CARESSED BY ICE

He glanced at his watch again, knowing he’d never get a better chance. The Psy was gone and if D’Arn fell for the distraction, Brenna would be alone for at least one crucial minute. More than enough time to take care of business. Another glance at his watch.

Five, four, three, two . . . one.

D’Arn jerked to a standing alert as the alarm blared through the den. Coded for sound, this one screamed that something had happened in the nursery, something bad enough to require the declaration of a full emergency.

The killer smiled. He had placed the crude bomb to maximize chaos—by collapsing the entrance to the nursery—but had tried to ensure none of the pups would be hurt. He wasn’t a monster.

D’Arn started to run in the direction of the nursery, then hesitated. Brenna’s door opened. “Go!” she yelled. “I’m right behind you. I’m part of the comm team.”

The killer knew that, had seen the emergency roster. Brenna would now zip back inside to grab her emergency communications equipment before racing to the command center to direct operations inside the den.

“Move!” She slammed her door, but the killer knew she wouldn’t have stopped to lock it. If she had, he’d get her as she walked out, her concentration elsewhere.

D’Arn took off at a run, his instinct to protect the young overwhelming everything else. It was what the killer had counted on. The Psy were right—emotions made changelings weak, open to manipulation.

He stepped out as D’Arn disappeared around the corner. He had a very short window of opportunity—too bad he wouldn’t be able to choke the life out of her as he’d planned. He palmed the pressure injector full of one hundred percent Rush and reached for the doorknob. It turned without resistance.

One more second and it would be good-bye, Brenna Shane Kincaid.





CHAPTER 44


Judd was running full-tilt to the nursery, Hawke at his side, when his phone began to beep in an intense, irregular pattern.

It was linked to the alarm on Brenna’s door.

Screeching to a stop, he used every trick he had to focus despite the number of bodies moving past him. One second. Two. Too damn slow. There. He teleported out. Brenna’s door was closed. He pulled it off using Tk and sent the wide piece of plascrete smashing into the corridor, nearly mowing down another SnowDancer soldier.

Brenna was on the floor, bleeding from cuts on her lip and cheek. He went to pick up her attacker and throw him into the wall, but she shook her head slightly. He froze. The man whirled to face Judd, but he never got the chance to speak. Brenna swept out a leg and smashed him to the ground before jumping on his back and swiping her claws down hard enough to reveal flashes of bone.

The killer screamed.

Judd put him in a telekinetic choke hold. “You don’t have the right to scream.”

Brenna looked up as the man gurgled, desperate to breathe. “You were right—he was there.” A feral snarl as she held him down. “He was the reason I got into that van. He offered me a ride.” Gripping her attacker’s hair, she jerked back his head. “Let the bastard speak.”

Judd released his hold, aware of others arriving at the scene. “I can tear his mind open, download everything he knows. Of course, he’ll be a drooling mess by the end.”

Brenna’s captive coughed and tried to speak. “No. I’ll talk.”

Brenna jerked his hair harder. “So talk, Dieter.”

There was no mercy in her and Judd approved. This man had used his position to prey on those who trusted him. Judd remembered him squatting beside Timothy’s dead body, pretending to help, telling them how perfect the room was if you wanted to surreptitiously dispose of a body, how the killer had to be someone smart.

“I met him a few months before you got taken,” he coughed out, “Santano Enrique.”

Someone hissed in the doorway, sounding more cat than wolf.

Brenna dug her claws into his shoulder, scraping bone. Dieter’s scream was high and shrill, rising above the shriek of the emergency alarm, but she kept him conscious. “Did you give me up to him?”

“Yes.” Dieter coughed up blood and Judd realized he was crushing the man’s internal organs. He forced himself to pull back. This was Brenna’s fight.

“Why?” Betrayal laced her voice. “You were my brothers’ friend. You were Pack.”

“It was a straight business deal. He gave me Rush at a real low price. Made me rich.” Dieter didn’t try for Brenna’s sympathy, as if he knew he’d get none. “All he wanted was a favor now and then.”

“Like picking me up on the way to class,” Brenna whispered, tone raw. “Like telling me I was needed at the den. Did he come back from the grave and ask you to shoot Andrew, too?” Her next move was so fast, Judd almost missed it. She smashed Dieter’s face to the floor, hard enough to cause unconsciousness but not death. The alarm cut off at that same instant.

Getting up, she wiped the blood off her mouth with the back of her hand. “Elias, Sing-Liu,” she said to the two soldiers who’d stopped in the doorway, “take him to the lockup.”

Judd blocked the doorway. “I’ll take him.”