Branded by Fire

Mercy’s heart jumped into her throat. "Mia. She’s learning to work with glass – she’s so crazy-proud of those earrings, she’d never have dropped one accidentally. Not if she was conscious."

A few feet later, she saw a worn, handmade button. "Grey." He loved that blue shirt despite the fact it was all but threadbare. Sage had made the buttons in one of his fits of creativity, and their mother had cut out and sewn the shirt itself. "They left us a trail. Maybe they weren’t knocked out."

"Or the drug began to wear off."

It was tempting to speed things up now that they knew the missing had come through here, but they stuck to the trail. This was a large area – better to be a little slow than miss them altogether. It was as well that they fought the instinct to chase blindly . . . because four minutes later, they found both the cats and the wolves. All were propped around a pillar shaded by overgrown greenery, and so deep in shadow Mercy and Riley could’ve easily passed them by. All seven had also been doused in a light perfume that would’ve played havoc with changeling noses.

They appeared dead.

"No." Dropping to her knees, Mercy began to check pulses. Her relief when she felt the first sluggish beat threatened to stop her own heart. "Alive, all of them." Her hand lingered on her brother’s face. "God, I love you, brat."

Riley relayed their find by phone and both Tamsyn and Lara, the SnowDancer healer, arrived what felt like seconds later. All seven young men and women were on the way to the hospital within a span of minutes. Lucas rode with the healers, while Hawke remained behind to see if they could get anything more from the scene.

Mercy had been planning to go with Grey but decided to stay at the Palace when her parents called to say they were almost at the hospital. She wanted to find the bastards who’d dared this. Returning to Riley’s side after the others had left, she found him talking to Hawke.

"The messages pinned to their chests were all the same," Riley was saying. " ‘Stay out of Alliance business, or next time, they won’t be breathing.’ "

"Nice of them to leave a calling card," Hawke said, clearly furious. "We sure it was the Alliance?"

"Techs are still working on it, but initial word is the prints on the notes match those we found at the warehouse."

Hawke shook his head. "Everything points to a power play, but the timing makes me think something big’s happening soon and they want us distracted."

"Could be both," Riley murmured, his beautiful hair turning bronze in the quiet dawn light. "A very deliberate demonstration of power, and a smoke screen."

"They failed with the assassination attempts on the Councilors," Mercy said. "Which leaves Bowen and his group as the most likely targets."

Riley was thinking along the same lines. "We need to warn them."

"And get the bomb squad out there." Mercy pulled out her cell phone.

"After you do that," Hawke said, "I need both of you to head up to the Glade."

Riley felt Mercy bristle. "You’re not my alpha."

"Technicality," Hawke said with his customary arrogance. "It’s for the meeting with WindHaven."

Riley decided he’d have to punch Hawke – several times – when Mercy turned to him after the other man left to talk to someone else, and bit out, "I don’t care what we have to do, I’m not leaving my pack even if we mate."

"Even if?" He grabbed her arm, pulled her toward him. "You are not doing this to me. We’re as good as mated." If she took back everything that had happened between them, if she said it hadn’t mattered, it would f**king break him.

"I’m still not a wolf." A baring of teeth. Then, to his surprise, she kissed him with all the firestorm intensity of her nature. "And I’ll never call that ass**le my alpha."

Riley didn’t even consider defending Hawke. "There has to be some way to leave you connected to DarkRiver."

"I can’t think how." She sounded frustrated, angry, at the end of her rope. "If I lose that . . . if the blood bond snaps . . . God, Riley, what will I do?"

He closed his arms around her, understanding exactly how she felt. Being a lieutenant wasn’t a position, it was part of who he was. "Mercy, I – " What the hell could he say? There was no way to fix this. One of them would have their blood bond to their alpha broken. And if it was tied to dominance, as it most likely was, then there was a high chance it would be Mercy. "I wish I could fix it so I’d be the one who’d have to leave my pack."

Her body tensed. "You’d hate giving up your blood link to SnowDancer."

"Not as much as I hate being helpless while you’re hurting." He held her tight. He was her mate, her protector. And yet he knew that if they became one, he’d hurt her as no one had ever before hurt her. That was unacceptable.

"Maybe we can manipulate the dominance somehow," he said, seeing possibilities, "fix it so it’s me who shifts packs." It would rip out a massive chunk of his heart, but if it was the only way to protect his mate, he’d do it a hundred times over. "Dominance is fluid, capable of change. All we have to do is find the right trigger."

"Riley – "

"Shh. Just let me hold you. Just for a second."

She softened in his arms, showing a courage he wasn’t sure even he possessed. "Kitty cat, we’ll figure out a way." Because he never wanted Mercy to feel less, feel broken. He’d savage himself before he’d allow that.

Chapter 51

The Information Merchant was dead. But his computers weren’t. They ran with quicksilver efficiency. And when the final check-in deadline passed with no contact from their master, the computers shifted operations.