Mackenzie's Pleasure Read Free Page B

it.
    Both boys' eyes had flickered to that slight retreating figure with the ramrod spine. Then
    Zane had turned to
    Sooner, the coolness of his blue gaze somewhat marred by the swelling of his eyes. "One
    more," he said grimly, and slammed his fist into Sooner's face.
    Sooner picked himself up off the dirt, squared up again and returned the favor.
    Zane got up, slapped the dirt from his clothes and held out his hand. Sooner gripped it,
    though they had both winced at the pain in their knuckles. They shook hands, eyed each other
    as equals, then returned to the house to clean up. After all, supper was almost on the table.
    At supper, Mary told Sooner that the adoption had been given the green light. His pale
    hazel eyes had glittered in his battered face, but he hadn't said anything.
    "You're a Mackenzie now," Maris had pronounced with great satisfaction. "You'll have
    to have a real name, so choose one."
    It hadn't occurred to her that choosing a name might require some thought, but as it
    happened, Sooner had looked around the table at the family that pure blind luck had sent
    him, and a wry little smile twisted up one side of his bruised, swollen mouth. "Chance," he said,
    and the unknown, unnamed boy became Chance Mackenzie.
    Zane and Chance hadn't become immediate best friends after the fight. What they had
    found, instead, was mutual respect, but friendship grew out of it. Over the years, they became
    so close that they could well have been born twins. There were other fights between them, but
    it was well known around Ruth, Wyoming, that if anyone decided to take on either of the
    boys, he would find himself facing both of them. They could batter each other into the ground,
    but by God, no one else was going to.
    They had entered the Navy together, Zane becoming a SEAL, while Chance had gone
    into Naval Intelligence.
    Chance had since left the Navy, though, and gone out on his own, while Zane was a
    SEAL team leader.
    And that brought Wolf to the reason for his restlessness. Zane.
    There had been a lot of times in Zane's career when he had been out of touch, when they
    hadn't known where he was or what he was doing. Wolf hadn't slept well then, either. He
    knew too much about the SEALs, having seen them in action in Vietnam during his tours
    of duty. They were the most highly trained and skilled of the special forces, their stamina
    and teamwork proven by grueling tests that broke lesser men. Zane was particularly wellsuited for the work, but in the final analysis, the SEALs were still human. They could be killed.
    And because of the nature of their work, they were often in dangerous situations.
    The SEAL training had merely accentuated the already existing facets of Zane's nature.
    He had been honed to a perfect fighting machine, a warrior who was in top condition, but who
    used his brain more than his brawn. He was even more lethal and intense now, but he had
    learned to temper that deadliness with an easier manner, so that most people were unaware
    they were dealing with a man who could kill them in a dozen different ways with his bare hands.
    With that kind of knowledge and skill at his disposal, Zane had learned a calm control that kept
    him in command of himself. Of all Wolf's offspring, Zane was the most capable of taking care of
    himself, but he was also the one in the most danger. Where in hell was he?
    There was a whisper of movement from the bed, and Wolf looked around as Mary
    slipped from between the sheets and joined him at the window, looping her arms around
    his hard, trim waist and nestling her head on his bare chest.
    "Zane?" she asked quietly, in the darkness.
    "Yeah." No more explanation was needed.
    "He's all right," she said with a mother's confidence. "I'd know if he wasn't."
    Wolf tipped her head up and kissed her, lightly at first, then with growing intensity.
    He turned her slight body more fully into his embrace and felt her quiver as she pressed to
    him, pushing her hips against his, cradling