Branded by Fire (Psy-Changeling 6)

She wanted Lucas. I need you. A thought sent through the mating bond, needy and vulnerable. It was as if she'd lost all her strength, become the fractured creature she'd been after she first learned what had been done to her, how her gift had been stifled, her mind almost destroyed. Lucas.

Her mate's love moved to surround her, comfort her, hold her. She closed her eyes and wrapped that feeling around her very senses, cocooning herself in the savage wildness of him. But a footstep sounded on the balcony what felt like an instant later, breaking her concentration. She looked up to see a striking blond male with the mark of a sentinel tattooed onto his arm. And she knew Lucas had sent him.

Dorian sat down beside her. "Hey." When he put his arm around her shoulders, she resisted. "Come on, Sascha darling." A gentle tease. "You've helped me more times than I can count. Just think of me as Luc's stand-in."

Softening, she let him hug her. "What about Ashaya?" The other woman was both Psy and newly mated. She might not understand that at this moment, Dorian was simply giving a packmate what she needed to hold herself together until her mate got to her.

"She's seen inside me, seen how you helped me stay sane - "

"You did that yourself." He'd always been impossibly strong.

He squeezed her. "I'm saying she understands. She's the one who sent me to you."

"I thought - Lucas?"

"I got his call after Shaya's. She felt something from you in the Net." He rubbed his cheek over her hair. "We get to look after you sometimes."

Giving in, she turned into his hold, but other than asking him to call Vaughn to make sure Faith had gotten a message to her father, she said nothing . . . not until Lucas appeared in the doorway. She was barely aware of Dorian leaving, her eyes focused on Lucas. He was sweating, his T-shirt soaked. Tearing it off, he threw it to the side and scooped her up into his lap as he sat down on one of the huge cushions that served as their sofas.

Once, she would've considered her need for him a flaw, a weakness. Today, she all but crawled into him, the scent of him as familiar to her as the sound of her own heartbeat.

"I'm all sweaty," he murmured some time later.

She pressed a kiss to the side of his neck. "You look good sweaty." Laying her head on his shoulder, she sighed. "You must've broken a few speed records getting here." He'd been in the city office, which meant he'd driven as far into the forest as he could, then run the rest of the way on foot.

"We'll be paying fines till the next century." A stroke down her back. "You okay?"

"It hit me hard. Hearing her voice." She swallowed. "I've been avoiding any business meetings with her lately and you've been letting me."

"We all get a few free passes." Another stroke. "She say anything to hurt you?"

"No. She's checking for explosives." A tear streaked down her cheek even as she finished that sentence. "What's wrong with me?" Frustrated, she dashed away the streak of wet. "I'm not this weak! I'm an alpha's mate!"

"Hey." Lucas grabbed her fisted hand. "You had a shock, the adrenaline's probably still screaming through your system."

"No." She shook her head, scowling even as another tear escaped her control. "This is too much. I'm not this fragile, not anymore." And it was true. She should've been able to handle Nikita without falling apart. "My emotions have been seesawing all over the place the past few days."

Lucas went very quiet against her. Then he buried his face in the curve of her neck and breathed deep. The joy that shot through her an instant later was so pure, so beautiful, and so utterly protective that she turned in his arms, eyes wide. "How can you know?"

His smile was fierce. "I know." His arm tightened as one hand spread over her abdomen. "I know."

Putting down the briefcase he'd carried in, Kaleb took off his suit jacket and removed his tie before opening the first few buttons on his shirt and rolling up his sleeves. He never ever did the latter while outside his home.

No one could be allowed to see the mark on his forearm. Most would have no idea what it meant. Perhaps no one would know. But the PsyNet was the biggest data archive in the world - he couldn't take the chance that someone, somewhere, knew the story behind the mark. The room had been processed by Enforcement, after all. There had to be pictures, though they wouldn't have found DNA. Santano Enrique had been too careful for that. And he'd taught Kaleb everything he knew.

Now, having neutralized the threat from the humans, Kaleb considered his next move. The men had been from the Human Alliance, but unfortunately, he hadn't been able to tear their secrets from their minds. First, they'd had some kind of a block, and second, the instant he eliminated the first, the others had all been killed by remote.

He looked at the chip in his hand. Each intruder had had one in the back of his neck. Clearly, it was equipped with some kind of a suicide strategy - or perhaps murder was more apt. But why would the Alliance target Kaleb? Not that their reasoning mattered. The assassins had signed their death warrants the instant they set out to destroy the house.

Because this wasn't truly Kaleb's house. He was only a caretaker. And he took his responsibility very, very seriously.

Mercy got off the phone with Vaughn and blew out a breath. "Faith's father is safe," she told Riley as they stood in the driveway to her parents' home. Dinner had come up on them so fast, they'd hardly had time to shower - luckily, Riley had begun to carry an overnight bag in his vehicle. Mercy's cat was a little leery of that hint of permanency, but not enough to take a step back. Not now. Not when the vines around her heart had grown so fiercely strong. "They found explosives at a building where Anthony was supposed to have a meeting at tonight."