Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,118

join him. So he’d have to stay alive. That was all there was to it.

The thought echoed in his mind as he grabbed a handhold on a rock face not far from the RainFire aeries and swung over and up. A couple of meters from him, Remi, the alpha of the small leopard pack, was doing much the same. They were dressed similarly, too, in dark outdoor pants and T-shirts, boots on their feet and gloves on their hands; the only real difference was that Remi’s T-shirt was white, Aden’s olive green.

“So,” Remi said, his biceps bulging as he attempted a particularly difficult crossing over a jagged gap in the rock face, “since the wolves are keeping Ming busy for now and Trinity hasn’t collapsed, what’s on your mind?”

Aden held his position until he saw that Remi had made it safely. They were climbing separately but acting as each other’s spotters, ready to send out an alert in case of an accident. Such an accident was highly unlikely, not with Remi having claws with which he could hook into every tiny crevice and Aden a far more careful climber than his more instinctive friend. However, taking things for granted got people—and Arrows—killed.

“Did you know BlackSea holds regular gatherings of its people?” he asked after they’d both begun climbing again. “They come from every corner of the globe.” He pushed off with his feet, caught an overhang, kicked up so that he was in a crouched position vertically for a second before he managed to get himself on the overhang and ready for the next part of the climb.

Remi whistled. “Nice move.”

“Zaira taught me that one.” His lover was currently “cat climbing” the internal RainFire rock wall. She’d been press-ganged into it by the smaller, less powerful cats who wanted to know how she did it without claws.

Them, Zaira could’ve resisted. But when little Jojo had jumped up and down at the idea of watching Zaira do another climb, well, his tough commander had a mile-wide vulnerable streak there. How’s the climb going? he telepathed to her, the connection flawless at this range.

Fairly uneventful. I threw in a semi-slip to make it more exciting, but now that I’ve done it once, it’s not a true challenge.

Because Zaira climbed as much with her mind as with her body, would’ve remembered every grip, every successful move. Don’t show up the cats too badly.

Soft laughter along the black-on-black bond that connected them, his lover’s firelight hidden within the black. The entire squad needed her fire, thrived on it, whether she accepted her importance or not.

Their honor is safe with me. Zaira rarely laughed aloud, but mind to mind, he was becoming addicted to the sound of her happiness. Are you done?

Halfway.

They disconnected without need for good-byes. He and Zaira lived in each other’s minds, never intrusive, just . . . present. He loved being able to feel her blade of a mind at the edge of his consciousness, liked knowing that should she need him, he could respond within split seconds.

“Sounds like our pack circle events.” Remi’s voice brought him fully back to the here and now. “All packs have gatherings, and as different as BlackSea is, they’re still changeling, still a pack.”

“The goal is to reinforce pack bonds?” Aden was still rebuilding his own “pack,” trying to heal his broken family, and he wasn’t so proud as to ignore advice from a race that was all about family. Especially when the man giving that advice was a self-confessed “remedial” alpha who was learning right alongside Aden.

“Sure,” Remi said, as above them, an eagle flew with stately grace, circling the rock face, as if taking in their activity. “But it’s also about celebrating important events like matings, births, the achievements of our cubs.” He hauled himself over a near-smooth section of rock. “Why? You thinking of a gathering?”

Aden nodded when the other man glanced over, Remi’s shaggy brown hair damp with sweat and pushed off his face. “If a pack whose members often swim alone can do it, why not the squad?” Ivy Jane had already begun the process by inviting Arrows to her home for dinners. She’d even held an informal party of sorts—though with a guest list made up mostly of Arrows that party was never going to be raucous. However, it would take a coordinated effort to get the majority of his people home for an event.

“Hell, Aden,” Remi said, “from what you’ve told me, your people deserve a seriously epic