Psy & Changelings 09 - Play of Passion

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.”
    Nikita looked straight at the DarkRiver alpha. “That territory is now under threat.”
    Indigo could sense Hawke exercising savage control to rein in his instinctive and feral dislike of the Councilors. The Council had almost destroyed SnowDancer once, and none of them would ever trust its members again.
    “You”—Nikita glanced from Hawke to Lucas—“were both targeted, because your deaths would’ve sent your packs into at least temporary disarray.”
    Neither alpha said anything, though they’d figured out that much for themselves.
    “Take down SnowDancer and DarkRiver,” Anthony added, his tone measured, calm, “and you crack the city’s defenses.”
    Indigo wasn’t fooled by his outwardly mild demeanor. According to SnowDancer’s research, the reclusive Councilor had access to a network of F-Psy stronger than any other. Anthony Kyriakus knew more secrets than anyone else in this room, and she was quite certain the Councilor didn’t hesitate to use those secrets to leverage power when necessary.
    Riley broke his silence to say, “Our information is that the Council is at war.” The statement was a test. Judd had already confirmed the rumors. Now, Indigo waited to see what Nikita would say.
    Sascha’s mother didn’t even blink as she answered. “Henry, Shoshanna, and possibly Tatiana have decided that Silence must hold at all costs. They seek to eliminate anyone who goes against that rhetoric.”
    Riley spoke again, his tone so calm, you’d think they were discussing the watch rotation. “Why share that when the Council prefers to keep its secrets?”
    “The reason they’re focusing on this city, this state,” Anthony responded, “is because both Nikita and I call it home, as do the two most powerful changeling packs in the country. Given all that—take this city, and they take the country.”
    True, Indigo thought. Because even if Anthony or Nikita survived an