Tangle of Need

“Sienna.”


Another message along the mating bond, this one with a nuanced depth of emotion. His wolf, unused to defiance, blinked, shook his head. And he realized his mate was reminding him that he wasn’t her alpha, never would be. Gritting his teeth, he snarled. “I hate that rule.” Not the truth, but at times like this, it sure as heck irritated him.

“That’s why we need it.” Sienna leaned across to nip affectionately at his jaw.

From behind them, Toby said, “I like being around you guys. You’re happy deep inside even when you fight.”

Wolf and man in satisfied agreement with Toby, Hawke tangled his hand with Sienna’s, lifting it to his lips and snapping his teeth. Her startled yelp made Toby laugh.

My family.

SEVERAL hours after her breakdown by the waterfall, with the sky turning a post-sunset smoky gray, Adria finally walked into the den. Her throat was so raw her voice sounded akin to a croak when she entered the infirmary. “I need to look and sound human for a meeting at eight.”

Lara’s perceptive gaze saw too much, but the healer didn’t ask prying questions. “Open.” A cool spray hit the back of Adria’s throat. “That’ll take care of the voice.”

Adria stroked her fingers over her neck. “Already feels better.”

“As for your eyes—” Lara pointed to a patient room. “Lie down and I’ll put a gel pack on your face. You have two hours before the meeting. I’ll wake you when it’s time.”

“I’d like to shower first.” Her bones, her skin, everything hurt.

Lara found her a change of clothing from the supplies kept in the infirmary. “Through there.”

Stripping off inside the small shower, she allowed the hot spray to pummel her body until Lara knocked on the door. “I have the gel pack.”

Adria got out of the shower, dried off, and dressed before she lay down on one of the beds, needing the armor of clothing after the nakedness caused by her emotional breakdown. Lara’s wild corkscrew curls and fox brown eyes were the last things she saw before the coolness of the gel pack covered her puffy eyelids and cheeks.

The dreams took her under soon afterward.

Strong arms, a heavy male body, eyes of a brown so pale they shimmered gold, the night filled with the sounds of harsh breaths and hands sliding over sweat-slicked skin. When he flipped her onto her front, she waited in quivering anticipation.

Hot breath against her cheek, a big hand sliding under her body to close over one of her breasts with blatant possessiveness, the hard ridge of his erection insistent against her lower back. She attempted to arch upward, demand more, but was pinned down by his body.

A shift, his fingers brushing her unbound hair off her neck.

His weight lifting.

She rose toward him in silent invitation.

His cock and his teeth sank into her at the same instant.

Jerking awake, she pulled off the gel pack to see that Lara had closed the door to her room, leaving her in blessed privacy. It was seven fifteen according to her watch, so she had a little more time.

Allowing herself a shudder of bone-deep pleasure, she stretched, her arms above her head, her feet pointed. But her mind replayed not the erotic dream, but her conversation with Riaz after they’d spoken to Tamsyn—and, though it made her wolf stiffen, the way he’d held her beside the waterfall. The man she’d glimpsed that morning, and the one who’d cared enough to put his arms around a packmate who was hurting, he was dangerous, someone who spoke to her soul beyond the primitive tug of sex.

The way he’d rubbed his cheek against her hair, attempting to give comfort though she’d taken none … she’d never have expected such rough tenderness from the abrasive, angry man she’d first encountered. And he was loyal, so much so that he was destroying himself in his fight not to betray a mate who was forever lost to him.

No woman, Adria thought with a prickling sense of unease, would be immune to such a man.





Chapter 26


KALEB TOOK THE printed documents Silver held out, relating to a business arrangement between him and the BlackEdge wolves. “Any issues?”

“No. They’ve agreed to the changes you requested.” She glanced at her datapad, looked up. Hesitated.

Such hesitation was unusual for the ice-blonde who had been his aide since before he became a Councilor, but Kaleb had an excellent idea of the reason behind it. “You’re wondering why I would subcontract any type of security to the wolves.”

“Yes. You have the Arrows, and your own men. You don’t need BlackEdge.”

“They have certain unique skills,” he said, scanning the first page of the contract as he did so, his mind taking in the data at a speed that, when Silver first started working for him, had caused her to believe he wasn’t actually reading. He was. His mind processed each word as he swept his eye over it, embedded it in his memory.