Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Remi nodded at the mention of the nearest township as Rina Monaghan slid into the seat next to him with her own breakfast. Tall and curvaceous, the blond sentinel wore her hair in a high ponytail and could separate your head from your body if you pissed her off.
His leopard had snarled in pride when she’d asked to join his pack.
Despite his excitement at having attracted such a strong young leopard to RainFire, however, the first thing he’d done was ask Lucas what he thought about losing Rina. He’d known she must’ve already spoken to her alpha, but it would’ve been a bad move on his part not to have that discussion himself.
The last thing RainFire needed was to make an enemy of the powerful pack that had been the first to call them friend. Lucas had been beyond generous in his support of Remi’s bid for the position of alpha, had even lent Remi some of his own people for the initial construction of RainFire’s aeries.
A gift from one alpha to another, an offer of friendship that Remi did not take lightly.
“Now that she’s fully mature,” Luc had said, “Rina’s too strong and well-trained to be anything but a sentinel, but we already have the max number we need. The only reason we haven’t already lost her is that she’s fucking loyal to her own.” A tightening of his jaw. “I don’t want to let her go, but it’s time. She’ll be an asset to your pack.”
As it was, RainFire was top-heavy in terms of dominants—an emergent pack needed more sentinels and senior soldiers than an established one. They also needed energy of the kind that prowled under Rina’s skin, hungry and wild. She’d no doubt been a nightmare as a teen, but adult Rina had mastered iron discipline over her furious instincts.
“What’re we discussing?” she asked. “Anything I need to know for the morning shift?”
Once Lark had caught her up, Remi said, “Lark, you able to tell if the pilot was a man or a woman?” His mind filled with an image of the eerie eyes of moonstone blue that he’d seen five months earlier, but the woman with those eyes had been in no state to pilot anything.
“Nah.” Lark yawned. “Pilot’s head didn’t touch the top of the hopper’s dome is about all I can tell you, but those domes are high enough to fit you or Angel, so it isn’t much.”
“Don’t worry.” Angel’s distinctive ultramarine eyes shifted to tiger gold, the gleam in them amused. “Remi’s going to go up there to satisfy his curiosity anyway. You might not have noticed, but our alpha has a slight interest in our neighbors.”
Remi gave their resident tiger the finger. Angel was the quietest of the sentinels, but he’d also known Remi the longest, a blood brother who’d always intended to walk the path of a loner—until Remi asked him to help set up a new pack. The other man had pinpointed Remi’s fascination with Auden Scott the first time Remi mentioned the strange interaction.
“As if you’re not as curious.” He shoved a hand through his shower-damp hair. “I’m also pissed off, in case you failed to notice. I thought we had a real shot at getting that land.” All else aside, he hated having a possible threat on his border. “Why would a Psy even want a place like that when they know they can’t use it for shadow ops?”
Lark shrugged after swallowing a forkful of scrambled eggs. “I dunno. Some of them are reclusive. I mean, have you met your Arrow bestie?”
“Aden isn’t reclusive. He lives in the Valley with other Arrows.” A place to which Remi had been invited, to attend the squad’s first-ever high school graduation ceremony. The invitation had been a symbol of trust between their two groups—as RainFire’s agreement to allow playdates between their cubs and Arrow children was a symbol from their end.
“Krychek then.” Lark pointed her fork at him, while Rina—never talkative in the mornings—ate a bacon roll and listened. “Wild Woman reported that he lives in the boonies with his mate, and my Moscow bear friends on the forum confirmed it.”
“Ah, Wild Woman,” Angel said after a leisurely sip of his coffee, “that bastion of investigative reporting.”
“Fuck you, Stripes.” Mild words. “Try to borrow my copy next month and see where it gets you.”
A tinge of red on Angel’s cheekbones that had Remi’s shoulders shaking and Rina looking over with a very interested expression on her face.
“Oh, do tell, Angel,” he said, poking at his friend. “Secret fan?”
“This is why I was a loner,” Angel grumped before throwing back his coffee. “I hate people.”
Remi and Lark both laughed, while Rina smiled a slow smile.
Their newest sentinel rose soon afterward. “I want to do a full sweep today, through all quadrants.”
“Wait for me.” Lark scrambled up, too. “I’m going to get into my pjs and catch up on the latest episode of Primal Lives & Private Secrets. Yesterday’s episode ended on a cliff-hanger. Writers had the main protagonist get kidnapped by her human billionaire enemy—with whom she has tons of sexual tension.”