Free Black Orchid by Abigail Owen Page A

Outback because I’m a bit of a loner.”
    She
frowned. “Why a loner?”
    “Ah.
There’s two parts to that. First is that I try to stay away from humans so that
I don’t frighten them. My power is super strength and speed, and I find it
difficult to control sometimes.”
    Adelaide’s
frown didn’t change. “Uh-huh,” she said with a dubious look. “And your other
reason?”
    Nate
grimaced. “You may or may not know that there’s a bit of a war going on at the
moment among our kind of people. I’m not into all that political stuff. So for
now, I’m staying well out of it. Easiest way is to be on my own out where no
one roams.”
     
    *****
     
    Nate
held his breath as she stared at him intently. He kept his thoughts focused on
what he’d just said. Before her memory issues, Adelaide was supposed to have
been a decent telepath. So he used the techniques Maddox’s telepath had
practiced with him to block anything she might be trying. Not guaranteed to
work, but a risk worth taking.
    “And
yet you tracked this guy down. That seems to be pretty much in the middle of
it.”
    Nate
had been expecting this reaction. Keeping his thoughts focused he said, “I
don’t like bullies.”
    She
raised her eyebrows, clearly unimpressed. “You have no idea who I am. He could
be saving the planet from a terrible monster.” Then she bit her lip, as if
she’d said too much and wanted to eat those words.
    “That’s
why I waited to step in. He watched you for quite a while. And I watched you
both. But you tried to warn him. You didn’t want to hurt him. That was
all I needed to know to decide who was good and bad in that situation.”
    Adelaide
crossed her arms over her chest and regarded him for quite some time before she
finally nodded. “All right, I believe you.”
    Nate
let out a small breath of relief. The hardest part was done.
    In
like Flynn, he thought to himself with a small feeling of satisfaction. This first meeting
couldn’t be going better.
    “Is
that all you can do?” she asked suddenly. “The strength and speed bit?”
    Was
that teasing in her voice? Hard to tell since she was looking down.
    “Isn’t
that enough?”
    She
shrugged. “Of course. Just making sure.”
    Her
question made sense given that Adelaide possessed many different abilities and
so did most of her family. Didn’t she realize how unusual that was? And how
perilous? No one should be allowed that much power. Nate’s heart gave a small
jump as he caught the train of his thoughts. He gave her a worried glance. Had
she heard him? He couldn’t tell.
    Don’t
blow this, dude, he chastised himself.
    Then
he put his full concentration back on the girl in front of him. He took another
step closer, but this time she held her ground. You’re mine.
    He
needed to remember that while she was beautiful, and seemingly shy and sweet,
she was also possibly one of the most lethal people on the planet. She and her
sisters Lila, Ellie, and Selene. And she had stolen years of his life, making
him live something that wasn’t real.
    And
for that she would pay.
    But
not before Maddox completed his own plans for her.
     

Chapter 13
     
     
    Adelaide
had no idea what she should do. She didn’t know this man from Adam, or Eve, for
that matter. Not that she’d recognize most anyone at the moment. Stranger
danger was screaming inside her head.
    But
at the same time, he’d saved her life and then had managed to calm her down.
That’d been the closest she’d ever come to releasing the monster inside her,
and he’d stopped it. And without using any special powers. It could be handy to
keep him around, especially while she was trying to learn to control her own
abilities.
    Initially,
while she’d been waiting for him to bury her would-be killer, Adelaide had
thought that her time here had just come to an end too soon. No way would her
family let her stay here with assassins coming for her. But she couldn’t go
back home. She was still just as much a threat