Andrew shifted his body carefully on the narrow ledge so he could get a better angle at Silvia’s back. “I’m worried about her spine, Lara. The way she’s twisted . . . there could be damage if I move her.” In spite of the huge technological advances of the late twenty-first century, spinal injuries continued to be problematic. Most could be healed, but the recovery process was brutal.
Lara’s voice faded a fraction, as if she was speaking to someone else. “I need to go down.”
“I’ll come back up, guide you down,” Andrew said, because even a controlled rappel down this cliff face could prove dangerous for the inexperienced. “I see some footholds. I should be able to climb up unassisted.”
“We’ve got you if you slip.” Indigo’s voice in his ear, calm and steady.
“Thanks.” It took him considerably longer to clear the cliff face than it had to come down. His muscles were screaming by the time he reached the top, but it was a burn he could live with.
Lara was ready to go when he arrived. As the healer took a deep breath and prepared to descend with him all but glued to her, Andrew fought the urge to search for Indigo’s gaze—that particular fight could come later—and stepped back over the edge of the cliff.
It took an hour for Lara to heal Silvia enough for the girl to be safely winched up, another quarter of an hour for Lara to ascend, with Andrew climbing behind her. In the chaos of stripping Lara of her harness and coiling the ropes, he didn’t see Indigo leave, though he assumed she was helping carry the injured girl to the infirmary.
Just as well, he thought, teeth gritted. Putting his rope on the ground, he was coiling Lara’s when Hawke returned. “Jesus Christ, Drew,” his alpha muttered, gathering up the other abandoned gear. “I thought you were good with women.”
Andrew dumped the rope and turned on the other wolf. “I was right. She wasn’t using resources properly.”
Hawke didn’t growl back, simply raised an eyebrow. “That’s not what I said.”
Blowing out a breath, Andrew turned to stare out over the jagged mountainous vista. So fucking beautiful—and so incredibly lethal when the mood took it. The description, he thought, fit his lieutenant to a T. “Then what?”
“You’re telling me you’re still pissed at Indigo?”
Swiveling on his heel, he scowled at his alpha. “Of course I am.”
Hawke shook his head, sleek strands of silver-gold whipping across his face in a sudden wind. Pushing them back, he said, “Then maybe you need to go cool off so your brain can function.”
Andrew bent down and restarted coiling the second rope, his arms scratched and dirty. But he had no patience for the task. Throwing the whole lot onto the ground, he stood up again. “She was taking too long to come to a decision.”
“From what I can tell, it took her maybe fifteen seconds, and it’s her job to weigh up the risks and consider all options in any given situation,” Hawke said, continuing to stack the gear. “If she didn’t think with that kind of calm, you wouldn’t have headed out here with every piece of equipment you needed.”
Andrew stared at his alpha’s back, knowing he was missing something. “What aren’t you saying?”
Hawke shrugged. “You could’ve gotten exactly what you wanted with no problems if you’d gone about it the right way.”
“I’m not going to dance with her on things like this.” Everything else, but not this. “I’ve told her she needs to learn to treat me as what I am.”
“Yeah, because you’re doing such a good job of doing the same with her.” The sarcasm was a razor across his face.
“I—” He paused, felt a chill creep up his spine. “Shit, shit, shit!”
Hawke didn’t say a word until Andrew had gotten himself back under control.
“I overrode her in front of the others.” The reality of what he’d done slammed into him like a body blow. “I forced you to pull rank on her in front of subordinates.” And her pride, Jesus, her pride.
Hawke nodded, lines carved around his mouth. “You should’ve taken her aside, discussed your climbing skill and medical training. Hell, she acted reasonably even after you let your cock control your brain.”
“But I kept pushing until she almost lost control.” Control was everything to Indigo, an essential part of how she saw herself. “Fuck.” Shoving his hands through his hair, he picked up one of the ropes Hawke had coiled, and put it over his arm as Hawke took the other.
“I’ll send Tai back for the rest of the stuff,” his alpha said as they began to walk. “She’s not going to forgive you easily for this. To be quite blunt, I don’t blame her. Anyone tried that with me, we’d be wiping up blood now.”
Andrew remembered how much it had hurt Indigo to witness her aunt’s poisonous relationship, knew exactly the courage it had taken for her to trust in this relationship with him. And still he’d fucked up. “I blew it.” Maybe she’d been having trouble lowering her final barriers, but she’d taken a thousand small steps toward it. This mess was all on him.
Hawke snorted. “Forget about blowing it. You nuked it.”