The Psy-Changeling Series, Books 6-10 (221 page)

Everyone chuckled, the atmosphere nothing like it would’ve been a few days ago if they’d been talking of Sienna’s power. “So,” Hawke said, playing his fingers through his mate’s hair, “it looks like we all got a boost.”

“She acts like a mini-reactor,” Walker said in that intense, contained way that had everyone paying attention. “Her power is infinite.”

“So we’re going to keep getting mega-hits like this?” Tomás’s dark brown eyes sparkled as they landed on Sienna’s down-bent head. “Not that I don’t appreciate it, sugar, but it did make me ‘hyper,’ according to my mother.”

“Toby hasn’t slept for two days and counting,” Lara said. “He outran his changeling friends—he thinks it’s wuuuuuunderful. His word.”

Sienna spoke for the first time. “I think that was a one-off,” she said, twisting her hands under the table where she thought Hawke couldn’t see it. “Walker and I have been talking, and our theory is that it was because I was trying to contain the power and it built up to a critical mass. If I release a steady stream of it, it’ll boost your energy levels without having a discernible impact like it did this time around.”

Leaning over, Hawke nipped at her ear. She turned bright red.
“Hawke.”

“No one is angry at you, Sienna,” he murmured. “Look at them.”

He saw her raise her head, glance around, felt the staggering relief that poured down the mating bond. When she turned and reached up to pull his hand from her hair, bring it to her lips, he was undone, his wolf her slave.

Looking away from her only when she put his hand down on the table, her fingers tangled with his, he found the others had begun to speak amongst themselves, giving him and Sienna privacy. “It’s clear that Walker acts as a filter . . . a valve,” he said during a lull in the conversation.

Matthias looked troubled. “What if something happens to Walker?”

“We’ve been talking about that,” Sienna spoke up, a confidence in her voice that had been missing earlier. “The helix appeared in Walker’s mind around the time my mother was pregnant with me, so there’s a chance one of the other Psy in the network would develop the ability.”

If they were right, she’d explained to Hawke, the implications were astounding. It meant the neosentience in a psychic network didn’t only organize the network, it could
influence
it on the individual level. Which, if the rumors about the current rot in the PsyNet were true, led to some very disturbing suppositions.

“However,” Sienna continued, “we’re not relying on that. Now that we know what Walker’s mind does, Judd thinks he can train his own to mimic the effect. It won’t work anywhere near as well, and the power surge will be a
lot
rougher—”

Matthias cut her off. “It’ll work.” A fierce smile. “That’s the important thing.”

Kenji glanced at Walker. “Does it take anything out of you?”

“No.” Walker tapped a finger on the table. “In fact, I’ve never felt more alive. For the first time in my life, I’m making complete use of my abilities. The valve runs automatically in the background, so it won’t interfere with my normal duties.”

Jem stared at the Psy male. “Wow, I never heard you say so many words in a row before.”

That made Tomás and Drew burst out laughing. Alexei, Cooper, and Matthias were a tad more restrained, but even they had grins on their faces. Hawke’s wolf laughed deep within. His pack, his mate. All here. Life was good . . . except for the fact the Psy Council now knew that not only Sienna, but the entire Lauren family, was alive.

WALKER
kept his hand on Lara’s lower back as they exited the meeting room. “Do you have patients?”

“No. I healed everyone, remember?” A sparkling look from those tawny eyes. “
Everyone!
Even the ones who were dying. I was super-healer. Or okay, super-healer with super-healer assistants. Did you know Tai kissed Evie right in front of Indigo? With
tongue.
And Maria baked everyone cupcakes.”

“You’re still power-drunk.” It made sense. From what they’d learned over the past few years, it appeared that there was
always
a neo-sentience in any psychic network, and even the most embryonic one would’ve understood that the healers needed the power more than anyone else. Except that there’d been so much energy, giving Lara and the others extra really hadn’t been necessary. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

Lara giggled. Slapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m so happy—all those injured, healed. I actually ran out of people. Too bad Alice Eldridge isn’t a wolf or I could’ve woken her up. Elias is kinda mad I found him and fixed him up without leaving even a teeny-tiny scar that he could brag about. When are the rest of the juveniles coming back? I bet you they’ll give me something to heal.”

Hiding his laugh at the rapid speech that reminded him of his daughter—who was attempting to break the world skipping record in the White Zone—he nudged her in the direction he wanted her to go. “Tomorrow.”

“Oh, good.”

As she slid an arm around his waist, he said, “Drew said he had lots of sex. Want to do that instead?” He needed to claim her on a fundamental level, to touch and stroke and caress and know that she had come out of the flames of war unscathed.

Lara’s head snapped up. “Now?”

“Yes.”

She grabbed his hand as if to drag him along behind her. “Hurry up.”

“Wait,” he said as they reached her quarters, “are you too power-drunk to give consent?”

Lara recited the periodic table back at him. “See, all my faculties. Now can we have sex?”

“Yes.”

Her breath turned jagged when he nudged her back into her quarters and locked the door behind himself. Those big eyes didn’t get any smaller when he unbuttoned and stripped off his shirt, then kicked off his shoes and socks. As he took the belt out of his jeans, she sucked in a breath, walked forward.

And bit him.

Right on his pectorals, sinking her teeth deep enough to leave a dark red mark. It snapped what control he’d maintained, and he found himself picking her up and throwing her on the bed. She got up as if to get away, but he’d been in the pack long enough to know her wolf was playing with him. Pulling off her shoes, he tore off her jeans and panties with a lack of finesse that might’ve worried him if Lara hadn’t been making low, needy sounds in the back of her throat.

“Take off your sweatshirt.” It was an order.

One she obeyed with shaking hands.

“The bra.”

It was gone an instant later. However, instead of lying back, she stretched out on her hands and knees in front of him, looking up with a distinctively wolfish look in her eye. “I’ll be gentle.” Solemn words that made him want to smile. “I know you’re a virgin. Psy don’t have sex do they?”

“No.” Intimate touch was forbidden in the PsyNet. “But I think I have the concept figured out.” Surrendering to temptation, he stroked his hand down the curve of her back.

She arched into the touch, her skin shimmering with heat. “Are you teasing me?” A suspicious look, even as she rose up on her knees to tug open the top button of his jeans.

“A little.” He bent down to nuzzle at her, biting her gently on the earlobe as he’d done that night in her apartment when they’d talked and done so much more.

She shivered. “You remembered.”

He remembered everything about her, from the way she made those tiny sounds when he licked his tongue across hers, to the way she pushed her breast into his hand when he pinched her nipple. “On your back,” he whispered, because the need in him was a demanding thing, one that wanted to brand, to claim in a way he’d never before experienced or understood.

Obeying without argument, she braced herself on her elbows, looking at him with those brilliant eyes as he shucked his jeans. Her gulped in breath was a caress across his senses. Taking a grip on her ankles, he spread her thighs. “Who do you belong to, Lara?” he asked quietly.

“You.” It was a whisper. “Only you.”

He wasn’t surprised to feel her inside him, inside his very heart. Of course that was where she’d be—it was the only way to make sure he could protect her. Lara was one of the most vulnerable people he had ever met. She had the capability to face down even Hawke if she thought the alpha was causing himself harm, but by that same token, she’d cut out her own heart and give it to him if it would keep him going. Walker wasn’t sure how she’d survived this long without someone to watch out for her.

“Walker . . . did we just . . .” Shocked words, rapid breaths.

HE MOVED UP
the bed to rise over her. “Lara?”

“Yes?”

“Let’s have sex first, talk later.” He might’ve been Silent once, but that man was long gone. The one who remained was holding on to his control by the skin of his teeth.

Hands on his chest, shaping and petting. “Okay.”

When he reached down to caress the slick heat between her thighs, she grabbed his wrist. “Let’s skip the foreplay this time.”

“Okay.” Spreading her thighs, he stroked into her, going slow because she seemed too tiny to take him. The heat of her was a sensual jolt that threatened to wrench the reins from his grasp. He’d thought about sinking into her tight grasp, thought about exploring this beautiful body with its soft curves, but never had he realized the savage impact of this act.

Mine.
It was a primitive thought.

Right then, she locked her legs around him and thrust her body up at the same time.

Lara cried out as the aggressive heat of Walker slammed home inside of her, clutching at his back in a vain effort to find an anchor. Her mind was awash in shock and wonder, her body buzzed. She parted her lips to speak, found the words stolen by a demanding male mouth that set her free only long enough to ask, “Does it hurt?”

“So good.” She bit at his jaw, and he reacted the way he always did when she did that.

He took over her mouth, licking and tasting and demanding . . . while moving in her, slow and deep, one callused hand on her hip to pin her in place. Having hungered for this most intimate of skin privileges for so very long, she met him kiss for kiss, touch for touch, but it was crystal clear she’d never be the dominant in bed.

Her wolf had no argument with that. She was a healer. She needed a mate who was strong, able to care for her as she cared for others. Kissing at his neck as he reached down to cup her buttocks, to angle her for a deeper penetration, she felt her entire body clench. “Walker!
Please.
”

His next strokes were hard and fast and possessive, his kisses the same. Pleasure rippled over her in waves and then crashed, breaking her into a thousand splinters. She held him to the end. Never was she letting this man and his heart go. Never.

 

 

IT
was after the third round of sex—yes, she was sore, and no, she didn’t give a damn—that Lara worked off enough energy that her brain started to function on any level other than the sensual. Snuggling close to Walker, who lay on his side beside her, stroking her curves with those delicious hands, she kissed his chest, licking up the salt-laced taste of dark water and snow-dusted firs.

Her wolf snuggled up next to him, too, bathing itself in the radiance of the mating bond. It was strong and steady, just like the man who was her mate. “You know this is for life, right?” she asked, half afraid he’d want to back off now that the buzz was gone.

“Yes.” He stroked his hand over her butt. “The mating bond will make it easier to keep an eye on you.”

He switched positions so he leaned over her.
“Lara.”

Oh, she knew she was going to have trouble with him—but damn if she wasn’t looking forward to it. “Can you see us in the web?”

“Yes.” A satisfied smile. “It’s rearranged itself so you’re by me. Where I can shield you.”

“I never knew you were this possessive.”

Her answer was a slow, hot kiss that had her rubbing herself against his thigh. Before he could take over, she pushed him to his back and rose to straddle him. Those distinctive green eyes lingered on the modest swell of her breasts with such carnal intent, her toes curled. When he reached up to touch her, explore her, he did so with such intense focus she felt as if she was the most intriguing thing he had ever seen.

He pinched her nipple in precisely the way she’d whispered she enjoyed that sultry night in her apartment. “Lara?”

“Yes?” It was a trembling question.

“Teach me more of the foreplay you like.”

She was a changeling, sensuality in her blood—and yet his blunt request had her breathless. “I like everything you do to me.”

“In that case”—he flipped her onto her back again, spread her thighs—“I think we should explore the concept of oral sex.”

Her brain hazed over. And stayed hazed.

Because once Walker Lauren put his mind to something, it didn’t budge—and the man did not leave any task unfinished. “Hmm,” he said after the orgasm left her a quivering mass of female flesh. “Let’s do that again now that I know what I’m doing.”