Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
EPILOGUE
Teaser chapter
Praise for Hostage to Pleasure
“Singh is on the fast track to becoming a genre giant!”
—Romantic Times (top pick)
“Nalini Singh has penned another keeper . . . If you want a thrilling read with action, danger, passion, and drama, don’t miss Nalini Singh’s Hostage to Pleasure.” —Romance Junkies
“An intriguing world that’s sure to keep readers coming back for more.” —Darque Reviews
“This series just continues to get better and more vibrant as it goes . . . Hostage to Pleasure is a must read for any paranormal reader.” —Night Owl Romance
“I commend Nalini Singh for writing a completely unique and utterly mesmerizing series . . . Hostage to Pleasure is already a keeper on my bookshelf.” —Simply Romance Reviews
Mine to Possess
“Singh has done it again. Mine to Possess grabs you and never lets you go. This may be the best book of an already outstanding series.” —Fresh Fiction
“WOW! Brilliant is the best description for Mine to Possess . . . It just doesn’t get better than the best!”
—ParaNormal Romance Reviews
“As plot points fall into place, it’s evident that clever, mega-talented Singh has truly spectacular things in store.”
—Romantic Times (4½ stars, top pick)
“Ms. Singh’s world-building is as fascinating as the characters with whom she populates it.” —The Eternal Night
“Nalini Singh has done it again . . . There is no doubt that Mine to Possess will be the must read for 2008!”
—Fallen Angel Reviews (recommended read)
Caressed by Ice
“Craving the passionate and electrifying world created by the mega-talented Singh? Your next fix is here! One of the most original and thrilling paranormal series on the market . . . Mind-blowing!” —Romantic Times (4½ stars, top pick)
“A sensual, dangerous adventure not to be missed.”
—New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh
“A compelling read with wonderfully developed characters and the strong world-building that has made Singh a star.”
—All About Romance
“With a truly inspired mix of passion and danger, this story will keep you on the edge of your seat. [It] will surely earn itself a place among your favorites.” —Romance Reviews Today
“A wonderful story . . . I cannot recommend it highly enough!”
—ParaNormal Romance Reviews
Visions of Heat
“Breathtaking blend of passion, adventure, and the paranormal. I wished I lived in the world Singh has created. This is a keeper!”
—New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter
“This author just moved to the top of my auto-buy list.”
—All About Romance
“Brace yourselves because the second installment of the Psy-Changeling series will set all your senses ablaze and leave your fingers singed with each turn of the page. Visions of Heat is that intense!” —Romance Junkies
“A page-turning, sexy read that fans of paranormal romance are sure to devour.” —The Romance Readers Connection
“In a genre filled with talent, Singh really stands out . . . This is one of the best paranormal series out there!” —Romantic Times
Slave to Sensation
“I LOVE this book! It’s a must-read for all of my fans. Nalini Singh is a major new talent.”
—New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan
“An electrifying collision of logic and emotion . . . An incredible world where fire and ice mix to create an unforgettable sensual eruption. Slave to Sensation is a volcanic start to a new series that’ll leave you craving more.” —Romance Junkies
“AWESOME! . . . A purely mesmerizing book that surely stands out among the other paranormal books out there. Slave to Sensation is captivating from beginning to end. It’s a must read for any paranormal fan!” —Romance Reader at Heart
“Superb science fiction romance . . . Readers will enjoy Nalini Singh’s excellent futuristic thriller and demand more tales from this fascinating realm.” —Midwest Book Review
“You won’t want to miss Slave to Sensation, the tremendous first book in the new Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh . . . I highly recommend this book and suggest you make room for it on your keeper shelf.” —Romance Reviews Today
“A sensual romance set in an alternate reality America with just a bit of mystery to keep readers flipping pages. Character driven and well written, it’s not easy to put down at bedtime; it kept me reading well into the night.” —Fresh Fiction
“A fresh, intriguing, and thought-provoking mythology and a very appealing cast of characters . . . I look forward to the next installment from this talented writer.” —BookLoons
“A must even for those uninitiated in the paranormal genre. The story ends much too quickly, and the author’s magical writing conjures up sensual images and intense emotions that linger long after the last word is read.” —Romantic Times
Berkley Sensation Titles by Nalini Singh
Psy-Changeling Series
SLAVE TO SENSATION
VISIONS OF HEAT
CARESSED BY ICE
MINE TO POSSESS
HOSTAGE TO PLEASURE
BRANDED BY FIRE
Guild Hunter Series
ANGELS’ BLOOD
ANGELS’ PAWN
(A Berkley Sensation eSpecial)
Anthologies
AN ENCHANTED SEASON
(with Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson)
THE MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CAT
(with Lora Leigh, Erin McCarthy, and Linda Winstead Jones)
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
BRANDED BY FIRE
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / July 2009
Copyright © 2009 by Nalini Singh.
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eISBN : 978-1-101-07996-6
BERKLEY® SENSATION
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To my own personal brain trust—you know who you are. :)
CHANGE
Change can kill.
Devastate.
Destroy.
But it can also save. The Psy know this better than any other race on the planet. With the imposition of Silence, the protocol that wiped their emotions even as it saved their minds, this race of telepaths and telekinetics, foreseers and healers, a race both gifted and cursed, clawed its way back from the edge of the abyss.
As they stood looking down into the horror they had escaped, they shivered and turned away.
Years passed. And when the Psy Council declared that their once catastrophic rate of insanity had lowered to negligible levels, that there was no longer any violence in the PsyNet, they knew they’d made the right decision. The only decision.
Love. Happiness. Joy. What did any of that matter when the flip side was murderous rage, blood-soaked anarchy? The Psy preferred to leave such things to the “animal” races—and while the humans and changelings buried themselves in the viciousness of emotion, the Psy evolved into the most powerful beings on the planet.
Cold. Pitiless. Silent.
But now, in the year 2080, more than a hundred years after the “miracle” of Silence, the animal races are beginning to rise. And change is pulling the Psy back into the abyss. Into emotion and chaos . . . and nightmare.
CHAPTER 1
Mercy kicked a dry branch out of her way and glared. “Stupid stick.” Of course, it wasn’t the defenseless stick she was mad at—it just had the bad luck to be in her path as, shoulders hunched, she made her escape from the Pack Circle and the continuing revelry of Dorian’s mating ceremony.
It was sickening how much her best friend was in love with his mate. In fact, all the other sentinels were starting to make her gag. “Clay making goo-goo eyes at Tally, and don’t get me started on Luc and Sascha.”
Then there were the worst offenders of all—Nate and Tamsyn. How dare they still be so crazy for each other after all these years! “Should be against the law,” she snarled. She wasn’t even going to think about Vaughn and Faith.
She decided to go for a run instead.
An hour later, and deep enough in the pack’s heavily for ested territory that she couldn’t hear anything beyond the cautious whispers of nocturnal creatures moving about in the dark, she sat down on the smooth trunk of a fallen tree and blew out her breath. The truth was, she wasn’t mad at any of the sentinels or their mates. Damn, she was so crazy-happy for them it hurt. But she was jealous, too. Everyone was paired up now. Except her.
“There,” she muttered. “I admitted it. I’m a big ol’ jealous baby.”
Being a dominant female wasn’t a bad thing in changeling society. Female alphas were as common as male ones. But being a dominant female in a leopard pack where none of the dominant males pushed her buttons, that was bad. And being a dominant female in a state controlled by leopards and wolves—where only the wrong one pushed her buttons—that was extra cherry-on-top bad.
Not that she was limited to their territory—Dorian had been nudging at her to go out of state, see if she couldn’t find someone in one of the other packs, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave DarkRiver, not when things were so dicey. Sure, life had calmed down a little since the failed kidnapping attempt on Dorian’s mate, Ashaya, but it was an edgy sort of calm. Everyone was waiting for the next ripple in the pond—whether it would come from the suspiciously quiet Psy Council or the newly violent Human Alliance was anyone’s guess.
That it would, was certain.
As a DarkRiver sentinel, she should’ve been considering their defense strategy, working out possible scenarios. Instead, she was going so insane with need she couldn’t think of anything but the fever in her body, the hunger in her throat, the clawing want in every cell, every breath. Intimate touch was as necessary to her predator’s soul as the forest she called home, but things might not have been so bad if she hadn’t also been trying to cope with the impact of a conversation she’d had with the pack healer, Tamsyn, a few days earlier.
Mercy was the one who’d said it. “There’s a strong possibility I’ll remain unmated.”
“You don’t know that,” Tammy had begun, frown lines on her brow. “You could mee—”
“It’s not that. I might not be able to be with anyone. You know that happens.”
Tammy had bent her head in a reluctant nod. “The chances are higher with dominant females than males. It’s an inability to give in . . . to surrender. Even to your mate.”
And that was the hell of it, Mercy thought. She might want a mate with everything in her, but if he appeared, and he was the strong, take-no-shit partner she knew she needed, she might refuse to acknowledge him on the level necessary for a true mating bond. Oh, the mating urge would probably overpower her into taking him for a lover, perhaps more . . . but if the leopard in her didn’t truly accept his right to her, then she might go roaming for months at a time, coming back to him only when she could no longer fight the need.
It was a special kind of torture reserved for those female leopards who got strangled up at the mere idea of giving a male any kind of control over them. And put it any way you would, unless her mate turned out to be a weak submissive—and she’d never be attracted to someone like that, so that was a no-brainer—he was going to try to dominate her.
“I don’t need a mate,” she muttered, staring up at the bright circle of the early autumn moon. “But can’t you send me a nice, sexy, strong male to dance with? Pretty please?” She hadn’t had a lover for close to eight months now, and it was starting to hurt on every level. “He doesn’t even have to be smart, just good between the sheets.” Good enough to unsnap the tension in her body, allow her to function again.
Because sex wasn’t simply about pleasure f
or a cat like her—it was about affection, about trust, about everything good. “Though right this second, I’d take plain old hot sex.”
That was when Riley walked out of the shadows. “Got an itch, kitty?”
Snapping to her feet, she narrowed her eyes, knowing he had to have deliberately stayed downwind in order to sneak up on her. “Spying?”
“When you’re talking loud enough to wake the dead?”
She swore she could feel steam coming out her ears. Everyone thought Riley was quiet, practical, grounded. Only she knew he had a mean streak that delighted in annoying her as much as possible. “What do you want?” It was a growl from the heart of the leopard and woman both.
“I was invited to Dorian’s mating ceremony.” A slow smile that taunted her to retaliate. “Pretty hard to miss you burning up the place. And I’m not talking about your hair.” His eyes lingered on the long red strands stroking over her breasts.
Mercy didn’t get embarrassed easily, but her cheeks flamed now. Because if Riley knew she was in heat—like a freaking wild cat!—then so did the rest of her own pack. “So what, you followed me hoping I’d lower my standards and sleep with a wolf?” She intentionally made “wolf” sound about as appetizing as “reptile.”
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