Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,62

because he had experience with little girls, thanks to his adopted daughter Noor.

His mate, Talin, had a different take on it. “He’s always had a marshmallow heart,” the tawny-haired woman had teased one day while he was cuddling Noor in one arm and holding Naya in the other. “He used to attend tea parties with me when we were kids. He even drank the pretend tea and told me it was delicious.”

Clay had glowered at the woman he called Tally. “Wait till I have my hands free.”

His glower should’ve been terrifying—Clay was a seriously dangerous leopard. But Noor had growled and pretended to maul Clay, setting off Naya, who’d burst into hysterical baby laughter that had in turn set off both Sascha and Talin. Clay’s grin had creased his cheeks, the once angrily silent sentinel now a man deeply at peace and delighted with his life.

Smiling at the memory, Sascha responded to Naya’s telepathic touch with a psychic kiss. Here I am, sweetheart.

“I’ve been thinking that Naya should meet Nikita,” Lucas said at almost the same time.

Sascha’s mouth fell open. “You don’t even like her.”

Nikita had been part of a machine that had crushed countless changelings under its boot, had in fact been a member of the organization that had consciously hidden the worst serial killers on the planet. That action had led to the deaths of hundreds, including that of Dorian’s younger sister, a loss that had devastated the sentinel and enraged Lucas.

SnowDancer had almost lost Brenna to the same murderous psychopath.

“I might not like her,” Lucas said, “but she kept you alive in difficult circumstances and she’s Naya’s grandmother.” He ran his thumb over her cheekbone, tactile as always.

Sascha never had to wonder about Lucas’s love for her, either on the emotional or on the physical plane. Neither did she have to worry about being touch hungry ever again, as she’d been for so many years of her life. “Still,” she said, trying to make sense of his suggestion and failing, “to trust her with access to Naya?”

Her mate’s expression grew dark. “I’d rather Naya know her from childhood than that she grow up curious about her—curious cubs have a way of getting into trouble.”

Sascha couldn’t argue with that. She’d seen exactly how much trouble DarkRiver teens could get into; a teenager curious about her powerful, lethal grandmother had the potential to get into more dangerous trouble than most. “I don’t think Nikita would ever hurt her,” she said, placing her hand on the taut muscle of Lucas’s arm.

“I agree,” he said. “Otherwise, feline curiosity or not, I wouldn’t let her within a hundred feet of our child.” Sliding one of his hands up to curve it around her neck, he locked his gaze with her own. “If we do it, it has to be soon. Nikita’s still weak from the assassination attempt, her defenses down. Naya might actually get to meet the woman beneath the mask.”

Unlike the panther who was her mate, Sascha’s empathic heart wasn’t used to thinking with such pitiless pragmatism, but she knew Lucas was right. They had to bring Naya and Nikita into contact while there was a chance Nikita would bond with their baby—because once Sascha’s mother bonded with a child, she’d fight to the death to protect that vulnerable life.

Sascha had understood that only after she was out of the PsyNet.

“I’ll work out a time with Sophie,” she said. “We’ll make sure Nikita doesn’t know, so she can’t prepare.” Nikita’s most senior and trusted aide, Sophia Russo, was very much her own woman and she would defy Nikita if she thought it good for her boss.

“Sophia still worried about how hard Nikita is driving herself?”

Nodding, Sascha said, “At least Anthony’s keeping an eye on her. If anyone can make my mother rest, I’d say it’s him.” Quite aside from whatever it was that was going on with Nikita and the head of PsyClan NightStar, Sascha knew Nikita respected Anthony.

“Faith’s father is a brave, brave man.”

Lucas’s solemn pronouncement made her lips twitch and her mind stop tugging at the thread of worry that was concern for the mother who’d abandoned her . . . and saved her. “If their shields weren’t so airtight,” she admitted in a guilty whisper, “I’d probably slip up in the ethics department and take a peek at their emotions.”

Panther-green eyes glinted in approval. “You and everyone else who knows about those two, I bet.” A nipping, nibbling kiss that was pure teasing cat. “I’ll reach out to