Allegiance of Honor (45 page)

LUCAS WAS PLAYING
outside with his cub the afternoon of the joint celebration when Sascha called down to say he had an urgent call from Bastien. Shifting back into human form, he caught the phone she dropped down—along with his jeans—then kept an eye on Naya while Sascha climbed the rope ladder to the ground.

“Come on, Naya,” she said with a loving smile, her voice drenched with the happiness she found in being with their child. “You get to teach your mama how to stalk like a cat.”

Excited, Naya began to pace deliberately, showing Sascha what Lucas had been showing her. She was gorgeous and so was his mate, but Lucas knew Bas wouldn’t have interrupted him during his rare time off unless it was important, so he moved a short distance away to take the call. “Bas, what is it?”

“I’ve found the end of the money trail,” the other man said. “To the captain who was going to take Naya to Australia. You know that. Shit. I’m punch-drunk from the success and slightly sleep-deprived.”

Lucas’s panther had gone hunting-still inside him at Bastien’s first words. “Who?” he asked quietly.

“Psy named Pax Marshall.”

The fingers of Lucas’s free hand curled into his palm. “You’re dead certain?”

“Without a shadow of a doubt. Money came from what looks like a personal slush fund used for various off-the-books activities.”

Lucas consciously stopped himself from growling, held his claws in. He had to think with crystal clarity right now, couldn’t be blinded by the primal instincts of his panther. “Could anyone else have accessed that account?”

“Sure, but they’d need to know every single one of Pax’s passwords. I couldn’t get into the account itself, that’s how secure it is, but the trail definitely dead-ends there.”

“Send your report through to me.” He knew Bastien would’ve been adding to that report as he went, setting out the complicated financial maze in a way Lucas could easily process.

“Give me one second. And . . . done.”

“Thanks, Bas. Now get some rest before the party or your mate will have my head.”

Chuckling, Mercy’s brother signed off. Lucas stood in silence for a minute, thinking through Bastien’s information. Then he thought of everything he knew about Pax Marshall and made another call, asking Aden a single question when the leader of the Arrows answered. “Has Pax Marshall ever been categorically fingered for even one of his rumored illicit activities? Any proof at all?”

“No,” Aden answered without asking why Lucas wanted to know. “That’s part of why he’s considered so brilliant. Everyone knows he’s crossed lines, but no one can prove it. Not even the squad.”

“Thank you, Aden.” Hanging up, he put away his phone and went to join his mate and child. It was only after Naya curled up for a nap in the sun that he told Sascha what Bastien had discovered
and
what Aden had said.

His mate’s gaze was intent. “You think it’s too easy?”

“But that’s just it—it
wasn’t
easy. It was brutally hard from Bastien’s perspective, and he’s a genius at this stuff.” Lucas leaned back against the aerie tree, Sascha in front of him and Naya napping a few feet away. “When I say Bastien’s a genius, I mean it. Other companies, including major Psy ones, have tried to poach him from us over and over.”

Sascha chewed on her lower lip as her eyebrows drew together in
thought. “If it took Bas days to track this transaction, then it was well hidden. So well hidden that most people would’ve never found it.”

Another long pause. “On the flip side, if DarkRiver was
meant
to find it, then knowing Bas was on our side would’ve been a guarantee of eventual exposure.” She blew out a breath. “And why would Pax pay the ship’s captain directly when he’s rerouted all other payments through patsies?”

“Exactly—but on the other hand, if he wanted control of Naya, he might not have wanted to involve anyone beyond a not-particularly-intelligent captain who could be disappeared with no one the wiser.”

“Proof on both sides of the line.”

“Yes.” Lucas’s panther didn’t like that. It liked black and white, enemies and friends. It also wanted the threat to its cub eliminated once and for all.

He saw the same frustration on Sascha’s face.

“If DarkRiver moves against Pax and it’s not him,” she said, “we’ll have done someone’s dirty work for them, removed a power who might be standing in their way.”

“But if we don’t move and he
was
behind the kidnapping attempt,” Lucas said on a growl, “then he remains a deadly threat.”

Thrusting her hands through her hair, Sascha spun away to stomp to a tree on the other side of the clearing below their aerie and back. “I wish I wasn’t an E sometimes, that I didn’t have a conscience! I’d go to Pax and torture him until he broke.”

Lucas let Sascha blow off steam. His mate would never do any such thing, but he understood the raw edge to her emotions. He wanted to tear Pax Marshall apart right now, but the human side of his mind was still thinking. “Pax has also embraced Trinity,” he said. “Eliminate him and suddenly, there’s a power vacuum, a powerful family left anchorless. Major disruption in the Net and Psy turning away from changelings because of our violent tendencies.” That’s exactly how a DarkRiver attack would be spun.

Eyes starless, Sascha walked into the arms he’d opened and hugged him with passionate strength. He held her close, giving her the skin privileges she needed to find her center again, even as she stabilized him in turn.

He knew the answer long before he could trust himself to vocalize it. “We can’t move.” It was a bitter conclusion, but Lucas wasn’t about to be played, not by Marshall or anyone else. “We watch him through every method available to us, including the deal he’s doing with SnowDancer. The Arrows will help us, if only to protect Trinity, so we’ll have eyes in the PsyNet.”

“We can’t tell Nikita.” Sascha took a deep breath, exhaled, her eyes midnight-still when she looked up. “She’ll kill him or insert a virus into his mind.”

“Your mother is cold, calculated, rational,” Lucas pointed out. “Killing Pax Marshall right now would be a mistake.”

“Lucas, my mother is all those things, but she only has one response when Naya or I come under threat.”

Lucas thought about it, nodded. “We don’t tell Nikita.”

Walking over to Naya’s sleeping body, Sascha took a cross-legged seat on the forest floor and carefully transferred Naya into her lap. Their cub purred at her mother’s touch but remained fast asleep, adorable little snores occasionally breaking up the sound of her steady breathing.

Watching the two of them was a forcible reminder to Lucas not to let the evil and darkness in the world taint the happiness he’d been given. He went to join them, sliding in to sit behind Sascha with his legs out on either side of her and his chin on her shoulder. If he kept turning to caress her neck with licks and kisses until she melted into him, well, he
was
a cat.

“I’ve got it,” Sascha said suddenly, while he was kissing his way along her jaw. “The silver lining.”

He bit her earlobe gently, tugged.

Shivering, she ran her hand along one of his thighs, her other hand on Naya’s back.

“Trust an empath to find a silver lining.” The joke was an old one between them. “Hit me with it.”

“If this was a setup”—she angled her head to kiss his jaw—“then the work is done and the people behind the attempt have no more reason to
come after Naya. And if it wasn’t a setup and Pax Marshall tries again, we’ll have eyes on him the entire time.”

Lucas’s growl was one of satisfaction. “Here’s another silver lining—we have a lot of friends now, people we can trust to watch him for us, people who’ll work with us to protect our children as we’ll protect theirs.” No more would they be isolated targets.

“That’s a good silver lining,” Sascha murmured just as Naya lifted her head on a feline yawn that had Lucas tugging playfully at his cub’s ears.

Grumbling sleepily, she butted his hand until he scratched her behind those ears.

Her purr was that of a cat five times bigger.

Lucas’s panther purred deep in his chest in response. “That’s my girl.”

Smile carved into her cheeks and Naya’s tail wrapped around her wrist, Sascha lifted her free hand to his jaw. “Enough of Pax Marshall or the shadow behind a power play. They’ll still be there tomorrow.” It was an order. “Tonight is a time for pack and for family, whether of blood or of the heart.”

TEIJAN AND HIS
people weren’t used to walking so blatantly into a predator’s territory. Yes, the Rats had a business agreement with DarkRiver, and DarkRiver had stepped in more than once to save the lives of those who lived Below, while Teijan and his people had stayed and fought rather than run when war rained bullets on the city.

However, when it came down to it, Teijan’s Rats simply did not and could not play at the power levels held by the leopards and wolves.

He was proud of his people and all they’d achieved, but he also understood that their lives would always be at the margins of normal society. Only in their world in the disused tunnels below San Francisco did they feel free to laugh, to live. But this, tonight . . .

“You sure about this?” Zane asked as they got off their jetcycles after parking the vehicles at the mandated spot in DarkRiver territory.

“No,” Teijan said to his friend and second in command. “That’s why everyone else is forty-five minutes behind us.” If this invitation to a joint DarkRiver-SnowDancer event was a true gesture of alliance, friendship, and respect, then Teijan couldn’t afford to reject it. If it was something else . . . then as alpha, he’d take the first blow.

His people knew not to come in any closer until and unless they heard from him.

“Well, at least Clay delivered the invite.” Zane fixed the cuff of his tailored white shirt, which he wore over black pants and under a black jacket. “He’s always been straight with us.”

“Yes.” That relationship was why Teijan was here.

“Teijan.” As if summoned by the mention of his name, Clay walked out of the trees.

Unlike Teijan and Zane, the leopard sentinel wasn’t wearing a suit, but his clothing was just as crisply formal—a collarless dark green shirt worn over black pants and glossy black boots. The only thing that didn’t fit was the pink beaded bracelet around his wrist with his name spelled out in square white blocks.

But of course it did fit. Zane was currently rocking a temporary princess tattoo on the back of his left hand, complete with a glittering crown. Daughters had a way of getting their fathers to stand still for things they’d allow no one else.

“Just you two?” Clay asked after a quick scan.

Shaking the leopard’s hand, Teijan said, “The others are following.”

Clay’s slight smile held no insult. “I’m your guide. Come on.”

Fighting primal instincts that told him to get the fuck out of danger, Teijan followed. A number of his people had advised him against this, fought bitterly against his decision, but Teijan had been resolute. “If we hide and stagnate, we
will
eventually die,” he’d said. “The last time we took a risk, we earned the official right to claim these tunnels, and we ended up in a business partnership that’s brought the pack countless opportunities and given our youths the funds to study Above in specialties we could’ve never before afforded.”

His words hadn’t swayed the doubters, but they were in the vehicles following—because disagreement or not, Teijan’s Rats were loyal. That most of them were technically human, the flotsam and jetsam of society, made no difference. Together with the three adult rat changelings and one child, those discarded and abandoned bits of humanity had become a powerful intelligence network that made Teijan proud each and every day—and that had given all his people back their own pride.

“Where’s everyone else?” he asked Clay, because while he could hear faint sounds in the distance, there’d been no other vehicles where he and Zane had parked. No wonder Zane’s eyes were darting around
waiting for an ambush at any instant. Teijan’s own vigilance was at fever pitch.

“That’s the designated parking area for your pack,” Clay said without missing a beat. “We had to spread around the projected number of incoming vehicles to protect the forest.”

It all made sense, but Teijan couldn’t silence the wary voice of caution . . . until a leopard cub pounced on him from a tree. Teijan caught the small body instinctively, for a child was a child. Even when that child growled at him, green-gold eyes glinting in challenge.

Catching Clay’s amused look, Teijan bared his own teeth, let them elongate. And suddenly, the child was shifting in a shower of light.

Teijan heard Zane catch his breath, felt his own heart kick.

A small boy 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.”