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  He was so strong, from his square-cut jaw all the way to his runner’s thighs. Tess played her hands over the evidence of his strength while he obviously fought the urge to pull her into his arms. His muscles were tense and his eyes watched her with the same kind of interest he’d shown when he’d been in chains, as if he wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do.

  He had thrown on a flannel shirt sometime during the evening, but he hadn’t buttoned it up. She’d welcomed every glimpse of his chest that his movements had allowed, but she liked pushing the flannel aside now even more. A slight tilt of his lips showed her he enjoyed it as well, but the dark intensity in his eyes also told her he would only be patient with her for so long.

  Tess ran the pads of her fingers over his chest and down to his flat, hard stomach. One of his eyebrows arched higher as he watched, but he fisted handfuls of the sleeping bag in order to stop himself from reaching for her, so she knew he wasn’t as controlled as he appeared. When she dipped into the waistband of his low-slung jeans, he sucked in a sudden startled breath.

  And he let go of the sleeping bag.

  Tess yelped when he pulled her into his arms. She laughed, but only for a second before she was startled into silence by the sudden coolness against the sudden bareness of her skin. Quicker than her eyes could follow, he got rid of her shirt. The cotton T-shirt lay in two separate halves on either side of their entwined bodies. She had seen no evidence of claws. She had barely felt the whisper of shredded cloth as it was whipped away from her skin.

  Colin paused as if he was giving her a chance to run away, but she stayed right where she was with her shoulders back as she caught her breath and waited to see where her bold position would take them next.

  She didn’t wait long.

  Very, very slowly, in contrast to his flashing movements of seconds before, he reached to tease the pad of his thumbs over the tops of her breasts where they swelled up over the lace of her bra.

  Tess reached to push his hair back from his face. The long brown waves of it were still damp from a quick shower he’d stolen earlier in the night. She combed the length of it back gently with shaking fingers. It didn’t tame his appearance. He must have seen it in her eyes because she was suddenly lost in a whirlwind of movement that left her bare and panting on the cool softness of the sleeping bag with him stretched above her.

  The rest of her clothes were in tattered bits all around them

  As he kissed her, she lost her breath once more.

  He didn’t tease or hesitate. His lips came against hers fully and completely, and Tess welcomed them with all the energy that had laid dormant within her for too long. Taste for taste. Slide for slide. Nip for nip. Tongue to tongue. She was just as passionate, just as powerful as the man in her arms.

  Tess plunged her hands into his hair and held the back of his head. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled his body close, then closer still.

  She didn’t pull back or pause or become afraid when her lips and tongue brushed against his teeth. She arched her back and welcomed him into greater contact with the most vulnerable heart of her body instead.

  The smooth, heated length of him penetrated easily.

  And then, Colin paused. Even though he was strong and dangerous. He paused.

  She was slick for him and he filled her without pain. But he paused to give her body time to adjust to his. Tess closed her eyes and took the time he gave her. She shifted her hips and tilted and enjoyed the pure sensation of their joining.

  She opened her eyes and her world spun wildly as Colin rolled to bring her on top of him. The movement didn’t break their intimacy. In fact, it rocked her against him perfectly and she moaned in protest when the movement stopped.

  Another pause?

  Tess looked down into his dark chocolate eyes and she knew he was giving her a chance to control what was happening.

  At first, as slowly as possible so she could feel every inch of him slide, and then faster and faster to meet and match the upward thrust of his lean hips, Tess reveled and controlled and refused to pause, to run or to hide.

  The moment didn’t blur so she knew he controlled his power…barely. He was still almost too wild, almost too strong, almost too…But Tess gloried when his body stiffened beneath her and he cried out. She laughed with joy when her own body trembled in a powerful release.

  She wasn’t a mouse. Not anymore.

  He pulled her into the sleeping bag before she fell asleep and Tess realized that he was as wild as she’d ever imagined, but he was also so much more.

  Chapter Five

  Colin watched Tess sleep. She tossed and turned and murmured, but he wouldn’t allow himself to wake her. He wanted to take her into his arms and soothe the nightmares away. Instead, he fisted his hands and watched. She faced this for him, for Jacob. It made his heart ache and his muscles stiff. Inaction wasn’t easy for a wolf. Unable to soothe Tess, he wanted to pace or run or tear something to shreds.

  He still couldn’t believe how she had responded to his passion. How could anyone who looked so delicate be so strong? From the tip of her head, capped by sleek blond waves, to her pale skin and willowy form, she looked almost fragile. But he’d slid his hands over the hidden muscles beneath her skin and he’d seen the way the vulnerability in her eyes could suddenly flash to forcefulness.

  He savored the memory of the way she had laid him back and explored his body. He was proud of his control even as he marveled that she had actually tried to make him lose it.

  He couldn’t resist the urge to reach out and lay his hand against her cheek. He had his father’s hands. Their life had always been lived mostly in the outdoors. They had chopped wood for campfires and set up tents and trailers night after night for as long as he could remember. His hand was big and rough against her soft, pale cheek. It was a werewolf’s hand.

  His people had always been nomads with a tough life, but since the Pandemic, the constant movement had been relentless. Colin hadn’t realized how lonely this new world had become. There had been little time for the kind of social networking that had kept their species alive for centuries. Before the ‘Flu, there had been gatherings disguised as festivals and concerts. Mates were met and married amid the kind of romantic fanfare that humans had left behind in the Middle Ages.

  Even though they bore little, if any, relation, the women of his pack were like family.

  He watched Tess as her jaw hardened and her body stilled. Even asleep, she seemed to square her shoulders. Gently, with a whisper of a touch, he ran his forefinger along the side of her face. Somehow he knew this new set to her delicate chin was for Jacob. Tess had come into his life when he needed her most. Not just because she was willing to conquer these nightmares to help his people, but because she had held him and loved him and helped him remember that he wasn’t alone.

  An Alpha led his people, but he did it best when he had a strong mate by his side.

  He had felt a surge of new hope and strength when Tess had stepped out from behind those crates. She had restored his will to fight. She had given him back the opportunity to lead his people.

  And she needed him, too.

  She had been through a lot. More than he might ever know. He saw her haunted past in her eyes, but he also saw the way she performed the most simple act with thoughtful, sure movements, until jumping up to chase fireflies with the children or bringing an old man another beer became a statement, a rejection of fear.

  She inspired him because in spite of how hard her life had been she persevered. He knew they faced a lifetime of hardship, but he also knew Tess was the woman he wanted by his side. He only hoped she felt the same way.

  Colin pulled his hand away from her cheek and closed his fingers into a fist. He wanted to hold the warmth of her skin there forever.

  The low, sprawling building was constructed of cement block with no discernable windows. Its flat roof was coated in black tar for cheap waterproofing, so that the walls gleamed whitely in the moonlig
ht and the roof seemed to disappear.

  They looked down on the compound for mere moments before Tess led the way to an easily breeched portion of the fencing she’d seen in her dreams.

  She’d never felt this certainty, this surety. It made her hands shake as premature adrenaline flooded her body in anticipation of what was to come.

  They didn’t speak.

  Colin had warned her not to fear him no matter what he had to do or what he had to become. Tess hadn’t been able to warn him that her dreams were unreliable. But even as she continued to lead the way, her doubt was a tangible companion on their mission.

  Tess had dreamed vividly after being intimate with Colin. She had seen every step they now took. She had seen where Jacob was held…but nothing after that.

  She had to hope it would be enough.

  They easily timed their crossing of the guard’s patrol route. Their steps now brought them without incident to a little-used store room entrance.

  Tess had seen Colin pick the lock to this door in her dream. What she hadn’t seen was the way he consciously grew one elongated claw to serve as the pick. The sight sent chills down her spine. Not because it illustrated Colin’s unusual nature, but because it illustrated her not knowing something about what lay ahead.

  She went through first and navigated the darkened, cluttered room easily, even down to sidestepping a misplaced bin full of office supplies in the middle of the room.

  Colin followed.

  “Through there and left,” Tess whispered. She was sure, but she needed to hear it out loud all the same.

  “Anyone out there?” Colin asked.

  His voice sounded strange, and Tess knew he’d taken the opportunity to morph further in the dark.

  “There’ll be a patrol just like outside, but we’ll just miss them.”

  She sounded more confident than she felt.

  Sure enough, steps echoed on the other side of the door in a fading cadence.

  “You’re amazing,” Colin whispered.

  Tess froze, struck by a sudden panic attack. Lily was amazing. Tess was only foolhardy. She risked her life and Colin’s in the worst possible way. Hadn’t she told him her dreams had never saved anyone?

  He must have sensed the change in her because he moved closer to stand by her side. Her hand was on the doorknob, but she couldn’t turn it. She couldn’t move.

  Colin touched her shoulder. His hand was…different. Bigger, heavier. Oddly enough, it was that difference that calmed her.

  Tess turned the knob and stepped into the empty hallway. She turned left without hesitation and counted doorways just as she’d counted in her dream. One. Three. Seven.

  The seventh door was barred from the outside. Three massive bolts of steel stretched across the top, middle and bottom of the door and locked it into place.

  The hallway was lit with red security lighting. It wasn’t very bright, but she could see Colin better than before. He used his built-in lock pick again, and this time he had matching claws on every digit. He didn’t look at her.

  If there had been time, she would have made him stop and meet her gaze. She wanted to know him. She wanted him to recognize that she wasn’t afraid of this side of him. Not anymore. The inner clock she followed said there wasn’t time. She settled for a brief touch to the side of his still-handsome face and was rewarded with a startled smile before they stepped into the fortified laboratory.

  It was a mistake.

  Empty cages lined one side of the room. In her dreams, Jacob waited in the first cage.

  Tess wanted to scream. Colin would want to know what to do next and she wouldn’t have the answer. She was lost. Her dreams had failed again.

  Someone whimpered and Tess knew the sound must have come from her own lips. She stood in the center of the room. Its antiseptic smell burned her nose and made her eyes water. Lily hadn’t been in this room, but she’d been in one like it. A nightmare array of instruments lined trays on a nearby cart, and in one corner an operating table with straps waited for its next victim.

  Tess began to shake as the empty room filled with images she couldn’t seem to shut off. Like a waking nightmare, she found herself not bereft of input, but bombarded by more than she could take. Never in her life had she been anywhere steeped in such suffering.

  “Tess, we have to get you out of here,” Colin spoke urgently near her ear.

  She barely heard him. She didn’t see him. Her mind’s eye was full of uglier sights.

  “We’ve got him, Tess. We can go. We’ve got to go.”

  Colin’s words penetrated louder this time and she was suddenly able to separate the images of past horrors that had taken place in this room from the present.

  His face swam into focus through the tears flooding her eyes. He held Jacob’s unconscious form in his arms.

  Tess now saw where Colin had torn the cage’s door from its hinges. She saw and she understood that her perceptions had been fooled by fear and sensory overload. The room and its horrible aura had brought forth her worst fear and mocked her with it before she’d been totally overwhelmed by its chamber-of-horrors history.

  Tess touched Jacob to make sure he was real. His cheeks were stained with tears and discolored with bruises. His fine dark hair was matted and dirty and shaved bald in patches where electrodes had been.

  But he was alive and he was here.

  His skin was warm and his chest rose and fell with shallow respiration.

  Colin wouldn’t have to carry her too.

  Tess forced her feet to move and was soon running to leave the lab behind and catch up to where her inner timetable said they should be.

  Huddled deep in a laurel thicket, they just missed the midnight circuit of the guard patrol.

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  Chapter Six

  To celebrate Jacob’s return, the werewolf folk turned their stereo system over to the teenagers of the pack. Instead of southern rock, they all ate barbeque to the sounds of alternative punk. They had chosen to set up camp many miles away from the lab at the far western edge of the Shenandoah National Forest. Isolated and far from danger, the wolves took advantage of the opportunity to forget about scientists and laboratories.

  As the lead singer belted out a throaty anti-establishment rant, Tess moved among the laughing, crying, dancing pack. She shook hands and shared hugs. She laughed and cried and danced. She had been alone for a long time. Each hand that touched her back or shoulders or face, each kiss, each embrace affirmed her decision to reach out and join H.A.E.S. This homecoming celebration was for Colin and Jacob, but it was also for her.

  Tess thought back to the moment when she’d found the courage to cut Colin’s chains and laughter bubbled up once more.

  Jacob sat quietly off to the side while the pack celebrated. She’d been about his age when her parents had died. She and Lily had been alone. Jacob was surrounded by friends and family who would help him deal with whatever he had gone through in the last two weeks. She especially liked the way Uncle sat beside the bruised teenager talking quietly and often touching his shoulder or the top of his head.

  She missed Lily.

  Even as she enjoyed the party, there was a part of her “listening” for her twin, aching for what might have been. Being needed, here and now, by Colin and the pack soothed her pain, but she would always miss her sister.

  This postpandemic world didn’t offer an easy, carefree life. Instead, it offered her plenty of challenges to test her skills and hone her talents. And, for the first time, she wasn’t scared. She was ready.

  She was a psychic. Her dreams weren’t something to fear. They would help her and her new family survive.

  Suddenly, in the midst of the jubilant mosh pit of werewolves, Colin was by her side. He immediately claimed her full attention and she came to a standstill. The pack celebrated, but he stood, quiet and strong, enveloped by his people, but somehow held apart. He was Alpha. It was an awesome responsibility, but, then again, he was a man who could
easily inspire awe.

  Tess smiled.

  He was larger than life.

  He was not-quite-civilized and beautiful.

  And he was hers.

  She lifted a hand to touch Colin’s perfect, smooth jaw. She wondered if there would ever come a time in the future when such a move didn’t feel just a little bit daring, just a little bit dangerous.

  She thought not.

  He was hers, but he would also always be fierce and wild and free.

  Tess was proud when her fingers didn’t tremble…much.

  Colin smiled.

  The wicked gleam in his eyes told her he felt the slight tremor of her fingers…and liked it.

  He also liked it when she stepped closer instead of moving away. His eyes widened and he drew in a quick breath. Tess felt the sudden intake of air as his chest rose against her breasts.

  “Steady,” she teased, though she was secretly glad when his arms moved to hold her. The boldness of her move and the sudden feel of his body pressed so close to hers had caused her knees to go weak, but she was up for it.

  “Can you feel it?” Colin asked as his lips nuzzled the tender skin of her neck.

  “Hmmm?” Tess replied, feeling so much—from the smooth, firm muscles she caressed beneath his shirt to the fullness of her heart, once lonely, but not anymore.

  “Their joy. Their hope. You didn’t just save me and Jacob. You saved the pack, Tess.”

  He pulled back to look down into her eyes. Firelight danced in his and Tess watched those flames, knowing they reflected an inner fire, a determination to keep the people he loved safe. His people. Her.

  His warm determination held her as surely as his muscled arms.

  “I did, didn’t I?” Tess whispered the teasing agreement against his lips. Even lightly said, they both knew she embraced her power, accepted her strength.

  “My savior,” Colin whispered back before he deepened the slight contact into a full-on intimate taste.