Tangle of Need

“Why am I not surprised?”


Toby’s smile shimmered into a deeper, more poignant expression. “It hurts my heart in the best way that you’re so happy.”

“Oh, Toby.” Always, she had loved the brother she hadn’t been permitted to know as a child, but never had she been able to protect him from the psychic price demanded by her gift. “You’re the best kid brother a girl could have.”

I love you, Sienna. He spun her out again, sending her skirts flying.

When he finally relinquished her, it was to another member of her family. Walker’s hold was as calm as Toby’s had been exuberant, his pale green eyes intent. “He’s your mate,” Walker said, the warning clear for all that it was made in a tempered voice, “but if he ever does anything to hurt you, you come to me.”

“Are all men so bloodthirsty?”

“Lara’s father showed me his tools—then we had an illuminating conversation about how easy it would be to cut a person in half using one of the lasers. It was very civilized.”

Sienna stifled a laugh at the idea of gentle Mack threatening Walker, and tipping back her head, looked into a face she’d never seen violent either in anger or in love. That meant nothing. She knew Walker would die for her without blinking, that he loved her so fiercely, some part of her had sensed it even in the darkest part of her Silence.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “For being my father.” In every way that mattered.

Walker’s expression altered only the minutest fraction, but she saw the storm of naked emotion crash across the green before he stroked his hand over her hair and kissed her gently on the forehead. “You make me proud each and every day.”

Tears stung. Swallowing, she hid her face against the wide chest of the man who had always found a way to tell her that she mattered, that she wasn’t just an X but family.

COOPER waited until the dancing had gentled, and he and Riaz were sitting having a couple of quiet beers, before saying, “She’s gone.”

“What?”

“You’re looking for the tall senior soldier with those amazing eyes. Adria, I think.” Cooper shifted the upturned wooden crate he was using as a seat, settling it more securely. “She slipped away with Sam a few minutes ago.”

Riaz’s hand clenched on the bottle. He wanted to deny his raw compulsion toward Adria, but Coop knew him too well, would call him on it. “Enjoying the night?”

“Not even a question.” Dark eyes watched him with relentless patience. “You going to talk about it, or do I have to remind you I’m bigger and stronger?”

“In your dreams.”

Coop tipped back the bottle he held, his throat muscles moving. When he lowered it, he shook his head. “Something’s wrong with you, man. I should’ve picked it up earlier, but Grace scrambled my brains.”

Riaz looked out at where a lushly curved woman with ebony curls and skin like cream was dancing with Alexei, her smile shy. Big, bad Cooper’s mate was a sweet submissive, but she was managing to handle the male lieutenants—all of whom considered it their right to dance with her. “I can see how,” Riaz said, having claimed a dance earlier. “She’s something else, Coop.”

“I know.” The other man’s expression shifted from brutally tender to hard-ass the instant he returned his attention to Riaz. “Adria, she messing with your head?”

“Fuck, man,” Riaz said, finishing off his beer and dangling the bottle between his fingers, “let it go. It’s a night to enjoy yourself.”

Cooper raised an eyebrow. “Who screwed my head on straight when I was courting Grace? I woke you up at two thirty in the fricking morning twice and you didn’t tell me to shut the hell up. So talk—or we’ll be here all night.”

Riaz knew he could stonewall the other lieutenant. He also knew Coop wouldn’t stop battering at that wall until it gave. But he refused to taint the happiness of the other man’s mating with the bitter taste of his pain. “It’s a mess, and it’s a mess I might not ever be ready to talk about.” He held the near black of the other man’s eyes, let him see his resolve. “So I’m asking you to drop it.”

A long silence before Coop got up and grabbed them two more beers, moving with a predatory grace that was unusual given his size—and that made him a hunter no one ever heard coming. “You’re a stubborn asshole.”

“You surprised?”

Snorting, Cooper leaned forward with his forearms braced on his thighs. “Fine. I won’t push—for now.” Open warning. “I see you going downhill, I will come down on you like a ton of bricks. I will not let you go it alone, lone-wolf style.”

“I came home,” Riaz growled. “Not exactly lone-wolfing it.”

“I call bullshit.” Cooper held his gaze, his wolf apparent in the ring of yellow that now encircled his irises. “You fucking pick up the phone when things get too dark, or I swear to God, I will tie you up and ship you to my territory.”