pleasure came fury. Jerking up her knee, she would’ve got Kenji right in the family jewels if he hadn’t twisted out of the way, breaking the contact between them. “Good move,” she said with a glare, even as her wolf lunged against her skin, wanting more, wanting him. “What did you think you were doing?”
“What I should’ve done when you were twenty-one.” Chest heaving and hair falling over his face, he stared at her with eyes gone the pale, husky amber of his wolf.
Feeling her own wolf in her eyes, Garnet was the one who growled this time. “You missed that chance,” she said. “And I dodged a bullet.”
He flinched, but she wasn’t done. “Keep your hands to yourself or next time I’ll rip them off. I’m not interested in being a notch on Kenji Tanaka’s bedpost.”
She strode past him, refusing to acknowledge the horrible sense of loss that pulsed beneath her anger like a deep, dark bruise. The same way she’d refused to cry when Kenji stood her up on her twenty-first birthday. She’d dressed up for him, even had a friend do her makeup and hair. Everyone had thought she’d made such an effort because of the party her year-mates had thrown her . . . but she’d done it for Kenji. Her friend and the boy she’d always gone to with her problems and hopes and dreams.
Even when he’d been a hormonal idiot dating Britney, he’d never let her down.
At twenty, heading into twenty-one, she’d finally been old enough that he’d allowed himself to look at her as a woman, not a girl. She’d been so happy, because that crush of hers? It had never truly disappeared. He’d courted her, specifically asked to be her date the night of the party. Then he hadn’t come. She’d been worried about him, had called around frantically . . . only to discover that he’d gone out dancing with not one but two female packmates.
Kenji Tanaka could go drown himself in the goddamn lake for all she cared.
Chapter 1
It was three months after Garnet had punched him, and Kenji’s black eye had long faded. Just as well. Maybe soon, he’d forget the taste of her, the feel of her, the scent of her so close, the magnificent anger that had turned her blue eyes a molten wolf-gold. What the fuck had he been thinking? It had been hard enough to stay away from her when he’d never indulged his bone-deep hunger for her.
Now?
It was proving impossible.
And to top it all off, he’d just arrived at her den, was scheduled to spend the next four days here. Four days. The only thing that might stop him from going mad was that Riaz and Indigo would also be present, the other two lieutenants unknowingly providing a buffer. The four of them planned to discuss the security protocols around this part of SnowDancer’s territory, which basically meant Kenji’s and Garnet’s sectors.
Cooper had charge of the den at the other end of the San Gabriel range, but since he had to keep an eye on a border as well, Indigo and Riaz would go to him after finishing up here. It’d allow the three to physically test security ideas, give further depth to the report they’d make to their alpha.
All of this was possible because the Psy were currently mostly focused inward, and it was a review that was sorely needed. SnowDancer had been so busy coming up with strategy after strategy to deal with everything that had been happening back-to-back over the past year that there’d been no time for a more in-depth assessment.
Indigo and Riaz’s task was to ensure all the pieces fit together seamlessly, and that the entire SnowDancer command structure knew exactly what was happening security-wise across the territory. SnowDancer was so strong as a pack despite their geographic spread because they never lost sight of the fact that they were one.
Garnet might punch him out in a personal fight, but she’d be there in a heartbeat if Kenji needed backup in any other situation.
Running his hands through his hair as he shoved down his need, he grinned. He’d had the naturally black strands dyed just for Garnet. His hair was currently dark pink with streaks of cobalt and dark sapphire. Really, it was sedate for him, but he doubted Garnet would agree. She tended to curl her lip every time he joined a comm conference with a different look.
His packmate Louisa, a hairdresser and colorist, loved him. Called him