"DarkRiver's in construction and I'm the boss as far as building goes." He grinned. "They'll haul ass. Dorian's already drawing up some plans."
"Is he really an architect?"
He tapped her lightly on the bottom. "Yes, and don't sass him. He's threatening to throw you into the nearest body of ice-cold water."
She stood on tiptoe, arms around his neck. "Nah. You wouldn't let him."
His smile turned violent in its tenderness. "No. You're mine to protect."
"Tell me," she whispered, her own smile dying. "Tell me what it is you're going to do."
"Why do you think I'm going to do anything?"
"Because," she swallowed, "you had that same look in your eyes the day you killed Orrin."
Green filled her vision as those magnificent eyes grew flame-hot. "And does it terrify you now, too?"
"Yes," she admitted. "It terrifies me to know I could lose you again because you care too much for me." A tear streaked down her face. "I'm not worth your life."
Clay hated seeing Tally cry, hated it. It wasn't the usual male thing with female emotion. It was this deep, eviscerating pain. Reaching up, he wiped away the tears with rough strokes of his thumb. "You are worth everything!" He was angry at her for thinking so little of herself. "Baby, you need to let me do this."
"What?"
"Keep you safe."
"I am safe. With you."
He shook his head. "The Psy need to understand that you're protected. Anybody who comes after you takes their life into their hands."
"There's more than one," she pleaded with him. "If you go after them, they'll - "
"I'm not alone either." He nuzzled at her, wanting to reassure her, to soothe her, but unable to accept her plea to let it be. He couldn't claw out the disease inside her but he could get rid of this threat. "You're part of a pack now. Accept what they need to give you." What he needed to give her.
"I adore you," she whispered. "If you die, I'm not going to make it." The words were stark, her heart laid open on her sleeve.
"Then don't ask me to sit on my hands while you stand in harm's way," he demanded. "I need to protect you."
"I'm already si - "
He kissed her before she could say anything. She wasn't sick, wasn't dying. He refused to let her go. "We'll talk about that later," he told her. "Tonight, just...tell me you'll be here when I return." Ready to touch him no matter that he came to her with violence painted across his body.
Her face set in stubborn lines and he felt his predator's heart stop. "You get one scratch," she said, "one single scratch, on your body and you'll be sleeping in the living room for the next month." Her lips trembled. "Do I make myself clear?"
He smiled at the threat neither of them believed she'd carry through. "Yes, ma'am."
Talin walked back into Tamsyn's by now familiar home late that night. "I'm going to head to the lair with Clay when he returns," she told the healer, already worrying for him.
"I know." Tamsyn smiled. "Want a glass of wine?"
"It's late." She unclenched her fingers, told herself he'd be fine. He would come back to her, he'd promised. He wouldn't leave her alone again.
"I don't think you'll be sleeping. Neither will Sascha."
"Sascha's here, too?" Having come straight into the kitchen after Clay dropped her off, she hadn't seen the other woman. She swallowed her fear, not wanting the cardinal to sense the depth of her scars. She knew Clay wouldn't leave her by choice. He never had. But in some hidden part of her, she was still a shocked and bloodied eight-year-old, and that child knew that, sometimes, you weren't given a choice. "Where is she?"
"Upstairs. Julian woke up and demanded she come cuddle him - I swear the twins can scent her a mile away." She shook her head. "They have the most enormous crushes on her. I think they'd fight Lucas for her if he wasn't so much bigger."
Talin forced her mind to the present. "I can guess why." The two women might not see it but they were very similar, both of them with the warm hearts of healers. And yet there was a strength in them that promised protection. "Jon and Noor?"