Free Sweeter Than Honey: (Scifi Shapeshifter Erotica) (The Revenant Chronicles Book 1) by Mina Carter, J.William Mitchell Page A

to your operation.”
    “Situational complication?” he said slowly, trying to contain the rage that surged through him. Only half-human, he was more volatile than either of his parent races. A fact which had resulted in his downfall and the subsequent creation of the Revenants years ago. “They’re dead lady. I’d call that a bit more than a fucking ‘situational complication’! A complication is ordering the wrong freaking pizza, not having half the bastard Jentarian forces down on your head during exfil!”
    He glared at her for long moments, but she didn’t bat an eyelid, which made his fury surge anew. She was as cool as a fucking cucumber, not a hair out of place, talking about complications when he was three men—three friends—down.
    “Gah! What’s the point?” He snarled and turned on his heel. “I’m outta here. Next time you get complications, lady, call someone else.”
    *
    “What do you want from me?” Tessa cried out before she could stop the words, throwing the sharply exclaimed query right at his retreating back. She’d been holding onto that question between all the snarling comm calls from him up to the point he’d demanded a private meeting with her.
    She had shown up, hoping she’d get an answer, but all she got was more aggravation. She’d seen him angry more than once before, but it was different this time. He’d been growling, literally growling at her, which made her even more nervous. The sounds weren’t like anything she’d heard, not from any man. They were feral, dangerous. The low, grating rumbling touched something visceral within her, as if she were face to face with a ferocious predator about to tear her apart.
    And as he bore down on her with eyes as hard as flint, and deadly tension that coiled within his hard, muscled body, Jensen Haye certainly looked every bit the dangerous predator that he was.
    He was no ordinary mercenary, easily one of the best in the business, if not right at the top of the food chain. His name carried with it the same gravity one would use to talk about death, spoken with a little bit of fear and consciously avoided. His darker history, one she'd only been able to dig up snippets of, certainly contributed to that. That had been before he founded The Revenants, one of the best wet work teams in the business.
    They were an asset Tessa was about to lose because their fearless leader had his head up his ass.
    No. She wasn’t about to let that happen, not without a fight. Marching up to him, she blocked his way and held her ground. “Do you think I enjoyed watching all of that happen a million miles away, helpless to do anything? Were you expecting some sort of self-flagellation on my part? See me punish myself for a mistake that you’re blaming on me? If I cried and pleaded to the gods right now to make this right, would that make you feel better?”
    He stopped, quicker than any man that big had a right to be able to, and glared down at her. She’d always found his eyes fascinating, a combination of colors that sparkled and mesmerized. After the growls, and everything else she’d heard about him… Just what the hell was he?
    “What would make me feel better,” he ground out, “is not having to bury three of my men. Men who were closer to me than my own brothers.”
    She suppressed the urge to bite her lip. Her rule was to never show anything, not in front of her assets. To them she was the hard as nails, cast iron bitch. But in all that, she’d almost forgotten that to him, his men weren’t assets. The Revenants had a reputation as a hard team, but it was well-known that they were like family.
    Tessa narrowed her eyes at him. “Well, if I could turn back time and prevent their deaths, I certainly would. But sadly, while I’m capable of many things, time travel isn’t one of them. You’re a mercenary, one of the best. It’s why I hired you and your team. You know the risks and how to get the job done right. Since they were