Hostage to Pleasure

“No, nothing like that. It’s this… sense that they’re spreading out, developing. I just have no idea what they’re developing into.” That scared her. Her mother was the best viral transmitter in the Net. She could kill with a single thought. “What if I turn into Nikita?”

“Not a chance.” He ran the knuckles of one hand over her face. “Think of it as an adventure. We’ll learn about it together.” A pulse of love came down the mating bond, a pulse of devotion.

She felt her heart become his all over again. “I’m so glad you’re my mate, Lucas.” Whatever it was she was becoming, it was no longer so scary, not when she had a panther by her side.

On the other side of the car park, a dark-haired male lowered a pair of binoculars and coded in a call on his cell. “Definite no go,” he said to the person on the other end. “The hospital’s swarming with DarkRiver leopards.”

“Options?”

“We wait until she’s released. Quick, clean extraction. They won’t be expecting us.”

A small pause. “They never do, do they? After all, we’re no threat.”

“They’ll learn different.”

“When we’re ready,” came the order. “Keep watching. They’ll drop their guard sooner or later.”

“We should’ve taken her in the parking garage,” the watcher said, referring to the location of Ashaya’s final broadcast. “I was less than twenty feet from her and the cat.”

“Too big a risk of being caught on surveillance. Surprise is our biggest weapon.”

Because not even a leopard could hunt a phantom.

CHAPTER 48

Dorian isn’t sleeping well anymore. I can feel the leopard’s frustrated anger building once more. The intensity in him, the same intensity that drives his will to succeed, and powers his incredible loyalty, also lends itself easily to obsession. I will not let him go down that dark path. Not again.

– From the encrypted personal files of Ashaya Aleine

Dorian met with Lucas and the other sentinels a few days later, his body fully healed. “They tried to kill my mate. They broke the rules.” A quiet statement made in the sniper’s lethal tone.

His mate was Psy. The boy he already considered his own was Psy. It made it impossible for him to hate the other race as he once had. But there were some Psy he would never, ever forgive. The Council had taken his sister. Then they’d tried to take his mate. The monsters were all fucking dead.

“I know you want blood, Dorian,” Lucas said. “But there’s a problem.”

Dorian respected the hell out of Lucas but the leopard wasn’t just going to let this go. Neither was the man. “What?”

“We don’t know who ordered the hit.” Lucas held up a hand before anyone could interrupt. “Vaughn, you take it.”

“I spoke to Anthony,” the jaguar said. “He says there’s dissension in the Council ranks. Ashaya was only supposed to be killed if all attempts to recapture her failed.”

Dorian swore, low and hard. “It had to have been a Councilor. No one else would’ve had access to a Tk who could teleport.”

“Anthony agrees, but he can’t pin it down.” Vaughn’s face was full of the same cold rage as Dorian’s. “Some of the Councilors are suggesting it was actually a vigilante pro-Silence group. They call themselves Pure Psy.”

“Convenient.”

“Yeah.” Vaughn folded his arms. “But it leaves us with no clear target.”

Breathing past the black chill of the sniper’s fury, Dorian forced himself to think. “What’s to stop them from trying again?” His need to protect Ashaya was a craving that ate away at him night and day. “She’s so high profile, she’s an easy target.”

“Eamon got you being shot on tape,” Clay said into the quiet. “He didn’t drop the camera until after the blood started spraying.”

“Gee, thanks for the reminder.” Dorian scowled at the other man.

Mercy threw a cushion at him. “You’re an idiot, Blondie. Clay’s saying maybe the Council shot itself in the foot this time.”

“No, they shot me,” Dorian said, but he was thinking. “How much did Eamon get?”

“Full back view of the shooter, you taking the hit for Ashaya. It was a live feed-it’s already out there.” Clay shrugged. “You could stalk them, and maybe get yourself killed in the process, or you could sit back and let them implode.”

“You’re asking me to be fucking rational,” Dorian muttered. “I haven’t been rational in a long time.”

Cool blue ice over his soul, passion and heart, gentle hands and sweet lips.

Shaya.

His mate. Safe and sound. And rational enough to anchor his more volatile personality. “Fine, push the feed again and again,” he said. “Let’s see how the bastards spin this.” Psy were emotionless but they weren’t stupid. “Get enough copies out there and someone will upload it to the PsyNet.”