of love and trust that had him teleporting his mate away from Faith without warning ten minutes later.
“Kaleb!” His name had barely cleared her lips when he teleported them into the forest.
“Are you kidnapping me?” Sahara scowled at him but stayed flush against his body.
“We never finished our dance.”
Sahara’s response was soft, her eyes holding a thousand dreams. “We never will. This dance we’re in, it’s forever.”
Good.
Chapter 56
SPOTTING KIT ON the far edge of the celebration, Lucas pressed a kiss to the temple of the sleeping pupcub in his arms before passing the child’s small, warm weight to his doting grandfather. He then made his way directly to the young soldier. There was a look in Kit’s eyes that the panther in him well understood.
“When are you leaving?” he asked the man he’d watched grow from babe to youth to this soldier who had earned his deepest trust.
Kit blew out a breath. “I thought, tonight.” A half smile. “Hopefully no one will notice with all the excitement, and I’ll be long gone by then.”
Lucas knew why Kit wanted to go without telling anyone—leopards understood the need to roam, but Kit was a child of the pack and many would miss him desperately. Especially the cubs. “You’ve spoken to the children?” Julian and Roman, in particular, considered Kit a big brother.
“I told them I’m going on an adventure.” Kit shoved a hand through his hair, his eyes holding a deeply feline curiosity. “How did you know?”
Lucas just shook his head. He was alpha—a good alpha always knew the heartbeat of his pack, and he’d known for a while that Kit was restless and straining at his skin. He needed to stretch himself, explore the wider world, even more so than most leopards because Kit had the scent of a future alpha.
That wasn’t, however, what made a true alpha. Being alpha took an ability to love with a depth that included each and every person under the alpha’s care; it also required a temperament that fostered trust in the bonds of pack. Rough or sophisticated, growly or warm, each alpha was unique, but the best alphas had both those qualities.
So did Kit.
Any pack he founded would be strong, would endure. Lucas had seen the young male come into himself over the past year. Already, his peers looked to him for leadership; when it came time for him to strike out on his own, he’d have sentinels ready to back him and build a pack with him.
That time, however, was in the future. For now, Kit remained a child of DarkRiver heading out into the world, to roam as his leopard demanded. “Be wild,” Lucas said with a smile. “Explore everything you want to explore. Run hard, play hard, find your skin.” Tugging the boy close, Lucas hugged him tight.
Kit hugged him back as fiercely. “I need to roam,” he whispered, “but I’ll miss everyone.”
“Roaming doesn’t mean disappearing,” Lucas reminded him when they drew apart. “Stay in touch and meet up with packmates who are roaming in the same areas. You can discover who you are without turning loner. I have a feeling Cory and Nico are nearly ready to roam, too, so you might run into them sooner rather than later.”
Relief colored Kit’s features. Lucas understood. Their nature was dual—the solitary leopard and the social human. It was at this stage of life, a point that came at a different time for each one of them, that the leopard became more ascendant than the human. However, they remained changeling. Being totally solitary wasn’t a natural choice.
“Look after Rina,” Kit said, then laughed and closed his hand over the dog tags that hung from his neck. “She’d kill me if she heard me say that, but—”
“I get it.” Rina and Kit had become a tight unit after the deaths of both their parents. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t get into too much trouble.” Rina had done her roaming and though her edgy tendencies remained, that was part of her personality and nothing Lucas would try to crush. All he’d asked from her was discipline. “Go. Roam.”
Kit’s grin was wild, his eyes turning leopard. Shifting on his heel without further words, he faded into the trees, a young leopard heading out to explore the world.
“I’ll miss him,” said a familiar female voice from behind Lucas, slender arms sliding around his body as she pressed her cheek to his back.
He closed his hand over one of Sascha’s. “I know, kitten, but it’s how we grow.”