Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,180
with dark blue eyes and tumbled black hair was staring wide-eyed at him heartbeats later. Lifting a finger, he touched one of Teijan’s incisors. “I can’t do that!” It was a disgruntled statement.
Teijan returned his teeth to their human state. “What can you do?”
The boy showed him claws and growled again. “See?”
“My claws aren’t that big,” Teijan said.
A satisfied grin before the child shifted back to leopard form and lunged at Clay. Grabbing the cub, Clay rubbed the boy’s head. “Where’s your twin troublemaker?”
The cub pressed his face affectionately against Clay’s in answer before jumping to the forest floor. Padding in front of them—with glances back to ensure they were following—he led them to a space humming with people and redolent with food. Musicians were still setting up in one corner, but children ran this way and that and people had begun to gather and talk in small groups.
“You okay to guide in the rest of your people?” Clay asked. “I have to help finish putting up the lights—last-minute fix when the old set gave out.”
“Yes.” Teijan waited until Clay had walked away to glance at Zane.
His second in command’s face was as close to tears as Teijan had ever seen it. “It’s real,” Zane said, voice husky. “Cats would’ve never permitted their children anywhere near an ambush.”
Teijan knew why Zane was so overcome. Because he had a child. A daughter who might one day choose to—and be welcome to—live Above. A daughter who might even come to call the cub who’d met them not just a far more powerful ally, but also a friend.
Bringing out his phone, he made a call to his third in command. “Come,” he said, his own chest tight. “It’s safe. We are welcome.”
Chapter 54
IT WASN’T UNTIL all their guests had arrived and Lucas and Hawke were standing in the center of the empathic training area about to officially open celebrations that Lucas realized he and Hawke hadn’t discussed one crucial aspect of the event: which one of them would open it?
That might seem a specious detail to those who didn’t understand changeling culture, but it wasn’t. It had to do with dominance and with respect. If Lucas opened the celebration, it would be taken as an insult to their alpha by the wolves. If Hawke did it, the leopards would be pissed.
Wrecking the entire idea behind this event.
“Shit,” Lucas muttered under his breath at the same time that Hawke said, “Fuck.”
They glanced at one another. “Shall we try to time it so we both speak at the same instant?” Lucas asked in a subvocal murmur.
“You think we can pull it off?” Hawke scowled.
To anyone looking at the two of them, it would appear they were arguing. That was acceptable. Everyone knew he and Hawke weren’t friends, even if their mates thought otherwise. “I don’t know, but if we don’t do something soon, we’ll mess this up before it begins.”
Hawke rubbed his clean-shaven jaw and went to say something when a voice rose up from the crowd that had gone silent around them. “I say you flip for it.”
They turned as one to see that the speaker was Max Shannon.
Grinning, the ex-cop walked up to them and flipped a coin high in the air before catching it on the back of his hand, his other hand coming down over the top to obscure which side it had landed on. “Anyone disagree?”
Groans filtered out from the crowd, mingled with laughter.
The tension broke.
Max was a neutral party, his idea genius. No one could argue against chance.
Humans, Lucas suddenly thought, had been making peace among changelings for generations.
He looked at Hawke, caught the glint in the wolf’s eye before Hawke said, “Heads.”
“Tails then.” Folding his arms, Lucas waited as Max stepped back and, with great ceremony, lifted his hand from atop the coin.
Lucas’s snarl announced the results even before Max said, “Heads!”
There was cheering and booing in the audience but it was good-natured.
Clapping him on the back, Hawke said, “Next time, cat.”
That quickly, Lucas realized they’d settled the issue for all future events that involved both packs. They’d switch off now that the pattern had been set. No issues of dominance or insult, just two powerful predators being careful to respect each other’s space. “You better believe it.” He moved to stand next to Hawke as the wolf officially opened festivities.
But Hawke had more to say, his words ones Lucas would’ve spoken, too, had he won the toss. They’d talked about this, come to an agreement. “You’re here