CARESSED BY ICE

Sascha turned to Lucas as they lay in bed, thinking over the call she’d received a few hours ago. “I’m worried about Brenna.”

“I thought you said she was recovering.” His arm came around her, urging her to sprawl over his chest.

“Pay attention.” But she was where he’d wanted her.

A satisfied cat smile. “I am. Tell me about the wolf.”

“I can’t. Confidentiality.”

His hand slipped over her naked bottom. “Bet I can make you talk.”

“It’s not playtime.” She nipped at his chin though the urge to purr was strong.

He moved his hand to her lower back, his version of behaving. “Tell me.”

“I don’t know what to do.” What Brenna had told her this evening—in particular the sudden changes in personality and behavior—was deeply troubling. “I’m worried I missed some of the damage in her psyche.” Her mind-healing abilities were still new to her, having been suppressed by Silence for most of her life. A lot of it was instinctive, but Brenna’s mind had been so badly torn apart. “Half the time, I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Lucas’s arms tightened. “You brought her back. Don’t second-guess yourself now.”

“No,” she disagreed. “She brought herself back. Her will, Lucas, it’s like a steel flame, one that refuses to go out. Brenna should be dead right now.”

“If she survived Enrique, then she can survive her own mind.”

Sascha buried her face in the curve of Lucas’s neck, breathing in his scent. “I’m not sure. Faith told me that most F-Psy in the PsyNet eventually go mad, and they’re trained to deal with mental pressure. Brenna isn’t.”

Lucas’s hand passed over her back, long soothing strokes from her neck down to the curve of her bottom and back. A panther’s way of petting. “She might surprise you. She sure as hell surprised Hawke with her latest stunt—I had a chat with him about the hyena situation.” His anger that someone had dared touch their cubs put a hard edge in his voice, but right then, there was also a touch of predatory amusement.

She knew it had to be caused by Hawke’s apparent problems with Brenna—the two alphas hadn’t really learned to play nice with each other yet. “What did she do?”

“She’s hooked up with the damn Psy.”

Sascha snapped up her head. “Judd? Brenna’s with Judd Lauren?”

Her cat licked at her exposed neck. “You smell good.”

Sascha tried to keep thinking. “But he’s so cold.”

“We changelings have ways of thawing out you Psy.”

Sascha could hardly argue with her own body melting. But even as she gave in to her cat, a part of her worried. Something was very wrong with Brenna, and Judd Lauren’s icy reserve might only exacerbate the problem—he couldn’t give the changeling woman what she needed to heal herself. Touch. Warmth. Unwavering affection.





CHAPTER 20


Judd dreamed of killing again, of seeing his hands dipped in blood. Red. The blood was red in the otherwise monochrome landscape. That was when he realized he held Brenna’s dying heart in his hands. It was beating, a pulsing accusation of what he’d done.

He wrenched himself awake, sending out a telepathic scan at the same instant. He found Brenna far faster than he should’ve been able to. She was safe. Asleep. But that was no longer an option for him. Getting up, he began doing pull-ups using the metal exercise bar bolted to the walls.

By the time the clock signaled dawn, he’d pushed himself to straining point. Judging that Brenna would be awake, he called her.

“What?” a sleepy voice answered.

“Did you talk to Sascha?”

She turned on the visual and he saw that her face was soft with sleep. It made the hunger in him twist, its claws raking down his insides—as if he had a beast within him, too. He’d spent hours last night restoring the fractures in his conditioning. It should be holding. But the second he saw her, he realized there was a major flaw he hadn’t yet found, a hidden source of subversive emotion.

“Yes, sir, Judd, sir.” A small smile. “She’s coming up today to see me.”

He heard the reluctance in her tone. “Do you—”

“No.” Sharp. “I’ll be fine alone. See you tonight?”