Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,173

help the people who kept you safe until I could find you again.” Until he could hold her close again, his heart beating in time with her own.

“Will you ever ask me?” Nina chided an hour later. “Really, Xavier, you’re taking the concept of becoming your own man first too far.”

His smile was startled joy on his face, memories cascading through him of a young Nina rolling her dark eyes when he proudly told her he’d ask for her hand only when he could build her a home worthy of her spirit. “I think we’ve both waited long enough.”

Reaching for his necklace, he tore it off to drop a ring formed of gold, and set with sapphires and diamonds, onto his palm. He’d bought it years earlier, after he came to San Francisco and found a steady position. Being a Second Reformation priest didn’t pay much, but Xavier hadn’t needed to spend much, either. He’d saved it all for Nina’s ring. The stones were small but the delicate beauty of them perfectly fit her bone structure.

He reached from behind to lift her hand. “Will you marry me, Nina?”

“Today, if you arrange it,” was her answer, her smile as radiant as the moon.

• • •

TWO days later, when Xavier called Judd to ask for assistance in getting specialist help for the woman who would soon be his wife, he got far more than he’d bargained for. Judd not only put him directly on the phone with the SnowDancer healer—who was then able to get Nina into treatment at the best facility in the world—the other man spoke to his alpha, and Xavier was suddenly in touch with the AzureSun Leopards.

The leopards’ connection to SnowDancer came through the SnowDancer-DarkRiver pact, with the AzureSun alpha, Isabella, the grandmother of a DarkRiver sentinel. And, he was proudly told by said alpha, the namesake of one of three newborn members of DarkRiver.

“My great-grandchildren,” the alpha had said, while appearing not the least like a great-grandmother.

Isabella Garcia was a powerful alpha who held the loyalty of her people, despite being in her eighth decade. Even Xavier hadn’t realized changelings didn’t always go for physical strength in an alpha. Wisdom was also treasured, with the sentinels acting as the alpha’s physical arm.

While AzureSun’s power base was in another part of South America, they had contacts in Xavier’s region on whom he could call should he have the need. They also gave him permission to access certain resources that would help ease his and Nina’s journey as they fought to undo the damage that had been done to the people of these mountains.

“My granddaughter’s alpha, young cub though he is,” Isabella had said, “has taught me the value of relationships beyond the pack, of treating neighbors like family.”

It had taken Xavier a minute to realize the “young cub” was Lucas Hunter. One of the most visible and powerful men in the world, thanks not only to his pack’s strength, but also because of who and what he represented in the Trinity Accord.

And Xavier was connected into that network.

All because of a friendship formed with a soldier he’d first seen in a nameless bar.

Then Kaleb called him, having been alerted by Judd, and Xavier had access to a teleport anytime he needed one to take Nina to the physicians. That wasn’t the only thing.

“I have wealth no one could spend in a single lifetime or even ten lifetimes,” the cardinal said. “I’ve created a charitable foundation with a significant endowment that you can use at will for your humanitarian work.”

“Thank you, my friend.” Xavier accepted the generosity without argument because he understood how big a step this was for Kaleb—this friend of Xavier’s didn’t trust easily, much less allow people into his life.

For him to offer such a gift was a precious thing. “Is your Sahara well?”

“Yes.” Kaleb’s tone didn’t soften as another man’s might have when he spoke of his lover, but Xavier understood this friend of his, knew Sahara Kyriakus was his heart.

“And your Nina?” Kaleb asked.

Xavier smiled. “Yes.”

• • •

LATER, as he walked under a carpet of stars with Nina, their hands linked and her warm, earthy scent so sweetly familiar, he said, “I wrote you letters.”

Soft laughter. “Finally.” Her teasing made him feel young, wild, free. “I’ll read them all once I can see.”

He couldn’t help but clasp her hand tighter. “I’d like to read you some now.” Before they wed, before it was too late for Nina to back away. “I want you to