Kiss of Snow

As Kieran stalked away, Walker looked at the crumpled flowers in his grasp and considered why he’d felt compelled to keep the other man from getting anywhere near Lara. Kieran had only been trying to look after her in his own way. Except, Walker realized, he didn’t want anyone else looking after the SnowDancer healer. Bringing her dinner when she worked late, making sure she got enough sleep, holding her when she cried, those were Walker’s responsibilities.

. . . you don’t have any other rights—you didn’t want them . . . They belong to the man with whom I’ll build a life, have children.

She’d been furious the night she’d thrown those words at him but that made them no less true. So . . . either he backed off right now, or he asked for the rights he’d once rejected. There was no guarantee she’d say yes. In fact, there was a high chance she would refuse, having moved on in her personal life.

His hands clenched around the already bruised stems in his grasp.





HAWKE growled at Matthias as he sensed Sienna disappearing down the corridor. “Get the hell out of my way,” he said to the big lieutenant.

Matthias folded those arms, which were the size of small tree trunks, and sighed. “I’m only looking out for your dignity. Chasing women down the corridors is not done.”

“I’ll chase whomever I want.” But the wolf’s temper was retreating.

Matthias grinned. “Pretty little thing, your Psy. And fast. What’d she do to get you in a hunting kind of mood?”

“None of your business.” Scowling, he jerked his head toward the office. “Since you refuse to leave.”

Matthias ambled in. “Nice to be here, even under these circumstances.”

“Your team?”

“Primed and ready to go.” Matthias raised an eyebrow at the mess on Hawke’s desk but didn’t comment. “They know den territory, but I’ve got them doing a run to refamiliarize themselves.”

“Good. Make sure they don’t overdo it—I have a feeling the shit is going to hit the fan sooner rather than later, and I want them rested.”

“I’ve told them an hour, no more.” Smoothing out a wrinkled map after picking it up off the floor, Matthias put it on Hawke’s desk with pointed care. “Alexei says his snipers are ready if we can set them in position ahead of time. They’re not trained to get themselves through enemy fire yet.”

Hawke nodded. “Riaz can handle that.” The lieutenant was an excellent sharpshooter.

“Have you made a decision about the den?” Matthias asked, his expression now devoid of any humor.

“It can’t fall.” Even if SnowDancer survived, seeing the enemy in their home would savage them. “We blow it up if necessary.”

“I’m not going to argue. No one will.”

“Yeah, but let’s make sure it doesn’t come to that by kicking their asses.”

As it happened, things didn’t go quite as expected.

“Some kind of viral infection,” Judd said to him the next day. “Eighty percent of the troops in the Pure Psy compound are down. From the medical chatter the techs were able to intercept, it looks like the bug’s going to lay them out for three, maybe four days.”

“Confirmed?”

“Yes. Henry’s not playing us.”

“We could hit the compound now,” Indigo said when he pulled his lieutenants—and Drew—together for a meeting. “Force Henry to move.”

“Yeah, but we still haven’t discovered the weapons cache in the city,” Riaz pointed out. “This could be our chance. Henry’s people might get sloppy because of the delay.”

“If we don’t find that cache,” Judd said, “and they strike, what they have in there could give them a decisive advantage.”

In the end, it was decided that since eliminating the compound now as opposed to later didn’t give either pack any tactical advantage, they’d hold off and spend the extra time intensifying the search for the weapons. “If we do locate the cache,” Riaz said, “the teams need to know not to let on.”

Alexei was the first to catch Riaz’s meaning. “If Henry doesn’t realize the warehouse has been compromised, he won’t hesitate to launch the assault even after he loses the Pure Psy compound.”

“Yes,” Judd said. “Riaz is right. Henry and his supporters won’t mobilize if he feels they’re at too much of a disadvantage.”

That was not an option they wanted Henry to consider, because fact was, the packs couldn’t remain at “red” status forever. It would wear out their people, leave them vulnerable when the assault did come.

“I’ll brief our teams and the Rats, too,” Indigo said, then glanced at Judd. “I meant to ask—can Tks ’port in with bombs?”

“Components, yes. Functional bombs, no. They’re too unstable and tend to go off during the teleport.”

“The vulnerable,” Jem said to Hawke after Judd finished speaking. “You still planning to wait to evacuate them?”

Hawke nodded. “Less chance of Henry discovering their location and changing the focus of his attack.”

“I’ve been talking with Mercy,” Riley said as Jem nodded, “and we both realized that there’s a last-ditch alternative if something goes wrong and we can’t get the children and elders a good distance away.” He pulled up a holographic map that showed the abandoned subway tunnels beneath San Francisco. “We get them down to the city—Rats will make sure the enemy never finds them.”