Tangle of Need

“What kind of things?”


“Yesterday, he disappeared with my boots and came back with them resoled because he’d noticed they were damaged.” When she’d thanked him, he’d run his knuckles down her cheek and said it was his job to care for her. “I found a shawl in my quarters the other day, soft as air, and the precise color of my eyes.” Golden threads woven into the exquisite blue.

“And he’s always feeding me,” she said, bewildered by the unexpected tenderness. “Cupcakes and homemade pizza and my favorite spaghetti.” Then there was the most wonderful thing of all—the wooden sculptures she kept finding in her pockets. Her favorite was a tiny dragon, its expression fierce, its claws out.

“Protectiveness is part of the package,” Indigo said. “You know that. I’m more dominant than Drew, but he still finds ways to take care of me.” She took the sad bear out, smiled, and kissed its face before tucking it safely back into her pocket.

“I know. I just never expected Riaz to be like that with me.” She didn’t have to explain why, didn’t want to speak of the unknown woman who was Riaz’s mate.

Twisting, Indigo looked up at her. “I get why you’re hesitant. I guess the question is, do you think you’d be happier without him?”

“I can’t bear to think of being without him.” The hurt was bone deep … and that was her answer.

Coming down to sit beside Indigo, she said, “It’s no use trying to keep a physical distance between us, is there? When I already belong to him here.” She rubbed a fisted hand over her heart, knowing that regardless of how much it terrified her to trust her love to a man whose own would never belong to her, keeping it stifled did an injustice both to herself and to the lone wolf who had made her feel so cherished. “I have to have the courage to love him without conditions.”





Chapter 52


VASQUEZ WENT OVER the most recent report cataloguing the acts of attempted sabotage on SnowDancer land. The incidents had dropped off markedly in the past two weeks, and none had caused the wolves any problems, but planning and carrying them out was keeping the majority of Pure Psy’s remaining forces occupied.

Good, he thought, sending a telepathic message to the ringleader to continue. So long as they were occupied in the pointless task, he could set up the warning “outlier” strike without having to concern himself with anyone getting too curious. No leaks could be permitted. Not now.

Not when the time had finally come.

“There is one problem,” he said to Henry when they met that night. “Though I have a unit ready to move on the secondary targets, I still have only one operative I trust with the primary task.” Making back-to-back strikes impossible, though—and not counting the outlier—he had five complete sets of confirmed locations. “However, I do not recommend waiting. The Net is becoming further infected with those whose conditioning has fractured.”

“You have permission to move as soon as you see an open window,” Henry replied, his broken voice short of breath. “We will succeed, Vasquez.”

“Yes, sir. We will.” No one and nothing had the power to stop them. Not this time.





Chapter 53


TWO DAYS AFTER Adria moved in with him, Riaz was a happy wolf. He loved having her in his space, loved that her scent was everywhere—and that his was all over every perfect inch of her. And he was definitely smug about the fact that though their request for quarters in the couples section hadn’t yet gone through, she hadn’t made any noises about his room being too small for the both of them.

Wiping the smile off his face since it totally destroyed his hard-ass rep, he put through a call to Bowen, needing to talk through some final details about SnowDancer’s permanent liaison arrangement with the Alliance. The security chief asked him to organize clearance for the liaison to fly to San Francisco for a sit-down discussion within the next few days. “I think I have the perfect candidate, but I want to discuss her with Lily. She’s taken over Human Resources, knows our people inside out.”

“Hold on.” Switching lines, Riaz made a quick call to his counterpart in DarkRiver—Nathan—and got the clearance, the city very much leopard territory. Back on the line with Bo, he said, “You’ve got permission,” then set out the conditions—basically dealing with how much freedom of movement the liaison would be permitted. “You coming along?”

“I’ll try. Depends on the security situation.”

“Any further aggression from Tatiana?”

“Nothing obvious. Covert surveillance is likely.” A beep in the background. “That’s my cell phone. I better get it—link up with you later in the week to confirm flight details.”

Hanging up, Riaz swung by Indigo’s office to discuss a personnel matter. The other lieutenant gave him a considering look across her desk after they were done. “Adria told me about the rose petals.”