Claimed, page 35
And Lydia was still working at the WSP. At least on paper.
In reality, she hadn’t left C.P.’s estate since she’d been flown in and treated for her gunshot wound. And she wasn’t going to leave. Daniel had been invited to stay for comfort measures and he’d accepted the offer.
So no, they weren’t going anywhere.
“But I thought you said it wasn’t safe for me out there.” She focused on the horizon. “That because of the way things went, your agency was still coming after me. Still coming after C.P.”
With a grim curse, he put his glass aside. “I really can’t leave here… without knowing you’re with people who understand and can protect you.”
She thought of the wolves in the preserve, the way they had come and surrounded them. Protected them. Saved them both.
“That’s why you refused treatment, isn’t it.” She tilted his chin when he looked away. “That’s why.”
“I don’t have a lot of time left, Lydia. And I’ve found someone who I think can help. I used some back channels to get the contact. It’s a woman by the name of Alex Hess. I’ve never met her, but somebody I know and trust has. Word has it, she’s got some familiarity with the experiments on those floppy disks.”
“Did she work at the labs?”
“I don’t know, but my source tells me that she is a gatekeeper. That she will help, if she wants to.”
Lydia shook her head. “Listen, I don’t want to waste what little time we have—”
“Please. This is my last mission. I want to complete… my last mission. For you.”
With a sigh of resignation, she settled down onto his chest and—
“I wish things were different,” he said roughly.
Funny, that was just what she was thinking.
Lydia looked up to his face. “Love is immortal. It survives all things.” She thought of when she had seen him in the veil. And when the same had happened for him. “You’re my future, no matter how little time we have.”
“And you’re my everything.”
They kissed. And kissed again.
“And okay, if it’s that important to you,” she said as she stroked his face some more, “I’ll meet with the woman. But my main focus is on you. You’re all that matters to me right now.”
“It’ll help me… let go, when it’s time.”
Lydia closed her eyes as tears threatened. Over the last couple of weeks, she’d been so careful not to let the dam break—because if she gave in, she was going to sob until there was no breath in her lungs.
And there was going to come a time when she was going to have to breathe for the both of them.
“It’s okay,” Daniel said sadly. “I’m here now. I’m holding you… now—”
There was the sound of the sliding door opening, and then high heels on the terrace.
Lydia took a deep breath and smiled up at C.P. “Well, if it isn’t our hostess with the mostest—” She frowned. “Are you okay?”
C.P. Phalen was not a pacer. She was never hesitant. And she never, ever had to choose her words.
And yet the woman started to walk back and forth in front of the sunset, her profile cast in grim lines.
“Okay,” Daniel said dryly, “I think I’ve proven over the previous weeks that I can handle bad news. Or have you missed all the pathology reports and PET scan results I’ve been getting?”
As C.P. turned to them both, she hesitated some more.
And then she spoke the words that would change everything:
“What if I told you there was another option for you.”
“As opposed to outright croaking?” Daniel drawled as he lifted Lydia’s hand and kissed the back of it. “No offense, but I don’t have a lot of interest in getting stuffed and propped up in the corner—”
C.P.’s eyes locked on Daniel. “What if I could give you… a new life. Through a cure.”
Don’t miss the next installment of Lydia and Daniel’s love story:
FOREVER
Coming Summer 2022!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
WITH SO MANY thanks to the readers of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books! This has been a long, marvelous, exciting journey, and I can’t wait to see what happens next in this big world we all love. I’d also like to thank Meg Ruley, Rebecca Scherer and everyone at JRA, and Hannah Braaten, Andrew Nguyen, Jennifer Bergstrom, and the entire family at Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster.
Thank you as well to the incredible Robin Covington for all her help and support around Sheriff Eastwind!
To Team Waud, I love you all. Truly. And as always, everything I do is with love to, and adoration for, both my family of origin and of adoption.
Oh, and thank you to Naamah, my Writer Dog II, who works as hard as I do on my books!
More from the Author
The Wolf
Lover Unveiled
A Warm Heart in Winter
The Jackal
The Sinner
Where Winter Finds You
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© JAN COBB
J. R. WARD is the author of more than thirty novels, including those in her #1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood series. There are more than fifteen million copies of her novels in print worldwide, and they have been published in twenty-six different countries. She lives in the South with her family.
JRWard.com
Facebook.com/JRWardBooks
Twitter: @JRWard1
FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR:
SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/J-R-Ward
SimonandSchuster.com
BY J. R. WARD
THE BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD SERIES
Dark Lover
Lover Eternal
Lover Awakened
Lover Revealed
Lover Unbound
Lover Enshrined
The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider’s Guide
Lover Avenged
Lover Mine
Lover Unleashed
Lover Reborn
Lover at Last
The King
The Shadows
The Beast
The Chosen
The Thief
The Savior
The Sinner
Lover Unveiled
THE BLACK DAGGER LEGACY SERIES
Blood Kiss
Blood Vow
Blood Fury
Blood Truth
THE BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD: PRISON CAMP
The Jackal
THE BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD WORLD
Dearest Ivie
Prisoner of Night
Where Winter Finds You
A Warm Heart in Winter
FIREFIGHTERS SERIES
Consumed
NOVELS OF THE FALLEN ANGELS
Covet
Crave
Envy
Rapture
Possession
Immortal
THE BOURBON KINGS
The Bourbon Kings
The Angels’ Share
The Devil’s Cut
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Love Conquers All, Inc.
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Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco
Cover illustration by Craig White
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021939339
ISBN 978-1-9821-5037-2
ISBN 978-1-9821-6348-8 (ebook)
J.R. Ward, Claimed
