Tactical Magik (Immortal Ops) by Mandy M. Roth Page A

don’t use it, I sneeze around people who do?”  
    “In a nutshell,” he replied.  
    “Can you read each other’s thoughts?”  
    Green nodded.
    Well, that explained that then. She wasn’t crazy. Eadan could hear what she was thinking and she could hear him.
    She had one more question. “Is it strange to love your mate when you only really just met them?”  
    Green stood slowly. “Not at all.”  
    Good, because I think I do love him.
    He watched her. “Inara, you should know that between mates, there is a very high chance you will conceive a child regardless the precautions you take.”  
    She gulped. She wasn’t ready for children just yet.  
    Green smiled. “When it happens, it happens.”  
    She held up the gown and walked past him to the door he’d pointed at. “I’ll change.”  
    The exam was quick and painless.  
    Green patted her shoulder. “All clear. I can give you some fluids. That might be best, just to be on the safe side.”  
    “I’m fine. Eadan has promised me much in the way of food and drink,” she joked.  
    “See to it you eat or I will not hesitate to haul your backside in here. Got it?”  
    She didn’t doubt he would. She nodded. “Got it.”  
    Inara drew back as Lukian and Roi burst through the door to the clinic area.  
    “What is taking so long?” Lukian asked, his voice hard.  
    Green barely seemed fazed by the two. He looked up from his computer screen and sighed. “I wondered how long it would be before you both showed up. I thought Eadan would beat you to it.”  
    The men shared a look that screamed guilty.
    Inara gasped. “What did you do to him?”  
    Roi whistled and looked upward. “No idea what you’re talking about.”  
    Green swiveled in his chair. “Roi, did you do something to Eadan?”  
    Roi pointed to Inara. “He wanted to touch her. She’s too young to be touched. She’s just a baby.”  
    “She’s twenty-three,” corrected Green. He’d saved her the trouble of needing to point it out to them.  
    She had no idea why they kept behaving so strangely around her. They acted as if they were her father or something. She put her hands on her hips, annoyance making her take leave of her better judgment. “What the hell did you do to my man?”  
    Roi looked at Lukian. “She called him her man. We should kill him.”  
    “What?” she demanded.  
    Lukian nodded. “I think you might be right.”  
    Green shot out of his seat and went at them both, pushing them into the room and away from the door. “No one is killing anyone. Take a seat.”  
    They glared at him.  
    Lukian puffed out his chest. “Move. That is an order.”  
    “Sir, with respect, shut up and sit down,” Green said, not budging an inch. He was hardly a small guy. Not that Lukian or Roi were either, but Inara had no doubts who was going to win if it came down to it.  
    Green.  
    The geeky science guy wasn’t to be messed with.
    He took a long, deep breath. “Sit.”  
    They each took a seat on some of the stools in the room.  
    Green motioned with his hand at them. “Your behavior makes sense to me now that I’ve been able to go over all the data PSI had on Inara.”  
    She was all ears.  
    “She’s carrying your line of lycan.” Green stared hard at Lukian. “Your exact line. And from all accounts, she was born with it.”  
    Lukian twisted and stared at Inara with wide eyes. He stood slowly, coming toward her. The closer he got, the more she considered backing away, but instead held her ground. He touched her cheek tenderly, in a loving manner, like her adoptive parents had long ago. His blue eyes moistened. “How did I not see it? You look just like her.”  
    “Like who?”  
    “My sister, Imogen.”  
    Roi came and stood next to Lukian. “You told me about her. You said she died during the lycan roundups over a hundred years ago.”  
    “She did,” Lukian said. “But her son didn’t. I placed him with another family. Far