Psy & Changelings 06 - Branded by Fire

you do, dear. And if the man you’re seeing can’t handle a little competition, he should get out of the game.” Her voice changed, became pure alpha. “You need a tough man, Mercy. Otherwise, you’ll stomp on his heart and eat it for breakfast.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Fact of life, kitten.” A muffled whisper. “Speaking of tough men, your grandfather is out of patience. I’ll talk to you after you meet Eduardo and Joaquin.”
    She was about to put the handset on the bed stand when it came back to life in her hand. This time, she checked the caller ID. “Lucas? What’s up?”
    “I need you to run a check out by the Grove. Something’s there that shouldn’t be.”
    Her mind shifted into sentinel mode. “Like last time?” Then, it had been a wounded Psy defector they’d found. The aftermath had almost gotten both Dorian and Ashaya killed.
    “No”—Lucas’s voice was grim—“tip was, there’s a dead smell in the air.”

CHAPTER 4
    Ice water in her veins. “Psy, human, or changeling?”
    “No confirmation—call me the second you know,” he said. “One of the SnowDancers is already on the way to join you.”
    “Why?” Her leopard bristled. “The Grove’s in our territory.”
    “It was one of their juveniles who sensed something off when he passed through—”
    “Hah,” Mercy said. “He probably came down to do mischief.” As DarkRiver’s official liaison to SnowDancer, there wasn’t much she didn’t know about the little turf war the cat and wolf juveniles—and young adults—were having. Anything that involved both packs and didn’t need an alpha’s attention went through her . . . and Riley. The bite mark on her neck tingled in sensory memory—she could all but feel his lips, his teeth against her sensitized flesh.
    “Anything serious I need to worry about?”
    Snapping back to the present, she shook her head. “No, they’re just blowing off steam, trying to figure out the hierarchy between themselves.” Both DarkRiver and SnowDancer ran disciplined packs—the younger members knew exactly how far they could go. “Maybe I can beat the SnowDancer to the Grove.”
    “We’re allies.” Lucas sounded very patient. “Be nice.”
    She knew he traded barbs with Hawke, the SnowDancer alpha, every time they met. “I will if you will.”
    “Shut up. I’m your alpha. Go look and see what’s up.”
    Hanging up with a grin that quickly faded as she considered what she might find, she hurried to throw some water on her face—the bath would have to wait until she had a few hours to relax. Though her muscles were still a little sore, it was nothing that would hold her back. She was a sentinel for a reason—she was fit, lethal, and well able to take down most men twice her size.
    Not including Riley.
    Her teeth bared at the way he’d pinned her—maybe she’d enjoyed it last night, but if the wolf tried to use that to change the balance of power in the sentinel-lieutenant relationship between them, things would get seriously ugly.
    Her mind filled with images of him blocking her punches, trying not to hurt her. She squelched the tiny tendril of warmth that threatened to rise to the surface. Because if there was one thing she knew about predatory changeling men, it was that they weren’t good with boundaries—if she gave an inch, he’d take a whole country mile, start trying to protect her in the field.
    Scowling at the thought, she wiped off her face, took a second to cover up a certain mark, then scraped her hair back into a high, tight ponytail before dressing in jeans, a plain white tee, and boots. Her cell phone was on the night table and she grabbed it on the way out, sticking it in her back pocket. The autumn air tasted crisp, sweet, almost too cold. She drew it into her lungs as she ran, ceding control to the leopard though she remained in human form. It knew instinctively where to put its feet, when to duck, when to switch direction because an easier path lay a little bit to the left or right.
    It just felt like being .
    Despite the bleak nature of what lay ahead, she was smiling when the first hint of scent hit her nose. Her stride faltered as she crossed into the large tract of land known as the Grove. “God would not be that cruel.” But he was.
    Because there was Riley, running to meet her from the opposite direction. His expression was the by-now-familiar impassive one—the one that made her want to needle him simply to get a reaction. If she hadn’t seen