"Jesus H. Christ." Dorian got up off the floor, rubbing at his jaw. "I am not letting you pass out here."
"Get lost." Clay had every intention of drinking himself into an unconscious stupor.
Dorian swore, then went quiet. "Well, thank bloody God. Maybe you can talk some sense into him."
Clay said nothing as Nathan settled into the other side of the booth. DarkRiver's most senior sentinel folded his arms and leaned back against the crimson leather-synth of the bench seat. "Give us a minute, Dorian. Get Rina to ice that bruise."
"Call me if you need a hand to drag him out of here."
Clay waited for Nate to light into him, but the other man simply watched him with those dark blue eyes that were always so damn calm.
"What?" he said, his tone flat. Other leopards might have growled or snapped, but Clay knew if he allowed his rage to surface tonight, it would end in blood.
"The one and only time I've ever seen you drunk," Nate replied, "was when I hauled your sorry ass out of that bar in New York."
Clay grunted, well aware that Nate had saved his life that night. Fresh out of juvie and having just been told that Talin was dead, he had been well on the road to self-annihilation. It was in that pain-fueled anger that he'd picked a fight with Nate. Over ten years older and a trained fighter, Nate had wiped the floor with him.
But instead of leaving him to the scavengers, the sentinel had dragged Clay back to his hotel room. Nathan's mate, Tamsyn, had taken one look at him and said, "Good Lord, I didn't think there were any big cats in New York!" That was the first time in his life that Clay had been in the company of fellow leopards.
"That time," Nate commented, "it was a girl. You'd lost your Talin."
"I should've never told you about her."
"You were young." Nate shrugged. "Rina said you were in here with a woman earlier."
"Rina has a big mouth."
Nate grinned. "Pack law. Being nosy about fellow packmates is required. So, you gonna tell me?"
"No."
"Fair enough." The other man rose to his feet. "When you've finished destroying yourself, you might recall Lucas and Sascha have a meeting with Nikita Duncan tomorrow. You're supposed to be watching our alpha pair's backs."
"Fuck!" Clay put down the bottle, the black haze of his anger clearing in a harsh burst of reality. Nikita Duncan was Sascha's mother, and a member of the powerful Psy Council. She was also a murderous bitch. "I'll be there."
"No." Nate's eyes grew cold. "You're compromised. I'll cover."
That got through to Clay as nothing else could have. His loyalty to DarkRiver was what kept him on the right side of the line. Take that away and he'd be a stone-cold killer. Especially now that Talin had cut his heart right out of him. "Point taken."
"You're still off tomorrow." Nate held out a hand. "Come on."
After a dangerous pause in which the leopard rose to crouching readiness, hungry for violence, Clay accepted the offer and let one of the few men he called friend haul him upright. The floor spun. "Shit. I'm drunk." He slung an arm around Nate's shoulders.
"You think, Sherlock?" Dorian appeared to prop up his other side. "Man, it must've cut you up that your girl only likes other girls."
"What?" Nate stumbled, threatening to take them all down.
Clay bared his teeth. "She likes men" - another surge of fury - "just not pretty boys like you."
Dorian began to scowl. "Smart-ass. Wait till the next time I see her."
Clay was about to reply when the hard alcohol caught up with him, his changeling body deciding it would be better if he slept off the drunk.
Max arrived with a crime scene team half an hour after Talin's call. By then, she'd taken the chance to wash away her tears, thinking clearly enough to buy bottles of cold water from the vending machine on the ground floor instead of going in and using her own sink.
"Did you touch anything?" Max asked after looking over the scene, his uptilted eyes and olive skin giving his face an exotic cast.
Clay's skin was darker than Max's, she found herself thinking even as she shook her head. "Nothing but the door and the bit of carpet around it."