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Waiting a full ten minutes to ensure the Psy didn’t intend to return, Indigo glided out of her hiding spot as Drew appeared out of his. He stayed in wolf form as she shifted; he’d be more lethal that way should the Psy reappear without warning. Releasing her claws, Indigo began to scrape away the dirt on top of whatever it was the Psy operative had buried. Her hand touched metal about thirty centimeters down.
Her senses didn’t alert her to any explosives, but she waved Drew forward. “Do you scent anything dangerous?” He came, his paws silent on the leaf-strewn ground. Waiting until he shook his head, she reached in and kept digging until the earth was loose enough to allow her to see most of it. “It looks identical to that metal ball Silvia found. ” Except this one was clearly still in one piece. Gleaming steel once she brushed off the dirt, it appeared inert except for a red light blinking at the top.
Scent or no scent, instinct told her this augured danger, but she was no tech. “I don’t think we should move it until we know what it is. ”
Drew, having come to stand by her shoulder, growled in agreement. Then, padding around to take a position opposite her, he shifted. It amazed her to watch him dissolve in a shimmer of multicolored sparks before re-forming into the muscled human male she knew so well. “We need a tech to do a full evaluation. ”
Indigo pushed the dirt back into the hole. “Just in case they come back to check. ”
“Good idea. ” Drew patted it down as the Psy operative had done, hiding all evidence of interference.
“I’ll go get my cell. ” But when she did, she found she had no signal either at the spot where they’d stashed the packs or at the clearing itself. “Damn, the storm must’ve damaged the cell transmitter up here. I’ll have to run to lower ground. ” The phone had worked fine at the campsite.
“I don’t think there’s any huge urgency,” Drew said. “They’d have had no need to hide the object if it was meant to do something soon. ”
Indigo agreed. “Then one of us might as well head all the way back to the den. It’ll be easier to lead the techs up here than try to direct them to the spot. ”
“You’re faster,” he said. “You do the run. I’ll shift and stay in the trees. ”
Stashing the phone in the hollow of a fallen tree, Indigo shifted. Drew waited until she was in wolf form before stroking his hand down her back in a long, slow caress. “Be careful. ” A pause. “You belong to me now. ”
He was pushing. That’s what predatory changeling men did—and it was something she could handle. Biting lightly at his arm in mock reproof, she streaked out from under his touch, his fingers trailing warm and heavy through her fur.
It was only when she was almost halfway down that she realized Drew hadn’t even hesitated before stating that she was the faster runner. In spite of the fact that he’d followed her lead earlier, part of her had still been expecting some stupid male act, but again, he’d surprised h—
She yipped, having almost missed a jump.
Taking that as a sign, she pushed all human thought out of her mind and let her wolf take over. The den appeared out of the forest just as she was starting to tire from the intensity of the run, a welcome sight. Inside, she followed Hawke’s scent to his quarters in the area set aside for unmated soldiers. As alpha, he could’ve commanded a far bigger space, but he had a room almost identical to Drew’s. The sole difference was that he had another, slightly bigger, connected room—with an attached galley—where he could hold private, relaxed meetings with the senior members of the pack.
Scraping her paw on his door, she waited for him to open it. He did so almost at once. “Indigo,” he said, his tone sharp. “I’ll get you a T-shirt. ”
She nodded, grateful. Nudity with her alpha was no big deal, but she’d just come from Drew’s arms—something Hawke had obviously scented—and it would feel odd to be naked in front of another man when things between her and Drew were so new, so fragile. Moving behind one of the armchairs in the front room, she shifted.
Hawke threw a large plain black tee to her on the heels of the shift and she pulled it over her head as she rose to her feet. “We’ve got a situation,” she said and laid out the facts. “Brenna’s worked with Psy technology. She might be able to figure this thing out. ”
Hawke gave an immediate nod. “Dorian’s here. He brought up something his mate wanted Bren to look at. ”
A year ago, Indigo would’ve been stunned at the idea of bringing a leopard into pack business, but now the leopards were, in a sense, Pack. Her wolf continued to find that odd, but even it accepted that the cats had proven their mettle, earned SnowDancer’s trust. “Great,” she said, knowing that though the DarkRiver sentinel was an architect by trade, he had both a keen interest in and experience with complex computronic systems. “The two of them together should be able to figure out what it is—and they can rope in Ashaya”—Dorian’s mate—“if necessary. ”
Hawke was already making the calls. While he did so, she went into the well-stocked galley and made herself a huge sandwich to offset the calories used up during her high-speed run. She was chewing the final bite when Hawke walked in. “Dorian and Brenna will meet you out front in five. They’ll have to come up in human form—with equipment to test the object. ”
“I figured. ” She gulped down a glass of milk fortified with a protein mix, then made a second—larger—sandwich, which she sealed in a lunch bag. “I’ll grab one of the all-wheel drives. ” They’d still have to do the last part of the trek on foot, but they could always return to the vehicle for the heavier equipment if necessary.
Hawke’s face was grim when she looked up. “I’m not letting the Psy poison our pack again, not with those e-mails about ‘Purity’ and not with this shit. ”
“We’re stronger than we were before. ” They rarely spoke of the dark years when Hawke had been only a child, but those years had shaped so much of what SnowDancer was today. “And we’re no longer alone. ”
Hawke didn’t say anything.
Her energy levels back to full strength after the snack, she walked over to pat him affectionately on the cheek. “You and Riley, no wonder you’re best buds. You both hold things too tight, too close. ”
He didn’t shake off her touch, their friendship old enough, deep enough, that such skin privileges were an accepted part of their relationship. “Look who’s talking,” he pointed out, tapping her on the nose.
Shrugging, she dropped her hand but didn’t move away. “Takes one to know one. ”
“You going to tell me what’s happening between you and Drew?”
“No. ” It was too new, too private, to expose to the light of day.
Hawke raised an eyebrow. “Word of advice—Drew and Riley are more similar than people realize. ”
Indigo thought of the way Drew pushed at her, the way he tried to steamroll in his own charming fashion. “You could’ve warned me earlier. ” It was a disgruntled statement.
“And miss all the fun?” A tug at a curling strand of her hair. “Now why would I do that?”
Scowling, she comforted herself with the thought that his time would come. Boy, would it come. “I better go put on some proper clothes for the drive. ” Borrowing a pair of his sweats—way too large for her frame—for the short walk to her quarters, she quickly shimmied into jeans and a longsleeved sweatshirt for the drive back.
Even with that detour, she was the first person at the vehicle, Dorian and Brenna having stopped to assess and grab the necessary gear from SnowDancer’s tech lab. After placing the cases in the back, Dorian took the front passenger seat while Brenna ducked into the back where she could fiddle with one of the scanners.
“Older model,” she muttered. “It switched on okay, but I want to check that it’s fully functional. Haven’t had cause to use it for a while. ”
The drive passed by in a flow of technical dialogue between Dorian and Brenna, and they were soon ste
pping out for the final part of the journey—with only the essential gear. “Bren,” Indigo said, picking up the sandwich she’d made from the dash, “can you stow this in your bag?”
“Sure. ”
Leading them to where she and Drew had left their packs, she stopped just long enough to pick out a sky blue T-shirt and jeans. Going commando, she thought with a hint of amusement, wouldn’t be a problem for Drew. He was the least self-conscious male she knew, and that was saying something in a pack of wolves. “Alright. Let’s go. ”
When they arrived, Drew padded out of the trees to greet them—it was clear from his relaxed state that the Psy hadn’t returned.
Her wolf wanted to nuzzle at him, but she kept her tone professional. “Clothes,” she said, placing them behind a tree.
As she returned to join the others, Drew brushed past her close enough that her fingertips stroked over his fur. Fighting the urge to follow him, to stroke him a little more, she came down on her haunches beside Bren and Dorian. “Any idea what it might be?”
Brenna tapped something on the little computer connected wirelessly to a device Dorian was running over the ground. “Nothing unusual about the metallic compound,” she muttered. “Device is computronic without a doubt, and functional. ”
“It has to have a power source,” Dorian said, putting down the scanner. “Battery of some kind. ”
Brenna brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Time to dig, I think. ”
Indigo helped, and it took only a minute to unearth the metal ball. Instead of lifting it out, Brenna and Dorian put their heads together and muttered more technospeak. Having felt Drew come to stand at her shoulder, Indigo retrieved the sandwich from Brenna’s bag and got to her feet. “Eat,” she said, knowing he wouldn’t have left the device unattended in order to hunt.