara tiptoed in—though Indigo had a feeling Drew was well and truly down for the count—and ran her hands over his body. “He’s fine.” Relieved words. “His body’s healing the remaining damage at its own pace, and I’m going to let it. It’ll ensure he rests.”

“I’ll make sure he does exactly as you order.” Indigo’s hands tightened in Drew’s hair. “God, but he’s got me good.” It was a heart-shuddering jolt, the rush of emotion she’d finally allowed herself to feel now that he was safe.

Lara hitched herself up to sit on the bed. “We’re all jealous, you know, all the unmated women.” A smile full of the wolf’s laughter. “Not only is he a strong, younger male who’ll probably drive you ragged in bed—”

Indigo’s glare had no effect.

“—he adores the ground you walk on.” The healer placed one hand on the back of Drew’s shoulder in gentle affection. “I’d cut off my right arm to have a man look at me the way Drew looks at you.”

“Sorry, he’s mine.” The sudden, violent need to hold him close, to quench her thirst for him, had her scowling at Lara’s hand.

The healer lifted it off with a grin. “How are you going to get out from under him?”

Indigo tried to shift Drew off a fraction. He grumbled in his sleep and shoved a hand under her T-shirt to cup her breast as he snuggled his face deeper into her neck. Looking up to see Lara trying not to burst out laughing, Indigo felt her own lips twitch. “Maybe you should lock the door on your way out.”

The healer did just that . . . and Indigo decided she’d earned some time off. Hooking one leg carefully over Drew’s uninjured side, she put her arms around the heavy heat of him and let sleep sweep her under.

Indigo left Drew to brief Hawke on an unexpected message Drew discovered on his phone when he rose again and was able to check his messages. As a result, she found herself at a highly secure and private location three days later, about to take part in a meeting none of them could’ve dreamed up, even in their wildest, most insane dreams.

Hawke sat on one side of the table, Riley to his left and a heavily pregnant Sascha Duncan to his right, with her mate, Lucas, next to her. Indigo, DarkRiver sentinels Nathan and Dorian, and a still-healing but stubborn Drew, held up the wall at their back, while Riaz was standing watch outside the meeting room with Mercy by his side.

Across from them sat Councilors Nikita Duncan and Anthony Kyriakus. Nikita had Max Shannon to her right, with Max’s wife, Sophia, sitting beside him; while Anthony had a tall, brown-eyed, brown-skinned young man next to him. Tanique Gray was apparently Anthony’s son and Faith’s half brother, and, from the looks of things, he had chosen to ally himself with his father in adulthood.

Indigo’s job was to protect her alpha, and to that aim, she kept her eyes resolutely on the threat posed by the Councilors. She had, she thought, never brushed against so cold a personality as that of Nikita Duncan. Even Anthony Kyriakus, for all his power, didn’t ruffle her wolf’s fur as badly.

“I suppose someone needs to speak first,” Sascha said, her voice the only sound in the silence.

Nikita Duncan gave a single short nod to acknowledge her daughter’s words. But it was Lucas who spoke next. “We all know why we’re here. This territory belongs—in some part or another—to all of us.”

Nikita looked straight at the DarkRiver alpha. “That territory is now under threat.”

Indigo could sense Hawke exercising savage control to rein in his instinctive and feral dislike of the Councilors. The Council had almost destroyed SnowDancer once, and none of them would ever trust its members again.

“You”—Nikita glanced from Hawke to Lucas—“were both targeted, because your deaths would’ve sent your packs into at least temporary disarray.”

Neither alpha said anything, though they’d figured out that much for themselves.

“Take down SnowDancer and DarkRiver,” Anthony added, his tone measured, calm, “and you crack the city’s defenses.”

Indigo wasn’t fooled by his outwardly mild demeanor. According to SnowDancer’s research, the reclusive Councilor had access to a network of F-Psy stronger than any other. Anthony Kyriakus knew more secrets than anyone else in this room, and she was quite certain the Councilor didn’t hesitate to use those secrets to leverage power when necessary.

Riley broke his silence to say, “Our information is that the Council is at war.” The statement was a test. Judd had already confirmed the rumors. Now, Indigo waited to see what Nikita would say.

Sascha’s mother didn’t even blink as she answered. “Henry, Shoshanna, and possibly Tatiana have decided that Silence must hold at all costs. They seek to eliminate anyone who goes against that rhetoric.”

Riley spoke again, his tone so calm, you’d think they were discussing the watch rotation. “Why share that when the Council prefers to keep its secrets?”

“The reason they’re focusing on this city, this state,” Anthony responded, “is because both Nikita and I call it home, as do the two most powerful changeling packs in the country. Given all that—take this city, and they take the country.”

True, Indigo thought. Because even if Anthony or Nikita survived an attack, Henry and the others, having proven their strength on this battleground, would continue to claim city after city, state after state.

“Why target us at all?” Hawke asked, and Indigo knew his wolf was weighing all the options with cold, hard focus. Part of what made Hawke such a good alpha was that no matter how savage his emotions, both man and wolf never stopped thinking. “What makes them think we’d care one way or another about an internal Psy war?”

Sascha was the one who spoke, her gaze locked to her mother’s. “Because of me, because of Faith.” Quiet words from a woman who’d once been viciously rejected by the Councilor in front of her. “DarkRiver’s emotional connection to us, the pack’s inability to sit by and let our parents die, will have been factored into their calculations.”

“It’s more than that,” Max said as Drew shifted his position a fraction, placing his weight on his other foot.

Indigo moved her body a tiny increment to the left to support him if necessary. A pulse of love came down the mating bond, an affectionate caress that “tasted” of Drew. It was still new, that intimate connection, but it was already so much a part of her life that she couldn’t imagine how she’d existed without it.

Wrapping her mate’s love around herself, she watched Nikita shoot her security chief a cool glance, but the human male shook his head, a grim line to his jaw. “They need all the information,” he said to Nikita. “Otherwise, Hawke will be more than happy to throw us to”—a wry grin—“the wolves.”

Nikita took several seconds to reply. “It appears Mr. Shannon is correct. They are targeting all of us because I am seen as too liberal in my business dealings with you.” Another pause, and then she met her daughter’s eyes. “And because I no longer support the Protocol.”

Quiet, so quiet Indigo could hear the heartbeat of every person in the room.

Even that of the child in Sascha’s womb.