Not long afterward
, Andrew stared at his alpha as they stood looking down over a beautiful green valley. “Huh.”
Hawke raised an eyebrow. “Not quite the reaction I was hoping for.”
“Just a little unexpected, that’s all.” He took a moment to think about the proposal. “Why me?”
“Adam likes you,” Hawke said, naming the leader of the WindHaven falcons as he leaned against a large fir, his hair almost pure silver in this light. But it wasn’t a silver that shouted of age—no, it was the silver of precious metals, unique and startling. Especially given the other man’s wolf-pale eyes. “You okay with taking it on?”
Looking away from his alpha, Andrew paced to the edge of the cliff. “Sure. I mean, I’ve got no problem acting as liaison with the falcons, but won’t Adam be talking to you directly on most matters?”
“The big things, yes,” Hawke said. “But, as with DarkRiver, there are going to be matters that don’t need an alpha’s attention, but do need to be looked at by someone senior.”
Andrew nodded. As alpha, Hawke had a thousand things on his plate. Delegation of some responsibility was key not only to his own sanity, but to ensuring the health of his pack; that many strong wolves with nothing to do would be a recipe for disaster. “Why not ask one of the lieutenants?”
“They’ve all got heavy responsibilities already … and we both know you could be a lieutenant if you wanted to be.”
Andrew shook his head. “I couldn’t do what I do if I was.” He needed to be seen as approachable by even their weakest and least confident, not someone who was automatically identified as part of the pack’s power structure.
“It would make your relationship with Indigo easier,” Hawke said, and Andrew knew it was a question.
“No, it wouldn’t. The basic issues would remain.” His age, the fact of her higher dominance. “Out of curiosity—when did I hit your radar as a possible lieutenant?”
“I always knew you had it in you,” Hawke said, surprising him. “That’s why I originally had you stationed as the sector leader in San Diego, and you more than delivered. Your work over the past ten months has only been the icing on the cake. But I’m ruthless when it comes to the pack. You were useful to me exactly where you were.”
“You, ruthless?” Andrew put a hand on his chest, feigning a heart attack.
Hawke’s grin was sharp. “Adam says the liaison on their side will be Jacques.”
“I met him. He’s okay.” A little quiet, but after growing up with Riley, Andrew could deal with that fine. You just had to poke at the quiet ones until they spoke up. “Who’re the cats using as their liaison?” Because Andrew would have to work with him or her.
“Nathan,” Hawke said, naming the most senior of DarkRiver’s sentinels.
“We should probably set up a meeting to nut out some basics.” Pushing his hands into the pockets of his jeans, he rocked back on his heels. “I’ll try and hook us all up for a quick comm-conference when I get back to the den.”
Hawke nodded and pushed off the tree. “I’m going to run up to the northern edge, see how things are going.”
“Any further indications of Psy interference?”
“No. And the techs have found no other buried objects of any kind.” Deep grooves appeared on either side of Hawke’s mouth. “But Judd called with some information last night. He’s heard whispers that suggest Henry Scott wanted—still wants—our land to use as a staging post for an armed takeover of the entire city.”
“Wouldn’t they be too far, physically speaking?” Andrew asked.
“Yes, but evidence indicates they have several teleport-capable telekinetics in their group.”
Andrew thought about it. “Yeah, that could have worked.” SnowDancer land was remote enough that any invading army wouldn’t be immediately noted from the city. “Especially if they’re considering surgical strikes, rather than a full assault.”
“You really need to start sitting in on the lieutenant meetings,” Hawke said. “Since intel is your job.”
Andrew nodded. When he’d first taken on this position, it had only been about keeping a finger on the pulse of the pack, but the network he’d constructed now meant information of all kinds flowed through to him. “I’ll have Indy give me a heads-up before the next one.”
“Good.” Hawke reached down to pet a wild wolf that appeared out of the trees. “Judd found something else, too—looks like Pure Psy has commandeered a remote mountain village to use as its gathering place for arms and supplies, and as a training ground.”
“What’s he recommend?”
“Leaving the operation in place. He says he can keep an eye on them—and it’s better to know where the vipers are hiding.” Hawke’s face was without mercy when he looked up. “That way, we can hit them hard if the Scotts do move to strike against the city, disabling a large part of their strength at a critical time.”
Dismissing the group
of her people that she’d brought outside for a meeting on how best to cover—in the long term—the wider patrol area necessitated by the Psy incursions, Indigo picked up a bracelet that had slipped off someone’s wrist and was about to head back up to the den herself when she caught an unexpected—but not unknown—scent on the wind. Her wolf was already crouching to leap in welcome when Matthias walked into the clearing. Giving a whoop, she flew into his arms, wrapping her legs around his hips.
Not many men could’ve stood firm against the impact of her welcome, but since Matthias was built like a tank, he just caught her, giving her one of those small, quiet smiles that had fooled many a woman into thinking him shy. Half an hour after that and most of those women had probably found themselves sprawled naked under him.
“What’re you doing here?” she asked after giving him an affectionate kiss.
Eyes as dark as mountain skies at midnight met hers as he squeezed the arm he had around her hips. “I’ve been hearing some mighty surprising rumors about you, darling.”
“Is that right?” Arching an eyebrow, she unhooked herself from his body and took enough of a step back that she could look up into his face.
Matthias wasn’t only built like a tank, he was taller than every other male in the pack, coming to something like six feet six. All of which would’ve made him a threatening-looking package but for that amazing face; a haunting mixture of Spain, the Far East, and the warm dark of his mother’s homeland of Tanzania, it had a way of making people forget just how lethal he could be.
But Indigo had known him too long to be bamboozled—and right now, she was very aware of the teasing light in those eyes of liquid night. “And what exactly,” she drawled, “have you been hearing?”
“Something about you setting up house with Riley’s baby brother.”
She knew it was a deliberate dig, meant to get her to give up information, so she plastered an innocent expression on her face. “Really? How interesting.” The hairs on the back of her neck rose at that moment, and she suddenly realized she could scent another male getting ever closer.
“Yeah,” Matthias said even as she was turning on her heel, “so I thought I better come on over and make sure you hadn’t forgotten who you belonged to.”
A growl of rage filled the air an instant before Drew’s body slammed out of the forest and into Matthias’s, taking the male lieutenant down to the ground.
CHAPTER 38
“Fuck,” Indigo muttered
as Matthias retaliated instinctively, one of those massive fists clocking Drew in the ribs.
Shaking off the blow as if he hadn’t even felt it, Drew slammed a punch into Matthias’s face, snapping it back. Matthias snarled and shoved Drew off his chest. Except Drew didn’t budge, crunching another fist into the other man’s jaw. This time, Matthias responded with a similar hit.
Indigo, having watched for a gap, jumped in between the two men as they flowed to their feet. “
Stop!
”
Drew’s eyes were wolf-copper when she looked up at him, and they were focused on Matthias. Who was doing a good job of imitating a wolf in human form. “Get out of my way, Indigo,” the big lieutenant snarled.
Drew’s body vibrated against her palm. “Don’t give her orders!” Reaching as if to pull her behind him, Drew sucked in a breath when she elbowed him sharply in the stomach at the same time that she kicked Matthias in the knee. He was too big to go down, but it did snap his attention to her.
“Enough,” she said, speaking to both of them. “Matthias, I need you to go to the den.”
“Why the fuc—” Matthias froze, blinked, and suddenly he was human again. “Aw, shit.”
Indigo stared at him. “What?” She’d expected to have to deal with his considerable sleeping volcano of a temper … except that it looked like he was going to apologize. “
What?
”
Matthias continued to look at Drew. “I was only kidding, man, you know that. I’d never have said it if I’d known.”
Drew was still growling low in his throat, his eyes that strange, fascinating copper. They tracked Matthias with unrelenting focus as the other man began to back off toward the den, rubbing at his bruised jaw with one hand.
“Matthias,” Indigo snapped. “What—”
Drew gripped the back of her neck, his mouth suddenly at her ear. “Don’t
talk
to him.”
Snarling, she was about to turn her own temper on him when the pieces fell into place with dizzying suddenness. Yes, Drew was dominant. Yes, Drew had a temper—one he was usually very good at hiding. But Drew was also very, very smart. He’d never have come out at a bigger, stronger opponent the way he had unless he’d been driven by something other than logic and reason.
Barely aware of Matthias disappearing into the trees, she put her hand on Drew’s chest. “Andrew,” she said in a calm, rational tone, “let me go or I’ll make spaghetti out of your insides.”
His hand still around her nape, he bent his head until his eyes were staring into hers—dominant, primitive, and devoid of civilized thought. It didn’t surprise her in the least when he growled and sank his teeth into the tender curve where her neck met her shoulder.
Hissing out a breath, she clenched one hand in his hair. Rational obviously was not going to work. In any other situation, her wolf would have gone for blood. But this wasn’t any other situation. This wasn’t any other man.
He’d bent for her more than once.
So today, she bent for him.
Letting her body soften in welcome, she held his head against her while she shoved her free hand under his T-shirt to lie on the heated skin of his back.
Skin privileges
. He didn’t change position for several seconds. When she didn’t move either, except to stroke her hand over his back, he finally released the grip he had on her with his teeth, laving his tongue over the small hurt even as his arms came around her in a much gentler—though no less possessive—hold.
His lips on her neck, over her cheek, on her lips.
She groaned as he demanded she open her mouth, and gave in. Hard and hot and deep, the kiss could have only one conclusion. She didn’t stop him when he ripped away her T-shirt to expose the sports bra she wore underneath, cried out when he broke the kiss to take her right nipple into his mouth through the soft fabric, his hand covering the mound of her neglected breast, fondling and teasing.
He’d never stopped growling low in his throat, but now that growl became more a quiet rumble than a roar. She was ready when he pushed her down to the earth, ready when he lifted his head and kissed her again, ready when his hand stroked and petted her body with rough promise.
What she wasn’t ready for was for him to raise his head and give her a dazed look. “Indy?”
She closed her hands over the taut muscle silk of his shoulders. “It’s okay,” she said, tugging him back down.
But he resisted, shaking his head as he knelt to straddle her body. A blink, and when he looked at her again, his eyes were the blue of Sierra lakes in sunshine once more. “I hurt you.” He touched the bite mark with careful fingers.
She pushed herself up on her elbows, unable to go any farther—he’d trapped her lower body with his own. “Yeah, well, I’ve clawed you more than a few times during sex and you don’t seem to mind.”
“That’s different.” A thunderous scowl.
Once, her response would’ve been anger … but being with Drew had changed something in her, taught her that laughter could be as powerful as fury. “Because it’s okay for you to be a show-off but not me?”
Putting his hands palms down on either side of her, he glowered. “A male doesn’t hurt his mate.”
And there it was. The reason her gorgeous, generous, laughing lover had turned into a crazed beast without warning.
The words seemed to penetrate his mind at the same moment. “We’re in the mating dance.”
They stared at each other for several long minutes. Then Drew began to smile, his eyes shifting from blue to copper and back again. “We’re in the mating dance.”
Falling back onto the earth, she poked him in the chest. “Don’t look so satisfied. Just because we’re in the dance doesn’t mean my wolf will accept the mating itself.” Exhilaration raced through her, along with a healthy dose of panic.
Andrew, able to
think again now that the red haze of jealous rage was no longer clouding his judgment, looked down into those stunning eyes, saw the wolf prowling beyond, and knew he’d have to walk carefully. He’d courted her, played with her, and won her. But now the stakes had changed again, become much, much higher. Because there was no “out” once wolves mated—it was for life.
“Yeah?” he murmured, changing position so that his legs tangled with hers, though he kept his upper body braced on his forearms. “Then maybe I’ll just have to seduce your wolf into it.”
She stroked her hands across his shoulders to curve over his nape. “Why didn’t you know?” she asked, her hold possessive in a way that made his own wolf sing. “The male always knows when the dance begins.”
“That’s why I headed out to see you—I felt it kick in without warning.” It had been a shock to his system, a joy he’d never expected, and he hadn’t even thought about not sharing it with Indigo, whatever the consequences. “Then I reached here and heard what Matthias was saying and smelled your scent mixed with his and …”