Devan shook his head and pulled Zio’s face against his heaving chest. “Not yet.”
Chapter Ten
Varian scanned the horizon, tension seeping off him, merging with the worry tainting Devan’s every thought. “Zio and Danielo have similar abilities. Danielo can influence water... the sea, the tides. Zio can move the earth.”
Don’t I know it. Devan recalled the moment Zio had shot down his throat with perfect clarity, from the hypnotic scent of his release, his quivering thighs, and the minor earthquake that rocked the earth. He couldn’t imagine how effective Zio’s gift could be in battle.
Or maybe he could.
Fuck, I want him. But he couldn’t have him. Dash and Luca had sent him to protect Varian’s most valuable military assets, not trigger instincts that would prove dangerous for everyone.
The train of thought brought him back to the present and the reason he was able to push his second ill-advised encounter with Zio aside. Shortly after they’d arrived back from the woods, they’d hit the road again with the rest of the combat squad. Devan had travelled with Gale’s unit, but he’d sensed Zio’s presence in the vehicle behind them the whole way to Leicester, the ride no less unpleasant than the one they’d shared an hour earlier when they’d driven home from the woods in silence. A silence that for once had been Devan’s choosing and not Zio’s dark moods cloaking the air. Much like the night they’d met, soon after release, Devan’s senses had returned to him, and he’d withdrawn, though not as violently as the first time, and it had taken longer. He’d held Zio close for as long as they could both tolerate it before reality had driven them apart.
Zio rubbed his chest and his mouth, as though a bitter taste was dancing on his tongue. “We have to go.”
This time, reading Zio’s hostile body language, Devan hadn’t argued. How could he when it was so painfully obvious that the young wolf had no idea what was happening to him? To both of them?
“Devan?”
Dammit. Focus.
Devan snapped to attention. Varian was staring at him. At any other time, the alpha’s gaze might’ve been curious, but not now. Not while the closest thing he had to children were out in the field, risking their lives for the survival of their pack. More than that. For the survival of shifters everywhere who craved an existence where they didn’t have to worry that their loved ones would be killed before their lives had truly got started. “What is it?”
“It’s midnight,” Varian said. “They should’ve reached their targets by now, but they haven’t checked in.”
“Might not have a signal if the enemy have disrupted communication lines.”
“Maybe, but they won’t have destroyed the masts—too much risk that the humans will retaliate—and besides, even if they’ve created a fault, the humans will fix it fast. You know how they are with such things.”
Devan did. The human preoccupation with remote conversation was forever a mystery to him. How did they live without looking people in the eye? With emojis and text in place of touch and affection?
Not that Devan had experienced much affection recently. “They might’ve found the enemy base more guarded than they expected. Perhaps they’re lying low for a while before they move out.”
Varian made a noise deep in his throat, and his agitation was infectious. Devan jumped from the disused motorway bridge they were parked on, landing on the grass below. He sniffed the air. Even from a few miles away, perhaps further, Zio’s scent was easy to pick out, but there were others too—Gale, Track, and Shannon. Bomber and Danielo. Devan hardly knew them, but something about the combined scent—the scent of thepack—called to him, and he understood how Varian felt more than he wanted to.
“I’m going to scout forwards,” he called up to Varian. “Just to the next hill. I’ll come back if I see anything.”
“Come back anyway, brother.”
It wasn’t an order, but it didn’t have to be.
Devan left his alpha behind and followed the scents of the wolves who’d moved out a few hours ago. He didn’t have far to go, but the terrain was rough—the abandoned industrial site made it hard to move around undetected. At least it was for Devan. The combat squad, as Devan had learned, were protected by Gale’s shield.
“It’s not a reliable gift,” Varian said. “Because that would be too easy for us.”
Devan snorted. “Can’t have that.”
“Apparently not. Gale’s ability seems to vary as much as the weather. Sometimes he can protect the pack mind from telepathic gifts such as mine, others he can keep us invisible to technology as we move through enemy territory.”
“How do you know which it is on any given day?”
“We don’t, and he can’t control it. Luckily we have night vision and scanners of our own. If I can’t find my pack, no one can.”
“But you can smell them?”
“Of course, and so can any supernatural being downwind of them, but there are ways around that.”
Devan had missed the part where Varian had attempted an electronic search for his team, and as he skirted around a derelict factory, there was no denying that he was downwind of them. Zio’s scent was everywhere. Gale, predictably, had moved in a straight line.
