“Which is why you’re in far more trouble than Maria.” When he’d given the Lauren family sanctuary after their defection from the cold sterility of the PsyNet, it had been under a number of strict conditions. One of those conditions had been a prohibition against using Psy abilities on packmates.
A significant number of things had changed since that time, and the Laurens were now an integral and accepted part of SnowDancer. Sienna’s uncle, Judd, was one of Hawke’s lieutenants, and often used his telepathic and telekinetic abilities in defense of the pack. Hawke had also never tied the hands of the two youngest Laurens, knowing Marlee and Toby would need their mental claws to defend themselves against their rambunctious wolf playmates.
But that freedom didn’t extend to Sienna, because Hawke knew exactly what she could do. The instant Judd accepted the lieutenant blood bond, keeping secrets from his alpha had become a question of loyalty and trust.
“Why?” Sienna lifted her chin. “I didn’t disobey the rule about using my abilities.”
Natural y, she’d chal enge him. “But,” he said, reining in the wolf’s snarling response to her defiance, “you did disobey a direct order in engaging in the fight—you said it yourself, you could’ve walked away.”
White lines bracketed her mouth. “Would you have?”
“This isn’t about me.” He’d been a young hothead once upon a time, and he’d had his ass kicked for it ... until everything had changed, his childhood wiped out in a surge of blood and pain and piercing sorrow. “We both know your lack of control could’ve led to a far more serious outcome.” The hel of it was, she knew that, too—and stil she’d let herself cross the line. That angered Hawke more than anything else.
“I could be confined to DarkRiver land,” Sienna said while he was stil considering how to deal with her, “if you don’t want me in the den.”
Hawke snorted at her reference to the leopard pack that was SnowDancer’s most trusted al y. “So you can hang out with your boyfriend? Nice try.”
Sienna’s skin flushed a dul red. “Kit isn’t my boyfriend.”
Hawke wasn’t going to get into that conversation. Not now. Not ever. “You don’t get to have a say in your punishment.” He’d spoiled her. It was his own damn fault it was coming back to bite him in the ass. “One week confined to quarters in the soldiers area, one hour out per day.” Psy were much better at handling isolation than changelings, but he knew Sienna had changed since defecting from the PsyNet, become far more intertwined in the bonds of family, of pack. “Second week spent working with the babies in the nursery since that’s the age you’ve been acting recently. No duty rotations until you can be trusted to stick to your task.”
“I—” She snapped her mouth shut when he raised an eyebrow.
“Three weeks,” he said softly. “Third week you’l spend in the kitchens as a dish hand.”
Her cheeks burned a hotter shade but she didn’t interrupt again.
“Dismissed.”
It was only after she’d gone—the autumn and spice of her scent lingering in the air in a silent rebel ion she would’ve no doubt enjoyed had she known about it—that he loosened his hold on the wolf who was his more feral half.
It lunged for her scent.
Sucking in a harsh breath, Hawke fought the primal urge to go after her. He’d been battling the instinct for months, ever since the wolf decided that she was now an adult and, therefore, fair prey. The human half of him wasn’t having much success in changing the wolf’s mind, not when he had to fight the hunger to claim the most intimate of skin privileges every time she was in his presence.
“Christ.” Picking up the sleek new sat phone the techs had issued him four weeks ago, he put through a cal to DarkRiver’s alpha.
Lucas answered on the second ring. “What is it?”
“Sienna won’t be heading down to spend time with you cats for a while.” Aside from the distance Sienna apparently needed from the den, from him, she’d been working with Lucas’s Psy mate, Sascha, to understand and gain control of her abilities. But—“I can’t let it go. Not this time.”
“Understood.” The answer of a fel ow alpha.
Hawke sat on the edge of his desk, shoving a hand through his hair. “Can she handle it?” He knew she wouldn’t break—Sienna was too strong for that, a strength that acted like a drug on his wolf—but the power that lived within her was so vast, it had to be treated as the wildest of beasts.
“Last time she was down,” Lucas responded, “Sascha said she displayed an exceptional level of stability, nothing like when they first began to work together. They’re not having regular meetings anymore, so that’s not an issue.”
Mind at rest on that score at least, Hawke said, “I’l make sure Judd keeps a psychic eye on her just in case.” Sienna wouldn’t appreciate the oversight, but fact was fact—she was dangerous, and he had to consider the safety of the pack as a whole. As for the ferocity of his protective instincts when it came to her, he wasn’t about to lie and pretend they didn’t exist.