Hostage to Pleasure

“Yeah.” He stroked her back slow and sure, the caress of a panther being gentle with his mate. “And I’ve almost killed Hawke a hundred times since then. I swear to God, he calls you ‘darling’ one more time, I’m going to put him on his wolf ass.”

She laughed, but he’d proven his point. Everyone had their tipping point. Hers happened to be Amara Aleine. But she wasn’t the important one here. “I need to do something-this is bad, really bad, for Dorian. He was just starting to come back to us. When I saw how he was with Tally, I thought things could only get better.” The sentinel seemed to adore Clay’s mate, flirted with her on a regular basis. “Now this.”

“Do I need to get rid of Amara?” The hard edge of an alpha in his tone.

Sascha had been part of DarkRiver long enough to understand the ties of loyalty, of Pack. But the harshness of it still startled sometimes. “You’d spill blood for him?”

“That’s not even a question, kitten.”

No, she thought, it wasn’t. “It’s too complicated, Lucas. Even in the PsyNet, twins tend to stick together. Most die within days of each other.”

“Ashaya is Dorian’s mate. I can feel it.” Lucas’s face was a study in shadow and light, pure strength and protectiveness combined. “She’ll survive no matter what happens-he won’t let her go.”

“But she might be permanently damaged by such a traumatic loss.” She shook her head. “We have to figure another way out.”

Lucas didn’t say anything, but she knew what he was thinking-there wasn’t any way out that would leave all parties without scars.

CHAPTER 45

Dorian is in my blood, in my very veins. Never in all my lectures on “sexual biology” and “animal behavior” did anyone tell me of this incandescent joy. When I lie with him, there’s pleasure, incredible pleasure-my cat knows how to drive a woman to insanity. But there’s more, this indefinable, near-painful happiness. I don’t know what to call it, how to describe it. I just know that I would die for him.

– From the encrypted personal files of Ashaya Aleine

Psy Councilor Anthony Kyriakus had been part of the rebellion for longer than most people had known it even existed. But now Ashaya Aleine had taken it public.

He could understand her actions-a life in hiding was nothing he’d choose for his own child either. He glanced reflexively at the holo-image he kept in a highly secure file in his computer: Faith, laughing. He could almost hear the sound. His daughter had grown into a beautiful, gifted woman. Anthony, too, had broken rules for his child. He’d let Faith know that she mattered. As her sister had mattered. As her brother mattered.

However, the goalposts had shifted again. He was a Councilor now, under intense scrutiny from every quarter. His contact with Faith wouldn’t have to cease, but he’d have to be very, very careful. As he would have to be with this new contact. He touched the screen, pulling up the untraceable e-mail that had come in a week ago.

It was signed by the Ghost, the most notorious rebel in the Net.

Anthony wanted very much to know how and where the Ghost got his information. Only a select few knew Anthony’s true loyalties. And no one in his tight circle would’ve betrayed him. Zie Zen had never even told Ashaya.

But the Ghost had a way of unearthing secrets-in this, the other rebel could prove an invaluable asset. Anthony didn’t agree with everything the Ghost had done, but their basic vision aligned. Still, he hadn’t risen to the Council by being stupid. This would be a very slow and careful process.

As he closed the message, he recalled the conversation he’d had with Zie Zen yesterday-they’d agreed that Ashaya needed to make a follow-up broadcast. Otherwise, she’d lose all the support she’d gained to date. And, since the Council had decided to focus on damage control rather than disruption, her message would get out far easier this time.

But, he thought, snapping upright, it would also leave Council resources free to trace any broadcast back to the originating location. When added to the fact that all his fellow Councilors knew Ashaya was in the greater San Francisco area… “It could be done.” He picked up the secure line immediately and put through a call to his daughter. “Faith, you have to warn Ashaya,” he said as soon as she answered. “Ming will be waiting to trace back any new broadcast signal. He could recapture-”

“It’s too late,” Faith whispered, her voice echoing the way it sometimes did in the midst of a vision. “There’s blood, so much blood. Oh, my God, Dorian! Dorian!”