Page 28 of Guardians

“We should send him one of the females,” Malik muttered as he finished hisiolla.“A good hard fuck is bound to make anyone more reasonable.”

“The thought crossed my mind,” Diego admitted, glancing toward the bedroom where their mate slept. “But the raptor village is so remote and their leaders are not the only ones with bad attitudes. I’m not sure we can convince any of the females to relocate way up there.”

“None of them would go alone.” Malik shrugged as he added, “But what about a group of three or four?”

Kane pressed back into his chair with a heavy sigh. “Lexie’s the only one who has volunteered so far. Hopefully, that will change, but this isn’t going to happen overnight. I’m not sure sending a group of potential mates up the mountain makes sense at this point.”

Diego understood his reluctance, but he also knew that the shuttle was their best chance of significantly bettering the situation for the most people. Even if every female in the human camp volunteered to become a mate, the majority of hybrids would be left out. There were simply not enough of them. “When it comes to war—and we all know it will—we need the raptors at our backs.”

Kane refilled their wineglasses before he commented. “I agree with the idea, but I’m not convinced about the timing.”

Waving away Kane’s excuses, Diego picked up his glass and took a deep gulp. He was restless and irritable. He needed to get out of here and run, climb a mountain, or start a fight. Claiming Lexie had made him hungry for more, a whole lot more. But she wasn’t ready for the kinds of pleasures that truly satisfied him. “Has Zion assigned someone to retrieve the medical supplies from the lupine village? And before I even consider going, are we damn sure that scanning plants is all those devices do?”

“Do you trust Lexie?” Kane countered. “She’s the one who told us about the scanners.”

Diego didn’t trust anyone, but he knew someone who could examine the equipment and determine what it did and didn’t do. He just happened to be the same disagreeable bird they needed to repair the shuttle. “How soon do the humans need the instruments back? It might take me a day or two to accomplish.”

Kane lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “It all depends if the infection starts spreading.”

Pushing back his chair, Diego stood up and stretched out his back. “I’m too damn wound up to sleep anyway.”

Kane laughed, then realized Diego was serious. “You’re going right now?”

“If the wolves watch us as closely as we watch them, the last thing they’ll expect tonight is a Shadow raid. After all, the leader of the Shadows just claimed a mate.”

Kane stood as well and walked around the table. “I appreciate your dedication, but it’s a valid point. Shouldn’t you be spending time with Lexie?”

Diego shook his head. All the things he wanted to do to Lexie would scare her shitless. His transformation had loosed something dark and aggressive within him and that beast was particularly close to the surface right now. “She’s only doing this because her camp is in trouble. We promised to get the medical supplies back from the wolves.”

“We promised totry,” Malik corrected.

“Well, keeping that promise will mean more to her than having another dick shoved inside her.”

Apparently seeing the darkness in Diego’s gaze, Kane backed off. “You can’t go alone.”

Diego waved away his concern. “I’ll be back before you have time to miss me.” Diego preferred working alone. Even when he took other Shadows with him on missions, they always split up and performed separate tasks. He was doing this as much to combat the restlessness as to win points with their new mate. If he stayed, they’d all regret it. “Let Lexie sleep. Even if she’s not actually sleeping, she needs time to process her new situation.”

The others nodded, but Diego had no doubt that their need for Lexie would eclipse their good intentions long before he returned. That was all right. He had the rest of his life to tame his inner beast so he could enjoy having a mate.

He went to his bedroom and pulled on his spare pair of boots. His good ones were in Kane’s room with Lexie and he didn’t want to disturb her. Pausing by the front door, Diego pulled on his coat. “Retrieving the cases shouldn’t take long, but I’m going to see if Gabriel will meet with me. I’ll let him know that the alliance is official. If he knows that females are a real possibility, it might pave the way for future conversations.”

“Gabriel is one prickly bastard,” Malik reiterated. “No one will argue about that. But I think the females are a much bigger obstacle. Meeting with him is a waste of time until we have females willing to bond with birds.”

Diego shook his head, anxious to be out of the cabin. “The humans want off this rock even more than we do. That shuttle is our best, perhaps only chance of making that happen. Once the humans understand that, we’ll have volunteers.”

Malik and Kane exchanged doubtful looks and all Kane said was, “I hope you’re right.”

“I’m not sure when I’ll return so I’ll check in telepathically.” Diego created telepathic links with Kane and Malik when they became a coalition. It allowed them to communicate without risking the signal being intercepted. Before the others could think of a reason to stop him, Diego hurried out into the night.

The wind hit Diego full in the face, momentarily stealing his breath. Damn. If the last few weeks were any indication, this winter was going to be brutal. He pulled up his hood and tugged on gloves, then jogged across the village. It wasn’t late, but the blustery weather had driven everyone indoors.

He reached the outer wall without incident and waited for the guards to open the gates. No one noticed him, which wasn’t too surprising. They were trained to pay more attention to the outside of the wall than inside. No doubt, the guards were huddled around a heater inside the tower, so Diego let himself out through the pedestrian door.

Night creatures chattered in the forest beyond the village walls. They seemed unimpressed by the inclement weather. A light dusting of snow began to fall so he paused and shed his clothing. He could cover more ground and protect himself more easily in animal form. After stashing his garments in a nearby bush, he freed his inner lion and waited for the shift to claim him.

Pain always preceded the physical changes. Waves of heat and stinging discomfort flowed through his entire body. He’d long since learned not to fight the change. Resisting the pain only prolonged the process. His joints popped and his bones stretched as Diego surrendered to the agony. Reality blurredfor a moment, fading to black, then refocusing with a new perspective.

Diego shook his head and arched his back, stretching out his muscles. He growled, fighting back the need to roar as he took off at a hurried trot. Leaves crunched beneath his massive paws and the wind howled through the branches. Competing trees filtered out most of the moonlight, but Diego’s feline vision easily penetrated the darkness. Running at moderate speed, he made his way toward the lupine village. Even in human form, Diego could run for hours without tiring, but he wasn’t nearly as fast as Malik.

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