Warriors of Poseidon 05 - Atlantis Redeemed

meant to say, darling?”
    She grinned up at him, and Alexios pulled her close and pressed a brief kiss to her lips. “Exactly.
    Now. Before the death threats started, what in the nine hells was going on here? And I think you’d better start with your reaction to Tiernan.”
    “His reaction to me is none of your damn business,” Tiernan said, reaching for Brennan’s hand.
    “Leave him alone. He’s been through a lot tonight.”
    Atlantis Redeemed – Warriors of Poseidon 05
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    Brennan was stunned into utter stillness when he felt her warm hand clasp his own. Then she did something even more shocking. She stepped forward so she was standing in front of Brennan, as if to protect him.
    She wanted to protect him. She was defending him.
    His heart, so long unused, fell out of his body and shattered into tiny pieces at her feet. He wanted to weep. He wanted to shout out his joy and triumph to the universe. He did neither, but simply moved to stand at her side, where he hoped to spend the rest of eternity.
    “He’s been through a lot? Look, Butler, he just offered to kill me, in case your memory’s not working,” Alexios said.
    “Yeah, yeah, but it was the curse, so now can we get past the death threat that wasn’t, and talk about something important?” Tiernan pointed at Grace and Lucas, then looked at Brennan. “I’m going to say hi to the nice people now. Try not to kill anybody, or I might not come to your rescue this time.”
    Brennan was speechless, a complicated combination of dismay and amusement warring for control of his emotions. Tiernan was handling him exactly the way he’d seen Grace handle Alexios, and the princes’ women handle them, for that matter. Like he was the smoothest, silkiest of Atlantean clay in her hands.
    Oh, by all the gods, he was in for a wild ride. If only Poseidon would allow it.
    “I’m Tiernan Butler, ace reporter, on the scene for the same reason you are,” Tiernan was saying to Grace. “My cover name is Tracy Baum here, so please call me Tracy all the time so you don’t accidentally trip and say Tiernan. I’m sorry about the naked thing, by the way. Your guy and a few of his buddies rescued me from a very bad situation with some very nasty vamps and their followers. And when I passed out, I was wrapped up in a very big sheet, just so you know.”
    Grace grinned and shook Tiernan’s hand. “In Boston, I’m guessing? I’m Grace Havilland and this is Lucas, the alpha of the Yellowstone wolf pack.”
    Lucas shook Tiernan’s hand, sheer uncomplicated glee lighting up his face. “You have no idea how glad I am to meet the woman who brought the crazy to Brennan.”
    Brennan inhaled and exhaled long, slow breaths as the volcano of jealous rage tried to climb up his gut again at the sight of the wolf alpha touching Tiernan. She glanced back at him, as if she’d sensed something, and quickly released Lucas’s hand and crossed back to Brennan, standing near enough that he could touch her if he wanted.
    Wanted. Ah, the cosmic joke of the gods. He wanted to do nothing other than touch this woman. Deep breaths. He could do this. Two millennia of reason could not be washed away by a tidal wave of emotion in the space of hours.
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    “Okay, enough socializing,” Lucas said. “The attack in the park? Those weren’t my wolves. We didn’t recognize them, so they were imports. Witness reports on the scene said that they didn’t know where they were or even who they were, from what anyone could tell. They were confused and groggy, like they were on drugs.”
    “Or like they’d been dosed with drugs,” Tiernan said. “That lab must be around here. What if they’re releasing test subjects in a kind of twisted experiment?”
    “That, or they could have escaped,” Grace pointed out.
    Brennan nodded. “Either possibility raises serious concerns for the safety of park visitors, not to mention your Pack, Lucas.”
    Lucas slammed his hand against the wall and bared his teeth in a snarl. “You think we don’t know that? My mate and children were less than ten miles away from that attack. What if we’re the target? First they take our Pack members, and then they point their murderous thugs in our direction.”
    Alexios put a steadying hand on his friend’s shoulder. “We know. We’re here to help you make sure no harm comes to your family.”
    “What is the plan?” Tiernan asked. “Let’s