PLAY OF PASSION

“Yeah.” Holding Platypus in one hand, Drew put his other one on her thigh, his fingers stroking with an affection that she’d long understood was as natural to him as breathing. “You know, part of the way he is, is because of the fact that he all but brought us up, but—”

“—part of it is just Riley,” Indigo completed. “I remember him as a kid, you know. So intense, so focused. If you needed to get something done in the kid circles, you went to either Hawke or Riley. Hawke to lead the trouble, and Riley to make sure we didn’t get caught.”

Drew squeezed her thigh. “I kept Platypus with me all through my childhood,” he said, then gave a self-conscious shrug. “When I turned into a teenager, I hid him in the cupboard, but I used to take him out at night sometimes and talk to him.”

Shifting her hold, she hugged him around the shoulders, putting her face cheek-first against his back. “It was like being with your mom again.”

“Yeah.” Drew stroked the bear’s ragged ears once more. “Riley and Brenna don’t know I still have him.”

Her wolf understood what he was telling her, accepted the gift. “I think he’d look good on top of the dresser,” she murmured, pressing a kiss to his nape. “Don’t you?”

Drew thought about it for a long second before lifting her hand up to his lips and rising to place Platypus in pride of place on the polished wood of his dresser. There was a vulnerability to him she could almost touch—and she knew he was embarrassed by it. Yet still he’d shared so much of his heart. It humbled her, his courage.

And it pushed her to the precipice of accepting the mating bond.

Her remaining hesitation had nothing to do with his youth or dominance. It was far more visceral. Her wolf adored Drew now, but used to control, to protecting itself, it was uneasy at the idea of the total, absolute surrender signified by the mating bond. Yet in spite of that, it found itself compelled to the edge by Drew’s open commitment, by the fearless way he grabbed onto life … onto love.

Andrew could almost taste the mating bond the next morning as he worked beside Indigo to clear the northern edge of their territory of surveillance devices. It was serious work—but he was a wolf. “Hey, Indy,” he said around midmorning, feeling a little raw after the previous night. But because it had been his mate who’d seen him so very vulnerable, he was able to deal.

“No more kisses,” she warned with a scowl that he knew was all pretend. “People are placing bets now on how long till you ambush me again.”

“It’s good for morale.”

Indigo shot him a narrow-eyed look. “You’re right. Sneak.”

“Fringe benefit,” he said. “I just like kissing you.” In front of people. So everyone would know she was his. “But this time I wanted to tell you that you have something in your hair.”

Reaching up, she stroked over and stopped at her hair tie. “What the—” A chocolate kiss sat in her hand.

He waited for her reaction.

Holding his gaze, she peeled away the silver wrapper and closed her lips over it in a way designed to make a certain part of his anatomy throb. “Delicious.” Licking her lips, she pointed south. “Time to work.”

He worked, but by the time Indigo left to return to the den to take one of her classes—they couldn’t afford to be slack on that, especially now—he’d kissed her on the lips five more times and showered her with several hidden candy kisses.

A few were found by gleeful packmates, who solemnly delivered them to Indigo … who just as solemnly accepted each offering. His wolf was pleased with this day’s work.

Tai came up to him after Indigo left. “Teach me,” he demanded.

“What?”

“Courtship. Because, from the smile on Indigo’s face, you’re really good at it.”

Andrew thought of last night, of the power of the emotions that had passed between them. She’d opened her arms to him when he’d returned to the bed, and he’d felt her wolf’s presence in every atom of her being as they lay intertwined. It had been a stunning intimacy, but—“She hasn’t accepted the mating yet.” You could never, ever be certain of a dominant female’s choice until that moment.

“I know I’m only a novice, but I think that’s because female wolves like to run their men ragged.” A scowl. “And because she’s having too much fun playing with you.”

Andrew was still thinking over Tai’s words as he entered his room that night, having spent all day with the search team. They’d discovered only one other camera, but they weren’t going to let up. The bloody things were so small and cunningly camouflaged that they could be easily overlooked.

Frowning, he stopped on the way to the shower.

There was something wrong with the room, but he couldn’t put a finger on it. Shucking his clothes, he washed, then walked out. He still couldn’t figure out what was different … until he went to grab a pair of sweatpants from the dresser.

A laugh escaped him.

Platypus had been given an eye patch embroidered with a skull and crossbones.