CARESSED BY ICE

“Wait.” Skirting the debris, she went to a window.

“Don’t enter,” Judd warned. “We haven’t checked it for explosives.”

She gave him an evil look and, pushing up the window from the outside—after ensuring that it wasn’t rigged to blow—reached in to pull open a drawer. The small kitchen towel was in her hand a second later. “Here.”

“Thank you.” Using the soft cloth, he picked up something she couldn’t see.

“What is it?” she snapped more than said.

“A trigger. Unfortunately very generic.”

“Maybe the techs can get something off it.” SnowDancers made it their business to keep on top of new technology so they could beat the Psy at their own game. She used to help with the technical stuff . . . before.

“Oh,” Judd murmured, “I think there’s no maybe about it.” He rose, the trigger in hand.

“You think it was planted?” She caught the scent of Pack in the wind. “Packmates incoming—they must’ve been in the area, to get here so fast.”

“I sent Hawke a message this morning stating I’d detected signs of unauthorized access and suggesting it might be wise to inspect the border sections adjoining my watch.”

Wolves began pouring out of the forest. She recognized Riley and Andrew. Shit.





CHAPTER 16


Brenna averted her eyes as her brothers shifted, having no desire to see them in the raw.

“I’m going to kill you” were the first words out of Andrew’s mouth. “What the hell do you think you’re doing with my sister?”

“Later.” Hawke’s authoritative voice.

Brenna looked up and found him standing across from Judd. He was dressed and in human form, having apparently run that way while the others had gone wolf. It was an indication of his strength, part of what made him alpha.

“You made good time,” Judd commented to Hawke, then held out the trigger. “I have a feeling you’ll find some prints on this. Convenient ones.”

“You mean like this?” Riley’s voice.

“What is it?” Brenna asked, still not looking. Of course she’d seen others naked after a shift—it was normal. But these were her brothers.

“A sweatshirt,” Judd told her.

“A sweatshirt that smells like leopard.” Riley again. “The whole area reeks of cat.”

The silence that fell after his words was ominous. DarkRiver and SnowDancer had been business allies for over a decade but their alliance had turned into a blood bond mere months ago. Trust was a dicey thing.

Hawke’s face was grim as he glanced at the damning piece of evidence. “If Lucas’s people had been behind this, they would have done a better job of cleaning up. I can smell another signature below the leopard markers.”

The others frowned and Brenna saw several pairs of eyes widen in puzzlement as they tried to sort through the scent layers to identify the vaguely “sweaty” taint of something that shouldn’t have been there.

“It was a pack of hyenas,” Brenna said into the quiet.

Everyone stared. Chief among their reaction was disbelief.

“Those scavengers?” Drew said at last. “You sure?”

Scowling, she rounded on him, keeping her eyes firmly above his neck. Her brother, like most changelings, was totally comfortable nude. It was her reaction that was unnatural. She knew that. She just didn’t want to examine the reason why . . . was scared to discover what else Enrique had mutilated inside of her. “I didn’t lose my nose during the abduction, only half my mind.”

Andrew winced. “Christ, you’re mean when you’re pissed. But can you blame me? Hyenas don’t go near anything that might bite back.”

“We need to talk,” Judd said to Hawke.

The alpha gave a sharp nod. “I want everyone except Riley, Drew, and Indigo to start running a search perimeter. Try to pick up the hyenas’ trail. I’ll make a few calls—we might get lucky if the eagles were in the area.”

“Eagles?” Brenna looked up as if she might see some. “How many?”

“A small flight. They’re here to attend a human wedding.”

Clearly they’d made sure to ask permission from Hawke before setting foot or taking wing in the area under SnowDancer control. Otherwise, they would’ve been labeled enemies and taken out. A harsh law, but one that allowed stability in the agressive world of predatory changelings. Without it, the carnage that had been the eighteenth century’s Territorial Wars would never have ended.

Hawke looked at his soldiers. “Go.”

For a stunning few seconds, the world shimmered with a thousand brilliant colors as the soldiers shifted. Then wolves dashed off in all directions, their paws flying swift and silent over the snow. Brenna’s entire body went immobile as she watched them move, so strong, so beautiful. Envy was a hateful buzz in her head, one that had the power to turn her bitter and full of spite—Enrique might not have killed her, but he’d succeeded in crippling her.