Page 22 of Darkness Bound (Night Prowler 5)
Hearing these words, Hawk was moved to the core of his soul.
He was moved by Morgan’s bravery and her eloquence, by her passion and idealism, but most of all by the inescapable realization that she had indeed planned this entire scenario, right down to the words she would speak.
She was risking everything, including her life, for the cause of peace. For people who misunderstood her, who because of the actions of a madman actually hated her, Morgan was risking death.
This might have been the most blatant display of sheer courage he’d ever seen. It was a small thing, just standing there alone, but colossal in scope in the effect it might have.
It was genius.
“Alexander,” said Alejandro in a flat tone, without looking away from Morgan, “your wife continually surprises me. What a warrior she would have made had she been born male.”
In exactly the same tone Xander replied, “She’s twice the warrior of any male I’ve ever met.” He added a curt, “Brother.”
Alejandro cut his gaze to Xander. “I’m sure you meant ‘Sire,’?” he said, deadly soft, his fingers white around the stem of his wineglass.
The smile that spread over Xander’s mouth was grim. He inclined his head and said nothing, the muscles in his broad shoulders rippling with tension.
Morgan, sensing an impending disaster, intervened. “My Lord, please forgive me if I’ve overstepped my—”
“No.” Alejandro’s voice rang out through the open-air space. “You’ve done the right thing. There’s nothing to forgive. From you.” His icy gaze swept over the gathered men, who’d frozen at the anger ringing in his voice. “I expected more, however, from the rest of you. How is it that Morgan—a new addition to our colony, I might add—has my best interests at heart, and shares my exact thoughts on the proper way to proceed with this Dolan woman, yet the rest of you do not?”
The silence that echoed throughout the Assembly room was cavernous and fraught. Everyone present knew there was no correct answer to this question. Judging by the way tension ebbed from Xander’s shoulders, however, Hawk realized that Morgan was out of imminent danger.
Alejandro had decided to pretend the entire thing was his idea, his earlier disagreement only for show.
“My apologies for my short-sightedness. You’re right.”
Alejandro’s eyes raked over Hawk with a fury that was palpable. “Of course I’m right,” he hissed. “I. Am. The. Alpha!”
“Yes. You are.” Hawk kept his voice devoid of emotion or inflection. “And I’m sure you’ve already thought of how we should next proceed.”
The Alpha paused just long enough so the tension in the room rose to a new high. He said, “Naturally.” Then he smiled with such malevolence it sent a tingle of sinister premonition down Hawk’s spine.
Whatever he was going to say next wouldn’t be good.
“You’re going to get this Dolan woman. You’re going to bring her back here—unharmed, mind you—and she’ll stay with us for a period of time that I’ll determine.” His ugly smile grew wider, and so did Hawk’s certainty of impending doom.
The Alpha proved him right with his next words. “And during her time here . . . she’ll be living with you.”
Hawk’s heart screeched to a stop inside his chest. The thought of sharing his home—his sanctuary—with a woman was about as appealing as having all of his teeth pulled out with a pair of pliers, one by one. Without anesthesia.
Which Alejandro undoubtedly knew. Everyone knew it: Hawk was a loner. He hated petty conversation almost as much as he hated any kind of obligation, and women were chock-full of both. Of all the females he’d wooed since he was a young man, not a single one had ever been inside his home. He went to theirs or they met in the forest or, in the cases of the human females he met in the city on the procurement trips he was regularly assigned to, at hotels with rooms rentable by the hour. Anywhere he could make a quick, clean getaway once the fun had been had.
And after what he’d done to her, Jacqueline Dolan would, no doubt, make regular efforts to kill him in his sleep.
Disaster.
Morgan was blinking in surprise. Beside her, Xander gazed at him in sympathy. The other Assembly members looked as if they might break into hysterical laughter.
The loner, the outsider, the infamous Bastard, forced to share his own personal space with a human female who despised him as much as he despised her, for an indeterminate amount of time, under the watchful eyes of the entire tribe.
Hawk couldn’t think of a worse fate.
But Alejandro wasn’t done. “You’ll be in charge of making sure everything goes according to plan, and that this reporter forms a more favorable opinion of us. You’ll be in charge of ensuring that article is written—”
“And in return?” he interrupted, seething. “If I successfully bring her here and convince her that not only should she not kill me because of how I used her, but that she should also produce an article in direct contradiction to the one that won her such fame, what do I get?”
Alejandro grinned. “You get to keep your head attached to your body.”
