VISIONS OF HEAT

“I ran into a lynx while out on patrol.” She stepped up beside her alpha in a smooth movement that told him her skills were as sharp as ever.

“No clearance?” Vaughn frowned. The rules about entry into predatory packs’ territories were explicit—if you wanted to visit, you asked permission. Otherwise, in most cases, you were signing on for a quick death. Harsh, but necessary. Without those rules, territorial wars would’ve destroyed them long ago.

“Yeah. But that’s not the fun part.” Indigo’s jaw was a tight line. “He was out of his mind on Jax.”

The mind-altering substance was the Psy poison of choice. “What the hell was a changeling doing on Jax?” Its effect on the Psy was well known—not only did the addictive substance eventually destroy their capacity for speech and rational thought, it stripped them of the very abilities that made them Psy. What did that say about their race?

“He was too out of it to tell me.” Indigo’s namesake eyes narrowed in fury. “The Psy have to be behind this—they invented the stuff. The fucking Council’s trying to poison us since they can’t risk an open attack.”

“Lynx part of a group?” Lucas asked, his voice having dropped into leopard range.

“I couldn’t track any particular scent and they’re known to be happier in small family groups.” She glanced at her alpha and, at his nod, continued. “He was messed up, and not like the Psy get on Jax. When I found him, he was in human form but his hand was a paw and he had random patches of fur over his body.”

Vaughn didn’t understand the problem. “He was changing?”

“No. He was stuck midshift. Babbled enough that I was able to figure out he hadn’t been able to shift properly since a few days after he first took the damn stuff.”

It was a horrifying thought. To be unable to be the animal was akin to losing one’s soul. “Where is he?” Vaughn felt pity for the creature. That was what made him changeling rather than pure, savage beast.

“Dead.” A flat response. “I didn’t do it, though. I couldn’t. It would’ve been like kicking an injured pup. I was herding him back to our healer when he went into convulsions. His body snapped into the change then back out several times. When it was over, he was dead and . . . messed up.” Her voice held traces of shock, unexpected in a woman reputed to be made of ice-fired steel. “Human, lynx, skin inside out and bones in the wrong places. Christ, I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“The body?” Lucas looked at Hawke.

“At the den. We want Tamsyn to come out and have a look at it with Lara and the other healers.”

“I’ll send Nate and Tammy over as soon as we’ve finished talking.”

“We can pick them up in the car,” Hawke offered, a certain look in those pale blue eyes that were the same shade in either form.

Lucas snorted. “Would you trust your mate to one of us?”

“That’ll never come up.” Hawke’s tone was very final—as if he knew he’d never have a mate. If that was true, no wonder the alpha was terminally pissed.

“Here.”

Vaughn caught the image slide Indigo threw across and took a look. His stomach revolted. “Fuck.” He handed it to Lucas. “Let’s get this out—both the fact that someone’s peddling this stuff to the weaker changelings and the effect it has. That should stop anyone who wants to give it a taste.”

“I say we send copies of the pictures,” Indigo suggested. “Once you see those, even the idea of Jax will give you hives.”

Hawke watched Lucas study the slide. “We have to move soon. I don’t want to chance someone else being sucked in.”

Lucas nodded. Vaughn was in complete agreement. Being at the top of the food chain came with responsibilities. When under attack, it was the predators the other changelings looked up to. And in California, SnowDancer and DarkRiver were it.

“Cian can coordinate the info spread with that old wolf of a librarian in your pack.” Lucas returned the slide.

“Dalton.” Indigo put it back into her pocket without looking. “He’s good at this sort of stuff. I’ll get him to contact Cian.”

They were about to break up when Lucas asked, “How’re the Laurens?” He was referring to the family of Psy defectors who’d found unlikely sanctuary with the wolves. The Council believed the Laurens dead, which gave the wolves a strategic advantage. But not enough to balance out the aggravation, if Hawke’s scowl was anything to go by.

“Your mate’s roped Judd into helping her with Brenna and you can imagine how popular that was with Andrew and Riley. He so much as blinks wrong around their baby sister and they’ll slice him up—except the crazy Psy doesn’t seem to give a shit about anything, which might be the only thing keeping him alive.” The alpha folded his arms. “And yeah, Walker’s trying to train the kids to do something with their shields so they don’t accidentally give away the game.”