Respectfully requested,
Garth
“Whoa. ,” Sasha murmured as the message
disappeared and the arrow flamed. “Garth sent a missive behind Sir Rodney’s
back—about his ex-wife the ice queen. who is at the Sidhe as we
speak—on the run from Vampires?” Sasha dragged her fingers through her hair and
looked out into the distance, thinking for a moment. “What the hell happened in
the coupla months we were gone on vacation?”
Hunter just stared at her for a moment, taking in how
her gorgeous gray eyes reflected the moonlight and the way her dark, tousled
tresses hung about her shoulders. His gaze swept her full, kiss-punished mouth
and he unconsciously wet his lips with the tip of his tongue as his eyes slowly
followed the length of her throat, over her fragile collarbone, to linger at
her pendulous breasts. His palms ached with the need to touch her there, to
feel her lithe torso beneath his and to feel the gentle swell of her hips in
his hands. or the tight lobes of her delicious ass and the way her
long, shapely legs wrapped around his waist to anchor him in deep.
“Hunter—what are we going to do?”
“Huh?”
“Did you read the missive? Do you see what’s going
on?” She shook her head and paced away from him to get her bearings. “You have
to do better than ‘huh?’ Come on.”
He smiled and rubbed his jaw, then flung his long
ponytail over his shoulder with a shrug. “Brain blood loss. It is a gender
condition. Repeat the question.”
“Are you serious?” Sasha opened her mouth for a moment
and then closed it, and suddenly began to laugh. “Oh, my God. We have potential
World War Three about to happen and—”
“How long have you known me?” he asked with a sheepish
grin.
“Long enough to know that you were serious when you
said, ‘Repeat the question,’ ” she said, smiling.
“I read and comprehended that Garth said we should
speak to Rodney in the morning, when cooler heads prevail. Yes?”
“True, but. ”
“Worrying all night serves no purpose and we are too
far away to save him from the queen in his bedchamber, if she is there to
poison him or to do him harm. Yes?”
“Yeah. but—”
“And I am in no condition for war.”
Sasha’s smile broadened. “True.”
“Then, may I make one request?” he murmured, slowly
stalking her.
“Maybe. ,” she said, beginning to laugh. “Depends
on what it is.”
He smiled, now showing wolf canines. “It’s very
simple, I promise you.”
She tilted her head and sidestepped his quick lunge,
taunting him. “What?”
His smile faded and his voice deepened to a sexy
rumble.
“Run.”
“It still feels pretty weird,” Fisher said as he
hauled another crate of equipment into their new makeshift lab.
“Change is always weird, dude,” Winters shot back
without looking at him.
Fisher wiped the perspiration forming on his brow with
a lanky forearm and then dragged his fingers through his damp blond hair after
he set down the heavy load. “Yeah, but for as long as I can remember I’ve been
in the military. I don’t know jack about this entrepreneur crap. Two months out
and I feel like a. well. yeah. like a fish
out of water. Get it?”
“Fisher being a fish out of water, aw, man.
bad pun.” Clarissa shook her head and offered Fisher a reassuring smile. “Me,
Winters, and Bradley have been government contractors for years. Even Doc
Holland has after coming out of uniform. So don’t worry. It’s almost the same
as having a lifetime job, as long as we don’t screw up.”
She pushed her heft out of her chair and went to help
Bradley arrange his dark-arts manuals and ancient texts on the wall-to-ceiling
bookshelves. When she neared him, he brushed her mouth with a casual kiss and
moved a strand of her short blond bob behind her ear.
“When you guys get to be my age, past forty, you learn
to take things in stride and count your blessings.” Bradley allowed his intense
dark gaze to settle on Clarissa for a moment before he glanced over his
shoulder at Fisher. “Like not having to deal with the possibility of coming
under the command of another SOB like Colonel Madison, even though he finally
came around. The next commander you got might not be as forward thinking as
General Westford, you know.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Fisher said, giving
Bradley a mock salute. “But as long as the POTUS likes our unit and is gung ho
about this whole supernatural thing, dickheads like Madison won’t be a
problem.”
“Until there’s a change in administration, and then
it’s a crap shoot again.” Bradley pushed his horn-rimmed glasses up the bridge
of his nose, studying the binding of a text as he spoke. “Like Winters said,
Fish—change is inevitable.”
Winters nodded but didn’t glance up from the computer
he was installing. “It’s gotta be bizarre, though, dude. Like, how long were
you and Woods in the Service?”
Woods smiled and playfully ruffled Winters’s shock of
brunette hair as he passed him, sipping a longneck beer. “As long as you’ve
been in diapers, kid.”
Winters pulled back and then suddenly jumped up to
play-box with Woods, who only responded with one hand, expertly maneuvering
with his brew held mid-air. The matchup was so ridiculous that the other team
members simply shook their heads. Winters was a skinny 150 pounds soaking wet,
and his greatest physical exertion was wielding thumb strength on his computer
games. Whereas Woods had been combat hardened for years, stood a full head
taller than the poor kid, and weighed in at about 180, with less than 5 percent
body fat, not to mention the fact that he owned a quarter compliment of wolf
DNA, like Fisher did.
“Hey, no fair,” Winters finally said, laughing, unable
to land even one blow. “Between Delta Force training and freaking wolf DNA, I
didn’t stand a chance against you—but that’s the only reason. My kung fu, under
normal circumstances, is strong, bro.”
“Yeah, okay. Save it for a hunt.” Woods chuckled and
polished off his beer, then hauled another crate over to the lab tables.
“It’s cool. I got your back, lil’ brother,” Fisher
said, grabbing a beer and heading toward Woods to roughhouse with him. “This
ole country boy’s got a little bit of the wolf thing going on, so—”
“So I wish you gentlemen would stop horsing around in
here with all this expensive equipment,” Doc Holland said, suddenly filling the
doorway. Although deep frown lines wrinkled his dark, leathery face, amusement
played around the edges of his mouth and hid in the gray stubble covering his
cheeks, despite his gruff tone. “There’s over a quarter-million dollars’ worth
of hard-negotiated-for Paranormal Containment Unit government-issued,
breakable
items in this room alone. How would you like it if I started yanking around in
your artillery shed out back? Not to mention the cost that went into restoring
this Spanish-style single and pulling strings to get the zoning, need I go on?”
Bradley offered Doc a half smile. “I told them if they
come near my bookshelves with that nonsense, or knock into my crystal ball,
I’ll hex them.. Perhaps you need a ward for the computers and lab
gear?”
Both Woods and Fisher let go of each other and downed
their beers, laughing as they pounded each other’s fists and pointed at each
other to signify the fight game would resume later.
“Just because we’re no longer in uniform doesn’t mean
all discipline goes out the window,” Doc fussed. “I might take you up on the
ward, though, Bradley.”
“All right, all right, we’ll be outside in the
backyard,” Woods said in a good-natured tone. “All this packing and moving is
making me claustrophobic. Are we done yet?”
“It ain’t the move to this big ole house in the French
Quarter, bro,” Fisher said, turning a beer up to his mouth and waggling his
eyebrows. “The moon was a beaut last night and is even better tonight, feel
me?”
Woods took up a beer from one of the six-packs on the
table and clanked it against Fisher’s. “That she was, brother. and
that she is.”
Doc released a weary sigh. “The guy working in the
basement should be done within the hour. Once we get the alarm system
installed, you gentlemen are off the clock. It’s been quiet lately, but almost
too quiet. so be careful when you head out, all right?”
“Most excellent,” Fisher said, dodging away from
another one of Woods’s quick jabs.
Woods bobbed and weaved away from him, a beer in hand.
“We’ll be reachable by electronic leash—the old cell-phone method—but tonight.
this dog’s gotta hunt.”
“Come on, guys, can I go to the bar with you this
time?” Winters looked from Fisher to Woods with a plaintive expression. “Who
wants to be stuck in here with Brads and ’Rissa? No offense, but you guys are
like sickeningly in love. Or Doc, seriously no offense, but need
I
say
more?”
“Take him with you before I kill him,” Doc muttered.
“I may only be half Shadow Wolf, but sometimes I swear I feel my canines coming
in.”
Winters shrugged. “Sorry, Doc.”
Doc Holland released a long breath. “And note that
he’s Vampire bait alone, so do look after him, if you do take him to those
houses of ill repute you gentlemen frequent.”
“The strip club? We’re really going tonight!” Winters
was up and out of his chair again. “Like, seriously, you’re not just messing
with my mind?”
“Yeah, lil’ bro. We’ll hook you up, but once we get
the ladies to say yes, the rest is on you. You’ve gotta handle your
business—can’t do that for you.” Woods gave Fisher a wink and then turned up
his beer and guzzled it.
“Cool,” Winters said, enthusiastically heading for the
door.
“You guys are off the clock once all this new
equipment is installed and the alarm guy finishes the install,” Doc said
flatly, dampening all enthusiasm in the room. “So the faster you work, the
faster you’re out of here.”
Clarissa shook her head. “There is entirely too much
testosterone in here. I don’t think I can take another month of this. Any idea
when Sasha will be back?”
“You tell me,” Doc grumbled, checking the microscopes
for any signs of damage. “You’re our resident psychic.”
Clarissa smiled. “Yeah, but she left with Hunter,
remember, and right now the moon is full. Some things I don’t want to open my
third eye to see—TMI, ya know.” She dug in her jeans pocket and produced a cell
phone. “But there are some old fallback methods that work just as well.”
“You sure you wanna do this, man?” Bear Shadow leaned
in close to his pack brother and kept his voice low. “You don’t have to do
this, if you don’t want to.”
Crow Shadow pulled away from the huge,
linebacker-sized Shadow Wolf and lifted his chin. “Listen, I don’t need you to
be talking me out of this as my best man. I’m not gonna have my kid not know
his dad. or leave Jennifer ass out to raise a kid all by herself.”
Bear Shadow held two beefy hands up in front of his
chest. “I make no judgments. It just seems hasty. Hunter doesn’t know. Silver
Hawk doesn’t know, even your sister, Sasha, doesn’t know. and
neither does Doc, who would be the last person to have an issue with this,
given he never knew you were made until you were grown. So, if there is no
so-called family problem with this, then why are we standing in Vegas wearing
tuxxes and—”
“Because I need to do this right now, tonight, before
I change my mind,” Crow Shadow said, squeezing his eyes shut. “Are you with me,
brother?”
“Does she know what you are?”
Crow Shadow opened his eyes and stared at his friend
without blinking. “Not. well. not exactly. Like, I
tried to start her off easy, you know. telling her that there’s
genetic differences that our kid is gonna have. But she got all angry with me
and said I was racist.” Crow wiped at the perspiration on his brow and then
laughed sadly. “She said she loves what’s growing inside her no matter what
color it is. But she don’t know the half of it. If I actually show her, she
might have a heart attack. or what if she miscarries or something,
man? Like, who knows what could happen, and if I just tell her, she’ll think
I’m hitting a crack pipe and that’s the real reason I don’t wanna be there for
her and the kid.”
“You do realize that it’s a full moon tonight and
she’s pregnant. and this will be your wedding night.”
“Yeah, I know—that’s why. ” Crow Shadow’s
voice trailed off as sudden awareness slammed into his brain.
“You gotta go easy, that’s all I’m going to say. She’s
a pregnant human female, and I can’t even fathom how you’ll be able to
consummate this.”
“Oh, shit. oh, shit,” Crow Shadow said,
beginning to pace in a tight line back and forth. “I can’t just back out now,
brother. like that would be so fucked up to do to her.”
“Then marry her and deal, but just be easy, man..
I don’t know what else to tell you.”
The two wolves stared at each other for a moment.
“Thanks for having my back, no matter how crazy this
shit is.” Crow Shadow sighed hard and then shrugged. “I just wanted to man up,
you know. I didn’t want to do what a lot of other Shadows have done, leaving a
hybrid kid out there never knowing why it was different, never knowing what its
father was. We were lucky. We got raised by the pack, had the whole clan with
us. I can’t do to my kid what got done to Doc. His old man walked away and left
him out there a half-breed to figure it out on his own. Then my own mom pawned
me off on a full-blooded wolf to make me be accepted as a full-blood, you know.
All that time I thought the man who raised me was actually my dad and he
wasn’t. Even though I understand why my mom did it for my own protection, the
shit was wrong eight ways from Sunday, man, and once I found out I vowed I
wouldn’t be party to anything that foul.. Then this accidental
scenario with Jennifer cropped up, all because I didn’t understand human female
cycles.”