Indigo sat in the curve of her father's arm on the edge of the White Zone forty-eight hours after the shooting. She hadn't wanted to leave Drew even for an instant, but Lara had pulled in Hawke, and her alpha had ordered Indigo to take a break or he'd carry her out.

"I'd decided on him," she told her father. "My wolf had decided on him, but he didn't know." There had been too many people around before he went up for his security shift, and she'd wanted it to be a special, private moment. "I was going to tell him when he got home, but-"

Her father stroked a big hand over her hair, slow and easy. "Do you think he didn't know when the bond snapped into place?"

"I just keep thinking if I'd accepted the bond earlier, I could've-"

"You held him," her father said, his voice stern. "That's all a mate can do in that situation. You did it. You're still doing it."

"Drew's in my heart. So deep," she said, "until the thought of losing him feels like razors cutting across my soul."

"It's who we are, pumpkin."

She knew the childhood nickname was meant to make her smile. Nothing could. But she accepted the comfort of his hold. "All this time, this was what I was so scared of-of loving someone this much and losing them."

Abel brushed her hair off her face. "You were always going to love with all your soul, sweetheart. You're built that way."

"So is he," she whispered. "There's so much love in him, Dad." The mating bond showed her a depth of feeling, of heart, even greater than she'd imagined. He was someone special, Andrew Liam Kincaid, and he was hers. "I wish you could see him as I do."

"That would be against the laws of nature," Abel said in a somber tone. "I have to be able to kick his a.s.s if necessary-therefore, I must see him as the filthy b.a.s.t.a.r.d who dared hurt my daughter by getting himself shot."

"Are you threatening my mortally wounded mate?"

Her father pressed a kiss to her temple. "I'll hold off until he's healthy."

About to respond, she caught a gentle scent as familiar to her as her own. "Evie's here."

"Of course she is."

Her sister's embrace almost brought moisture to Indigo's eyes, but she swallowed back the tears. She would not cry. To do so would be a surrender. And she refused to give Drew up.

Having just spent an hour beside Drew's motionless form, Hawke pressed his palms to the wall outside the infirmary, wanting to do some damage, find his revenge, but knowing that even if he was able to get his hands around Councilor Henry Scott's neck right this instant, it wouldn't help Drew.

Logic didn't matter to his wolf. It was enraged and- A scent. Rich and exotic. Sandpaper across his skin.

He stayed still, hoping like h.e.l.l she'd pa.s.s by.

But she stopped and to his shock, put a hesitant hand on his back. "Is he . . . ?"

He didn't turn, knowing that if he looked at her right now, he might do things that could never be taken back. "He's stable, but otherwise, no change."

Her fingernails sc.r.a.ped against his T-shirt as she curled her hand into a fist. "He'll be okay, though, won't he?"

She was asking him for rea.s.surance, and had it been any other member of the pack, he would've turned and taken them into his arms. But this was Sienna Lauren, and he couldn't trust himself around her. "He's strong." When her hand dropped from his back, he felt the loss like a knife wound. "Lara's hopeful-and your uncle's worked on him, too, helped repair some of the microscopic damage." But the bullet fragments had caused so much harm that even Judd couldn't be sure he'd found every lethal cut and nick.

Sienna nodded and he just caught the movement with his peripheral vision. As he watched, she went to the door of the infirmary and slipped in. Only then did he push off the wall, his muscles taut as iron.

It was agonizingly tempting to give in to his wolf, to run until the violent emotions within him were exhausted to silence, but he was alpha. And there was work to be done. One of the most important things was ensuring that every single surveillance device within the entirety of den territory had been found and destroyed. SnowDancer, in concert with DarkRiver, had already launched an all-out search, but there was still a chance of overlooking one or two.

"Do you have anyone who can help us be certain the land is clear?" Hawke asked Lucas on the phone a few minutes later, thinking about the Psy members of the leopard pack.

Lucas didn't. But he made a discreet inquiry, which led him to ask Hawke an odd question. "The devices you've found all have metallic components?"

Hawke checked with Brenna. "Yeah, there's at least a little metal in some form or another in every single one of these things."

"Give me a few minutes."

When Lucas called back, it was with an offer of a.s.sistance from one h.e.l.l of an unexpected source. Devraj Santos, director of the Shine Foundation and one of the Forgotten- descendants of those Psy who'd dropped out of the Net before Silence-had volunteered his services.

"How is he going to find them?" Hawke asked, his wolf unwilling to put its faith in a man he hadn't ever met. "And what does the metal have to do with it?"

The leopard alpha sounded annoyed when he answered. "He won't say, but I trust him. The Forgotten hate the Council even more than we do."

That much was true, and it made him consider Santos's offer. "What does he want in exchange?" Hawke knew of Shine, knew Santos wielded considerable power. No man kept that many people safe from the Council's a.s.sa.s.sins by doing good deeds for free.

"We're already linked to Shine," Lucas said. "He wants some kind of relationship with SnowDancer."

"No alliance." Hawke didn't ally with anyone he didn't know inside out. "But we'll owe him one if he can deliver." A favor from SnowDancer was worth a h.e.l.l of a lot.

Dev Santos agreed to the deal.

It took the Shine director a week of eighteen-hour days-the man located the cameras unerringly even in the blackest darkness and across immense distances-to clear their entire territory.

Hawke decided to up the favor count to Santos's benefit.

"I occasionally need to 'disappear' people when the Council gets too interested in them," the man said afterward. "Can't think of any place better than in a pack of wolves. You're so secretive, I had to sign my name in blood in triplicate before being allowed to set foot on your land."

"No promises," Hawke said, "but contact me when you need a disappearance and we'll talk." There were hundreds of places across the state controlled by wolves where a man or woman could vanish and not be found. And Dev Santos's people had Psy genes; as the man himself had shown, those genes could prove very useful.

Devraj Santos held out a hand.

Hawke's wolf decided they could deal with the man. They shook.

CHAPTER 47.

Indigo touched her lips to Drew's. They were soft, warm, as if he was simply resting. He'd shifted into human form spontaneously earlier that morning, and they were all hoping that meant he was about to break through the comalike sleep that had held him in thrall. She hated seeing him so quiet, so still.

Drew was never quiet. He was energy and life and mischief.

"Indigo?" Lara asked. "You okay?"

"Yes." No. "What's this?" she asked, distracting the healer by gesturing at something on Drew's bedside table.

"What?"

She held up a small yellow action figure, complete with fangs and claws.

"Ben." Lara smiled. "He keeps sneaking in here and leaving his soldiers to 'guard' Drew."

"See, Drew," Indigo said as Lara left to check on Silvia, who was well on the way to recovery, "you have to wake up now. What's Ben going to play with if he gives you all his soldiers?"

She was brushing Drew's hair off his face when she caught Riley's scent. The other lieutenant came in and took his brother's hand. "How is he?"

Riley always asked her, not Lara. Because he was mated. And he'd almost lost his mate once. "Strong," Indigo said, "so strong that when I fall asleep, I swear he's curled up around me." Sometimes she woke feeling as if she'd been rubbing her face against thick, l.u.s.trous fur the shade of silver-birch bark. It comforted her in sleep . . . and caused incredible desolation when she woke.

Meeting her gaze in silent understanding, Riley leaned down to whisper something in Drew's ear before leaving several minutes later. Brenna had already been by that morning and would likely return again within the hour.

Lara touched Indigo's shoulder some time afterward. "Come have a cup of coffee."

Indigo shook her head.

"Fine, then I'm pulling rank," Lara said in a steely voice. "You will get up right now, sit your a.s.s down at my desk, and eat what I put in front of you."

Startled, Indigo stared at Lara. "You can only pull rank when a pack member is in danger of harming herself." In that situation, Lara outranked even Hawke.

Lara poked Indigo in the ribs. "When was the last time you ate?" She didn't wait for a response. "If you don't do this voluntarily, I'll call Hawke and Riaz and have them hog-tie you to a chair. Then I'll spoon-feed you, and after that, I'll pump you full of narcotics so that you get at least eight solid hours of rest."

Indigo's wolf wanted to snarl, but it loved the pack healer too much. "You play mean, Lara." Bending down, she pressed her lips to Drew's. "I'll be back after I satisfy General Lara." It was hard to pull herself away, harder still to stuff food down her gullet.

It took her ten minutes-because Lara refused to let her go until she'd finished every bite. "Drew, sweetie, I have some bad news," Lara said, after Indigo returned to his side. "Your mate's lost twenty pounds and looks like a fish stick. You're going to find yourself mated to a skeleton if you don't open those baby blues."

Indigo scowled, but her response was lost in a rush of noise as Riley, Brenna, and Judd all returned, along with Hawke and a couple of the teenagers who'd gone up into the mountains with her and Drew. Too many people-but this was how they healed.

By touch. By Pack.

Hawke asked Lara for an update, and the healer began to speak, but Indigo was focused only on Drew . . . and her wolf caught it the instant his breathing changed.

Then she heard the sweetest sound of all.

"Where's Indy?" It was a groggy question.

A whirl of sounds and scents crashed against Andrew's senses. He felt Lara's warm hands on his face, his chest, heard his sister's cry of welcome, saw Hawke's distinctive hair glint in the light, but- There she was.

"Hey." Memories tumbled into him, pain and anguish . . . and the incredible power of someone holding him to life.

His mate.

She didn't say a word, just pushed past Lara to crawl into bed beside him, her face buried in his neck. His heart almost stopped. She'd done it in front of everyone, his strong, private, incredibly proud mate. And then he didn't care, because he could feel damp heat against his skin. "Out," he snapped.

Everyone left.

"Indy, please don't cry." He couldn't stand it. Indigo was tough to her bones; he'd never seen her cry. "Please, baby, please."

Her hand clenched on his shoulder, her tears heartbreakingly silent.

He stroked one hand into her hair, a little lost, but determined to give his mate what she needed. "I promise not to get shot again. Twice in one lifetime should be enough to fulfill anyone's quota." He kissed the parts of her face he could see, her ear, the corner of her eye. "Baby, you have to stop."

His wolf was going insane inside him, scratching and clawing in distress. Giving in to the animal-and ignoring the sharp aches and twinges of his body-he shifted to take her mouth in a kiss that was a pa.s.sionate mix of apology, possession, and sheer tenderness. When he finally allowed her to breathe, her eyes glittered up at him, a bright, brilliant indigo.

Unable to bear the sight of the tear trails that marked her cheeks, he kissed them off. "I'm sorry," he said against her lips.

"You should be." A husky reprimand, his Indigo coming back to sparking life. "If you make me go through that again"-her fingers clenching in his hair, holding him close-"so help me, G.o.d, I'm going to kick your a.s.s three ways to Sunday."

He bent his head and let her tell him off, hiding the wolf's smile against her neck. Because her hands were stroking over his body even as she spoke, her legs locked around him. Sighing because he was home, he closed his eyes and gave in to the demands of his bruised and battered body.

Indigo knew the instant Drew fell asleep, sprawled over her in a big, gorgeous spread of muscled male flesh. Feeling her throat thicken again at the thought of how close she'd come to losing him, she pressed a kiss to his temple and forced herself to unhook her legs from around him, afraid she'd put pressure on his wounds.

"Is it safe to come in?" It was a whisper from the doorway.

Indigo nodded at Lara. "He's out."

Lara tiptoed in-though Indigo had a feeling Drew was well and truly down for the count-and ran her hands over his body. "He's fine." Relieved words. "His body's healing the remaining damage at its own pace, and I'm going to let it. It'll ensure he rests."

"I'll make sure he does exactly as you order." Indigo's hands tightened in Drew's hair. "G.o.d, but he's got me good." It was a heart-shuddering jolt, the rush of emotion she'd finally allowed herself to feel now that he was safe.

Lara hitched herself up to sit on the bed. "We're all jealous, you know, all the unmated women." A smile full of the wolf's laughter. "Not only is he a strong, younger male who'll probably drive you ragged in bed-"

Indigo's glare had no effect.

"-he adores the ground you walk on." The healer placed one hand on the back of Drew's shoulder in gentle affection. "I'd cut off my right arm to have a man look at me the way Drew looks at you."

"Sorry, he's mine." The sudden, violent need to hold him close, to quench her thirst for him, had her scowling at Lara's hand.

The healer lifted it off with a grin. "How are you going to get out from under him?"

Indigo tried to shift Drew off a fraction. He grumbled in his sleep and shoved a hand under her T-shirt to cup her breast as he snuggled his face deeper into her neck. Looking up to see Lara trying not to burst out laughing, Indigo felt her own lips twitch. "Maybe you should lock the door on your way out."

The healer did just that . . . and Indigo decided she'd earned some time off. Hooking one leg carefully over Drew's uninjured side, she put her arms around the heavy heat of him and let sleep sweep her under.

Indigo left Drew to brief Hawke on an unexpected message Drew discovered on his phone when he rose again and was able to check his messages. As a result, she found herself at a highly secure and private location three days later, about to take part in a meeting none of them could've dreamed up, even in their wildest, most insane dreams.

Hawke sat on one side of the table, Riley to his left and a heavily pregnant Sascha Duncan to his right, with her mate, Lucas, next to her. Indigo, DarkRiver sentinels Nathan and Dorian, and a still-healing but stubborn Drew, held up the wall at their back, while Riaz was standing watch outside the meeting room with Mercy by his side.

Across from them sat Councilors Nikita Duncan and Anthony Kyriakus. Nikita had Max Shannon to her right, with Max's wife, Sophia, sitting beside him; while Anthony had a tall, brown-eyed, brown-skinned young man next to him. Tanique Gray was apparently Anthony's son and Faith's half brother, and, from the looks of things, he had chosen to ally himself with his father in adulthood.

Indigo's job was to protect her alpha, and to that aim, she kept her eyes resolutely on the threat posed by the Councilors. She had, she thought, never brushed against so cold a personality as that of Nikita Duncan. Even Anthony Kyriakus, for all his power, didn't ruffle her wolf's fur as badly.

"I suppose someone needs to speak first," Sascha said, her voice the only sound in the silence.

Nikita Duncan gave a single short nod to acknowledge her daughter's words. But it was Lucas who spoke next. "We all know why we're here. This territory belongs-in some part or another-to all of us."