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"That it’s hed at his expression, aardness dissipating "No, she doesn’t seerown-up, as the kids would say"

"Why do you let her get aith it?"

She was beginning to expect the straight-up questions from him "My mom was on that train with h I was pinned under so " Her throat choked with the force of memory "Her arle tear She just kept trying to get me out"

Zach reached out to run his knuckles over her cheek "She loves you"

She found comfort in the touch, and when he returned his hand to the steering wheel, she realized he’d soet aith soshe has for the Psy, the way she almost deifies them, it has its roots in the accident, too"

"How?"

"There was this boy - I don’t knohere he caer Cardinal eyes" She shivered at the memory of the chill in those extraordinary white-stars-on- black-velvet eyes Psy lived lives devoid of emotion, but she’d never seen a child that utterly cold "He lifted the wreckage off ot lucky"

"Yeah" The Council didn’t release its telekinetics for mundane rescue work - especially not when an incident affected s

"The ans were close to collapse - a few more minutes, and I wouldn’t have made it"

"Did you ever find out who he was?"

She shook her head

"He disappeared in the chaos I’ve always thought that he teleported in fro e I re overhead, and if he was strong enough to lift the ah to teleport" She couldn’t ith of will it took to harness that much power "He can’t have been on the train - his clothes were spotless, and he didn’t have soemotions," Zach told her, "they’re conditioned to it

So it could be that he was still huh to feel the need to help when he sahat had happened"

"How do you know about the conditioning?" She answered her own question a second later "Your alpha’shad sent shockwaves throughout the country

"Sascha," he said, nodding

"Vaughn, one of the sentinels, is also ine a eling leopardsbeacon apparent even to a human observer If these women had mated with DarkRiver cats, they were undoubtedly as radiant and as strong as the other women she’d seen "Will ILikely Faith and Vaughn will, too" He turned down a quiet road lined with trees "I’ll try to get you back by six so you can get ready for dinner, but we ht cut it fine"

She bit the inside of her cheek "I think I should cancel I really don’t want my mom toI would hate for you to feel that - "

"Hey," he said, shooting her a glance that spoke of the soldier within, "I’ boy I can handle it Pro to trust hi out her phone froing soive your date tie was back in his voice

Her stoet this out in the open" He pulled the car into a se of her seat "I’"

She sed "Oh"

Zach could’ve kicked hione to all this trouble to lull her into a relaxed mood, then the cat had struck out in a burst of primitive jealousy

"Scared?"

Wary caution crept into her eyes, but she shook her head "You said you wouldn’t bite unless I askedvery nicely"

Surprise had the cat freezing He’d forgotten that beneath the blushes and big brown eyes was a wo hi the cat out to play "Coain

"Please"

Her cheeks colored, but he knew the heat wasn’t because of embarrassment Her arousal was a decadent whisper in the confines of the car, a drug his cat could lap at for hours

But what he really wanted to do was lap at her He moved a little closer

She held up the phone "I need to ed

Instinct urged hi, but he didn’t want toback into his seat, he’d do his teasing out in the open arot all day to play with you"

She sucked in a breath "Is that what this is? Play?"