When Naya made mewling sounds, claws still out, Lucas released his own claws, then retracted them. One second, two, three, Naya's head tilted to the side . . . and her claws slid back in. "Good girl." Lucas kissed her face.
Happy, Naya turned to Sascha. Unable to resist, Sascha picked up their sweet baby and held her close. Her tiny heart beat so fast, her fur soft. Memories crashed into Sascha of the day she'd first held a cub in animal form. Julian had been bigger than Naya then, but just as gorgeous. Never could she have imagined that one day she'd be holding her own cub. Her eyes stung.
Naya only allowed Sascha's hold for a little while before wriggling to be put down. Circling Lucas and Sascha--falling and getting up and slipping--Naya growled and purred and had a rest every so often against her parents.
Sascha, one hand on Lucas's bare chest, couldn't stop watching her. "Remember that day I held Julian for the first time?"
"You mean the day you gave yourself away?"
Sascha smiled through her incipient tears. "I wish I could've kept that boot he chewed on."
"You kept me. I'm a better souvenir." Lucas raised one leg so it was bent at the knee, the towel immediately falling open on either side of his muscled thigh.
Her mind split in two. "Stop that," she ordered the gorgeous adult panther on the floor while a gorgeous baby panther tried to bite at his arm with tiny panther teeth. "I can't have you being all sexy while Naya's being all adorable."
Her heart might explode permanently.
He chuckled, moved over onto his front--and that towel, it just couldn't keep up. Before she could drag it back into place, the air filled with shattered light and a large black panther now sat beside her. Delighted, Naya tried to bite at Lucas's tail but she couldn't catch it because he'd swept it over. Moving in that adorable, stumbling way, she tried to chase it--and Lucas swiped it back.
Sascha laughed as Naya tried to catch it again.
The simple game kept her amused and excited until she crawled into Sascha's lap and fell fast asleep with the quickness of the toddler that she was. Stroking her hands through Naya's soft fur, Sascha caught light from the corner of her eye. "Now you're naked." She tried to glare at her mate without looking at his body. "Do you want me dead?"
Chuckling, Lucas moved so that he was leaning on his arm behind her, his lower body mostly out of her range of vision. "I can't wait to take her for runs, to teach her the forest, show her how to climb to the aerie."
Sascha's overworked heart thumped. "Oh God, she's going to be so much more mobile." While still a baby in every other way.
Lucas tapped her on the nose. "She's a cat. We'll also teach her the rules."
"Is she going to start jumping off the balcony?" It was strength in motion when Lucas did it. The idea of Naya's tiny body flying through that much air had Sascha close to hyperventilating.
Rubbing her back, Lucas made a reassuring purring sound in his chest. "Not tomorrow or the day after. She's going to need time to build her strength."
Sascha had the feeling he was easing her into Naya's inevitable jump, and she was okay with that. Any woman would need to be petted and reassured when her baby was about to start flying off a balcony. "She's so beautiful as a cat, too."
"Of course she is." Lucas nuzzled her. "She's your daughter."
"Ours."
"Ours." Fingers weaving into her unbound hair, Lucas kissed her with a smile on his lips while their daughter slept in her lap. Sometime during the kiss, Naya shifted spontaneously back into human form--and the dinner burned. Neither Lucas nor Sascha cared. Not with their child snoring sweetly in her dreams.
Chapter 9
THE ARCHITECT, THE one who'd put together the Consortium, the one who'd had the foresight to see the fall of Silence on the horizon and to understand the power vacuum it would leave in the world, considered the latest data on the Trinity Accord.
If successful, Trinity and the ensuing United Earth Federation would kill the Consortium, though right now, the accord appeared to be barely treading water. Still, the Architect took nothing for granted. The Consortium had made the decision to go under to regroup after a member in the uppermost echelon of its membership was captured by the Arrow Squad, but that didn't mean they couldn't action small-scale disruptions.
The Human Alliance, for example, would have little patience for Trinity business if anti-human insurgents started making trouble in their territory. As it happened, the Architect knew of one such group. All it needed was a nudge to the right location and a catalyst to light its destructive fuse.
It was a small thing, but all chaos had to begin somewhere.
As for the much bigger operation that had been put into motion by another one of the core members of the Consortium . . . The Architect looked down at the brief on Nadiya Hunter. It was pitifully empty, but then the child wasn't even a year old, according to Consortium sources. Her importance as a symbol, however, was starting to grow as the Psy race came out of its post-Silence stupor and began to look around.
The Architect's fellow Consortium member was right: Killing the child in the right way held the potential to incite a bloody war between Psy and changeling, humans caught in the crossfire. It would be a decisive blow that permanently shattered Trinity and any hope of a peace that promised to severely frustrate the Consortium's plans.
However, a single mistake and the fury of DarkRiver and its powerful allies would focus solely on the Consortium. The Architect knew predatory changelings well enough to understand they wouldn't stop until each and every member of the Consortium was dead.
The pros and cons of the Nadiya Hunter gambit required further thought--but all the pieces were in place, if and when the Architect decided it was time to press "go."
Chapter 10
LUCAS PUT NAYA into her crib and raised the bars of the safety barrier, which he'd had to extend to their full height after she started escaping. It was to keep her safe. Lucas and Sascha would normally wake at the smallest sound, but just in case.
Covering her with a furry green blanket Tamsyn had knitted for her, he tucked the damn wolf snuggle toy beside her, then touched her soft, dark hair and looked at the woman who stood by his side. "We did good."
Sascha slipped her arm through his, eyes of cardinal starlight touched with sparks of color on Naya. "Yes, and had fun doing it." A sudden frown. "She had chocolate sprinkled milk, and I didn't clean her teeth. She usually doesn't fall asleep so early--she didn't even have her dinner."
"She'll wake if she's hungry, and one night without brushing her teeth won't hurt her," Lucas reassured his mate. "I did that every so often myself as a kid--it's amazing how much candy I got into."
"Thanks for the warning. Now go put on some jeans."
Chuckling, he drew her out of the nursery he and packmates had added on soon after Naya's birth. It was attached to their bedroom, so even if Naya escaped her crib, she'd have to go past their bed to get out.
"Anything salvageable?" he asked after pulling on jeans and following Sascha to the kitchen.
"Hmm. I think the potatoes might still be good."
"Super melted cheese is still melted cheese." Lucas took the pan to the table. "Chicken?"
"Lump of charcoal." Sascha looked morosely at it before shaking off her disappointment. "Want omelets instead?"
"Yep."
The two of them worked side by side to prepare the omelets. "Hear anything about Nikita?" The recent assassination attempt on Sascha's mother had caused significant injuries.
"Sophie says she's pushing herself too hard." Sascha's tone tensed. "She's concerned about a setback."
Running a hand over her hair, Lucas pointed out an irrefutable truth. "Nikita isn't used to giving up control, even for short periods." The former Councilor and current member of the Ruling Coalition of the Psy race was a pitiless operator who was used to power.
Sascha nodded, took a deep breath. "So far, she's fine. Sophie's going to keep me updated on her progress." Unspoken were the words tha
t today, Sascha had to focus on her vulnerable child, not on a mother adept at lethal defense--and offense.
They sat down to eat less than ten minutes later, their chairs beside each other instead of on either side of the table. Lucas liked to be able to affectionately touch his mate, and Sascha had picked up the feline habit, petting him every so often as they ate.
Skin privileges between a mated pair. Simple. Deeply needed.
He felt the worry that rose to the forefront of her mind now that Naya was asleep, but they both spoke only in touches until after they'd polished off the meal and she was cutting up some fruit for them to eat for dessert. That was when Sascha asked him to go over the full details of what Aden's people had heard in the Net.
Her face grew white under the dark honey of her skin as he spoke. "Is it a group like Pure Psy?"
"No current signs that it's anything that focused." Lucas forced himself to be calm; his mate needed that from him right now. "I'd still like to increase security precautions around her regardless. People--and not just Psy--are curious about her."
Dorian had done some research for him today, discovered that the only living child of mixed Psy and changeling blood was of far more interest to various groups across the world than the pack had ever realized. The majority of those groups had little to no information about Naya, knew only that she existed. But Lucas wasn't about to take chances with the life of his cub. "That curiosity is only going to grow and"--his jaw tightened--"some bastards will see her only as a political pawn to exploit."
Sascha nodded jerkily, but her words surprised him. "Nothing that stifles her, Lucas." Her eyes had bled to pure obsidian when he first began to speak, and now they gleamed with midnight-blue lowlights as she fought her emotions. He didn't know if all cardinal eyes did that, or if it was limited to the empaths, but the effect was hauntingly beautiful.
Panther and man, Lucas loved Sascha's eyes in every one of her moods.
"Nothing that cages her," she reiterated.
"I promise." He knew Sascha was thinking of her own childhood, of how her abilities had been crushed and stuffed into a box. "The physical security around her won't change much at all." He'd called a meeting of his sentinels that afternoon, with those not in the city attending via the comm, asked their opinion on the most efficient way to protect the pack's cubs without harming their wild spirits.
"We're going to embed more warning sensors in and around our territory," he told Sascha. "That'll have an impact without affecting Naya's independence or that of any other cub in DarkRiver." In Naya's case, the danger level had risen the instant she began to shift and became more mobile. "I've also asked Dorian and Emmett to liaise with our mechanics and make sure all the pack vehicles are as secure and as tough as they can be, and we're going to quietly up the security presence anywhere our children congregate."
"If they can't get Naya, they might try for another cub," Sascha whispered in realization. "Because of us and what we represent, because of the power DarkRiver has in Trinity." But though white lines bracketed her mouth, she didn't panic. "We need to let all our friends know, not just the Rats and SnowDancer. The more eyes looking out and ears that are listening, the better our chances of catching any attempt before it goes far."
DarkRiver had long thrived in isolation, like the majority of changeling packs, but that time had passed. First had come the wolves, then friendships that slowly connected them to Psy, humans, more changelings. "The falcons have permission to overfly our territory and might spot suspicious movements." Lucas frowned in thought, rubbing his thumb over the side of his mate's neck as he cradled her nape. "Who else?"
Together, the two of them made up a list and decided which one of them would talk to which party. He knew it was possible they were both overreacting, but that was significantly better than taking no action when innocent lives were on the line.
Sascha made him coffee afterward, herself a hot chocolate. It was her comfort drink of choice, but what soothed her most was to go into the nursery and look in on Naya. Lucas went with her, his own panther needing to see their cub safe and snug and curled up happily in her crib. "Damn it," he muttered. "She's hugging that stupid wolf to her chest."
Sascha's shoulders shook, the stars returning to her eyes. Baring his teeth at her, he pretended to pounce. She jumped then ran out of the room. His panther immediately sat up in interest and the chase was on. Catching her in the next room, he threw her gently on the bed before coming down over her. "Mine," he said, his lower body pressed to hers.
The smug statement was of the predator he was. But this predator loved the woman he held captive, would never harm her.
Stroking her fingers through his hair, Sascha said, "Something else happened, didn't it?"
He dropped his head for a minute, allowed her to pet him. Then, as they lay tangled, he told her about the letter the boys had found, about the imprisoned, tortured water changeling. His hands fisted against the textured white sheets on their bed. "This is the first new piece of information we've had on BlackSea's vanished members since the capture of the human CEO, and it's a call for help from a woman who's probably already dead."
Sascha shook her head. "There's always hope. No one thought Brenna would make it and look at her now."
Lucas nodded; it was a good reminder. The SnowDancer had been psychically and mentally broken when rescued. Yet instead of drowning in the darkness that had threatened to suck her under, Brenna had said "fuck you" to the monster who'd hurt her, and she'd chosen to live. She'd not only wrenched back control of her own life, she'd taken on an Arrow and claimed him as her mate.
Lucas had a great deal of respect for Riley's younger sister.
"None of us will give up on Leila," he promised. "Unless and until we have a body, we act as if she's alive." A woman who'd fought so hard even when alone, far from the sea that was her home, deserved nothing less. "It would help if Miane would allow wider dissemination of the information, but she's caught between a rock and a hard place."
Sascha's eyebrows drew together, even as she continued to run her fingers through his hair. "There's no way to weed out the Consortium spies in Trinity, is there?"
Nipping at her lower lip just because he could, Lucas said, "Can empaths sense deception?"
"Possibly." Sascha nipped back, making him grin. "But even if the Empathic Collective suddenly abandoned its code of ethics and started scanning everyone, the most dangerous spies will have dense shields. An E might pick up surface emotions, but everything else will be locked down."
Running his hand down her side, Lucas pushed up her lightweight top to touch skin, purring deep in his chest at the contact. At the lush feel of her warmth against his rougher skin. Shivering, Sascha wrapped her legs around him. "Why did you ask anyway?" she murmured, her breath kissing his. "You know no empath would ever be so dishonorable. Scans are only allowed with permission--like in business negotiations where both sides have an E at the table."
Eyes going panther as his feline nature rose to the surface of his mind, Lucas took his time kissing his mate, licking his tongue over hers as he lazily explored her body. "Because," he murmured against her lips several minutes later, "your own research has shown that not all Es are good." The vast majority, yes, but like any being on the planet, even an E had loyalties. "What if the Consortium has an E in its ranks? What if that E truly believes that racial peace and the resulting comingling is bad for the Psy race?"
Sascha blinked, then pushed at his chest until he rolled over onto his back on the bed. Kneeling beside him, her knees brushing his side as he slid his hand under the back of her top to find skin again, she stared down at him. "You're right," she whispered. "'Good' and 'bad' are relative terms. An E, who, for whatever reason, is virulently anti-human or anti-changeling or simply pro the purity of the Psy, could justify all kinds of things."
She rubbed both hands over her face. "I don't know what the impact would be on the E--if the harm they did would rebound back on them, or if they'd b
e protected by their own belief." Lines formed on her forehead. "We still don't know enough about the E designation, not after the Council spent a hundred years erasing all evidence of our existence."
"Alice's memories still scattershot?" he asked, referring to the brilliant researcher who'd spent a century in forced cryonic suspension, and who now lived among the SnowDancers.
Sascha nodded, her frustration a palpable thing. "She has so much critical knowledge, but it's locked deep inside her." Compassion thickened her voice. "I'm guessing it's a combination of lingering shock and the organic damage done by the amount of time she spent suspended that's behind the gaps in her memory."
"She's tough to have come as far as she has." Lucas couldn't imagine going to sleep one day only to wake in a distant future where Sascha was dead, Naya was dead, his closest friends were all dead. "I think I'd go mad."
"She's stronger than she knows." Sascha's eyes were dark with poignant emotion. "But her heart's broken, shattered into splinters." Shaking her head, she touched her fingers to the hunter marks on his face. "It hurts me to even imagine the depth of her loss."
Taking her hand with his free one, he pressed a kiss to it. He didn't have to say what they both knew: If one of them died while Naya was young, the other one would fight and survive no matter their own shattered heart. "What if an E decided to hide his or her ability?" he asked, taking them back to a less emotive topic.
"That person could be a brilliant spy," Sascha said slowly. "He or she could damage Trinity from the inside by doing things as simple as encouraging dissent or quietly upping people's levels of aggression."
"Your designation is far more dangerous than anyone realizes."
Sascha's expression held a sudden, taut sadness. "Sometimes I wish I hadn't figured out the other side of my ability," she whispered, swallowing hard. "But today, when you told me what some nasty people are saying about Naya, I knew I'd use the dark side without hesitation to protect her. Regardless of any resulting psychic backlash."
Lucas nudged her over to straddle him, then he tugged her down so he could pet her, kiss her. He'd been there the day she'd worked out the brutal flip side to her ability to heal minds, had felt her terrible sorrow. "Nothing is ever black and white, kitten," he reminded her, allowing his claws to slice out to touch her skin. "I can use my claws to protect, but I can use the same claws to rip out an enemy's throat."