CARESSED BY ICE

She stepped over a broken branch to retrieve her pants. “Baby, I love you, but when we go furniture shopping, I want titanium alloy.” In the months since their mating, he’d already destroyed the wooden stuff. Four times. Currently, they had no table, no sofa, and no chairs. “Thank goodness the walls are stone and the bed’s got a metal frame.”


Her teasing made him stretch out, half-naked and indolently at ease on the forest floor. “If you’d stay still, I’d be fine.” Except he didn’t sound particularly enthused by the idea of her remaining still.

Turning to face him, she pulled on her pants over bare flesh, shoving her panties into a pocket. She very definitely had his full attention. “Where would be the fun in that?” Grinning, she left her shirt open and walked to kneel beside him. His abdomen was pure hard muscle under her touch. “Aren’t you going to get up?”

He put a hand on the curve of her hip, a possessive gesture that had already become familiar. “No. Let’s have more sex.”

“Insatiable.” She kissed him, loving that he trusted her enough to allow her to see him without barriers. As far as the rest of the den was concerned, he was still the Man of Ice. They couldn’t understand how she could have mated with him. But he’d earned his stripes as far as being Pack went so they shrugged and accepted the pairing. “Any more sex and we’ll expire. Don’t you have a meeting with Hawke anyway?”

A grunt and he deigned to get up. Kissing her as she rose to her feet, too, he zipped up his pants. His shirt continued to hang open—from the look in his eye, he was more interested in watching her button up her own. “Shooting practice with Dorian?” he asked after she’d finished.

“He says I’m getting really good.” Though that didn’t make up for what Enrique had done to her, what he’d stolen, it helped to know she could still defend herself, as well as protect those who mattered to her.

“Hey.” Her mate stroked her hair off her face. “No being sad. I can’t handle it.”

She knew he was speaking literally. He continued to find it difficult to process certain emotions, but he was learning. “I just”—she gripped his waist with one hand—“I just wish I could go wolf again.” But then she smiled and it was real. “I’m happy and strong now, but I’ll always miss that part of me. As you miss the Net.” He never complained about the loss but she was beginning to understand the depth of what he’d given up to save his family. It must have felt like cutting off a limb.

He kissed her. “You’re the sexiest wolf I know.” A pulse of love came down the mating bond. It was rich and unashamed and it exploded in her like a bomb.

She was about to reply when her claws sliced out, drawing Judd’s blood. She jerked back. “Oh, God, I’m so s—!” Everything disappeared in a familiar burst of searing agony and endless ecstasy, her cells changing on a level that was emphatically changeling.

Judd froze as the world dissolved into a multicolored shimmer around Brenna. Shifting was something he’d witnessed with other wolves, but this was different in the most fundamental way. This was his mate. He could feel what was happening to her as if it were taking place in his own body. Sheer torment and excruciating bliss, an exquisite mix unlike anything he’d ever before experienced.

Seconds later, it was over. In front of him stood a sleek wolf with soft gray fur that beckoned touch. Without thinking, he went to his knees and stroked his hand over her neck, his eyes locked into those so intelligent and unique that they could only belong to Brenna—in spite of the fact that she’d shifted, her irises hadn’t lost that flare of arctic blue.

She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Something came down the bond. Uncertainty. Fear. “What is it?” He thought rapidly. “You’re perfect, beautiful,” he reassured her. “No errors in the shift.”

Laughter in his mind, joy. Pulling out of his hold, she loped across the clearing they had used for their play. He let her go, an odd sensation tightening his chest. He knew she needed her freedom, no matter that he ached to go with her.

She stopped at the edge of the clearing and looked over her shoulder. His mate might’ve changed form, but he could read her loud and clear. She was throwing down a challenge. Feeling a smile warm his whole body though only a hint reached his face, he rose. “You’re on, Brenna Shane.” The meeting could wait. The whole world could wait.

Brenna didn’t cut him any slack, taking off through the trees like silver lightning. He ran after her, focusing his Tk into this simple exercise so he could fly alongside the gorgeous woman who was his mate.

The early evening turned to true night and still they ran, playing hide-and-seek with each other, trying to sneak up at times, kicking up fallen leaves just to watch them move. Simple play and the closest he had ever come to feeling like a child.