Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,117

children, with the unanimous agreement of the adult ocelot survivors. He’d have put all four million of SkyElm’s money into that trust, but the survivors had been adamant that they wanted to contribute to their new pack, so one million had gone into the DarkRiver fund used for the education of cubs.

None of the adults had wanted to take any of the remaining million, but he’d made each one accept an amount that would give them room to breathe while they settled into their new lives. The rest, at their request, would act as the capital for a scholarship for young inventors. Named the SkyElm Grant, it would ensure the pack’s name lived on as part of something good, not simply in memories of horror.

“Huh,” he said in response to Dev’s revelations about his own apparent reputation for meting out horrific torture.

Lucas would savage the world for those who were his own—but he wasn’t into torture. Never had been. Still, it was a useful reputation to have if it helped protect the most vulnerable members of DarkRiver. “That explains the sudden wary respect I’m seeing in the eyes of Psy corporations we’re working with on business deals.”

“Business gone down recently?”

“Up. Appears the Psy respect that kind of merciless retribution.” Lucas smiled, his panther amused as it realized the identity of the person most likely behind his new reputation.

Nikita Duncan was more than deviously intelligent enough to figure out how to protect her daughter and grandchild long-term and what would scare even the most hardened men and women. The fact that his reputation would also protect other children was a side effect that wouldn’t matter to her, but it mattered a heck of a lot to Lucas.

“So it’s done?” Dev asked. “The trail ended with the ocelots?”

Lucas shook his head. “No, the alpha was just a useful weapon to point in our direction. Someone else was driving the operation.” Hopefully, the captain of the ship Dorian had pinpointed would provide further intelligence.

Jamie was leading the op to intercept the ship in question, which involved taking a flight to one of BlackSea’s floating cities in a craft capable of water landings. Miane had made one available for their use after DarkRiver and SnowDancer allied with her pack. From that point, Jamie would get on a BlackSea underwater craft and sneak up on the ship, then climb up and into it with a small team of water changelings.

It seemed an appropriate operation for a cat who’d taken up deep-sea diving.

“We’ll get them,” he said to Dev. “Sooner or later, we’ll find the people pulling the strings.” It was the unyielding promise of an alpha—and of a father.

Letters to Nina

From the private diaries of Father Xavier Perez

May 7, 2075

Nina,

He’s trusted me with his name, the Psy soldier. I won’t write it here—if my letters are ever found, I don’t want to betray my friend.

I know you must be thinking that this is surely a double cross, that he’ll betray me. I thought the same until I realized he had no reason to approach me, or to want me with him. I’m no one, a broken fragment of a lost village. At the time he and I first met, I was a drunk, a fool who was more hindrance than help.

No, my new friend had no reason to take me into his confidence except that he saw I needed a mission, a reason for being. In giving it to me, he has given me more than he’ll ever know. For the first time in an eternity, I feel like Xavier again. I feel like the man I was before the day murder stained our village and I saw you jump into the water.

At times, I even glimpse the rare flame of hope.

Your Xavier

Chapter 34

IT WAS VASIC who Miane Levèque most often contacted now with updates on the Leila Savea situation and Zaira with whom the BlackSea alpha met with simply to talk—one dangerous woman to another, their friendship a growing thing. As leader of the Arrow Squad, Aden might’ve been expected to be dissatisfied with that state of affairs, but he felt the opposite: his mate and his best friend were building powerful bonds of their own.

Should the worst ever happen, should Aden be assassinated, Vasic would have the skills and contacts to step in and Zaira . . . No, Aden couldn’t predict what Zaira would do except seek vengeance. And after that was done, he had the haunting conviction that she’d choose to