Tactical Difficulties

By Emily Carrington

Work and pregnancy are driving Sonya crazy. Her mate’s concern about her well-being isn’t helping because that concern takes the form of overprotectiveness. But when Sonya is kidnapped, she finds strength in herself and her mating bond that she never knew existed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Nov 7, 2019

Book preview

reality.

Chapter One

Agent Corelli looked nervous. He was sweating lightly as if he’d run the distance between his office and hers in Florida’s August heat. Even though they were both sitting, he fidgeted. This is an important coup, he said for the second time. Sonya, if we lose their trust, we’ll never regain it.

I’ve led teams before, she said, trying to soothe him. Her boss was not normally an anxious man. Rather, an anxious fae. SearchLight did not, by and large, promote anxious people to the heads of departments.

Maybe he was feeling nervous because his little corner of the world was often overlooked and now had been thrust into the spotlight. He had been the one to draw the spotlight, but perhaps its brightness was too much for him. It was obvious to Sonya the dragons, basilisks, and werewolves would eventually reach a compromise. Was it possible Agent Corelli was surprised that even the little research as Sonya had done would become important?

He responded to her comment, but he was obviously distracted. And we wouldn’t have chosen you if you weren’t qualified. But your doctorate is so new it squeaks.

It’s not as if I’ll be doing the DNA sequencing, she tried again. I’ll just be the facilitator because I’ve worked with dragons and werewolves before.

There’s no ‘just’ anything in this situation.

Sonya decided to keep her encouragements to herself. Excitement bubbled through her with the effervescence of a briskly shaken bottle of soda. She, Shaquilladay Johnson’s daughter, was doing something of which her mama had never dreamed: she was leading a scientific team.

For a moment, she was filled with a bitterness so strong she had to swallow. There were many things her mama wouldn’t get to see or enjoy, everything from her daughter’s financial and social success to her new grandchildren, due in five months’ time. Sonya had mostly left her broken home behind her. Between her work, her friends at SearchLight, her mate Maxine, and her mate’s werewolf pack, who were now accepting Sonya with open arms, she had regretted the loss of her old life only a little.

Sonya?

She pulled herself out of her funk and smiled at Agent Corelli.

You’re not worried about this at all, are you? he asked.

Nope.

Agent Corelli sighed. All right. You’ve picked your team?

Jenny will head the collection of dragon and werewolf DNA and Tom will manage the same for the basilisks. They each have two DNA sequencers under them.

He nodded and stood. And you’re comfortable with public speaking?

A lance of fear penetrated her heart, but she fought to keep any reaction off her face as she nodded. Maybe he could sense her fear -- some fae were supposed to be able to do that -- but she would act as if he couldn’t until proven differently. She had defended her dissertation before nine other people, two of which were experts in comparative biology. But she had never spoken to more than one high ranking official at a time, and that was what made her nervous.

He finally smiled. You’re one hell of a brave lady.

After he was gone, Sonya closed her eyes. Who, exactly, would she be speaking in front of? Well, that was easy. The delegates from the three communities participating in this research project: a basilisk or two, a couple of dragons, and as many werewolves. She found herself wondering who would be representing the different species and considered the possibility that it would be Mark for the dragons and some SearchLight werewolf for the wolves. Then she laughed ruefully. SearchLight prided itself on staying neutral. There was no way Mark or any other SearchLight agent would be a delegate.

At least that means I won’t be dealing with issues of internal rank. Just… lords and ladies and the basilisks’ High Council. Dragons had ladies and queens; it was a matriarchal society that scorned males for the most part. Werewolves were more egalitarian when it came to gender roles, especially since first Firos William and then Tilthos Charles had taken over the North American packs and made it quite clear that all wolves, straight or not, were equals in the sight of the alpha above all alphas. But Tilthos Charles, while he was the alpha above all alphas, also worked for SearchLight. Who would be speaking on behalf of the wolves in that case? Surely, the basilisk queen, who was technically the head of the High Council, wouldn’t attend. Would she?

Deciding she could put this aside for the moment, Sonya called her beloved to share the news.

* * *

Maxine stared at her mate. Sonya was lovely, of course, with her cocoa dark skin and cap of short, kinky, beautifully natural hair. Her skin was two or three shades lighter than Maxine’s and her eyes were a breathtaking honey brown. She was even more attractive today because her gaze shone out with triumph.

But how could she feel that way? The LGBTQ psychic werewolves were being discriminated against. Just like always. And this time, it was their own leader who was doing it. And Sonya might be human, not a werewolf like Maxine, but didn’t she understand the plight of her pack family? Her eros, meaning LGBTQ, pack family?

Tilthos Charles is giving the basilisks permission to overlook us, she said slowly and rather more loudly than she meant to. "Sonya, don’t you understand that? He’s saying,