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"Clay" It was a whisper that carown taller, was close to six four And his body - he had more than fulfilled the promise of raer that had always been in him Over that muscular frame, his skin shone a rich, luscious broith an undertone of gold

Isla’s blood, Talin thought, the exotic beauty of Clay’s Egyptian mother vivid in her mind even after all these years Isla’s skin had been smooth black coffee, her eyes bitter chocolate, but she had only contributed half of Clay’s genes

Talin couldn’t see Clay’s own eyes froreen, the eyes of a jungle cat - an un father Set off by his skin and pitch-black hair, those eyes had do they still did but in a far different way

His every h ht of the two boys as he threw theined the flex of muscle, of power, and shiveredin absolute, unquenchable fear

Logic, intellect, sense, it all broke under the unadulterated flow of memory Blood and flesh, screa sounds of death And she knew she couldn’t do this Because if Clay had scared her as a child, he terrified her now

Shoving a hand into her mouth, she bit back a cry

That hen he froze, his head jerking up

Du Cory and Jason into the truck, Clay was about to turn to say soht an al-still, then pounced out with the incredibly fine senses of a leopard, while the man scanned the area with his eyes

He knew that sound, that female voice It was that of a dead wo tio So now he looked, looked and searched

For Tally

There were too many cars in the lot across the wide road, toohe kne to hunt He’d taken one step in that direction when Dorian slapped hiht "Ready to hit the road?"

Clay felt a growl building in his throat and the reaction was irrational enough to snap soain his view of the opposing lot "They gonna give us trouble?"

Dorian shook his head, blond hair glea on as built-in sensors detected the fading light "They’ll cede authority since it’s only changeling kids involved They don’t have any right to interfere with internal pack stuff anyway"

"Who called them?"

"Not Joe" He named the bar owner - a fellow member of DarkRiver "He called us, so it must’ve been solad Kit and Cory have worked their little pissing contest out, but I never thought they’d beco-friends and drive us all insane"

"If eren’t having these proble to hurt the pack," Clay said, "I wouldn’t ht"

Dorian grunted in assent "Joe’ll send through a bill He knows the pack will cover the dae"

"And take it out of these six’s hides" Clay thumped Cory back dohen the drunk and confused kid tried to rise "They’ll be working off their debt till they graduate"

Dorian grinned "I see er sentinel, though his attention never left the parking area across the road Nothing moved over there except the dust, but he knew that, so statue was one way to fool a predator But Clay was no mindless beast - he was an experienced and blooded DarkRiver sentinel "You orse than this lot Fucking tried to take me out with your ninja shit"

Dorian said so in response, but Clay missed it as a small Jeep peeled rapidly out of the lot that held his attention "Kids are yours!" With that, he took off after his escaping quarry on foot

If he had been human, the chase would’ve been a stupid act Even for a leopard changeling, it h to keep up with that vehicle if the driver floored it As she - definitely she - now did