The leopard male studied her for several seconds. "Give me a good reason."

Squeezing her eyes shut, she took a deep breath. The iron-rich scent of blood was overpowering to her senses. Her eyes snapped open. "Because I scented my family on Judd before the rain washed the markers away."

"Shit."

Judd returned to consciousness two hours after they'd arrived, his eyes looking a touch feverish but otherwise clear. Too clear, given the extent of his injuries.

"What, you gave yourself a psychic blood transfusion?" Tamsyn asked in a tart tone at odds with the concern on her face.

Judd flexed the hand of his bandaged arm, the thin white gauze appearing deceptively weak. "I need some food to replace the energy I lost." Not an answer.

Tamsyn scowled, but Brenna felt only warmth from her. Like Lara and Sascha, the DarkRiver healer was inherently gentle. "Why does everyone think they can get fed in my kitchen?"

Nate hugged his mate from behind, kissing the curve of her neck in open affection. "Because even Psy know you're a soft touch."

The other woman's scowl disappeared and she turned to steal a proper kiss from her mate. "Why do I put up with you?"

Nate murmured something so low that Brenna couldn't hear. Looking away from their easy intimacy, an intimacy which held hints of the deepest sensuality and love, she found Judd watching the pair. He glanced at her only after Tamsyn broke from Nate to walk toward the cooler. Dark chocolate eyes met hers. "That's what you should have."

His candor shook her...because it meant he'd accepted this thing between them, this beautiful, powerful thing. "Yeah? Well, maybe I want you instead." She didn't care that their relationship didn't fit into any established box, didn't care that her wolf didn't recognize him as her mate. "Just you."

"I made lasagna for dinner," Tamsyn called out. "That work for you?"

He continued to look at her, as if he'd drink her up with his eyes. "Anything is fine."

"Maybe I shouldn't waste my lasagna on you, then." Tamsyn grabbed a container from the cooling unit. "How about some cardboard instead?"

Brenna found herself amused in spite of the blood that continued to scent the air and the taut expectation that stretched between her and Judd. Lips twitching, she waited for his response.

"Cardboard has no nutritional value." Utterly toneless. "Lasagna would be a better choice."

Tamsyn threw up her hands. "I'd forgotten how bad you lot could be. Then again, Sascha was never as bad as you."

Something crashed upstairs.

Tamsyn didn't seem to notice, but then said, "Honey, could you go up and see if Kit's surviving our little darlings? Sounds like they're both up."

"He's fine." Nate didn't budge.

"I won't attack your mate," Judd said to the leopard. "I have no reason to."

Nate's response was a grunt. Brenna scowled. It was true that predatory males tended to be extraordinarily protective where their mates were concerned, but surely Judd had earned the cats' respect by now.

Fur ruffled, she was about to voice her feelings when Judd glanced at her and gave a slight shake of his head. "It is his home." His voice was pitched to reach her ears alone. "He has a mate and children to protect and I am an intruder."

"You helped get Sascha and Faith out of the Net. You've been their friend," she hissed, raging at the unfairness of it.

"No." Judd pulled his hand from hers. "I've always acted in my own best interest."

"That's not who you are." She refused to let him try to convince her otherwise.

His eyes fixed on hers, the gold flecks darkening to amber. "An assassin who looks after his own skin? That's exactly what I am, Brenna. I would rather die than harm you, but anyone else? I could kill them without blinking. It's what I was born to do."

Brenna knew she should be happy that Judd had admitted as much as he had about his feelings toward her, but she was still fuming over his intransigence on everything else when she walked into the living room at around seven the next morning. He was attempting to button a vivid blue shirt over his bandaged chest. Even injured, he was so beautifully built that her mouth went dry and her face flushed. The hunger was piercing, seducing her into moving forward.

"Let me." His arm had to be painful. And she couldn't begin to think about the wounds on his chest. If they had gone a little deeper...

"Brenna." He didn't halt her, but his tone held a dominant undertone she recognized all too well, having grown up with men who suffered from the same chauvinistic streak.

"I've never seen you in any color but black. Blue looks good on you." She buttoned the shirt over his bandages with tender care. The garment was a fraction loose, Judd's build more lightly muscular than Nate's. Her Psy was built for stealth and speed, his body a well-honed weapon...one she ached to stroke. The idea of running her hands over the smooth, powerful lines of his body made her fingers tremble.

One male hand closed over her wrist. "We have to discuss this before your brothers arrive."

Tears in her throat. "We've got time to have a cup of coffee."

"No, we don't. Nate made the calls long enough ago that they have to be close."

She knew the DarkRiver male had delayed as long as he could, but wished it had been forever. "Just one cup," she cajoled.

Tugging at her hand, he forced her to look up. "Why are you avoiding the subject?" The gold flecks in his eyes were sparking bright - it wasn't her imagination, they really were. Before she could ask him what that meant, there was a commotion out front and her brothers stormed into the living room followed by Nate and Lucas.

Chapter 24

Riley's face went hunting-still as he saw Judd's hand around her wrist. "I swear to God, if you don't stop touching her, I'll - "

"You'll what?" Brenna demanded, pulling away her hand but only so she could face Riley. "Finish off the job you started last night?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Andrew reached out as if to grab her and drag her to his side.

Judd was suddenly in front of her, having moved so fast she was left gasping. "I can't let you touch her in your current mood."

Looking around Judd, Brenna saw Drew's fingers curl into a fist. "She's my sister. It's one of you bastards that hurt her."

"Be that as it may, I'm not letting you near her until you get yourself under control." Judd's voice was cold, implacable, dangerous.

Growls sounded.

"Shut up!" Brenna yelled. "All of you!"

Her brothers looked at her, startled. The cats stayed on the edges of the room, probably not looking to interfere unless blood threatened to be spilled.

Judd glanced over his shoulder. "Don't." Pure male command.

"Don't you give her orders, Psy!" Drew again.

She'd had it. Pushing past Judd to stand in front of her middle sibling, she thumped a fist into his chest. "Do you know what he's warning me not to do? Accuse you or Riley of attacking him."

Her brother froze. "What?"

"Judd came in wolf-mauled," Nate drawled. "His chest's a mess and believe me, you don't want to see his arm."

"You think we did that?" The hurt on Riley's face was so raw it rocked her.

But she wasn't backing off. "You've threatened him over and over. And I smelled the scent of family."

Judd put a hand on her shoulder. "Enough, Brenna."

This time, she listened, unable to look at the pain on her brothers' faces. Turning, she buried her head against Judd's chest, forgetting about his injuries until the scent of torn flesh hit her. "I'm so - "

"Shh." Judd put his uninjured arm around her. The gesture had come about without conscious thought and now he found he couldn't let go, dissonance or not.

Meeting her brothers' gazes, he began to speak. "I initially had the same suspicions as Brenna, but I was wrong." He'd figured that out sometime in the early hours - it was what he'd wanted to discuss with her. "If you two were going to challenge me, you'd do it in broad daylight, not set up a sneak ambush."

Brenna went very quiet against him, one hand curled up gently against his chest.

Pain, such sweet pain to have her so close. Would she stay once she discovered the whole truth about him? The dark heart of him asked a harsher question - would he let her go? "Brenna knows that, too," he said, focusing on the here and now. "She's confused only because she smelled your scent at the scene. It shocked her. Which is probably what was intended."

Andrew shoved a hand through his hair. "Damn it, Bren. I didn't touch him. I can't believe you suspected me for a second."

Brenna turned her head but remained tucked under Judd's arm. "You haven't been acting like yourselves lately, either of you."

Riley swore, low and hard. "We almost lost you to a Psy murderer! I think the fact that we don't want you to shack up with one of that psychopathic race is understandable."

"Careful." A soft but lethal order from Lucas.

"Sascha is different," Riley said without turning. "He's not."

"I never thought you were a bigot." Brenna's words fell into a pool of heavy silence.

Judd found himself holding her tighter. He didn't need or want anyone to fight for him. That Brenna did, caused sensations inside of him he couldn't afford to embrace - especially given his injuries and the energy it took to fight the dissonance. But he had stopped doing what he should a long time ago.

Andrew met his eyes. "I didn't attack you. You'd be dead if I'd come after you."

Judd had had enough. "The sole reason I'm injured is because I was trying not to kill my attacker. If I hadn't held back, he'd have been dead before he touched me." He let them see the claws he'd kept hidden in an effort to assist his family's integration into SnowDancer.