Free Shield of Winter (Nalini Singh) by Nalini Singh

ounce of her being. The fact it would likely stop her brain from crushing itself was a bonus—
    Her breath caught in her throat, her hand falling to her side, fisted on the bloody tissues. “You’re early,” she whispered to the man who’d appeared in front of the cabin.
    “I’m not here for your decision.” Winter gray eyes scanned the area.
    Rabbit jerked awake on a growl just as the Arrow disappeared around the side of the house. Heart thudding, Ivy could almost think she’d imagined the whole surreal experience, but he appeared around the other side of the cabin not long afterward. “You expected a threat?” she managed to ask, one hand on Rabbit’s rigid back.
    “No.” His face an unreadable silhouette against the night sky, his shoulders outlined by starlight, he added, “A simple security sweep.” Ivy was now under Vasic’s protection, even if she hadn’t accepted the contract.
    A startled spark in eyes that were dangerously expressive even in the low light. “Oh.” Continuing to pet her dog, she said, “Would you like something hot to drink?” A frown. “You must be cold if you’re doing security sweeps at this time of night.”
    Vasic paused. She was afraid of him, the instinctive response an intelligent one. And yet she’d offered him sustenance. His great-grandfather was right—empaths did not appear to have the best sense of self-preservation. “No,” he said. “Why are you sitting here?” Talking to her hadn’t been on the agenda.
    “I like the quiet.” Her face softened, the husky thread in her voice more apparent. “There’s a kind of secrecy in the world at this time of night, as if I’m allowed to see mysteries hidden in daylight.”
    Vasic thought of the deserts and isolated mountain outlooks where he went in an effort to find peace from the shades of those he had erased, considered if Ivy Jane would see mysteries in those locations, too. “You should go inside.” His thoughts were immaterial because Ivy would never experience the places in question. “My readings tell me the temperature will drop considerably in the next fifteen minutes.”
    Getting to her feet, the throw bulky around her, Ivy nodded. “I think you’re right. I can taste more snow in the air.”
    It was a sensual way to describe a meteorological function, another sign that Ivy Jane was in no way Silent. Not that he needed the confirmation—her presence was sandpaper against his senses, harsh and abrasive. It didn’t matter. As Aden had pointed out, the sensation might be uncomfortable, but it wasn’t debilitating.
    And Vasic had made a promise.
    So long as he drew breath, he would protect her.
    Chapter 7
     
    Sahara Kyriakus has simply been sucked into the gravitational pull of Kaleb Krychek’s power. We should be considering how to rescue her, not peering in fascination at a bond that is a prison.Letter to the Editor from “Concerned Citizen,” PsyNet Beacon KALEB AGREED TO meet Lucas Hunter and Sascha Duncan only because the alpha pair had been blunt in their request. “We need to see that Sahara is happy, content,” Lucas had stated.
    “Some men would take that as an insult.”
    The DarkRiver alpha had given an unconcerned shrug in response to Kaleb’s reply. “Not in a pack, he wouldn’t. We look after our own.”
    Kaleb was feral in his possessiveness when it came to Sahara, but he understood that such a connection to a powerful pack was a good thing for her to have in her arsenal.
    “Sometimes, my gorgeous man,” Sahara said when he stated that, “it isn’t about strategy but about family.” Her fingers in his hair, nails lightly grazing his scalp. “If DarkRiver and SnowDancer permit the empathic compound in their territory, it won’t be because of politics, but because of ties of family.”
    “An unsound way to make a security decision,” he pointed out, while the most scarred, most violent part of him stretched out lazily under her caresses.
    “Is it?” Rising on