Teijan sucked back a beer and glanced at Zane, the sand warm against his bare feet. "Aneca's growing up fast."
The other man leaned against the rocks and shook his head. "I blink and she's bigger. I'm almost scared to look away."
"Never thought you'd make a doting daddy." His fellow Rat had been as feral as they came, an animal barely contained in human skin. Until he'd found his mate. "Thank God for Rissa."
Zane clinked his bottle to Teijan's. "She makes me want to be the man she sees in me."
"You're succeeding." Zane had gone from being a problem to Teijan's right hand.
"So, this alliance with the cats..."
"Yeah."
Zane's eyes gleamed in the night. "Not what we expected."
"No." The truth was, no Rat had expected anything much from the alliance with DarkRiver. Teijan had made the promise in good faith, knowing that if he didn't, DarkRiver would eliminate the Rats from the city. A harsh law, but one that maintained peace among predatory changelings. "They kept their word on the tunnels."
"Yes." A pause. "First time we've ever had a place that's truly ours."
Teijan understood. Despite the fact that they'd been in San Francisco longer than the cats, they'd never had the power to hold the entire city. As such, their residence had been precarious, all of them conscious that a bigger predator could come in and run them out without warning. "A permanent home--has a nice ring to it."
His Rats, of whom only four were actually changeling, had only ever known chaos and disdain. The human Rats had come Down Below because the world Above treated them like trash. He'd held them together, turned them into a unit, kept them alive. But he'd never expected that the alliance he'd made to keep them safe would change so many things. "Did you see that fax yesterday?"
"Since when do we have a fax machine Down Below?"
"Smart-ass."
A snort. "I saw it. They serious?"
"Money's in the account."
"Huh."
They both stared at the stars for a while.
"Well," Zane finally said, "if they're serious, it's going to be enough to send some of the kids Above for training we wouldn't normally be able to afford."
"More than enough." Teijan had already worked it out. "We'll have enough left over this time around to expand the living quarters Down Below."
"This time around?" Zane all but choked. "What?"
"You didn't read the whole fax, did you?"
"Aneca wanted to play tag."
Grinning at the image of tough, wild Zane patiently letting his baby girl catch him, Teijan filled him in. "Fax said they're passing on a percentage of profits from deals that come about because of our intel. As long as those deals keep generating income, we keep getting a percentage. And if there are new deals..."
Zane blew out a breath. "DarkRiver brings in serious money."
"And we helped make some of it." Teijan's pride in his people flowed through his veins. "We're their eyes and ears on the ground. We hear of opportunities before anyone else. It's only right they share the profits."
"But I bet you never thought they would."
Teijan shook his head. "Honestly? I never gave the idea any thought. I figured if they left us alone, then it was a good deal." His people had been hurt and brutalized more than enough.
"Guess the cats surprised us all." Zane leaned back on the rock, looking up at the stars. "They all walk taller now, even those most afraid of going Above."
"We see ourselves as part of something bigger." He'd saved so many, but to do so, he'd had to hide them, turn the Rats into a closed society. Now it was opening up, and the air was sweet, beautiful, full of hope. "There's danger in that."
"If they go to war, so do we." Zane's tone was solemn. "I want to fight for my baby's right to live, my mate's right to survive."
"That was always true," Teijan said. "But now the others, the ones without mates or children, even they're ready."
"It's not just about protecting our home," Zane said quietly. "It's about protecting the place we're making for ourselves."
Teijan nodded. His Rats were more than the dregs of society now. They were turning into one of the most well-informed and well-organized spy networks in the country. Any alpha would be proud to call them his own.
"Who woulda thought a pack of cats would keep their word to a bunch of Rats?" Zane mused.
Teijan smiled. "I guess we won't be needing those cat-traps after all."
Nalini Singh, A Conversation
(Series: Psy-Changeling # 4.50)
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