"Don't patronize me, Uncle Walker!" It roared out of her. "I'm not a child anymore! I'm his mate."
Walker looked at her for a long moment, long enough that she started to want to fidget. But instead of wearing her down in that way only he could do, he inclined his head. "Yes," he said. "Hawke should've spoken to you. As for Judd and me"--his expression shifted, revealing a tenderness that destroyed her--"we can't help ourselves. You're a piece of our heart."
All her anger crumbled.
Falling into his arms, she let his warmth and love and strength surround her, ground her, her face pressed to the smoky blue of his shirt, her eyes hot. Walker had been the calm anchor in the ugly storm of her childhood after her mother died, the one person she'd known she could count on even when she was caught in a monster's grip. He was the one who'd made the Laurens into a family, refusing to let go no matter what. Never once had he betrayed her.
"I'm sorry for yelling," she said when she could speak past the surge of emotion. "I'm just worried about Hawke."
Cupping the back of her head, Walker said, "Can you sense any trouble through the mating bond?"
She shook her head, the realization calming her enough that she could think past her worry and anger. "Why is he even talking to Ming? Hawke hates him, wants to tear him into tiny pieces with his bare claws."
"Let's walk outside. I'll tell you his reasoning."
"Whatever it is, I'm still going to strangle him when he gets back."
*
HAWKE knew he'd be heading straight into his mate's fiery temper when he returned to the den, but that didn't matter. Not when what he did here today would spell the start of the end of Ming LeBon.
Being in the same room as the former Councilor and his cold metallic scent and not gutting the other man went against his natural instincts, but the wolf understood what it was to protect pups. And right now, hard as that was to swallow, Ming's stabilizing presence was protecting a heck of a lot of pups in Europe.
That would change.
If Hawke had to nudge Ming slowly out of power to make him viable prey, then so be it; the wolf was willing to listen to the human in this hunt. Because both parts of him knew that sooner or later, Hawke would tear out Ming's throat. For threatening Sienna's life, for hurting her when she'd been a child, for all those Ming had tortured and murdered.
"As I noted in my message, Mr. LeBon, SnowDancer has made a competing offer." The words were spoken by a slight human male seated behind the desk by the windows. Stenson was doing a good job of keeping his cool, but Hawke could smell the sour tang of nerves on the mustachioed man with pale white skin.
It wasn't every day that a small computronics company fielded two buyout offers: one from an ex-Councilor turned de facto ruler of a large chunk of Europe, the other from the biggest changeling pack in the country.
Hawke, his back to the window, stood to the right of the desk. Sitting next to Ming in the spare guest chair on the other side of the desk wasn't an option. Judd stood outside the office door, but Hawke could sense him, knew the other man was protecting his mind from psychic threats. Whatever tricks Ming had, he'd have to mobilize into full battle mode to use them against an ex-Arrow and an alpha wolf.
"SnowDancer isn't known for its interest in cutting-edge computronics."
Hawke shrugged at Ming's frigid comment. "Those who survive are those who adapt."
"I'll increase my offer by ten percent."
Stenson glanced at Hawke.
"We'll beat that," Hawke responded. "By one percent."
Ming made another counteroffer; Hawke countered it by another one percent. They went on like that until Ming got the point: SnowDancer was determined to buy this company and gain control of its innovative ideas.
That Ming hadn't already stolen the company's secrets was thanks to some very clever structuring. Stenson was in charge of the company's finances and did the deals, but he knew nothing of its technological breakthroughs beyond what he needed to facilitate the financial side of things. The company had also succeeded in keeping secret the identities of its developers.
No Psy could pluck out secrets from a mind if he or she didn't know which mind to target.
"It appears the company is yours." Ming left without further words.
Hawke bared his teeth.
When Stenson flinched, he realized the gesture had been more lupine aggressiveness than human smile. Ah well, the man would have to get used to dealing with wolves sooner or later.
Since Yuki and the rest of SnowDancer's legal eagles had already checked the details, Hawke finalized the deal with his signature, then held out his hand to Stenson. "Happy to be working with you."
The bewildered man shook his hand. "You won't be restructuring?"
"Expect a SnowDancer team to drop by, go over things with you. But at this stage, we plan to leave you to go about your business." Hawke had bought the company primarily to frustrate Ming and ensure the ex-Councilor couldn't get a foothold in this part of the world, but it actually was a good investment. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have another deal to complete."
Five minutes after that, he'd cut Ming off from acquiring the majority share in a financial entity based out of Liechtenstein, and an hour after that, while Judd drove them back up to the den, he made it clear to a corporation that they would lose their biggest client--SnowDancer--should they agree to work with Ming LeBon.
This was war and people had to choose sides.
When he hung up, Judd raised an eyebrow. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were a ruthless CEO."
"I am a ruthless CEO." It was his official description on all the businesses that ran under the SnowDancer banner. "You're the one who recommended we watch for Ming trying to infiltrate SnowDancer territory through business interests." It was why Hawke had known what Ming was up to--he'd had SnowDancer's Cooper and DarkRiver's Bastien arrange a network of eyes and ears in the region's business circles.
"I never expected you to take to business combat like a fish to water."
"It's not my preferred way to fight"--a slight understatement--"but it's nice to know I just cost Ming millions of dollars." Cutting off a little more of the evil bastard's power base.
"How far will you go?"
"All the way." As long as he played a strategic game, SnowDancer had the strength and the financial reach to not only keep Ming out of this territory, but to break the ex-Councilor's grip on Europe. "I should've figured it out earlier, but I was so set on tearing off his head that I didn't think about other options." Now that he had, Hawke was starting to enjoy the hunt. "I'm going to bring him down so low that he has no allies and is running for his life on the streets. Then I'll tear off his head."
Judd's eyes glinted. "Losing power would be worse than death for Ming."
Hawke showed his teeth again. "Then the bastard's going to be in a lot of pain starting today."
His phone buzzed with an incoming message from Cooper confirming that SnowDancer now owned a ten percent share in a company Ming relied on for supplies for one of his other corporations. Give me six more months, Cooper had written, and we'll have a fifty-one percent share. The best part is that SnowDancer will make a profit long term even as we freeze out LeBon.
Hawke's wolf threw back its head inside him and howled in triumph.
Letters to Nina
From the private diaries of Father Xavier Perez
March 28, 2074
Nina,
I haven't written for many days. The Psy assassin and I have been in the mountains, laying a trail to disguise the path that leads to the hiding place of the villagers the other assassins are coming to murder.
I thought we'd fight, spill blood, but this Psy, he tells me to be intelligent, to stop thinking with an alcohol-soaked brain and to remember that we are only two against an entire death squad.
"We can't win one on one," he says. "We can win only by stealth and cunning and being smarter than the enemy."
I've never fought this way
, in the shadows. Even when I ran with the human rebels in the first months after our village was sacked, we aimed to do violence against those who'd harm our people. Any rebels who died in the course of our campaign were held up as heroes.
The Psy assassin doesn't know about the rebel cells. I'll never betray those men and women to a man who might turn on me without warning. But he said something to me that was eerily apt: "Don't try to be a hero, Xavier. A dead hero can't help anyone."
Xavier
Chapter 21
NIGHT HAD FALLEN by the time Hawke and Judd drove up the final track to the den.
Impatience clawed at Hawke. Searching for something to take his mind off the hunger to see his mate, he said, "What time are you and Brenna heading to Cooper's territory?" He knew the two had plans to visit friends in the satellite den. "Driving, right?"
Judd shook his head. "We decided to catch a quick flight at eight tomorrow, since our visit's only going to be a couple of days anyway. It'll give us more time on the ground." He brought the vehicle into the underground garage under the den. "Good luck with Sienna." Unsaid were the words that he'd need it.
Leaving the lieutenant to deal with the vehicle, Hawke jogged from the garage to his and Sienna's quarters. He was halfway there when he realized the mating bond was tugging him in the opposite direction. Reversing course, he ran out into the night darkness and through the trees for nearly twenty minutes until he saw her standing on a rise, looking out over the fields below.
The moon was full tonight, her body outlined against a sky dotted with stars.
It hit him again, that she was his. His mate. Extraordinary and strong and . . . furious.
Wincing at the look she shot him out of cardinal eyes gone a dangerous black, he braced himself. "Miss me?"
She growled before hauling him close for a kiss, her hands buried in his hair. It was a kiss of claiming, of branding, of angry welcome. Groaning, he had his hands on her hips, his body having turned rock hard in a single pulse, when she pushed him away. "If you ever do that to me again, I won't forgive you."
He'd expected anger but not this brittle edge to her voice. "Walker was supposed to talk to you, make sure you knew what was going on."
"My mate should've talked to me." The obsidian of her gaze flickered with a translucent flame, her tone flat.
Hawke's gut twisted; this wasn't anger. It was deeper, harder. "You would've wanted to come and there was no way in hell I was taking you." Even the idea of her anywhere near Ming made his wolf threaten to turn into a primal killing machine.
"Look at this!" Sienna held out a hand, on which danced a red and amber flame. "I'm not helpless! I'm the least helpless person in the world!"
Hawke thrust his hands into her hair, gripped. "But you're mine to protect!" His heart pounded like a bass drum. "If anything happened to you--"
He couldn't say it, couldn't even think it. "I've lost too many people, baby. I can't lose you."
When Sienna cupped his face, her hands were fierce and gentle both. "You won't. We're in this together." Her nails dug a little into his skin. "Trust me! Treat me as your mate!"
"I do!" Hawke's voice was turning more and more into a growl. "Why would you think otherwise?"
"Why would you hide things from me?" Sienna yelled, her chest heaving.
They stared at each other for a single, endless heartbeat before their lips were locked in a kiss so passionate that Sienna went up in flames around them. He should've been worried, but he was never worried with the woman who fucking owned him. Her cold fire always knew pack. And it definitely knew her mate.
He took her to the ground, or maybe she took him. He tore off her clothes, she tore off his; their naked bodies slid against one another and when he pulled up her thigh and nudged at her with his cock, he found her wet and ready. Then she bit down on his lower lip while clawing his back and it was all over.
He thrust deep, pinning her to the earth.
One stroke, two, and Sienna was clenching so tightly around him that he couldn't hold back. He gripped her shoulder with his teeth as he came, so hard that he knew he'd leave a mark. Good. He wanted her to wear his mark. Her nails made sure he'd be wearing hers.
The fire flamed hot red, then wild amber around them, a dangerous kiss from his very dangerous mate. A mate who was still pissed off with him when the fire sank into the earth to leave them lying entangled and naked under the stars, neither one able to breathe properly for at least five minutes.
Hawke could've dealt with an angry mate. He couldn't deal with the hurt he saw in her expression.
Hand cradling the side of her face, he said, "I'm sorry." It was difficult for an alpha to say that, but never to his mate, never when he was fucking wrong. "I was trying to protect you, but I did that by hurting you. I'm so goddamn sorry."
Sienna's eyes remained dark, without stars, but she spread her hand over his heart. "I was so terrified for you."
Hawke thought about how insane he'd go if he knew she was alone with Ming, and wanted to kick his own ass. "I took Judd," he said, even knowing that was no defense for what he'd done to her, the pain he'd inflicted. "But I was an asshole. I admit it. I won't do it again."
Sienna's lips kicked up a little at the corners, the first stars appearing in her eyes. "I think this may go down in history," she said as relief punched him in the gut. "An unreserved apology from Your Alphaness."
"Smart-ass." He petted her as he spoke, apologizing with his touch as much as with his words. "Seriously--I was thinking with my heart, not my brain."
"Ugh." Sienna pushed at his chest. "Stop making it hard to be mad at you."
Her expression turned on the next breath. "You won't do it again? Leave me out of a decision that affects both of us?"
Tugging her to his chest as he rolled over onto his back, he brushed her hair off her face. "I promise."
Sienna nodded. "Okay. I know you always keep your promises."
The fist around his heart began to open. "Want to know why I went to the meeting?"
When she nodded, he told her, man and wolf both supremely smug when her expression showed admiration for his tactics. "I wouldn't have expected you to take Judd's idea and run with it like that," she said afterward, kicking up her feet. "You're fiercely intelligent, but you don't usually think sneaky."
His wolf decided to take that as a compliment. "Sneaky is for cats," he growled. "But I have been spending a lot of time with Lucas lately. I guess some of it rubbed off."
Sienna's smile was sharp. "I like the idea of messing with Ming's financial foundation." Her eyes narrowed in thought. "You know Devraj Santos hates him, too?"
Hawke nodded. He didn't have any real details on what Ming had done to Dev's wife, Katya, but he didn't need them--because what he did know was that she'd been kept captive by Ming LeBon. Dev's hatred of Ming was something he'd picked up on the last time the Forgotten leader had visited SnowDancer territory to catch up with the Forgotten children embedded into SnowDancer--protected by being claimed as wolves to the outside world.
Hawke had said something about Ming that involved Ming being dead, and Dev had agreed, his voice holding a near-metallic chill that was almost Psy--except for the fury behind it, the rage Hawke could all but taste.
"Katya shot him in the head. The fucker survived."
Running a hand down the sexy curve of his mate's back as the memory of Dev's angry words echoed through his mind, he said, "Arrows have to hate him, too." That would've been easy enough to guess with the defection of the squad from under Ming's leadership, even without Judd's close connection to current active-duty Arrows.
"Hmm." Sienna tapped her kiss-swollen lower lip with a finger. "SnowDancer can blindside Ming a few times, but eventually he's going to figure out all our major business entities and start to avoid anything where we could have an impact."
Hawke bared his teeth. "That's satisfying on its own." It would mean the pack was forcing Ming to make financial decisions that weren't in his best inte
rest.
"Yes, but if we get a few other people involved . . ."
Hawke wasn't used to playing with people outside his pack--and okay, Lucas, since the cat had proven his loyalty to the blood bond between the two packs. But he could see the positives of Sienna's idea. "Enough people in on this and it'll become very difficult for Ming to predict who might have an interest in what--or who might develop an interest."
Sienna nodded. "Dev has financial expertise but I'm not sure about the Arrows--I know Judd didn't get any financial training as an Arrow. He learned what he did on his own. We don't want to put anyone in a bad position."
Hawke nipped at her lips just because, growled when she dug her nails into him in response. It wasn't a complaint. "This is only fun if everyone but Ming comes out a winner," he agreed. "I'll ask Judd to check whether the Arrows have someone with financial smarts. We have people we can lend them if they don't." He ran one hand through the dark ruby fire of Sienna's hair. Yes, his wolf thought, this is better. Working with my mate, coming up with ideas together.
Smiling at him, she ran a finger down his nose. "I feel your wolf prowling in there. You want to run? I have to do a sweep anyway."
"Yes." The wolf wanted her fingers in its fur, wanted to nip at her with its teeth, play with her under the moonlight.
Pushing off him, Sienna held out a hand. He took his time rising, enjoying the sight of her nude body kissed by the moonlight and clothed only in the beautiful hair he loved to play with in either form. Her smile, though, that was the most beautiful part of her. He kept that image in his mind as he shifted, the wrenching pain and stunning ecstasy of the shift rippling through him as his body exploded into millions of particles of light, then reformed in another shape.
It was still him. Always. In either form.
He shook his body to settle his fur into place, discovered his mate was pulling on her jeans. Picking up her T-shirt while her back was turned, he started to pad away.
"Hawke!" Her outraged cry came a second later. "Give that back!"
Huffing in laughter, he upped his pace.