“I know what I’m doing.” Sascha might be an E-Psy, but the jaguar wasn’t budging on this one point. The cat knew something she didn’t, knew it on the deepest, most primitive level. If anyone had asked Vaughn to explain, he wouldn’t have been able to put his certainty into words, but that made it no less strong.
“She’s so deeply unconscious that I can’t reach her and you think you know what you’re doing?” Her words were bullet fast.
“Lucas,” Vaughn said quietly.
The alpha’s eyes met his. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Sascha turned furiously to her mate and when she didn’t speak aloud, Vaughn knew she was yelling at Lucas mind-to-mind. Lucas couldn’t broadcast speech, but the two had discovered that he could hear her perfectly fine. It made sense given that Lucas’s great-great-grandmother had been Psy.
The alpha winced and caught Sascha around the waist to haul her up against his body. “He’s a sentinel. He protects. Leave it be, darling.”
“He might protect, but that protection doesn’t stretch to Faith.”
“It does now.”
Everyone went silent. “Since when?” Lucas asked.
“Since I decided.”
“Fine.”
Sascha glanced from one male to the other then shook her head in obvious frustration. “Let me see if she’s doing any better.” Wiggling out of Lucas’s grip, she came over. “She’s like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon.”
He understood, and because she was one of the few beings he respected, he said, “I won’t bruise her wings, Sascha darling.”
A smile flirted with her lips at the small tease. “What’s gotten into you?”
He didn’t reply as she put her hands over Faith’s body and tried to read her emotional temperature. The truth was, he didn’t know the answer. Not withstanding the promise he’d just made, he wasn’t sure about Faith. Her story made sense, yet it could very well be a clever facade. The cat didn’t think so, but despite its predatory nature, the cat was sometimes innocent in a way the human male could never be.
“She’s shut down to a point where I’d compare it to a coma—I don’t know when she’ll come out of it.”
Vaughn cradled Faith against his chest. “She’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
Sascha rose from her crouch. “How do you know that?”
“Maybe I’m Psy.”
She sighed. “Do I smell breakfast?” Without waiting for an answer, she strode inside the house.
Lucas only spoke when she was out of earshot. “I’ve never questioned your judgment and I won’t do it now.”
“But?”
“She’s not like Sascha, Vaughn. Sascha could already feel before she came to us. Even if Faith’s story is completely true, she’s as cold as the rest of her race. Don’t forget that.”
In his arms, he felt her heartbeat, felt the rush of her blood. “She’s warmer than you know.”
“What happened?”
“I think you and Sascha both need to hear that. Have breakfast and give Faith time to wake up.”
Lucas nodded and followed his mate inside. Vaughn felt a strange tension release from his shoulders. He couldn’t quite pinpoint the source, but something about the other cat had set him on edge, though Lucas was his friend in the truest sense of the word. They’d never been just alpha and sentinel. The loyalty forged in the dark days of their childhoods went both ways—he trusted Lucas as absolutely as the other male trusted him. But all of a sudden his instincts were reacting as if the other man were a threat.
Frowning, he returned his attention to the woman in his arms. He had a reason for keeping her outside. From what Sascha had told them since she’d become part of DarkRiver, Psy were used to living in boxes and it seemed Faith had been more boxed in than most. But she’d had no problem walking into a forest on her own so maybe a hidden sense in this particular Psy craved the freedom to be found in the wild.
A tiny movement. He ran his hand up and down her arm, fingering the material of her shirt and stroking her back to wakefulness. As her head shifted against his chest, he used his feet to make the swing sway gently back and forth. Her eyelashes lifted and fluttered back down, then lifted again.