CARESSED BY ICE

“Should I tell you this is none of your business?”


She hugged him harder. “It is, too.” As her alpha, he belonged to her as much as the pack belonged to him. “I want you to be happy and I don’t think you are.” Maybe because she was hurting so badly herself. The idea of a life without Judd was a nightmare.

Hawke didn’t respond for a long time. “She was two years old when we met. I was seven. I knew she was my best friend straight away. As I got older, I also knew she would grow up to become my mate.”

Brenna didn’t want him to continue, a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach—she knew what had happened to SnowDancer two decades ago, the bloodshed, the loss. She held on to Hawke, held on hard, trying to anchor him with the bonds of Pack.

“She fit me in a way no one else ever will. And she died when she was five and I was ten.”

A single tear rolled down her face. She wished anything that she could turn back time and save that life, because mating was a one-shot deal. Though Hawke had been too young for the bond to actually materialize, he had found the woman who was meant for him. That didn’t happen twice. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’ve learned to live with it.” He nuzzled the top of her head with his chin. “But you don’t have to. If you’ve mated with Judd, you won’t get any shit from me.”

She couldn’t admit to him that she felt only a dull emptiness where the mating bond should’ve been. It wasn’t fair—she loved Judd. Why didn’t her wolf recognize him as her mate? Taking a deep breath, she pulled out of Hawke’s hold. “I won’t tell anyone.”

He used a thumb to wipe the tear off her face. “I don’t even know why I told you.” He sounded bemused. “You’re dangerous.”

She choked out a laugh. “No. I just have the bad habit of caring for men who can’t seem to care for themselves.”

“Speaking of the damn Psy, where is he? I need him to sit in on a meeting.”

“He’s somewhere close,” she said, knowing her dark angel was watching over her. “Can I ask what the meeting’s about?”

“The cats think they have something on the Psy who hit DawnSky. The hyena leader knew nothing about it—it was a fully Psy raid.” His voice had dropped, become lethal in its quietness. “Goddamn bastards killed children.”

“I hope you rip out their guts while they’re still breathing.”

Hawke’s grin was feral. “That’s why I like you, Bren. You’re more wolf than girl.”





He shouldn’t have used the code. He’d been overconfident. Now Riley was questioning all his top men. Sooner or later, they were going to figure out that he hadn’t been where he was supposed to have been the day Andrew got shot.

It didn’t matter. As long as Brenna wasn’t around to point the finger, they’d never be able to prove that he’d done anything more than break watch without authorization.

No more fucking around. Today, he finished it.





CHAPTER 40


Judd took his position against the wall in the meeting room, impatient to get this over with so he could return to Brenna. Of course he wouldn’t approach her, but he could keep an eye on her from a distance. His well-honed instincts were screaming at him by now, telling him that danger was only a heartbeat away.

If he could, he’d lock her in for safety. But that would kill her as surely as murder.

I’m never going to be put in a box again . . .

No, he couldn’t do that to her.

“We’re live,” Indigo said as the huge comm screen at one end of the room came on. Lucas appeared on-screen, flanked by Dorian and Mercy, much as Indigo and Judd flanked Hawke.

The leopard alpha met Judd’s eyes, raised an eyebrow, then turned to Hawke. “So you finally did something about him. About bloody time.”

Judd shifted to bring Lucas’s attention back to him. “I’d say we came to a mutual understanding.”

It wasn’t Lucas who spoke next but Dorian. “So how does a Psy lieutenant hunt?”

He met the leopard’s bright blue gaze. “Very quietly.”

“So do snipers.” Dorian’s expression was calculating. “We should talk.”

“I might need a sparring partner.” If he succeeded in breaking Silence, physical contact in another arena might serve to blunt the truly dark aspect of his abilities around Brenna. Because no matter what happened, he was what he was. Killing was built into his genes.

“Karate?” Those completely human-seeming eyes brightened in interest.

“Katana.”

“Hot damn. Let’s do it.”

Lucas coughed. “If you two have stopped flirting, we have business to discuss.”

Indigo grinned but stayed silent. Mercy wasn’t so reticent. “So that’s what it takes to get into Dorian’s pants. I’ll let the sentinel-chasers know.” Her packmate’s growl only widened her smirk.

Hawke nodded at Lucas. “You got something?”