Psy & Changelings 10 - Kiss of Snow

infirmary after having had a late dinner with Lara, when he saw Kieran about to head in. The handsome young soldier carried a bouquet of colorful blooms.
    “Are those for Lara?” He didn’t move out of the doorway.
    “Yeah. I thought since she’s been working so hard, it might be nice for her to have these in her office.” A flashing smile. “Do you think she’ll like them?”
    Walker didn’t have to think about his answer. “She won’t be getting a chance to see them.”
    Kieran might’ve been human, but he’d grown up in a wolf pack. His gaze went flat with challenge. “How about we let Lara decide.”
    “No.” Walker held the other man’s distinctive gray-green eyes until Kieran jerked his head away.
    “Fuck.” Fingers crushing the slender stems in his grip, he thrust the bouquet onto Walker’s chest. “You might be more dominant, but I will skin you if you don’t treat her the way she should be treated.”
    As Kieran stalked away, Walker looked at the crumpled flowers in his grasp and considered why he’d felt compelled to keep the other man from getting anywhere near Lara. Kieran had only been trying to look after her in his own way. Except, Walker realized, he didn’t want anyone else looking after the SnowDancer healer. Bringing her dinner when she worked late, making sure she got enough sleep, holding her when she cried, those were Walker’s responsibilities.
    . . . you don’t have any other rights—you didn’t want them . . . They belong to the man with whom I’ll build a life, have children.
    She’d been furious the night she’d thrown those words at him but that made them no less true. So . . . either he backed off right now, or he asked for the rights he’d once rejected. There was no guarantee she’d say yes. In fact, there was a high chance she would refuse, having moved on in her personal life.
    His hands clenched around the already bruised stems in his grasp.
     
     
    HAWKE growled at Matthias as he sensed Sienna disappearing down the corridor. “Get the hell out of my way,” he said to the big lieutenant.
    Matthias folded those arms, which were the size of small tree trunks, and sighed. “I’m only looking out for your dignity. Chasing women down the corridors is not done.”
    “I’ll chase whomever I want.” But the wolf’s temper was retreating.
    Matthias grinned. “Pretty little thing, your Psy. And fast. What’d she do to get you in a hunting kind of mood?”
    “None of your business.” Scowling, he jerked his head toward the office. “Since you refuse to leave.”
    Matthias ambled in. “Nice to be here, even under these circumstances.”
    “Your team?”
    “Primed and ready to go.” Matthias raised an eyebrow at the mess on Hawke’s desk but didn’t comment. “They know den territory, but I’ve got them doing a run to refamiliarize themselves.”
    “Good. Make sure they don’t overdo it—I have a feeling the shit is going to hit the fan sooner rather than later, and I want them rested.”
    “I’ve told them an hour, no more.” Smoothing out a wrinkled map after picking it up off the floor, Matthias put it on Hawke’s desk with pointed care. “Alexei says his snipers are ready if we can set them in position ahead of time. They’re not trained to get themselves through enemy fire yet.”
    Hawke nodded. “Riaz can handle that.” The lieutenant was an excellent sharpshooter.
    “Have you made a decision about the den?” Matthias asked, his expression now devoid of any humor.
    “It can’t fall.” Even if SnowDancer survived, seeing the enemy in their home would savage them. “We blow it up if necessary.”
    “I’m not going to argue. No one will.”
    “Yeah, but let’s make sure it doesn’t come to that by kicking their asses.”
    As it happened, things didn’t go quite as expected.
    “Some kind of viral infection,” Judd said to him the next day. “Eighty percent of the troops in the Pure Psy compound are down. From the medical chatter the techs were able to intercept, it looks like the bug’s going to lay them out for three, maybe four days.”
    “Confirmed?”
    “Yes. Henry’s not playing us.”
    “We could hit the compound now,” Indigo said when he pulled his lieutenants—and Drew—together for a meeting. “Force Henry to move.”
    “Yeah, but we still haven’t discovered the weapons cache in the city,” Riaz pointed out. “This could be our chance. Henry’s people might get sloppy because of the