PLAY OF PASSION

Shoshanna put down the incident report. “Your unit failed.”


“Yes.” The only positive news was that the highly intelligent man who’d organized the operation had made it out alive. “We won’t get another chance. They’re continuing to dismantle the surveillance and they’ve further strengthened their security.”

“You should have hit the wolf alpha in the city.”

Henry wondered if his wife thought she was in charge of their “partnership” again. But he said nothing on that point. Let Shoshanna lull herself into a false sense of superiority. It would, in the end, make her easier to kill. “Such an operation would not have fit in with our long-range plan.”

As that plan included taking the city and its resources as cleanly as possible, Shoshanna had to agree with her husband. “The others?”

“My men were ordered to eliminate the DarkRiver alpha, but as our surveillance efforts were focused on the wolves, they could not get to him. It appears he spends most of his time away from the city at present.”

“Protecting his unborn child,” Shoshanna said. “A child that should not exist.”

“Be that as it may, we’ve tipped our hand and they are now all on high alert.” Henry’s head gleamed mahogany dark under the lights as he rose to his feet. “It may be time to change the long-range plan.”

Shoshanna wasn’t Henry’s wife except in the legal sense, but she’d worked with him long enough to comprehend his meaning. “You want to sacrifice San Francisco.”

Henry turned from the window. “It will cause economic chaos on a mass scale, but that can be managed once we remove the roots of the trouble.”

Shoshanna considered their options. An all-out war would have a serious impact on the world, including on the businesses that had backed the Scotts to date, but by the same token, a clean strike would eliminate ninety percent of the problem. “How strong is your army?”

“Give me two more months.”

And then, Shoshanna thought, San Francisco would burn.





CHAPTER 46


Indigo sat in the curve of her father’s arm on the edge of the White Zone forty-eight hours after the shooting. She hadn’t wanted to leave Drew even for an instant, but Lara had pulled in Hawke, and her alpha had ordered Indigo to take a break or he’d carry her out.

“I’d decided on him,” she told her father. “My wolf had decided on him, but he didn’t know.” There had been too many people around before he went up for his security shift, and she’d wanted it to be a special, private moment. “I was going to tell him when he got home, but—”

Her father stroked a big hand over her hair, slow and easy. “Do you think he didn’t know when the bond snapped into place?”

“I just keep thinking if I’d accepted the bond earlier, I could’ve—”

“You held him,” her father said, his voice stern. “That’s all a mate can do in that situation. You did it. You’re still doing it.”

“Drew’s in my heart. So deep,” she said, “until the thought of losing him feels like razors cutting across my soul.”

“It’s who we are, pumpkin.”

She knew the childhood nickname was meant to make her smile. Nothing could. But she accepted the comfort of his hold. “All this time, this was what I was so scared of—of loving someone this much and losing them.”

Abel brushed her hair off her face. “You were always going to love with all your soul, sweetheart. You’re built that way.”

“So is he,” she whispered. “There’s so much love in him, Dad.” The mating bond showed her a depth of feeling, of heart, even greater than she’d imagined. He was someone special, Andrew Liam Kincaid, and he was hers. “I wish you could see him as I do.”

“That would be against the laws of nature,” Abel said in a somber tone. “I have to be able to kick his ass if necessary—therefore, I must see him as the filthy bastard who dared hurt my daughter by getting himself shot.”

“Are you threatening my mortally wounded mate?”

Her father pressed a kiss to her temple. “I’ll hold off until he’s healthy.”

About to respond, she caught a gentle scent as familiar to her as her own. “Evie’s here.”

“Of course she is.”

Her sister’s embrace almost brought moisture to Indigo’s eyes, but she swallowed back the tears. She would not cry. To do so would be a surrender. And she refused to give Drew up.

Having just spent an hour beside Drew’s motionless form, Hawke pressed his palms to the wall outside the infirmary, wanting to do some damage, find his revenge, but knowing that even if he was able to get his hands around Councilor Henry Scott’s neck right this instant, it wouldn’t help Drew.

Logic didn’t matter to his wolf. It was enraged and—

A scent. Rich and exotic. Sandpaper across his skin.

He stayed still, hoping like hell she’d pass by.