Tangle of Need (Psy-Changeling #11)(40)

Another scent. Unfamiliar. Feminine.

The cubs and pup jumped apart as if they’d been doused with cold water, and suddenly, they were sitting quiet and lovable, three of the most well-behaved little ones Adria had ever seen. “Little fakers,” she said, attempting to hide her laugh.

Beside her, Riaz coughed just as a tall brunette turned the corner.

“What,” the woman said to the cubs, “did we discuss before we left home?” Folding her arms, she tapped an impatient tattoo on the floor with her booted foot.

The wolf pup barked.

“Hush, Ben. These two were supposed to wait for me to finish talking with Lara.”

Dropping their heads, the cubs made piteous mewling sounds. Adria caught the amusement in the eyes of the woman who had to be their mother, but her voice when it came, was stern. “You have a choice of punishments: either no playtime with Ben and the other pups, or no chocolate cake for dessert tonight.”

All three children looked at the woman in unmitigated shock.

Who didn’t budge.

The leopard cubs nodded at their friend—who was apparently more attractive than chocolate cake. Bending down, the brunette grabbed and kissed each sweet face in turn, including Ben’s. “Now go wait for me over there”—she waved to a spot a couple of meters down the corridor, where they’d remain in her line of sight—“unless you want playtime permanently cancelled.”

Only when the boys had padded away to take meek seated positions, did the woman rise and meet Adria’s and Riaz’s gazes. “They give me three new gray hairs hourly.” Exasperated affection.

“Tamsyn,” Riaz said, the heat of his body too close, too aggressive, “this is Adria.”

Adria forced herself to think past her gut-clawing awareness of the male next to her. “The DarkRiver healer.” All senior personnel had been briefed about DarkRiver long ago.

“If you say you’re not related to Indigo,” Tamsyn said in response, “I’ll eat my boot … if the twins haven’t already.”

Laughing at the dry codicil, Adria admitted to the familial relationship. “Social visit?”

“Ashaya’s here, too,” Tamsyn said, referring to the M-Psy mated to a DarkRiver sentinel. “We want to discuss Alice, go over some new scans.”

“Alice” was Alice Eldridge, a human scientist who had been put into cryonic suspension over a hundred years ago and now slept in a coma no one could break. Adria couldn’t imagine what Alice’s life would be like if she did wake—the world had shifted dramatically since the beginning of her forced sleep. Her friends, her family, each and every one was dust. And yet Alice endured.

“I better get back and organize an escort for the hooligans,” Tammy said, looking over her shoulder at the children with an affectionate smile. “It was nice to meet you, Adria.”

The silence that fell after Tamsyn and the boys left was awkward. However, when Adria would have continued on her way, Riaz shifted to block her. Lines of strain marked his face, a heavy shadow over the beaten gold of his eyes, but his words were unexpectedly generous. “I have some time free—why don’t I show you some of the more hidden parts of den territory?”

Unsettled, Adria glanced up, found herself unable to read his expression. She’d spent far too much time with another man whose face she couldn’t read, so she was blunt in her disbelief. “What possible reason could you have for inviting me to spend time with you when we both know how you feel about me?”

Riaz had expected the claws, his wolf taking the hit without flinching. “Because,” he said, carrying through the decision he’d made that cold, lonely dawn after Hawke and Sienna’s mating ceremony, “it’s not your fault you’re not my mate.” It felt as if he’d stripped off his skin with the admission, but he owed Adria the truth. “And I’m sorry I punished you for that.”

Adria had frozen after his first sentence, horror dawning black and violent over her clean, beautiful features. “You found your mate? How could you kiss me?”

He didn’t want to talk about it, wanted to pretend he’d never set sight on Lisette, but the time for hiding behind anger and an obstinate refusal to admit the truth was over. “She’s married.” In love with another man. Coop was right—he could allow that to destroy him, or he could rebuild a new life from the broken shards of the old.

He was a wolf, a dominant, a protector. To give up and leave his pack without his strength was simply not in his nature. So he’d find a way to survive, and to once again become a man he could face in the mirror with pride.

In front of him, Adria’s eyes turned the pale, haunting amber of her wolf in painful sympathy. His jaw set. He didn’t want pity, had told her only because she’d borne the brunt of his rage when she’d never been at fault. But there was no hint of pity in her response, simply a warm generosity of spirit that rocked him. “If your wolf isn’t troubled by my presence,” she said, “then I’d appreciate your help.”

Troubled?

Riaz swallowed a harsh laugh. “We’ll drive out of the section you already know well,” he said, determined to treat her with the courtesy he should’ve shown her from the start, regardless of the touch-hunger that continued to claw at him, “and explore a less accessible part of the remaining area on foot.”