Psy & Changelings 06 - Branded by Fire

truth, he’d be showing them off.
    But he didn’t know what she was to him. Except the woman who made him hotter and angrier faster than any other. So he remained on his back, brutally aware that once would never be enough. Not even close. His gut tightened. “Go away, Drew. I’ll get up in a little while.”
    “Hmm, he wants me to leave. Why?” Drew sipped his coffee. “Could it be because the little she-cat marked our esteemed lieutenant?”
    Riley barely kept himself from reacting to the “she-cat” comment. He had no intention of hiding his entanglement with Mercy—she might be frustrating as hell, a royal pain in his ass, but she was also an incredibly strong, sexy woman, someone any male would be proud to call his lover. But he needed time to figure out how he was going to deal with it. The instant that thought formed, he heard Mercy’s voice in his head, a fragment of memory from their many scuffles.
    “Jesus, Riley, do you ever just react?”
    “When necessary.”
    “When necessary.” She mimicked his voice perfectly. “I’d call you Psy but I think that would be an insult to the Psy.”
    “I feel.”
    “But your feelings go through about ten different filters before you let them out.” She flipped her hair, tied in a high tail, over a shoulder. “Doesn’t bother me—except when you drive me insane with these plans.” The word “plan” was about seven syllables long. “We’ll deal with some situations as they arise. We don’t need a color-coded flowchart.”
    He hadn’t had a flowchart, of course. Mercy simply liked to jerk his chain as far as possible. “I think you need to go see Brenna,” he said to Andrew when his brother remained seated. “Word is, she and Judd had a fight.” Riley liked Judd, but the man was mated to his baby sister—Riley reserved the right to hassle him periodically. And use him as fodder to distract Drew. “She won’t talk to me—go make sure he didn’t push her around.”
    Drew left so fast, he created a breeze in his wake. Riley wondered if Judd would punch Drew for his unwanted—and entirely unnecessary—interference. “Serves him right,” he muttered, rising and stealing the coffee his brother had left behind. Judd would cut off his arm before hurting Brenna. That was why he was still alive. Because while Riley wasn’t Mercy, with her breathtakingly vivid nature, he felt deeply.
    And he loved his sister with a strength that made her call him an overprotective bear on a regular basis. He didn’t care. The pack had helped—so much—but it was Riley Brenna had looked to after their parents’ deaths, Riley who’d kissed her scrapes and soothed her nightmares. The fact that she was mated didn’t change his right to look after her.
    A knot of guilt and fury twisted around his heart on the heels of that thought. He hadn’t dreamed last night, but the ache was there, as always. Because the truth was, he’d failed Brenna when she needed him most. That Psy bastard Santano Enrique had hurt his sister, hurt her so much that she’d almost broken.
    “But she didn’t break. She fucking survived, and the last thing she needs now is an idiot brother who feels sorry for himself.” Mercy’s voice again, words she’d thrown at him when he’d snarled at her one time too many after Brenna’s rescue.
    What would she say if she could hear his thoughts right now?
    He reached back to touch his shoulder, a reluctant smile tugging at his lips as old rage retreated under a wave of the most primal desire. If he’d known it would be this good between them, he’d have said to hell with self-control and gone after her months ago. That, he thought as he walked into the bathroom, was one mistake he wouldn’t be repeating.
    By the time Drew dragged his sorry ass back through the door, Riley was dressed and eating scrambled eggs. “No visible bruises,” he said, eyes going to Drew’s chest. His brother had been shot through the heart last winter, his blood a scarlet flower across the snow—Riley’s wolf couldn’t help the near-automatic check. “Either Judd was in a good mood, or your ribs must hurt like hell.”
    “Laugh if you will,” Drew said, an evil grin cracking his face. “But now Brenna knows something’s up, too.”
    Great. If Drew was nosy, then Bren was relentless. “You have no life, Drew.”
    “Then you won’t mind if I stick my nose into yours.”
     
     
    Mercy lay in bed way past her usual wake-up time, staring at the