Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,178
line.”
“Yes.” Lucas’s panther didn’t like that. It liked black and white, enemies and friends. It also wanted the threat to its cub eliminated once and for all.
He saw the same frustration on Sascha’s face.
“If DarkRiver moves against Pax and it’s not him,” she said, “we’ll have done someone’s dirty work for them, removed a power who might be standing in their way.”
“But if we don’t move and he was behind the kidnapping attempt,” Lucas said on a growl, “then he remains a deadly threat.”
Thrusting her hands through her hair, Sascha spun away to stomp to a tree on the other side of the clearing below their aerie and back. “I wish I wasn’t an E sometimes, that I didn’t have a conscience! I’d go to Pax and torture him until he broke.”
Lucas let Sascha blow off steam. His mate would never do any such thing, but he understood the raw edge to her emotions. He wanted to tear Pax Marshall apart right now, but the human side of his mind was still thinking. “Pax has also embraced Trinity,” he said. “Eliminate him and suddenly, there’s a power vacuum, a powerful family left anchorless. Major disruption in the Net and Psy turning away from changelings because of our violent tendencies.” That’s exactly how a DarkRiver attack would be spun.
Eyes starless, Sascha walked into the arms he’d opened and hugged him with passionate strength. He held her close, giving her the skin privileges she needed to find her center again, even as she stabilized him in turn.
He knew the answer long before he could trust himself to vocalize it. “We can’t move.” It was a bitter conclusion, but Lucas wasn’t about to be played, not by Marshall or anyone else. “We watch him through every method available to us, including the deal he’s doing with SnowDancer. The Arrows will help us, if only to protect Trinity, so we’ll have eyes in the PsyNet.”
“We can’t tell Nikita.” Sascha took a deep breath, exhaled, her eyes midnight-still when she looked up. “She’ll kill him or insert a virus into his mind.”
“Your mother is cold, calculated, rational,” Lucas pointed out. “Killing Pax Marshall right now would be a mistake.”
“Lucas, my mother is all those things, but she only has one response when Naya or I come under threat.”
Lucas thought about it, nodded. “We don’t tell Nikita.”
Walking over to Naya’s sleeping body, Sascha took a cross-legged seat on the forest floor and carefully transferred Naya into her lap. Their cub purred at her mother’s touch but remained fast asleep, adorable little snores occasionally breaking up the sound of her steady breathing.
Watching the two of them was a forcible reminder to Lucas not to let the evil and darkness in the world taint the happiness he’d been given. He went to join them, sliding in to sit behind Sascha with his legs out on either side of her and his chin on her shoulder. If he kept turning to caress her neck with licks and kisses until she melted into him, well, he was a cat.
“I’ve got it,” Sascha said suddenly, while he was kissing his way along her jaw. “The silver lining.”
He bit her earlobe gently, tugged.
Shivering, she ran her hand along one of his thighs, her other hand on Naya’s back.
“Trust an empath to find a silver lining.” The joke was an old one between them. “Hit me with it.”
“If this was a setup”—she angled her head to kiss his jaw—“then the work is done and the people behind the attempt have no more reason to come after Naya. And if it wasn’t a setup and Pax Marshall tries again, we’ll have eyes on him the entire time.”
Lucas’s growl was one of satisfaction. “Here’s another silver lining—we have a lot of friends now, people we can trust to watch him for us, people who’ll work with us to protect our children as we’ll protect theirs.” No more would they be isolated targets.
“That’s a good silver lining,” Sascha murmured just as Naya lifted her head on a feline yawn that had Lucas tugging playfully at his cub’s ears.
Grumbling sleepily, she butted his hand until he scratched her behind those ears.
Her purr was that of a cat five times bigger.
Lucas’s panther purred deep in his chest in response. “That’s my girl.”
Smile carved into her cheeks and Naya’s tail wrapped around her wrist, Sascha lifted her free hand to his jaw. “Enough of Pax Marshall or the shadow behind a power play. They’ll still be there tomorrow.” It