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"Brenna, youminutes - her sobs had turned raw and painful "Stop or you’ll hurt yourself" He was holding her so tightly, he wondered that she could draw breath But instead of cothening the connection "No more tears" His harsh order didn’t have any effect He’d never seen her so distraught During the healing sessions, she’d been this angry, half-feral thing who’d refused to give in, refused to let Enrique win

Finding the answer in that memory, he bent his head until his lips brushed her ear as he spoke "You will defeat this as you’ve defeated every other thing he did to you You are not crippled, not now, not ever" He’d kill anyone who implied otherwise "You survived once and you’ll keep spitting in his face by continuing to survive again and again"

Brenna found herself transfixed by those most unexpected of words At first, Judd’s voice had been a blur, but noas a cool, clear anchor that hauled her out of her tears without co she registered, only that they came from Judd, from the man who held her, his arainst the soft wool of his black turtleneck, able to hear the solid beat of his heart "I’s together with sheer stubbornness for so long and when he’d touched her, breaking that ever-present barrier of Silent Psy reserve, it had all rushed out in an agonizing e words a changeling man would’ve used, but they worked for her She didn’t need gentling She needed what Judd had given her in those stark words whispered in her ear - the unflinching belief that she would get past this "Do you want to go inside?" he now asked "I can light the laz-fire"

She shook her head "I’d rather walk out here for a bit We could go get " He released her and took a step back

She rubbed her hands over her face, wondering exactly how ht she looked - she was not a pretty crier "Yes, I am"

Those dark brown eyes seemed to darken to pure black "You have no reason to be out here I can’t do what I’"

Her eyes felt swollen when she narrowed them "Good try but you can’t makeelse - the way he et close to him "I can run the patrols with you"

"This is not up for discussion" A stateant, it rereat "I’ back to the den"

"Unless you’re planning on usingat hierous awaken in those gold-flecked eyes

"I’ with gut instinct, she placed her hand palm down on his chest "To me?" He didn’t speak and that was her answer "Why do you allow me to cross barriers you don’t allow anyone else?" Surely that s for her

"Enrique was one of my own And he hurt you"

"Guilt? That’s why?" Her sto that sick sensation into souilt I don’t feel anything" Surrounded by snow and ice, he was a man who appeared the blackest of shadows Yet his hand was careful on her

She s"

"I’ht now"

"I’ll turn the car around the second you leave" Her skin tingled where he held it, his fingers strong, his own skin erotically rough She wondered how that hand would feel stroking other, softer places Heat uncurled deep inside her "Why does my presence bother you so htened a fraction before setting her free "Don’t get in o get s"

He jerked his head toward the cabin "Go and start the laz-fire I’ll bring your pack"

She wasto let him walk off his te to admit it "The code’s four-two-seven-zero" Because it was a pack vehicle, it wasn’t keyed to any single individual’s thuet back"

He didn’t leave until she was safely in the cabin Watching hiainst the snow,him Just wrap her heat around him until her warmth melted his cold Psy armor The problem was, Judd seeh the cabin ell insulated, she turned from theand went to start the laz-fire Unlike y source had been created not by changelings but by Psy The reason? Laz technology saved energy and therefore s had done to adapt it was to add a holographic enhancer It turned the efficient but colorless block of a portable laz generator into what appeared to be a perfectly real blaze, albeit one with zero chance of starting a forest fire

Brenna checked that the generator was sitting in the correct place in the built-in fireplace before flicking it on Fla herto stand at theinstead Judd needed to know that he wasn’t alone, that she aiting for hienuous or that she didn’t understand what he was trying to tell her She understood She just didn’t accept it Judd wasn’t lost to Silence, no matter how rown up around theuess what it must have cost him to stifle his pride and submit to his low rank in the SnowDancer hierarchy But he’d taken the hit - to protect Marlee and Toby, and even Sienna

He ht think he was beyond redemption, but she knew otherwise