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.
CHAPTER 44
“Down!” Hawke’s call came as he twisted out of the way of a bullet, slamming D’Arn out of the way of another.
No one was hit in the first volley as they used bursts of changeling speed to find cover, but Andrew felt a hard punch across his mind an instant later. His natural mental shield protected him from brain damage, but his ears rang—and he knew the shield wouldn’t protect him if the Psy paused long enough to concentrate the blast of telepathic power.