Angels' Flight(117)

Eyes narrowed, she stepped closer with a slow deliberation that was pure, calculated provocation. She was a tall woman, but he was taller. That didn’t seem to stop her from looking down her nose at him. “I didn’t realize,” she said in a voice so polite it drew blood, “that fawning over you was part of the job requirement.”

“Now I know where Indigo learned her mean face from.” But where his fellow lieutenant’s heart beat warm and generous beneath that tough exterior, he wasn’t sure Adria had any emotions that registered above zero on the thermometer.

Adria’s response was scalpel sharp. “I don’t know what she ever saw in you, but I suppose every woman has mistakes in her past.” The slightest change in her expression, the tiniest fracture, before it was sealed up again, her face an impenetrable rock face.

Scowling, Riaz was about to tell her exactly what he thought of her and her judgmental gaze when his cell phone rang. He answered without moving an inch away from the woman who was sandpaper across his temper, rubbing him raw with her mere presence. “Yeah?”

“My office,” Hawke said. “Need you to take care of something.”

“Be there in two.” Snapping the phone shut, he closed the remaining distance between them, forcing Adria to tip back her head. “We will,” he said, realizing those striking blue eyes with an edge of purple had streaks of gold running through them, beautiful and exotic, “continue this later.”

That was when Adria’s cell phone rang. “Yes?” she answered without breaking eye contact with the big, muscled wolf who thought he could intimidate her.

“In my office,” Hawke ordered.

“On my way.” Hanging up, she raised an eyebrow at Riaz in a consciously insolent action. “My alpha has requested my presence, so get out of my f*cking way,” she said with utmost sweetness.

Eyes a brilliant dark gold that were more wolf than human narrowed again. “Guess we’ll be walking together.”

Not giving an inch until he stepped back and turned to head to Hawke’s office, she walked in silence beside him, though her wolf bared its teeth, hungry to draw blood, to bite and claw and mark. Damn him. Damn him. She’d been doing fine, coping after her final separation from Martin. That had been a bloody battle, too.

“You’ll come crawling back to me. Maybe I’ll be waiting. Maybe I won’t.”

Adria bit back a raw laugh. Martin didn’t understand that it was over. Done. Forever. It had been over the night a year ago when he’d stormed out of their home, not to return for four months. The truly stunning thing was that he’d had the gall to be shocked when she’d told him to go find someplace else to sleep and slammed the door in his face.

“Cat got your tongue?” An acerbic comment made in a deep male voice that ruffled her fur the wrong way.

“Go bite yourself,” she muttered, in no mood to play games. Her skin felt too sensitive, as if she’d lost a protective layer, her blood too hot.

“Someone should bite you,” Riaz muttered. “Pull that stick out of your ass at the same time.”

Adria growled, just as they reached the open door to Hawke’s office. The alpha looked up at their entrance, unhidden speculation in blue eyes so pale they were those of a wolf given human form. However, when he spoke, his words were pragmatic. “You two free to go for a drive?”

Adria nodded, saw Riaz do the same. “What do you need done?” Riaz asked.

“Mack and one of his trainee techs went up to do a routine service of the hydro station,” Hawke told them, “but their vehicle’s not starting, and they’ve got components that need to be brought back to the den for repairs.”

“No problem,” Riaz said. “I’ll take one of the SUVs, pick them up.”

Even as Adria was thinking the task was a one-person job, Hawke turned to her. “You’re now one of the most senior people in the den.” His dominance was staggering, demanding her wolf’s absolute attention. “I’d like you to get reacquainted with the region, given that you haven’t spent an extended period of time here since you turned eighteen.”

She nodded. Ranking just below the lieutenants in the hierarchy, senior soldiers were often called upon to lead, and as a leader she had to know every inch of this land, not just the section she’d been assigned to during the battle. “It’d be better if I do it on foot.”

“You can explore in detail later on.” Hawke pushed back strands of hair that had fallen over his forehead, the color a distinctive silver-gold that echoed his coat in wolf form. “I want you to have a good working knowledge of the area as soon as possible.” He handed her a thin plas map. “The trip up to the hydro station will take you through some critical sections—and you have certification in mechanics, correct?”

“Yes.” It had been an interest she’d turned into the secondary qualification all soldiers were required to possess. “I’ll take a look at the vehicle.”

“What about the replanting?” Riaz asked, his voice clawing over her skin like nails on one of those old-fashioned chalkboards the pups liked to draw on. “Felix’s team have enough security?”

“They’re fine.” Walking to the territorial map on the stone wall of his office, Hawke tapped a large crosshatched section below what had been SnowDancer’s defensive line in the fight against Pure Psy. “Felix’s volunteers and conscripts”—a sharp grin—“are planting the area with fast-growing natives, but for now, it’s so open it’s easy to monitor, especially with the cats sharing the watch.”