Kiss Of Snow - PSY Changeling 10 By Nalini Singh

A PART FROM THE BOOK
HAWKE FOLDED HIS arms and leaned back against the solid bulk of his desk, eyes on
the two young females in front of him. Hands clasped behind themselves and legs slightly spread
in the ―resting‖ stance, Sienna and Maria looked like the SnowDancer soldiers they
were—except for the fact that their hair straggled in a wild mess around their faces, matted with
mud, crushed leaves, and other forest debris. Then there was the torn clothing and the sharp,
acrid scent of blood.
His wolf bared its teeth.
―Let me get this straight,‖ he said in a calm tone that had Maria turning pale under skin that
was a warm, smooth brown where it wasn‘t bruised and bloody. ―Instead of staying on watch and
protecting the pack‘s defensive border, you two decided to have your own personal dominance
battle.‖
Sienna, of course, met his gaze—something no wolf would‘ve done in the circumstances. ―It
w—‖
―Be quiet,‖ he snapped. ―If you open your mouth again without permission, I‘m putting both of
you in the pen with the two-year-olds.‖
Those amazing cardinal eyes—white stars on a background of vivid black—went a pure
ebony, which he knew full well indicated fury, but she clenched her jaw. Maria, on the other
hand, had gone even paler. Good.

―Maria,‖ he said, focusing on the petite changeling whose size belied her skill and strength in
both human and wolf form. ―How old are you?‖
Maria swallowed. ―Twenty.‖
―Not a juvenile.‖
Maria‘s thick black curls, heavy with mud, bounced dully as she shook her head.
―Then explain this to me.‖
―I can‘t, sir.‖
―Right answer.‖ No reason they could offer up would be a good enough excuse for the bullshit
fight. ―Who threw the first punch?‖
Silence.
His wolf approved. It mattered little who‘d incited the exchange when neither had walked
away from it, and the fact of the matter was, they‘d been meant to work as a team, so they‘d take
their punishment as a team—with one caveat.
―Seven days,‖ he said to Maria. ―Confined to quarters except for one hour each day. No
contact with anyone while you‘re inside.‖ It was a harsh punishment—wolves were creatures of
Pack, of family, and Maria was one of the most bubbly, social wolves in the den. To force her to
spend all that time alone was an indication of just how badly she‘d blundered. ―The next time
you decide to step off watch, I won‘t be so lenient.‖
Maria chanced meeting his gaze for a fleeting second before those rich brown eyes skated
away, her dominance no match for his. ―May I attend Lake‘s twenty-first?‖
―If that‘s the use you want to make of your hour on the day.‖ Yeah, it made him a bastard to
force her to miss most of her boyfriend‘s big party, especially when the two were taking the first,
careful steps into a relationship, but she‘d known exactly what she was doing when she decided
to engage in a pissing contest with a fellow soldier.
SnowDancer was strong as a pack because they watched each other‘s backs. Hawke would not
allow stupidity or arrogance to eat away at a foundation he‘d rebuilt from the ground up after the
bloody events that had stolen both his parents and savaged the pack so badly it had taken more
than a decade of tight isolation for them to recover.
Holding on to his temper by a very thin thread, he turned his attention to Sienna. ―You were,‖
he said, the wolf very much in his voice, ―specifically ordered not to get into any physical
altercations.‖


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