Branded by Fire

"We don’t kill innocents," Lucas said. "But you’re not exactly innocents."

"What the Alliance is becoming" – Bowen’s hands fisted – "it’s not anything we want to be a part of. And we’re not the only ones."

"So you want us to allow a pit of vipers to set up house in our territory?" Indigo’s sarcastic voice.

Bowen looked at her. "Are you all the same? All the wolves? We believed in our leadership. We were betrayed. Now we’re taking steps to move out of their shadow."

"And we’re supposed to take your word for it, permitting you to ally yourself with two powerful groups?" Mercy shook her head. "Nice and opportunistic of you."

"Like vultures," Indigo added.

The two women’s eyes met. Mercy smiled.

"If we don’t," Bowen said, white lines of strain around his mouth, "they’ll kill us through sheer strength in numbers. And I think both SnowDancer and DarkRiver would prefer that didn’t happen. Because if it does, then the militants take complete control of the Alliance."

Mercy saw Lucas glance at Hawke and the wolf nod. Lucas clearly spoke for both of them when he said, "Go back to your hideout and stay there. Don’t cause any problems. The second you do, you’re dead." Flat, cold words.

"We can’t sit still," Bowen argued, shoulders tight with frustration.

Hawke shrugged, and though he was in human form, it was as if the wolf had made the movement. "So move. And die."

"You want to play power games with your leadership – find another location." Lucas’s face was pure alpha, no hint of give in him. "We’ll take care of the Alliance our way."

Most humans would’ve backed down by now – hell, so would most changelings, but Bowen held firm. "We can help you," he said. "We’re strong, well-trained, and we know how to be loyal." His mouth twisted. "At least until that loyalty is betrayed."

"Are you saying you’re willing to swear allegiance to us?" Lucas asked.

Bowen nodded. "If that’s what it takes."

"The instant you do," Lucas continued, "you fall out of Enforcement jurisdiction. I could tear out your heart for breaking Pack law, and they’d stand aside and let me."

"Forget about tearing out your heart," Hawke said casually, "I’d rip you limb from limb."

Riley spoke for the first time. "I don’t want anyone in our pack who thinks kidnapping a teenager out of his home is a good tactical move."

Mercy knew the second Bowen realized that though two alphas stood in front of him, the real danger lay at his back. Riley was ready to gut him. The human male turned. "We saved Nash from a far worse fate. Check all flights from Europe over the past forty-eight hours. I bet you you’ll find a hell of a lot of men and women coming in who walk like mercenaries. That new Alliance squad is still here."

"You’re holding the information hostage?" Riley again, sounding oh-so-calm. It had taken her six months of working with him before she’d realized the calmer he got, the angrier he was.

"I don’t have it," Bowen responded. "One thing humans have gotten very good at over the years is blending in. The Alliance team is in the city, that’s all I know. My contact at HQ tells me they also have a new target, but we don’t know who or what."

"Mercy," Lucas said, "debrief and take him back to his people." To Bowen, he said, "As far as we’re concerned, you’re still the enemy. You prove us wrong, fine. But until then, you so much as lift a weapon in this city, we’ll take you out."

In the San Gabriel Mountains, another struggle continued to take place under an unforgiving sun.

The slender Psy male was almost to the edge of the cliff when he fell. His knees bled as the gravel shredded his pants but he barely felt the pain. His head was about to explode. A trickle of liquid slid from his nose and when he touched it, his fingertip came away stained red.

The compulsion didn’t like being denied.

Determined, he tried to get up. His body refused. It hurt. Everything hurt. But he had to get to the edge. So he pitched himself forward and started to crawl. A few more meters and he could end this without doing that which should never be done. He was Psy. He couldn’t pick up a gun and mow down innocent men and women.

Inside his mind, the compulsion slammed up painfully against the solid wall of Silence. His nose bled faster. When he heard a wolf’s howl on the breeze, he realized he might not have to make it to the edge. Perhaps nature would end this for him.

Mercy drove a still-angry Riley back to the cabin so he could head up to the den. "You’re making my teeth ache."

The wolf in the passenger seat stared at her out of human eyes. "No questions even now?"

Surprised he’d brought it up, she shrugged. "Some promises you don’t even think of breaking." He’d trusted her with his pain last night, and she knew just how difficult that kind of trust was for him. The leopard had been startled by it . . . but that startlement was growing into something stronger, something that threatened the distance she was trying to keep.

Riley opened his mouth as if to reply when something beeped into the silence. Taking out his cell phone, he checked the message and swore.

She tore her mind away from the implications of the previous night. Because she’d let him in. And that, too, was a rare kind of trust. "What?"

"Nothing. Just kids being stupid." He stuck the phone back into his pocket. "I have to go bust some heads up at the den."

"Why do you have to be the one to hand out punishment?"

"Because the kids got caught hatching a plan to toilet-paper Jon. Not Jon’s home. Jon." He sounded like he had a spike being driven into his eyeballs. "And since I’m the DarkRiver liaison, Judd finds it highly amusing to make me deal with it."