Tangle of Need (Psy-Changeling 11)

Kaleb sent Aden a telepathic message, taking care not to disturb the trail in front of him. It glowed a faint silver to his psychic senses, and he was almost certain this was it … when it disappeared with total abruptness.

I’ll follow up. Aden’s telepathic voice.

Kaleb responded automatically. Contact me as soon as you discover anything. He scanned his surroundings for any hint of the silver thread. But it was gone as if it had never existed.

Chapter 48

FIVE DAYS AFTER the visit to his parents, Riaz watched Adria jog past with a small group of her kids. Perched as he was on top of the jungle gym part of the training run, he had an excellent view, knew she was teaching them one of the emergency evacuation routes they might one day have to utilize to protect the pups, should all the dominants be needed to hold back an invading force.

Man and wolf both stopped what they were doing to watch the woman who, he was slowly beginning to see, was as much a nurturer as an aggressive protector. An unusual combination, rare in the hierarchy. While she was undoubtedly a dominant soldier with impressive offensive capabilities, there was a gentleness about her that was more akin to that of the maternal females. It was an aspect of her personality he’d brushed up against more than once without realizing it—and it made his protectiveness toward her intensify, until he knew he’d have to be careful not to cross lines that would most definitely annoy his amber-eyed wolf.

As if sensing his scrutiny, she turned to look over her shoulder, her expression softening. “Hey,” she mouthed.

“Hey,” he mouthed back.

Lips curving, she returned her attention to the teenagers around her, disappearing under the thick canopy of the trees not long afterward. His wolf stretched its neck, trying to catch a final glimpse of her, but it didn’t snarl when the trees continued to block its view—it knew she’d return to him, the bonds between them no longer cobweb fine. What had happened after Venice had changed things on a fundamental level.

He’d made his decision, made his claim.

Adria hadn’t rejected his possession—not the same as acceptance, but as he’d told her, he was a patient man. Smiling at the way this skittish wolf was beginning to trust him with pieces of her heart, he turned his attention back to the obstacle course that was the training run. The soldiers had begun to learn the old pattern, which meant it was time to reconfigure it into a new one, which he was doing, with Judd’s help.

The other lieutenant, his hair back to its normal chocolate brown shade—Riaz’s wolf snorted—teleported him a wrench when he called out for it. “Thanks.” He twisted a stubborn bolt into place, his mind going through the issues to be discussed at the upcoming lieutenant meeting. “Heard anything from Ashaya?”

“Just an update on how long her initial tests will take,” Judd called out from under the structure. “Approximately a month. Ashaya’s very dogmatic and detail oriented in her work.”

“Good.” Unscrewing a small piece, he snapped it into a new position on the right. “Bowen—what’s your take?”

Judd came out from under the structure to look up at him, wiping his forearm across his sweat-damp forehead and leaving a streak of grease behind. “He is, in a sense, an alpha. The Alliance looks to him for direction and protection—seen that way, his actions may be ruthless, but they’re for the good of his pack.”

“Spoken like a true wolf.”

Judd caught the wrench he threw down, waiting until Riaz’s feet hit the ground to say, “As Drew would say, if you can’t beat ’em…”

“Yeah, too late to back out now. We know where you live.”

Judd’s response was to put the wrench with the other tools and raise his eyebrow. Of course Riaz couldn’t turn down the challenge, and they were scrambling over the modified jungle gym in seconds. It dumped Judd on his ass two minutes in. Riaz lasted another ten seconds. “Damn,” he said with a satisfied laugh. “Got us both. Excellent.” No one was going to learn to beat this configuration in a hurry.

Eyes narrowed, Judd stared at the structure as if at a mortal enemy. Slapping his fellow lieutenant on the shoulder, Riaz said, “Don’t even think about it.” A pissed-off telekinetic versus the complex metal pylons and tubes of the jungle gym—the results would not be pretty.

Judd glanced at his watch. “I’ll destroy it later.” Cool as ice, but Riaz caught the glint, knew the Tk would be back until he’d beaten the obstacle. “We’d better get to the meeting. It’s almost two.”

Heading in, they put away the tools and quickly washed up before walking into the special conference room set up for lieutenant meetings. Hawke and the other lieutenants—via comm link and in person—were all present. Indigo, her feet propped up on a second chair, her legs crossed at the ankles, said, “You’re late,” without looking up from her datapad.

That datapad was suddenly hovering several inches in the air … before it zipped to a stop in front of Judd. Taking it, he said, “And you’re playing Wolf versus Leopard.”

Everyone laughed as Indigo threatened Judd with bodily harm, but the Psy lieutenant continued to study the datapad. “You have an excellent territorial strategy—though it appears this game skews to favor wolves. Was the developer a wolf?”

“I confess!” Tomás threw up his hands. “It was me.”

Nudging the datapad back to Indigo, Judd twisted a chair around to sit with his arms braced on the back. “If you want cats to play it, too, you have to even out the playing field.”