Riley had it the worst, though he was holding it together in that calm Riley way that made it seem as if he were perfectly fine. The only reason Judd knew any different was because of his mate. Brenna had taken one look at her eldest brother three weeks earlier and given him a hug that Riley accepted with bone-crushing force.
It was in the instant afterward that Judd had caught a glint of sheer panic in Riley’s dark brown eyes. Unlike Brenna, Judd couldn’t help the other man with affection, but what he could do was take on more of Riley’s duties. Every lieutenant in the pack had done the same, and those who weren’t lieutenants had picked up the slack in other areas, giving Riley the freedom to focus on his mate and their soon-to-be-born pupcubs.
He had more than earned that right.
However, Riley continued to attend their meetings remotely. He was too much the protective dominant to forget his responsibilities. Hawke had also made it a point to still have Riley take care of certain pack tasks, to keep the other man from obsessing over the upcoming births—especially the possible risk to Mercy.
Voices broke the unwelcome quiet, Tomás and Alexei asking a couple more questions about the entire situation with BlackSea’s vanished members. Kenji and Riaz, as the two lieutenants who worked most closely with the water changelings, filled them in. Not at issue was the fact that the Consortium was behind the abductions—the events in Venice earlier that year, on which BlackSea had given SnowDancer a detailed briefing, had proven that beyond any reasonable doubt.
Cooper, however, had a question they’d never previously considered. “How the fuck does the Consortium know where to snatch BlackSea people, or how to handle them afterward?” the lieutenant asked. “I can barely get my head around how BlackSea functions, and they’re our allies.”
“Well, hell.” Jem’s voice. “BlackSea must have a traitor, maybe more than one.”
Hawke blew out a breath. “No wonder Miane didn’t mention it.”
Judd didn’t need any further explanation—no alpha would ever want to air his or her pack’s dirty laundry. That Miane Levèque had trusted SnowDancer and DarkRiver as much as she had was a sign of BlackSea’s desperation. They’d tried to find their members on their own and failed. Miane’s people might rule water, but they needed help when their people had been abducted onto land.
“There are wolf packs in Canada.” Indigo folded her arms across her white T-shirt, her black hair pulled back in a sleek ponytail and her long, lean body standing shoulder to shoulder with the playful blue-eyed wolf who was her mate—and Judd’s other brother-in-law. Who also happened to be the pack’s tracker, charged with hunting down and executing rogues.
The Kincaid family grew them strong.
Judd’s mate was as tough as either one of her brothers.
“We have a good relationship with the majority of them,” Indigo added. “Just depends if Miane wants us to reach out.”
“I’m guessing not.” Drew’s handsome face was unusually solemn, his rich brown hair tumbled from whatever he’d been doing prior to this meeting. “BlackSea’s made it clear they don’t want it known that so many of their people have been taken captive.”
Judd could understand the other pack’s caution. The water-based changelings held significant power now, but it was a delicate balance. Their dependence on water and their scattered locations made the weakest of them easy prey—and the Consortium had recognized that. BlackSea couldn’t afford for anyone else to do so.
“Canada’s full of water,” Sienna pointed out from her position across the circle from Hawke, her navy blue T-shirt bearing paint streaks and tiny handprints that indicated she’d come from a shift in the nursery—and that the pups had been in a rambunctious mood.
Despite her position as Hawke’s mate and her own violent psychic abilities, Judd’s cardinal niece had made the choice to go step-by-step through the same training as her peers. As a result, she wasn’t technically a senior member of SnowDancer with the right to be at this meeting, but Hawke had asked her to attend such meetings when and if she could, because at a certain point in the future, their packmates would begin to look to her for answers in her capacity as the mate of their alpha.
It was good for Sienna to start bedding into that role now, even as she continued her normal soldier training. Judd had expected his niece to protest, since she’d made it clear she didn’t want to leapfrog up the hierarchy—not that anyone would’ve disputed her right to do so after what she’d done in defense of SnowDancer—but Sienna had agreed to Hawke’s request and appeared to be focusing hard on learning all aspects of what it meant to be the mate of a powerful alpha.
Love gives far more than it ever takes. And love makes us want to give.
Words spoken by Father Xavier Perez. Judd’s friend and fellow rebel was currently somewhere in South America, searching for the woman he loved. The human male should’ve already reached her, but he’d suffered significant injuries the day he arrived in Peru, after a driver lost control of his vehicle and plowed onto the sidewalk. It was only a month earlier that he’d finally healed enough to continue his search across rugged terrain.
Judd had offered to teleport Xavier to his destination, as had Kaleb, but Xavier was adamant he had to do this himself.
I have to prove I deserve her.
Understanding the depth of Xavier’s need in a way he wouldn’t have before he’d fallen for Brenna, Judd turned his attention back to the matter at hand. Riaz was nodding at Sienna’s point. “BlackSea must have high-risk people who use Canadian lakes as their primary habitat,” the other lieutenant said. “Miane won’t want to compromise them. On the flip side, it means the water changelings have plenty of eyes and ears in the country if they need them.”