Chapter One

"I SAID I WAS SORRY," Geoffroi "Roi" Majors stated as he glanced back at Eadan from the front passenger seat of the Hum-V. The vehicle that currently held five not-so-small guys was hardly inconspicuous. It was also less than comfortable. They stuck out like sore thumbs and Eadan Daly had to question the wisdom of this being their getaway vehicle. This one wasn't reinforced to help stop bullets. It seemed a lot like tissue paper at the moment. Pretty much all it had going for it was cool factor. One that screamed government or paramilitary group. A blinking sign on the top would only make it worse.

Shoot here. There is a better than average chance you'll hit your target.

With the entrance Lukian had been forced to make to get to them, they might as well have sent out engraved invitations to the enemy to come shoot at them there. Would have proven as effective.

"This thing go any faster?" Wilson asked, fidgeting in his seat.

Lukian didn't comment. He merely glanced at the rearview mirror. His glare was enough of a response.

Eadan's ears were still ringing from the hail of gunfire around them. Had he not assisted with his magik, they'd be picking lead out of his ass.

Out of all their asses.

He'd expended more power than he should have, but it was required. Unfortunately, he'd be feeling the ill effects of that much usage for probably a week or more. Unless he met up with a hottie at a bar and spent the night rockin' her world. Sexual energy would speed his ability to rebuild his natural-born power base.

He looked to his left at his fellow Immortal

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 3 Ops (I-Ops) teammates, Jon and Wilson. Jon shook his head, indicating they should not accept this apology from Roi either. They'd been steadily rejecting Roi's attempts to make amends for the past twenty minutes.

Wilson tapped his fingers on the doorframe, an annoyed breath easing from his lips. "You left without us. In a hostile zone, mind you. Might as well have painted a damn target on us yourself."

"No," Roi protested, twisting in the seat. His dark hair fell partially onto his face. "I told you already I thought Lukian was getting you. And, see, he got you."

Lukian, the team captain, snorted as he drove. He tended to be on the quiet side yet always managed to get his point across. Eadan had been unsure how to read him at first but was learning more and more each day.

"What?" Roi grunted and tossed his hands in the air. "Fine. I wasn't listening during the briefing because I was exhausted."

Green's voice came over their comms unit earpieces. "Stop worrying. Your wife and your girls will be fine."

Roi shifted around in his seat as he tapped his wrist and spoke into his comms piece. "You're the one who told me it's uncommon for a woman pregnant with twins to go to term. That means I could become a father any day now. I'm not ready yet. I only just got the nursery finished. I haven't set up college funds for them yet. I didn't…"

Roi was going to spiral out of control again. He'd been doing that more and more of late. Seemed as if the prospect of fatherhood was going to do what the enemy couldn't—kill him.

Lukian reached over as he continued to drive and touched Roi's arm. "Relax, brother. There is plenty of time for all that."

"Why am I the only one freaking out? Your wife is due soon too," Roi said, sounding frantic.

Eadan held back a groan. All this talk of pregnancies was getting on his last damn nerve.

Green's chuckle echoed through their earpieces. He was currently tucked away in a tiny location the team had preselected as base during their current mission. Green was their eyes and ears on everything else going on, a technical guru who also happened to be the best at patching them up when need be.

"Peren has another two months. Missy, with

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 5 the twins, probably won't go that long. Melanie has two and half months left and Kim has—"

Wilson leaned forward. "Just under five months left."

Eadan nudged Jon. "Is it just me or have our missions deteriorated into recipe swaps and what-to-expect-when-your-mate-is-expecting moments?"

"No," Jon said, his eyes widening. He looked almost scared, as if he too might catch the bug to discuss upcoming babies. "It's not just you."

"I'm fairly sure we were once feared," Eadan added with a laugh. "Now we're the labor patrol. We make the enemy shake in their boots—well, right after we're done talking about the first signs of contractions."

Wilson shook his head. "No. Not feared. Misunderstood. We were totally misunderstood. And just wait, you two will see what this is like when you meet your mates. Then we'll all laugh at you."

"No," Eadan said. "You'll give us burping tricks to help the kid with gas."

Lukian laughed, obviously enjoying the friendly banter. "You're probably right."

"Oh, I know I am."

Jon groaned as he smiled. It was actually a good sign. Jon hadn't been dealing well with the loss of Lance, an Immortal Ops team member. He'd died seven months prior, and in that time Wilson had been captured and thought dead. Jon blamed himself for not finding Wilson sooner and for not preventing Lance's death. For months the men had been walking on eggshells around Wilson because of the horrible ordeal he'd gone through. He'd been captured and tortured while the rest of the team believed he was dead. Had the women behind the men who called themselves Ops not been so persistent, there was a better than average chance Wilson wouldn't be alive right now. The women had gone after him, forcing the men to follow. They'd all managed to bring him home, alive and well. Wilson even managed to get a wife and son out of the deal.

Jon withdrew a pack of cigarettes from his vest pocket and then materialized a lighter. Eadan never said a word as he put the cigarette in his mouth and went to light it.

Wilson knocked it out of Jon's mouth.

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 7 "What the hell? When did you start smoking again?"

Jon's amber gaze hardened as he reached for the cigarette.

"Dad," Wilson said in a whiny voice, tapping the back of Lukian's chair. "He's smoking."

Lukian looked as if he were trying to find his inner happy place.

"That shit will kill ya," Roi said.

"While the effects of smoking have been proven to be detrimental to humans' health, they have no ill effects on us," Green chimed in.

"Tell them the head and heart story again," Roi said with a wag of his brows.

Wilson shook his head. "I don't give a shit. That crap stinks. You're not doing it in here. I'll smell it on myself all damn day."

Jon's mouth changed shape quickly, his teeth lengthening, the start of a tiger's teeth showing. He gave a soft roar at Wilson.

Wilson smiled wide. "Dad, he's trying to eat me."

"Dumbass," Roi said.

"Jon," Lukian interjected. "No eating Wilson. He comes in handy from time to time."

Jon's mouth returned to normal and he propped the cigarette between his lips but didn't light it. He merely looked out the window again, ignoring them all.

Eadan snorted, keeping the mood light, and tapped the back of Roi's seat. "Try not to forget us next time, all right?"

"I think he wanted to leave you on purpose," Wilson offered, a cock-sure grin on his face. "He's still sore you used to bang his wife."

True enough. Eadan and Missy had been married at one point in time. Now they were simply close friends. No stretch of the imagination, since their parents were close and had been since they'd been born. They'd been a constant in one another's life since before Eadan could remember. Though his feelings for her were no longer sexual in nature. They were simply of love—the type of love one has for family.

Roi growled. "Missy would have my damn balls on a platter if I let one hair on blondie's head be hurt. She's a mess of hormones and damn scary on a good day. So, uh, let's not tell her I forgot to pick him up. And mention him banging her again and I'll cut your dick off, mouse."

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 9

"Hey, you forgot me too," Wilson protested. "And I'm a wererat. Get it right, douche."

Roi gave Eadan a hard look and Eadan winked at him. "Used to take baths with your wife when we were little too. Stew on that, asshole."

Wilson lost it. "Ohmygod, brilliant!"

Lukian grumbled. "Great. It will take me weeks to calm him down now, Daly."

"He deserved it," Wilson chimed in. "He left us in hostile territory. Hey." Wilson looked to Eadan. "Are you leaking on me?"

Jon twisted and stared at them. "Do I even want to know?"

"No clue what he's talking about," Eadan added.

Wilson shivered. "Magik. Are you leaking it?"

"No. What you're feeling is residual magik. Can't help it. I had to use a lot to protect us from the bullets whizzing by us." He looked up at the back of Roi's head.

Roi shifted in his seat somewhat and Eadan knew the guy was refusing to turn to look back at him. Eadan felt like he was in high school again with the way the men carried on. He'd gotten used to being called blondie. He couldn't blame them. He did have long, blond hair. And as Roi liked to point out, it was very pretty. He snorted. "The maturity in this SUV is awe-inspiring."

"Hey, I'm nearly as old as time," Lukian said from the front.

"Old timer," Eadan shot back, making Lukian laugh. "How many centuries have you been alive?"

"We'll get him a walker for his next birthday," Roi said with a grin. He more than likely would, just to get Lukian going. "He can use it when he stands before the masses to talk to his minions."

By minions, Roi meant the rest of the lycans. Lukian was the natural-born king of them. Never acted like royalty though. And Eadan knew royalty because of his family and their connections within the Fae community.

Jon mumbled something and returned to looking out the window, seeming very uninterested in the current conversation. Eadan couldn't blame him. The talk would no doubt spin back around to kids and babies. It seemed to do that all the time anymore. Sure, it was nice

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 11 most of the team was mated and with families, but none of that changed the fact they still did a dangerous job and their full attention was required for it.

Wilson glanced at Eadan. "Colonel Brooks said you're being pulled for a PSI mission after this. That true?"

Eadan nodded, unsure how he felt about returning to his actual job with Paranormal Security and Intelligence even if just for a short period of time, even if PSI was in desperate need of his services. He'd been with the Immortal Ops longer than anyone had thought he would be. There had been an unspoken "never the two shall meet" rule before Eadan coming aboard. He didn't understand why everything had to be so secretive, but that was the government for you, creating super soldiers when they could, bringing in existing supernaturals and using them all to do their dirty work— missions that didn't exist done by men who didn't exist.

Bet they're shitting themselves now that we're technically intermingling.

Funny how he'd been so upset about being "saddled" with them when he was first assigned to the unit nearly seven months back, but they'd become a family of sorts to him—they were his brothers now. He couldn't imagine going back to solo operative work. Sure, he had close friends within PSI, but Eadan wasn't ever paired with them. And PSI was in the process of doing some major housecleaning since it had become evident not long ago that they had traitors in their midst.

"They get their shit sorted out?" asked Roi, ever the user of great prose.

Jon glanced in Eadan's direction. "Any more rogues turn up?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but I haven't been in the loop in a few months now," he admitted. It wasn't that long ago they had all been forced to watch as Missy took on a group of rogue agents. She'd weeded them out and then kicked the ever-loving shit out of them.

Missy-Bean would do no less.

He snorted. She was tenacious.

Wilson tipped his head. "Sounded like the trouble ran deep over there."

"Yeah."

"Brooks also mentioned it could be a long assignment," Lukian said, worry in his gaze,

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 13 reflected in the rearview mirror. "You need me to talk with him? I think we should be there to back you on this."

"No," replied Eadan. He appreciated the offer. "It's my job. I'm a PSI agent and a handler. Solo work sort of comes with the territory."

"You're one of us now, brother," Jon corrected, coming out of his daze. His amber eyes held concern. "And if I was you, I wouldn't want any one of those assholes over there to have my back. I wouldn't trust them."

Roi mumbled something derogatory under his breath. Lukian cleared his throat and Roi pressed a smile to his face and glanced in the rearview mirror. "Yeah, one of us."

Eadan stared at Jon. "I'll be fine. And there are some I trust with my life. They're not all bad. Just a few rotten apples got into the bunch."

Jon didn't appear to believe him. Eadan already knew the guy was afraid of losing another team member. And Eadan knew how dangerous his job within PSI was. It had already nearly cost him his life once.

"The women will miss you," Green said over the comms unit. Eadan understood he was voicing the men's feelings as well in a way that deflected from them.

Roi grumbled more. "Yeah, cryin' fucking buckets here."

The other men laughed.

Wilson bumped the back of Roi's seat. "What? Afraid your woman will miss him too much?"

"I know mine will," Green said, reminding them of the fact his wife was Eadan's sister. "If you'd return her calls, you'd hear all about the dream she keeps having. It involves you finding your mate."

"I'll be fine," Eadan managed. He didn't want to talk to Melanie about his possible mate. His sister meant well, but Eadan had no desire to get into the discussion with her—again. "I swear. I'll check in when I'm able. Ops-honor."

Lukian touched his comms unit. "Green, what is our ETA to base?"

"Six minutes, Captain."

Eadan soaked in the knowledge that in six minutes he'd technically be done with this mission and then back to what he knew best. Or what he used to know best, anyways.

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 15 JON REYNELL GLARED out the window, his unlit cigarette perched on the edge of his lips, wanting to voice more outrage over Eadan being yanked from their team but holding his tongue. Fucking higher-ups always thought they knew best. The higher-ups didn't know shit. Their cluelessness had cost Lance his life and almost cost Wilson his as well. How many of their team members did they need to bury before they understood that, while hard to kill, the I-Ops weren't impervious to death?

As Green had pointed out more than once in the past, a head or heart shot would indeed take them down in a way they wouldn't get back up from. Still, the men who pulled the strings kept doing stupid shit.

Like breaking up the band, even if just temporarily.

They were a well-oiled unit. You didn't mess with that. You didn't touch it. You let it be.

But not them. Whoever they were.

In all the years Jon had been part of the I- Ops, he'd only known a handful of point people —those who handed them their missions, had them report back and pretended to have some semblance of control over them, all the while keeping the people in power a secret. Colonel Brooks was the most recent. Seemed nice enough, but he was kept in the dark on things too. Jon suspected the man was more than met the eye—more than human.

Just like the I-Ops.

There was something about him that Jon couldn't put his finger on. If he was shifter then he'd learned to mask his scent like the I-Ops had decades ago, and if he was a magik he kept that shielded somehow too. All Jon knew was the man had been the same age, appearance-wise, for the past three decades. That wasn't something that happened in nature.

Colonel Brooks had been surprised by the news of a second Immortal Ops Team. And from what Jon could gather, the colonel had been startled by the number of hybrid super soldiers who had attempted an attack upon the I-Ops facility.

Jon shuddered to think what Roi must have gone through when his mate had been the target of their attacks. Finding out they were fighting hybrids who were part-vampire, part-were, part-

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 17 whatever-the-fuck someone decided to put in the test tubes had set them all on edge.

The hybrids had failed.

Of course.

When they'd all learned of the second I-Ops team, they began to speculate there might be more teams. Jon couldn't imagine more men being subjected to what they'd all gone through, and how many good men had been lost along the way? They'd been trying to locate them, but so far hadn't had too much free time with as busy as Gisbert Krauss and his army of mutants had been keeping them. Mad scientists were a given in what they did. Jon knew that. Yet he couldn't help but wonder if there was any type of mental screening the government did on scientists they recruited. Looked like they kept picking the nut jobs.

The last few months had taught Jon one thing. The people in power had lost control a long time ago. Maybe they never even had it. He could still vividly remember the fear in the eyes of the scientists who had helped to make him what he was now.

A killing machine.

Half-man, half-tiger. All killer.

Lukian's mate, Peren, was the daughter of one of the men who had taken over the experiments. He'd not been the founder of it, but had been who helped to perfect the creation of the team. He didn't fear them. But others who worked on the project before him did. They'd seen the horrors of it. They'd seen men who had volunteered to be all they could be die horrible deaths. Setting aside Lukian, they'd all been humans with supernatural traits somewhere in their family ancestry. Most were so faint it was barely there but it had been enough. Enough for the scientists to be able to try to build from. But it hadn't worked as planned. Some took to it. Some they watched go mad. And they watched others become hardened killers.

Jon remained silent in the SUV, wanting to encourage his brothers to simply break away, go it on their own from here on out. They never would. They were that loyal to their country. Problem was, their country wasn't in any way loyal to them.

Case in point, they were breaking up the team, even temporarily, and possibly sending another I-Op to his death. It was hard not to be

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 19 bitter. Hard not to let it all get to him. He knew his emotions were all over the place and, as of late, finding a dark place to reside. He worried that he was like Parker—one of the broken test subjects.

All Jon had holding him together was his teammates. He knew that. He just wished the higher-ups did too.

"Hey, you still with us?" asked Eadan, bringing Jon's attention to him.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Daydreaming about hot chicks?" Wilson questioned, grinning like a fool.

Jon's lips twitched as he tried not to laugh. "And then some."

Wilson batted his lashes in an over-the-top manner. "Describe them to us. We're all mated and aren't allowed to daydream about any women other than our wives."

Eadan shook his head. "Don't count me in that mix. I'm single."

"For now," warned Wilson. "You heard Green. Your sister keeps talking like it won't be much longer before you meet your mate."

Green laughed over their comms. "Mel is convinced it's going to happen very soon."

Jon just hoped when it came to his fate Melanie kept her faerie future-reading powers to herself. He looked to Eadan. "Try not to leak anything on me, okay?"

Eadan laughed. "I'll do my best."

Chapter Two

EADAN SAT in one of the back rooms at Paranormal Security and Intelligence Headquarters, reading through the briefing files on the table before him. PSI was flashier than the I- Ops Headquarters, which was hardly shabby. But PSI was nearly three times the size and seemed to like everything looking sleek and modern. Since he'd been a member, they'd redone the place several times. He never asked who was paying the bills.

He probably didn't want to know.

He'd been reluctant at first when the director of PSI had insisted he be loaned out to the Immortal Ops Team. He'd known little of them prior to being thrust among their ranks, and he had to admit his first impression of them wasn't good.

Roi, in particular, had rubbed him the wrong way. Didn't help that the guy was mated to Eadan's ex-wife. His strong dislike of Roi had changed during his time with them. They'd forged a bond—they were brothers, even if not by blood. And he was happy Missy found happiness. He and Missy weren't mates. He understood that.

Though Roi was still a dick. Didn't help he was a werewolf. Tended to make his mood volatile on a good day. Eadan spent enough time around shifters to learn the differences in how they reacted, how they fought and how they calmed down. Werewolves were often the worst to bring back from the brink of rage. Although it often took the most to get them into a blood rage. That, at least, was something.

As he leafed through the files about the Asia Project, he pulled focus, concentrating on what was before him. Some of the intel regarding the project was fuzzy at best. From what Intel had been able to gather over twenty years ago, DNA

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 25 splicing and manipulation techniques were done to babies in utero. Their mothers were never seen or heard from again. The children of this horrendous project had been gathered by the masterminds and placed in various orphanages around the world. Try as they might, those seeking to help the children were unable to track them. All they knew was they were out there, aging, coming into their supernatural gifts and going through only the goddess knew what.

PSI was in possession of two lists of names taken from the enemy. From what they could gather, the names on the list he was currently reading belonged to those who had been subjected to testing during the Asia Project.

He'd been given a brief glimpse of the lists when they'd first come to light, but this was the first time he'd been granted unlimited access to it all. He'd understood the lists were long, but he'd not realized that behind each name were directives. Some said to retrieve. Others said retrieve or eliminate. A rare few simply said eliminate.

"Even after everything these people have lived through, it comes to this?" he asked. He read onward and his stomach dropped. "Wait, Intel is now telling us the Asia Project never stopped? Are they certain?"

"Yes. What are your thoughts?" asked General Jack C. Newman, the director of PSI, as he entered the room. The werelion had been Eadan's father-in-law at one point. Now he was just his boss and friend.

"My thoughts are I'm about to be sick," he replied and he was. He knew the I-Ops weren't exactly created by way of cute kittens and fluffy bunnies, but the shit he'd read about the Asia Project nearly cost him his lunch. The things they did to those children, those babies. Only the sickest monsters in the world could behave in such a way.

The general nodded. "I had the same reaction."

Jack pushed the second list in Eadan's direction and Eadan felt as if something else took hold of him, demanding he snatch the list from the director. He did. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, he just knew he had to look. He read down the list of names and stopped on the name Inara Nash. His forefinger stroked the name without him meaning to.

It suddenly felt hot in the briefing room.

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 27

Eadan grabbed the pitcher of water on the table and poured himself a glass. He gulped it down, his gaze never leaving the list with the name Inara Nash upon it. Drops of perspiration made their way down his back. Why was it so damn hot in the room all of a sudden?

Jack watched his actions carefully.

Eadan stared up at the man. "You wanted me to see that list. Why?"

"Any name in particular stick out to you?" asked Jack nonchalantly.

"No games," Eadan said sternly. "There are lives at stake."

"Inara Nash," Jack said. "Next to her name, what does it say?"

Eadan referred to the list again. To the right of her name was retrieve or eliminate. The entire list had sickened him. Seeing this name in particular made his insides twist into knots, but he wasn't sure why. He didn't know her. Yet it bothered him more than if he had spotted his own name on there.

"Who is she?" he asked, utterly still. He clamped his teeth, his jaw tight, tension filling his body. He knew the answer to his own question. It was there, just out of his mind's reach.

So close.

But untouchable to him just yet.

Jack held another file out for him. "This is some of the information Missy collected. What she'd hidden on a microchip until she could find the I-Ops."

Eadan remembered what had happened. He also knew the intel nearly cost Missy her life. He took the file and opened it. Pictures fell out onto the tabletop. His chest tightened to the point of near bursting. He couldn't draw in air as he looked at the surveillance shots of Inara.

She was stunning. Her long dark hair was silky and hung almost to her waist. Several of the pictures were in full color, and when he looked into her brilliantly green eyes, he couldn't stop himself from touching the photograph. He knew his behavior wasn't normal. He couldn't stop himself. Worse yet, his cock took an interest in the woman as well. It hardened, pulling at the confines of his jeans, wanting free.

More to the point, it wanted in Inara.

The pictures showed her in various locations, mostly all outside in large cities. She also looked younger than the file claimed she was.

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 29 He nearly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she was, in fact, legal. "She's twenty-three?"

The general nodded. "According to the records we were able to find."

With a frustrated grunt, Eadan moved around the shockingly small amount of paperwork on her. "Not much then, I see."

He wanted details. Lots of them. The files before him provided little.

"No. She's managed to stay under the radar for the last six years. At least until recently." Jack touched the recent photos of her, and Eadan held back the urge to smack the photo from his grip. No one was to touch her. No one but him. "Hard to believe she's one of the children from the Asia Project, isn't it? Seems like it happened only yesterday."

Eadan didn't remind him that his own adoptive daughter had been part of that very project and was now someone's wife and a soon-to-be mother of twins. "Yeah. I'm curious, how did you piece it together?"

"She was caught on a surveillance camera, and was clearly more than human. A team was sent to gather more information about her but she managed to lose them."

That caught his attention. Losing a PSI team wasn't easy to do. It took more than luck. It took skill and training. Training only a fellow operative could provide.

Jack eyed him warily, then glanced away quickly. "Not once, but three times."

"Three times? How?" Eadan asked in stunned disbelief. She wasn't an operative. And she wasn't a Shadow Agent. Even though they operated off the grid, Eadan had been made aware of who they were because he was a special kind of handler. One who had the trust of the director.

He lifted the photograph Jack was so interested in. The woman was outside a building that had a sign on it.

West Street Shelter.

He didn't need to be told it was a homeless shelter. The forlorn look on her beautiful face, the dark circles under her eyes, the clothes that didn't fit her right and looking thinner than she should. She was on the streets.

The knowledge struck him in the solar plexus. He'd have doubled over if he wasn't already seated. Instead, he used the table and gripped it tight, taking slow, measured breaths.

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 31

"Exactly," Jack stated, sadness lacing his voice. "We pulled a partial print and were able to find information on her from six years ago. Then nothing. What we did find was interesting. It left little doubt in our minds that she's from the Asia Project."

"Any word on where she is now?" There was no hiding the desperation in his voice so he didn't bother trying.

The pensive look on Jack's face worried Eadan. "In Helmuth's territory."

"The dick who controls the paranormal underground in Seattle?"

Jack nodded. "The very same. And it gets worse. Helmuth has now been linked to both Krauss and Molyneux."

It was bad enough Krauss had big-time supporters. Adding in Helmuth didn't help matters. Seemed like the whole of the paranormal bad-guy community was gathering together and setting aside differences for an end game Eadan wasn't sure he wanted to learn about.

"Why not send the I-Ops on this?" he asked. It was a legitimate question. They'd been following Krauss around, trying to get a handle on his next move, for months. They were the likely choice. The Asia Project was, for lack of a better word, their baby.

Jack took a seat. While immortal, Jack was very old for a shifter, so much so that he now looked to be middle-aged. It took a long time for a shifter to get to that point. Jack wore his age around the eyes, as if he'd seen too much in his long life. "Eadan, look at all the photos of her."

Eadan skimmed through them and came to a grinding halt when he spotted one with Inara drawing. Someone had taken the picture from behind her, and when Eadan looked at the sketchpad before her on the diner table, he understood why. She'd sketched him.

"That's me," he whispered, holding the photo tighter to him as if it were a lifeline to the woman. His gaze went to her hand, the one holding the pencil. He wanted to be there next to her, holding her hand, kissing it.

You don't even know her. Enough, he chastised himself. This wasn't like him. Eadan was level-headed and he never made a habit of blindly falling for a woman. Yet he felt himself tumbling fast for this one.

Jack moved that photo aside and pushed two

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 33 others before him. These were also of Inara drawing. Though, she wasn't in a diner in them. The pictures were different but the subject was still the same.

He looked up at Jack. "She draws me? How? We've never met."

Jack sighed, appearing tired. "Eadan, from what we could piece together about the testing done on her, she's carrying a fair amount of werewolf DNA in her. But there is so much other introduced feline shifter DNA that we don't think she can actually shift forms." A dramatic pause followed. "There is more."

Eadan wasn't sure he wanted to hear the rest, but he needed to. "Yes?"

"From the fragmented testing results we were able to recover from the original laboratories, Inara, like all the children in the project, started out with some supernatural base, be it small or large. Inara had Fae in her. Small, but there. Our scientists are guessing one of her grandparents was the product of a Fae and human pairing. Mind you, the files were damaged. The original scientists tried to burn the evidence. We were able to forensically piece back together a portion of it. Not all."

Staring from Jack to the pictures of Inara drawing him, Eadan began to feel as if he were falling down a rabbit hole. Nothing he was looking at made sense. Not to mention his emotions were all over the place. He'd not had this much trouble with them in years. "Say it."

Jack eased closer to him. "Eadan, you and Missy weren't true mates. You know it, I know it, everyone does."

Nodding, Eadan sat perfectly still, already guessing what was coming. "Yes. And while we'll always be friends, we're not in love with each other. She's with Roi. I get and respect that. I want her happy and I would never try to interfere with that."

"I know. She found her true mate," Jack continued. "And our people, putting together all this information before us, think this young woman here might be yours. Before you protest, I called your father in on this and asked him his thoughts. You know he's high up in the Fae world. He agrees, Eadan. He thinks Inara is your life mate."

There had to be more to the story. Eadan eyed Jack carefully. "What aren't you telling me?"

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 35

With a long, slow breath, Jack kept going. "Before everything hit the fan here at PSI, before the rogue problems came to light, I was contacted by an ex-PSI agent. The who isn't important now. What is was that he was calling to tell me he thought he'd found your mate. He wouldn't say why, but Eadan, regardless of how or why he left PSI, I trust him."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Everything went south here. I needed your focus on PSI. Not elsewhere. It was selfish, I know, and at the time she wasn't in danger," he said. "Honestly, I'm still pissed that you and Missy lied to me about having a relationship. But you deserve more than my hurt feelings and anger. You deserve to be happy, and if intel is right, your mate is in grave danger."

Something wasn't sitting well with Eadan. "Who was the agent who contacted you?"

Jack was hesitant before responding, "James Hagen."

Eadan's temper flared. "He bailed on PSI almost ten years back. He got an agent killed."

"There is a lot about that mission you don't know," Jack replied softly as he lifted his hands to indicate the need to remain calm.

"I know Gus was my friend, a mentor, and James got him killed."

Jack shook his head. "According to the story you heard. I'm not getting into this now."

Eadan glanced at the photos of Inara. "What does James have to do with Inara?"

"We're not entirely sure. I can say they were spotted together more than once. Also, Hagen sent the photos of Inara drawing you." Jack met his gaze. "Some speculate he and Inara are or were lovers."

Eadan saw red. No one was to touch Inara. No one but him.

His breath caught at the realization he was ready to launch a war over a woman he didn't know. Jack watched his movements, almost as if he expected the negative reaction.

"The I-Ops could have learned all this," he said. "Why just pull me?"

"The werewolf DNA," Jack answered.

Eadan tipped his head, his anger still bristling at the surface. "I'm not following."

"It's a match for Lukian and Roi's bloodline." Jack stood and walked toward the door. He looked back. "Lukian has been alive a very long time. He's king among his kind. He views

TACTICAL MAGIK (IMMORTAL OPS) 37 Roi as his brother because of the bloodbond they share. Where do you think Lukian's head will be when he learns there is a young woman out there who had a parent that was half-werewolf. Not just any werewolf, mind you, but from his line. A line he thought had no one aside from him, Roi and their soon-to-be children?"

It took Eadan a moment to follow. "You're thinking she's family to him somehow?"

Jack inclined his head. "And if she's family to Lukian…"

"She's family to Roi."

"If I had to guess, they'll see her as a little sister of sorts. You're not a shifter, but I am, and I can tell you how I'd feel. How I'd view the young woman if it were me and how I'd probably do something very stupid to save her. And, Eadan, while you might not hold a lot of love for Roi, he's mated to Missy and they're expecting twins."

Eadan stood as well. "And if Roi does something stupid and gets himself killed over Inara, Missy and her babies are on their own."

"Yeah." Jack touched the door handle. "For this mission, it's best you leave the I-Ops out of it. I've arranged for another PSI Op to meet you in Seattle."

"Who?"

"Duke Marlow," returned Jack.

Eadan groaned. "What is with sticking me with all the damn werewolves?"

Jack grinned. "If we're right, your soon-to-be wife counts as one."