Part 53 (2/2)

Her heart contracted when she saw it was Logan. He was naked and staring toward the edge of the woods, and she knew he was about to change to wolf form so that he could look for her.

From above, she gave a great cry, trying to catch his attention and stop him before he could make the change. To her vast relief he went still, then looked up and shaded his eyes. When he spotted, her, he waved his arm in a wide arc.

She came down swiftly, landing on the gra.s.s a few feet away, and he reached for her. But she squawked again and shook her head. She needed to be able to talk to him and quickly.

Taking a step back, she pictured herself in human form, and her body followed her thoughts.

Even as she made the change, she saw Logan closing the distance between them.

”Rinna!” He caught her in his arms, pulling her naked body against his, and for that moment she was lost in the gladness of being with him once more.

”I thought you had left.”

”No,” she answered, knowing in that moment of sweet contact that she would have come back to him if she were free to do it.

When he brought his lips down to hers for a fierce, hungry kiss, she returned it with equal pa.s.sion, devouring his mouth as though she had been months without him.

He stroked his hands over her body, his fingers gliding across her shoulders and down her back so that he could cup her bottom.

The sensations were exquisite. She came alive in his arms, tasting him, breathing in his scent, touching him. Maybe for the last time. That knowledge brought a hard knot to the inside of her chest, and she swallowed a cry of loss.

But he must have sensed that something was wrong. Lifting his head, he looked down at her.

”Where did you go?”

She had put off the moment of reckoning as long as she could. ”Logan, Falcone is coming.”

His hold tightened on her. ”Where? How?”

”He brought a squad of warriors through the portal. They're coming here. Haig is leading them.”

”Haig! I knew I couldn't trust that b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”

Without even thinking, she leaped to her friend's defense. ”He's under a compulsion. He can't help himself.”

The moment the words were out of her mouth, she knew that she was only wasting valuable time. When Logan started to argue with her, she pressed her fingers to his lips. ”There isn't time to talk about Haig. You have to listen to me.”

As he pressed his lips together, she once again summoned the special power she had developed as a child-the power that Falcone had so cruelly locked inside her mind. She had used it with the detective. Now the need was more urgent, when the task was harder to accomplish because she had done it so recently.

This time the pain was searing, but she forced her way into that injured part of her brain, fighting not to gasp.

Logan's face contorted and his hands tightened on her shoulders. ”Rinna, what is it? What's wrong?”

She didn't spare the energy for an answer, only kept her thoughts focused on the message she must convey to the man who held her in his arms.

”You have to go for help.”

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