Read Shield of Winter (Nalini Singh) for Free Online Page B

life at risk to save countless people in San Francisco a month ago”—when the cardinal telekinetic had helped disarm a toxic weapon—“but I think it would be foolish to think we can predict anything when it comes to him.” The other man remained as opaque as ever, an enigmatic figure who held near-total control of the PsyNet.
    No one, Sascha thought, should have that much power, hold that many lives in the palm of his hand. Yet, if not Kaleb Krychek, then who? His staggering psychic and military strength was the only reason the Psy race hadn’t collapsed into anarchy and death in the aftermath of the fall of Silence. It was as unavoidable a truth as the fact he’d risen to power with ruthless, blood-soaked determination.
    Hawke narrowed his eyes. “The news about the infection.” He glanced at Judd. “Is it a secret?”
    “No. It’s not headline news in the Net yet, but the knowledge is gathering steam.”
    Lucas shook his head. “So, Krychek isn’t exactly giving up anything by offering us the data.”
    “And,” Riley said in his quiet, direct way, “it’s not as if we didn’t already know about the existence of empaths.”
    Everyone looked at Sascha.
    Hands cupped around the mug of hot chocolate Mercy had offered her in lieu of the aromatic coffee the others were drinking, Sascha leaned a little into Lucas. “I have no hesitation in helping other Es,” she said, able to sense Lucas’s panther rising to the surface to rub against the insides of his skin . . . against her.
    It made her feel safe and protected even before her mate wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tucked her close. “There’s nothing I want more than to stretch my psychic muscles with others of my designation,” she said, making no attempt to hide the depth of her hunger.
    She adored working with Judd’s nephew, Toby, but while the young boy was a cardinal telepath who could blow her out of the water when it came to telepathy, the reverse was true when it came to their E abilities. “I want to learn from the others,” she said, “even as I teach them what I know.” Things she’d figured out through often frustrating trial and error. “But most of all,” she whispered, “I want to help those of my designation accept that they’re not broken”—her fingers tightened on the mug, her eyes wet—“that they aren’t flawed.”
    Lucas pressed a kiss to her temple. Her strong, loving, protective mate had been with her when she’d understood the truth about herself, understood that she wasn’t a defective cardinal as she’d been told all her life, but a woman with a gift meant to help the hurt and the lost.
    It was Mercy who said, “Yet something’s making you hesitate,” the red of her hair vivid against her fitted blue shirt.
    “I’m a mother as well as an E.” Sascha’s heart bloomed with love at the thought of her and Lucas’s sweet baby. “And Naya is only one of the children in DarkRiver and SnowDancer.” Pups and cubs who were painfully vulnerable. “We can’t justify putting them at risk.” Even to help men and women who were as bruised and as wounded as Sascha had once been.
    The thought made her chest clench in agony, but she couldn’t see a way around the threat posed by those coming in with the empaths.
    “Kaleb won’t harm anyone in either pack.”
    Lucas stirred at Judd’s confident statement. “Exactly how much of an ex -Arrow are you?” he asked, panther-green eyes intent.
    “It’s been pointed out to me that an Arrow who has never broken faith with the squad continues to be considered an Arrow regardless of his location or belief otherwise.” The lieutenant’s lips curved up unexpectedly at the corners, the light reaching the deep brown of his eyes, the gold flecks in them bright.
    It struck Sascha then that Judd existed on the same continuum as Kaleb. Not as ruthless—she didn’t think anyone was as ruthless as Kaleb Krychek—but a man who had walked long and alone in the