CARESSED BY ICE

“That’s not an available option for an adult Psy male. Your pack doesn’t accept outsiders.”

“Bullshit.” Hawke snorted. “We accept human and outside-pack changeling mates all the time. It’d be a small pool if we didn’t.”

“There’s a difference with Psy.”

“Only if you create it. Marlee and Toby are already SnowDancer.”

Hawke’s words caused Judd to go motionless. “Don’t make that statement unless you’re willing to stand by it.” To fight for the kids if Judd, Walker, and Sienna were somehow killed. “Everyone knows you despise the Psy.”

“I’m not in the habit of saying things I don’t mean.” But he didn’t deny Judd’s accusation. “What happened between you and Bren?”

“None of your business.” The answer came out so fast, he had no chance to censor it. Instinct. Something that could’ve gotten him rehabilitated in the PsyNet. Because what was instinct if not the harbinger of emotion?

“I’m her alpha.” A command, an order.

Judd had never been very good at taking them. “As Brenna would say—you’re not her keeper.”

Hawke grunted. “You do realize Riley and Andrew will gut you where you stand if you so much as touch her.”

“Also none of your business.” Her brothers considered him an easy target. That was their mistake. “But I will ask you to keep her safe over the next day.” Until he could take over the task himself.

“Going somewhere?”

Judd’s vision was fraying at the edges, details lost to the encroaching darkness. “I’ll be back in twenty-four hours.”

Hawke didn’t push for more, surprising given the tight rein he liked to keep on the Lauren family. “What do you think Bren would say if I told her you’d asked me to look out for her?”

“Most likely she’d show you her claws and say that she can take care of herself.”

“She can. But I don’t care what she thinks, she’s not back to full strength yet.” Hawke raised an eyebrow. “Want a piece of advice, one male to another?”

Judd waited.

“Wolf females get really, really, really pissed off when their males don’t support them against others in public.” A flashing smile. “You’re going to have to grovel to get back in her good graces.”

“Loyalty. I understand that.” And he did.

Hawke angled his head. “One of the scouts is returning.”

Judd didn’t bother to waste words. He just walked around the cabin and jogged into the trees. He had three hours at most before the physical crash. Wanting to race through the forest, he nonetheless set a slow enough speed that he could keep an eye on his surroundings. Without his Psy senses, he wasn’t human but less.

Psy were meant to be psychic. Removing that aspect of their makeup affected everything about them. His hearing was already compromised, sounds coming through as if blocked by a wall of water, while his sight was no longer as acute as it should have been. But it was enough to drive.

Reaching the vehicle Brenna had forgotten in her anger, he punched in the code, slid back the door, and entered. Given his destabilized state, he would have normally set it on automatic, but that was impossible in this territory. The roads were less than tracks in most areas, with none of the embedded computronic tags needed by the vehicle’s navigation processor.

Falling back once more on the lessons he’d learned in the bleak emptiness of Old Sapporo, he arrowed his concentration to a fine point. He’d barely reached his destination when the physical crash hit full on. His mind blinked out—to all intents and purposes, he was now in an unbreakable coma.





Brenna pushed herself to the limit on the run back to the den and was exhausted by the time she returned. Peeling off from the other two, she headed toward her room. Unfortunately, since Andrew lived in the same family quarters, she couldn’t get rid of him.

“That was some pace, Bren. Where did that come from?” She spun around. “I don’t know. I don’t know where anything in my head or body comes from anymore. Even if you ask me a thousand times, I still won’t know!”

“What’s got your tail in a twist?” He scowled. “Your new boyfriend didn’t kiss you right? Oh, I forgot. He’s a fucking robot who doesn’t know how to kiss.”

Drew had always had the ability to push her buttons, but she was not in the mood for games today. She was mad, so damn mad. At Judd, at her brothers, at Hawke, at the whole bloody universe. “Maybe I’m not the one with the problem,” she said, something mean and nasty inside of her taking over. “Why don’t you find Madeline and get laid?” The pack’s young females were all highly sexual, but Madeline was getting perilously close to crossing the line into slutty. “Maybe a good rut will get you off my back.”