Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [899]
“Yeah, it would,” Tegan replied. “But his talent is still too raw. Until he gets it under control, we’re better to keep him working diplomatic relations for the Order.”
“Diplomatic relations.” Brock chuckled, a deep, amused rumble in his chest. “God knows not a one of us standing here now is suited for that kind of work.”
“Damn straight,” Tegan agreed, smiling with cold menace. “So, let’s stop the yammering and go kick some ass.”
As the group broke and prepared to move out, Brock lagged behind the others and gave Kade a questioning look. “What’s going on with you? I’ve gone on too many patrols with you not to notice that you’ve got something heavy weighing on your mind, my man.”
“Nah.” Kade shook his head. “It’s nothing. I’m good. Let’s roll.”
Brock’s dark eyes narrowed. He took a sideways step and blocked Kade’s path, keeping his voice too low for the others to hear. “Now, see, that’s the kind of lame-ass thing you say to someone who hasn’t watched your back as often as you’ve watched theirs. So, let me ask it again. What the fuck happened since you got here?”
Kade stared at his comrade and friend—the warrior who was as close as a brother to him. Closer, even, than his own identical twin. The twin Kade no longer knew, and had lost as his kin a long time ago.
It shamed him to think of Seth now, let alone try to explain what he’d discovered about him in the time that he’d been back in Alaska.
He would have to tell the Order all of it at some point—he knew that. He would have to tell Alex about Seth eventually, as well. But there were other things weighing just as heavily on him, not the least of which being the fact that in the midst of all the madness and strife since he’d left Boston, he had somehow dropped his guard and let himself fall in love.
“The woman,” he said lamely. “Alexandra Maguire …”
“You mean the Breedmate,” Brock corrected, having no doubt heard something about her from one of Kade’s calls into the compound. “Did something happen to the female?”
“Yeah, you could say that.” Kade exhaled a short breath, wry and hedging. “Alex has become important to me. Really important.”
As Brock stared at him, the other warriors were getting on their sleds and juicing up their engines. The roar of machinery rumbled all around them, everyone waiting to get moving.
Brock gaped a minute longer, then let out a whoop of laughter. “Naah! Oh, hell no. Not you, too?”
Kade grinned, gave him a helpless shrug. “I love her, man. And she says she loves me, believe it or not.”
“Un-fucking-believable,” Brock said, still chuckling and shaking his head. “This is becoming a goddamn epidemic lately.”
“Then you’d better watch your step, too.”
“Shit,” he replied, letting the word hiss out of him on a slow exhalation. “Now who am I going to hang with after patrols—Harvard? Thanks a lot, man. I’ll bet Hunter over there would be a barrel of laughs, too.”
From across the way, Tegan tipped up the visor on his helmet and shot them a summoning look. “Let’s do this.”
Brock waved his acknowledgment, then turned back to Kade. “Ball-busting aside, man, I look forward to meeting your woman. But first, let’s go kick some Dragos ass.”
Kade chuckled as he walked over to his snowmachine and prepared to ride out with his brethren, but his light mood was mostly a mask for the unpleasant reality that was settling heavier and heavier on his shoulders. Because assuming he survived the raid on the mine tonight, he would have the unpleasant task of dealing with Seth soon afterward.
He meant to start a life together with Alex, if she would have him, but he couldn’t do that without taking care of the business he should have addressed before he ever left Alaska in the first place.
Seth was sliding toward Bloodlust, if he wasn’t there already. His madness had to be stopped.
And Kade was the only one who could do it.
CHAPTER
Twenty-three
Kade had only been gone a couple of hours, but the waiting was driving Alex crazy.
Sleep was out of the question, even though she hadn’t been getting much of it lately. She had already