Tangle of Need (Page 129)

“I don’t know if you deserve a kiss,” her mate said, his chest rumbling under her spread palms. “Seeing as you ignored my order to get the hell away from Ming.”

Sliding her hands up over his shoulders when he bent to make it easier for her, she linked her fingers behind his neck. “Are you going to bite me very hard?” she teased, using words her young cousin, Marlee, had apparently once spoken.

“Smart-ass.” Moving his hands down to that ass, he slid them into the back pockets of her jeans.

Hard and dominant though he might be, she thought, surrendering to the hot, wet caress of a kiss he laid on her, her man had a vein of tenderness she was certain no one else, except perhaps the pups, ever saw.

“We have to continue the watch.” It was a rough murmur.

“I know,” she said, though all she wanted was to have him inside her, branding her, loving her. In the lazy, possessive mood he was in right now, he’d rock in so slow and easy, make her feel every thick inch. “I wish it was a few hours later.”

He reached up to pet and fondle one of her br**sts with a proprietary hand, not helping to get her arousal under control. “Patience.” Releasing her aching flesh, he stepped away a couple of inches. “You know you like it slow.”

“No, that would be you.” Already keenly missing the wild heat of him pressed up against her, she watched as he shifted, the beauty of it stunning her anew. “I like it fast.”

The wolf huffed with laughter, and then they were running again, the night wind rippling through his fur and kissing her face. In spite of the enraging confrontation just past, Sienna had never felt so content.

Chapter 65

DISMISSING THE M-PSY he’d called to his quarters, an older female who knew the value of discretion, Ming walked to stand in front of the mirror. The flesh-colored thin-skin bandage the medic had placed on his chest hid the majority of the diagonal wound, but he could still see the blistered, red edges.

He’d been only minutely brushed by the whip of cold fire, but it had succeeding in frying through his skin and thin layer of subcutaneous fat to melt muscle and score bone. A second’s delay and he would no longer have internal organs, his body cavity filled with ash.

As it was, he now bore a scar that made it appear as if someone had dug a furrow through his skin with a viciously sharpened spoon. The M-Psy assured him the injury could be repaired, filled in, but Ming had no intention of taking her up on it.

Not at least, until Sienna Lauren was dead.

The girl had just proven she was too dangerous to keep alive, even on a leash.

STANDING on the edge of the property that housed the primary target, Vasquez looked at the Tk who was, at present, his most prized operative, both their faces covered by black balaclavas. Low-tech, but effective as a method to obfuscate identity. Though the Tk would not wear it during the op itself—it compromised his peripheral vision, and there were never any witnesses to worry about after he was done.

Are you certain you can evade the guards? The changelings had proven more dedicated sentries than he’d anticipated, leaving no obvious vulnerability. The organization can’t afford to lose you. However, they had to strike soon, before the impact of their first strike dissipated into nothing.

The Tk took time to study the house, the movements of the outer guard, the second guard hidden from view in a windowless inner room, along with their target. That largely unused room hadn’t been photographed as part of the security file on the anchor, so it was clever of the changelings to move the target into it—but Vasquez was smarter. He and the Tk beside him had run reconnaissance on this property before the Cape Dorset operation, taken their own backup images.

As they had of a number of anchor homes in the region.

The reason they hadn’t planted a transmitting camera inside was because the anchor’s home, like those of her brethren, underwent a deep security scan every week. Vasquez couldn’t risk that the bug would be found, the transmission tracked back to him.

I only need a second to disable the animal inside, the Tk said at last. The one outside will not make it to the room in time.

I can provide a distraction. He took out a gun. Will that be sufficient?

A nod. Wait until I give the signal.

Chapter 66

RIAZ HAD PULLED rank and taken the inside watch on the anchor—since they were dealing with a Tk, chances were high Adria would be safer on the outside perimeter. Of course, he hadn’t been stupid enough to actually say that. “You look like you want to bloody me,” he’d muttered, deliberately ruffling her fur. “Walk it off before you scare our charge.”

Narrowed eyes, the violet tinged with amber. “I know what you’re up to. Stay in one piece or I will really hurt you.”

When multiple gunshots hit the side of the house, he thought he’d been proven horribly wrong.

Adria!

Even as the rage of anger and terrifying worry blazed inside his mind, he caught a flicker out of the corner of his eye. Claws out, he was moving before the assassin fully materialized. He slammed into the man’s body, trusting the anchor to react as they’d practiced and duck under her desk, cell phone and laser scalpel in hand—it was deadly when used as a weapon, especially in close quarters, as well as being the only offensive option that didn’t make this particular anchor turn green.

“Identify!” he yelled at the instant of impact, because there was a very slight chance this was a friend not foe.

In answer, the intruder shoved Riaz back with vicious telekinetic strength, crashing him into the heavy desk hard enough to fracture the wood, but Riaz had already dug his claws into the attacker’s abdomen. Their violent separation had the effect of ripping the other male’s stomach open. Clamping one arm over his torn flesh in an effort to keep his intestines inside his body, the Tk thrust out a bloody hand and invisible fingers gripped Riaz’s throat in a choking hold.