The hopeful words Gabrielle had helped him write and rehearse a few hours earlier would taste like lies when he delivered them tonight.
His human and Breed colleagues in the GNC were counting on him to soothe an anxious planet, but Lucan couldn’t shake the feeling that things were only going to get darker.
CHAPTER 3
It was too damned quiet,Jenna thought, working alone inside the Order’s archives room.
She knew there were violent battles taking place all over the city outside, but within the secured walls of the mansion headquarters and the large library chamber that was her personal workspace, the silence was deafening.
The prolonged quiet inside her mind troubled her too.
It wasn’t often that her mate, Brock, and nearly every last member of the Order’s warrior teams were dispatched to patrols at the same time. Even the females who were trained in combat were on the streets tonight, fighting alongside their mates and comrades.
As a former cop, Jenna wished she could be out there with Brock and the others. She had never been one to sit on the sidelines during a crisis, but even she had to admit her time as an Alaska State Trooper felt as foreign to her now as the fact that she had also once been fully human.
Twenty years and counting. Some days, it seemed like yesterday. Other times, she could hardly remember what she used to look like . . .before.
Absently, she reached up to smooth her fingertips over thedermaglyphat the back of her neck. What started as a miniscule mark had grown exponentially over time. Now, her body was covered with the alien skin markings, a constant, visual reminder of the ordeal that had altered her existence in so many ways.
That ordeal had also brought Brock into her life, and that alone made everything else a little more bearable.
Her thoughts drifted back to a small cemetery plot in Alaska. The most painful thing she’d ever endured was the death of her ten-year-old daughter, Libby. Nothing could bring her back, but Jenna took the smallest measure of comfort in the fact that her child never had to know the terror the world was living through now.
“Knock, knock,” a soothing female voice called hesitantly from the threshold of the open doorway.
Jenna looked up to find Gabrielle waiting to be invited in. Lucan’s Breedmate was dressed in loose leggings and an oversized top, her long auburn hair gathered into a messy twist. In her hands was a loaded charcuterie tray that smelled delicious.
Standing beside her with an opened bottle of red wine in one hand and three long-stemmed wineglasses in the other was Gideon’s beautiful mate. Savannah was dressed similarly, one smooth mocha-brown shoulder peeking out of the slouched neckline of her light-gray sweater.
“We brought provisions,” she said, smiling at Jenna with soft understanding in her deep brown eyes. “I don’t think you’ve eaten anything all day, have you?”
Jenna closed the dream journal she’d been writing in and shook her head. She wasn’t a Breedmate like her friends, so taking nourishment from her mate’s blood wasn’t enough to sustain her. Brock fulfilled her needs in every other way and then some, but she had to admit the aromas of the smoked meats, creamy cheeses, and assorted savory snacks were a welcome diversion from her work. She wasn’t going to complain about the wine, either.
Gabrielle set the tray down on the worktable while Savannah filled their glasses. Jenna chewed a small bite of cheese, then took a sip of the wine. She sighed with pleasure as the flavors mingled on her tongue.
“Thank you,” she murmured, leaning back in her chair as the two women joined her at the table. “To be honest, I haven’t had much of an appetite the past couple of weeks.”
Savannah gave her a sympathetic nod. “You’ve been through a lot.”
“We all have,” Jenna pointed out, noting the shadows that rode beneath the gazes of her friends. “Has Lucan left for the emergency GNC meeting?”
“Yes,” Gabrielle replied. “His speech is scheduled to broadcast within the hour. Needless to say, he wasn’t looking forward to it. He’d prefer to be on patrol like everyone else. I barely convinced him to not wear his combat gear to the event.”
Jenna smiled. “That sounds about right.”
Gabrielle’s mouth curved, but there was a weight to her gaze that didn’t seem to lift. It had been there for a long time, no doubt a function of the blood bond she shared with Lucan. Like all bonded pairs, they felt each other’s most intense emotions--both the good and the bad--as if they were their own.
Joy, affection, concern.
Fear, grief, pain.
All of it traveled through a mated couple’s bond.
So Gabrielle’s obviously deep and prolonged worry was Lucan’s as well.
Not that they didn’t have good reason for concern.
Everyone did, but especially the warriors of the Order. They stood on the front line of every perilous situation. They were the last fortified wall between the inhabitants of this fragile planet and the darkness currently threatening to consume it from multiple sides.
