Adria, cambiante loba y soldado resistente, ha decidido romper con el pasado, uno tan impredecible en el amor como en la guerra. Ahora llega a un nuevo territorio y a una nueva complicación: Riaz, un teniente SnowDancer ya jurado a una mujer desesperada que pertenece a otro. Para Riaz, la primordial atracción que siente hacia Adria es una pasmosa traición. Para Adria, su peligroso atractivo como lobo solitario está mas alla de lo sexual. La consume. La aterroriza. Trata de socavar todo lo que ella ha construido para su nueva vida. Pero luchar contra la salvaje compulsión del uno hacia el otro solo demuestra que es una batalla perdida. Su reunión es un infierno... y una fusión de dos almas heridas que se prometen mutuamente sin compromisos, sin vínculos, sin lazos. Solo placer. Muy tarde, se dan cuenta de que tienen mas para perder de lo que imaginan. En el horizonte se dibuja una guerra civil entre los Psi que podría alterar el destino del mundo mismo y ellos deberán tomar una decisión que tal vez los destruya a los dos.

“Any man not scared of a bunch of maternals ganging up on him needs his head examined.”

“I may get a little more … flexible after we’ve been mated for a while.” “No you won’t.” Sienna pressed a hot, wet kiss to his jaw, her fingers stroking the heat of his nape. “But I love you exactly as you are—and I know how to stand my ground. So do your worst, beautiful man.”

His gut twisted at the thought of Sienna broken and dead at the hands of the enemy, and he had to clench his fists to keep from grabbing her and stashing her in their quarters, where she’d be safe. He fought the urge because the one thing he would never, ever do to Sienna, was cage her. She’d already spent far too much of her life behind bars, the psychic prison designed to contain her power turning into a place of mental torture.

He knew what it meant to her that she could say those words and know no one would hurt her for daring to feel, for daring to love with all the power of her strong, loyal heart.

It didn’t matter if the lovers knew their friendship would never lead to a relationship—friendship was a precious thing to a wolf, to be cherished on its own merits.

“But don’t be too sensible. Claws and teeth are part of the fun.”

It would be easy, so easy, to stay “safe,” to never again stick out her neck, but Adria was a dominant, a SnowDancer. She was not a coward, and would never shame her wolf by allowing herself to become one. Even if that meant she had to go claw to claw against a lone wolf who was nothing she’d ever wanted in a man—and who compelled her beyond reason.

Vasic’s eyes remained trained on the former Arrow until Judd disappeared around the corner and into the streets of San Francisco, a shadow among shadows. “He still moves like one of us.” “In all the ways that matter, he still is one of us.”

“An Arrow cannot want anything if he is to remain an Arrow.”

Little rituals. Little pieces of their lives. The idea that they were laying the foundations of their shared history … it made her so happy it hurt.

“I told you, baby, we’re wolves.” Wild affection, the endearment one he used with her alone. “We respect strength.”

But the painful fact was, he wasn’t ready to walk alone again, a hard thing for a lone wolf to accept.

The truth was, Adria reminded Sienna most of Riley. They both had the same quiet, unflashy confidence intertwined with an earthy warmth, the same sense of being a rock in the storm. Sienna didn’t know the pack as well as Hawke did, but she had the gut-deep feeling Adria would soon become one of the unspoken anchors in the den, a woman people went to for levelheaded advice given without judgment or pity.

“Just because I’m submissive doesn’t mean I won’t find creative and nasty ways to make them sorry if they dare come on to my man.”

A pulse along the mating bond, a “kiss” from her wolf, a reminder that no matter where the journey took her, she would never again be alone in the dark.

“Thank you,” he said in a rumbling echo of her own words, “for loving me enough to understand my need to take care of you.” “Hawke.”

But SnowDancer hadn’t broken. It had grown stronger. Until tonight they celebrated the mating of the boy who had given up his childhood to lead the pack out of the darkness.

...he continued to walk beside his lieutenant—a man who, as a result of his incredible feats during the battle in San Francisco, now had a fan club. Complete with “I <3 Judd” and “Judd Is My Boyfriend” memorabilia.

To have the loyalty of men and women of such strength and heart was a gift—even if it meant he had to face the occasional challenge to his authority. And this particular challenge … it showed a depth of love any alpha would be hard-pressed to repudiate.

“They’re welcoming you,” he whispered, his chest vibrating with the need to add his voice to the song, “not as my mate, but as their alpha’s mate.”

...his wolf understood that Sienna belonged to the pack, too, and that they’d lay down their lives for her. It didn’t mean she’d have an easy road when it came to making her place in SnowDancer, but tonight, his wolves told her they knew she was the right mate for their alpha, regardless of her age and inexperience. They would stand by her as she grew into her strength. It was a gift to Hawke’s heart.

...even in the darkest part of her Silence. “Thank you,” she whispered. “For being my father.” In every way that mattered. Walker’s expression altered only the minutest fraction, but she saw the storm of naked emotion crash across the green before he stroked his hand over her hair and kissed her gently on the forehead. “You make me proud each and every day.”

Bruised pride made her want to repudiate him as he’d repudiated her, but if being with Martin had taught her one thing, it was that her pride could be a terrible weakness.

She gave him that piece of herself so this wounded wolf would know he wasn’t the only one going into this with the most painful of motivations. It wasn’t simply about the sex any longer, wasn’t simply about assuaging the skin hunger that haunted them both. It was about saying good-bye to a dream that had never had a chance.

“She’s so young.” It worried him at times, that Sienna Lauren wouldn’t be able to bear the weight placed on her shoulders. “You saw what she did.” A solemn response. “That kind of power ages a person.”

Exhaling quietly, he closed his own eyes and slept with her, skin to skin, his wolf finding unexpected peace in the nearness of a packmate who didn’t judge, didn’t ask things from him he couldn’t give, and who shared her body with a rare kindness of spirit. Adria Morgan was a woman he would never forget, no matter if their liaison lasted a week or a year.

And that was why Vasic had first agreed to work with Anthony—the man was ruthless, but he had the same kind of loyalty to his foreseers that Vasic had to the Arrows.

Not simply his mate, but a dangerous, beautiful woman with her own dreams and desires. It would’ve been easier if she’d been someone else, a woman who followed his every dictate and who never put herself in harm’s way. But he didn’t want easier, didn’t want anyone else. He wanted Sienna. Only Sienna.

Changelings have packs, the alpha had said. The Alliance is the human equivalent—it not only represents humans as a group, it’s powerful enough that people pay attention.

He’d met Lisette not much later, and the ensuing months had torn him bloody, until he’d had to go home to the den deep in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where he could lick his wounds surrounded by the warmth of his pack.

“Humans … you have no idea what it’s like to walk around knowing one of the Psy could slip into your mind at any time and take things, or plant things. It’s rape and it’s a violation committed over and over and over again against people who can’t fight back.”

“Riley’s so happy right now, he’s granting leave to anyone who asks. I’m half afraid to turn around and find the entire den has left for the Bahamas.”

...he tried to figure out why he was so damn happy when by rights, he should’ve been feeling a little surly. Because she’s here. My mate is here with me, safe, doing something utterly ordinary. It was a gift he couldn’t have anticipated a few months ago, and one he’d let no one tarnish with fear.

Adria’s wolf stood in silence, uncertain … scared. It was hard to admit that, to accept that in spite of her every promise to herself, Riaz had come perilously close to breaching the core she’d vowed to protect.

A dominant female’s pride, her self-belief was her armor, something no male worth his salt would ever attempt to strip from her.

...the flickering flame between him and Adria was something important, something worth fighting for. Maybe, just maybe, two broken people could manage to create something whole.

When William beamed and leaned into him, Judd felt another one of those cracks form inside him. The ones the people he loved kept making, showing him he had the capability to feel even more than he believed.

Judd had expected nothing less. If there was one thing that held true for every Arrow he’d ever known—except Ming LeBon, and he’d never truly been one of them—it was that they were loyal. Sometimes that loyalty was misdirected, given to those who did not deserve it, but it was never false, and never for sale.

“You have to accept,” he said, “that you need the humans and the changelings, as they need you.” His race had abilities that had once been greatly respected, not merely feared. “Isolating yourself will simply further what they began in the Net.” He’d had a family, had known that Walker, Sienna, Toby, and Marlee all cared if he lived or died, and still he’d been brutally close to the edge. The Arrows who lived here had only each other for family—and most Arrows didn’t understand what a family was, much less how to create one.

“We are ready.” We are Arrows.

“The last time I had a man’s scent in my skin, it nearly destroyed me,” she said, tearing open a barely healed wound. Knuckles brushing her cheek, the dark wood and citrus tang of his scent in her every breath. “We’re not all bastards, Adria.”

“Every wolf likes to feel appreciated. Hawke does it instinctively—you’ll have to do it more consciously, but in no way does that devalue the commitment you’d be making to know and understand the beating heart of the pack.” Spoken, Sienna thought, like the protector Indigo was.

“I’m so happy, sometimes I think I’ll burst.” The depth of her joy scared her on occasion. Never had she imagined she’d have a future, a life, beyond the fury of the X-marker. Now that she did … “I’m going to build a foundation so strong, so solid, it won’t ever shake, no matter what the future brings.” No one, not even Ming LeBon, was going to stop her living her life.

It hadn’t escaped her notice that the two had sandwiched her between them the entire time they’d been together. Her wolf was irritated, its hackles raised. She wasn’t a pup to be protected, but a senior soldier, well able to get herself out of trouble. “Do you think Hawke will want the information circulated throughout the pack?” she asked, fighting the urge to snarl. It would be like trying to explain trigonometry to someone who’d never seen a math book. The words just would not compute in their testosterone-laden male brains.

Life might hurt, might bruise, might forever scar, but it was for living.

“This generation, yes.” Judd’s agreement was solemn. “But Councils pre-Silence were focused on the strength and health of the race as a whole. Ironically, it’s that desire that led to Silence, but I think the seeds of hope are there, buried in the darkness.”

Later that night, when Riaz tucked her to his side as the train punched through the opaque veil of night, she knew the dinner had been akin to the possessive dominance of his loving after Venice—her lone wolf was claiming her in his own quiet, determined, and inexorable way. Her heart stuttered, jubilant and terrified in equal measures.

“Remind them I’m alpha.” The wolf snarled. “Then I sit and I listen.” Because the maternals were the backbone of the pack, the ones who made them family, gave them heart.

“You’re doing beautifully.” He knew she was walking this road not simply for herself, but for him, for SnowDancer, so the pack would know they could have faith in the strength of their alpha couple.

“You’re mine, Adria Morgan.” It was a punch to the throat, the discovery that he was still capable of such a visceral depth of emotion. Finding then losing Lisette hadn’t withered away the part of him that felt a wild possessive tenderness toward the long-limbed goddess in his arms, and where once he would’ve seen his feelings for Adria as a betrayal, he now saw them as a gift. He’d been given a second chance.

When he walked into the shower and asked her to remind him of the points he was meant to go over during the comm-conference, she felt the tie between them grow deeper, more nuanced. He hadn’t asked her because she was a novice soldier. He’d asked her because she was his mate, and he needed the reminder. Just as he’d allowed her to see him hungover. A simple thing, a small vulnerability, but it meant everything coming from an alpha wolf.

“He’s a wolf. Pack is everything, and his woman is where it begins.”

She was magnificent. Strong and lithe and lovely. And his. Even if she wasn’t quite certain she wanted to be—Adria thought he didn’t know about the apprehension that haunted her, but of course he knew. He noticed everything about her. He’d been patient, but it was time she accepted he wasn’t ever letting her go.

For the first time in her life, her wolf had chosen. And it had chosen this lone wolf. “You have me,” she whispered. All of me.

“There’s a difference between taking sensible precautions and tucking your tail between your legs.”

It took conscious effort to think past his protective instincts, to understand that when a man chose a strong woman for his own, he made a commitment to nurture and respect that strength.

Love, she realized at that terrible moment of truth, could be incredibly unselfish, even when it hurt until she bled.

“Strange place, the mind. I’ve lost me, but I’ve retained the world.”

And Riaz understood that while a mate bond would be an incredible happiness, the lack of it did nothing to diminish his love for Adria, his wolf’s devotion absolute.

“Aden,” she said, using the name she’d been given for the medic. His head lifted and she realized how handsome he was—if you liked your men icy enough to give you hypothermia.

“I won’t let you die, Vasic.” Aden’s voice was quiet. Vasic didn’t answer, but they both knew Aden couldn’t stop him. Once Vasic had paid his debts, once the Net was safe, all he wanted was peace. Forever.

“Which is why I’m going to kill him.” Pushing up on his chest, she looked down into his face, her hair creating a ruby red curtain around them. “Excuse me. I think you must’ve accidentally used the wrong pronoun.” The growl that rumbled up out of his chest was loud enough to rattle the water glass on the bedside table. “Fine, you can stand in the corner and cheer while I kill him.”

“He’s going to die, Sienna. No one threatens my mate and gets away with it.”

“Some things need to be broken to become stronger.”

“And I’m trying so goddamn hard not to push you, but I need you to be mine. Because I’m yours.”

“I love you to madness.” She pulled back, his face cupped in her hands, giving him the words, the courtship, he’d given her. “Until I wake up early some days just to watch you sleep, until it hurts to be separated from you for even a day, until I steal your sweatshirts so I can rub my face against your scent.”