Alyssa’s curse interrupted his words and the alpha’s head snapped over to study his mate.
“What is it?”
Alyssa looked up, dread in her expression. “I just noticed the time. Detective Kennedy hasn’t checked in. He’s forty-three minutes late.”
Simon’s expression flattened. “Call him.”
She held up her phone. “Just did. Voice mail. He’s probably off on one of his hunches again.” She didn’t look like she fully believed it, but then again, she didn’t know Ryan like Hank did. The man only loosely followed any type of authority and had paid the price for that more than once. But that was before Simon took over. Except the new alpha didn’t seem to like the detective’s independent streak any more than Nanook had.
“Doesn’t anyone follow orders around here?” Simon groused.
Alyssa arched a skeptical brow. “The minute there’s a US military sign above our door, then you can expect standard protocol. Otherwise, as far as I’m concerned, you’re all a bunch of cats and just as impossible to herd.”
“We’re bears,” Simon grumbled, though there was humor in his tone.
“That only makes you bigger and more surly.”
It was the normal banter between those two. Grumpy on one end, snarky on the other. Personally, Hank liked it, but it wasn’t his place to comment especially when his alpha gave him a direct order.
“Hank, get home, get some rest. I’m going to need you full strength very soon. There’s a war coming with wolves and you’re my only medic.”
Hank nodded and was about to salute when Cecilia started. “A war? What do you mean?”
Simon turned to her. “Your part is done, Dr. Lu. You’ve solved the medical crisis, but the wolves still have boxes of that poison. Dr. Oltheten merely created the serum. Emory Wolf is the one dumping it into the water supply. We’ve got to stop him.”
“But the police—”
“Detective Kennedy is the police, and one of us. But I don’t want to send normals against a pack of crazed werewolves who are trying to poison the city. Do you?”
Cecilia’s cheeks colored, and she shook her head. “No, of course not. I just thought…”
“You thought it was over, and it is for you, but it isn’t for us.” His tone dropped to a serious note. “And it isn’t for Hank, either. I’m going to need him.”
She paled and again, Hank wanted to wrap her in his arms. Hell, he needed the comfort, too. The last thing he wanted was to step into another war. He left the military because he was sick of the violence. But Simon was right, there was no one in the city except the Griz who could take on a pack of psycho werewolves.
He opened his mouth to say something, but Cecilia held up her hand. “I get it,” she said, her voice tight. “I don’t like it, but I get it.”
And she wanted no part of it.She didn’t say that last sentence, but Hank heard it loud and clear. And wasn’t that the last nail in his coffin? Because they might have found a way through if she could still have her science. But now she was looking at staying with a man who was steeped in violence. He wouldn’t blame her one bit for blocking him entirely out of her life.
Meanwhile, Simon had no more time for them. He turned to Alyssa and the tablet she held up to him. “Who have we got who can give back up? Where’s Vic?”
Hank turned his back on the conversation, more interested in what Cecilia wanted to do. She’d dropped her hand but her back was rigidly tight.
“You don’t have to make a decision tonight…” he started, but the words froze when she shot him a look.
“Ever try not thinking about something, Hank?”
He had. He was. He was trying tonotthink about her leaving for the CDC in Atlanta. So he tried a different tack. “Will you let me take you to my home? Will you let me protect you while you sleep?”
Her lips twisted into a pale shadow of a smile. “And when will you sleep? Who will protect you?”
Not a real question, except apparently in her mind. “I’ll be fine,” he said, “as long as you’re safe.” It wasn’t a lie. A very deep part of him knew that to be the absolute truth.
“And if you’re dead in a war? Then who will keep me safe?”
He flashed her a weak smile. “I’m trying not to think about that.”
She chuckled. A sweet, mellow sound completely at odds with her words. “Let’s go. I don’t want to talk about us here anyway.”
Talk about us?Words that struck terror in every man’s heart.
