Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,106
kinds of shit going down in the world, but we need to talk about this joint party.” She stroked her bump in a self-calming gesture. “It’s important.”
Lucas nodded. A changeling’s strength came from his family, and this celebration, it was all about family. Lose sight of that and they lost what made them changeling, leopard, DarkRiver. “The cubs and pups are excited for it.” The thought brought a smile back to his face.
“Riley’s got intel that says Ben, Jules, and Rome are already plotting a cake-eating contest.” As Mercy spoke, she stretched her ankles by flexing them back and forth.
“Wait.” Dorian peered at her toenails, currently painted a hot pink. “Did Riley do that? I mean since you can’t reach your toes?”
Every cat in the room stared, agog at the idea.
Mercy growled low in her throat. “If he did?”
“Huh?” Dorian scratched his jaw, then smiled that heartbreaker surfer boy smile that had charmed many a woman before he fell madly for his scientist mate. “I’d do it for Shaya if she was a crazy pregnant chick like you.”
“Watch who you call crazy, Blondie.” Mercy gave her best friend a death stare while the others grinned. “As it happens, it wasn’t my wolf. Anu came over with her kit.” She held out her hands. “I went for a metallic-blue accent nail on this end. See?”
Taking one hand, Dorian studied her fingertips. “Does this stuff last when you shift?”
Lucas coughed. “Back to the meeting. You two can have your beauty-therapy discussion later.” Catching the cushion Mercy lobbed at his head, he put it behind his back, then caught a cookie Vaughn threw over, the jaguar having sniffed out the stash Bastien had left Mercy. “Party. Go.”
“Right.” Mercy laid out her choice of location plus the general details of how she thought the event should be run. Then she brought up the guest list. “SnowDancer and DarkRiver yes, but do we want to invite our other allies, or those who’ve helped the pack or are connected to us in nonlinear ways?”
The question felt all the more significant after their discussion about Trinity.
Vaughn was the one who spoke, his voice holding a quiet intensity. “When Faith left the PsyNet, she did it believing she’d never again have any real contact with her father.” Eyes of near-gold met Lucas’s. “It turned out Anthony isn’t an asshole and he loves his children. I think it’d mean a lot to her to be able to invite her father to a pack function.”
Lucas knew Sascha wouldn’t be inviting Nikita, even had DarkRiver trusted the ex-Councilor not to turn around and stab them in the back. Their relationship was very different from the one Faith had with Anthony, but he could see Vaughn’s point.
“There’s also Kaleb Krychek,” he said. “Man can go wherever he wants, find whoever he wants, so there’s no security issue with him.” Not all teleporters could lock on to people as well as places, but Krychek definitely could. “He’s also been a source of assistance and information multiple times. And his mate is family through Faith.”
Vaughn nodded. “Sahara’s tightly linked to the Empathic Collective because of the work she does monitoring their work levels and collating reports on the health of the Honeycomb itself, but Faith still worries about her being isolated.”
Lucas had felt the same concern when Faith’s cousin went back to Krychek after a sojourn in DarkRiver. However, though the dangerous cardinal telekinetic wasn’t sociable by any measure, he appeared not to begrudge his mate the social or familial contact she needed to thrive—he’d teleported Sahara into DarkRiver territory multiple times so she could visit with Faith, Sascha, and her other friends.
“I don’t see a problem with inviting Sahara and Kaleb,” Dorian said. “And Faith’s father seems like one of the good ones. Shaya likes him.”
Clay simply nodded in agreement.
It was Nathan who spoke next. “I’m fine with inviting them, too, but we’ll have to change the location. Currently, while neither pack circle will be compromised, Mercy and Riley’s home will be—and they’ll have pupcubs there very soon.”
“That’s a big minus.” Mercy worried her lower lip. “The only other possible location is the empathic training compound, but they’re running full classes back-to-back.”
Lucas frowned. “I’m not sure that’s right. Give me a second.” Taking out his phone, he sent a message to Sascha, got a response back nearly immediately. “The current class closes in just over two weeks and the next one won’t start until two weeks after that. We can hold the event