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"For what, Talin? What did you do? Be , so much a part of the forest that she could hardly tell where he began and the night ended "These Larkspurs - why aren’t you going to theht darkness into that fa evil"

"They’re your pack, they would stand by you"

She was startled at his word usage "My pack? No, I don’t think they are I-I was a visitor I etting a full board and study scholarship" Even their nah to blur the waters and dead-end any search Clay ht have mounted "I never let them in"

"Why not?"

"Do you let your pack touch your soul?" she asked, desperate to learn about his new life, his neorld, years of hunger coalescing into this singleyou even if you don’t particularly want to be adopted" It was a snarl "If I bleed, they’ll come to my aid They would kill for me"

She shivered at the wild violence of his statement But there was also a seduction in that kind of loyalty It made her wonder about bonds of a far different sort "Do youdo you have someone in your pack?"

He went very still "I don’t scent a h, startled "No I - No"

He reet in the way of a relationship by involving you in my problems"

"Leave my relationships to me"

Her insides twisted "Fine"

Clay waited Juvie had been hell, but it had taught hier inside until it was needed - then use it like a weapon The Psy scientists who had co teachers

At the ti-ter packs usually dealt with their oithout Enforcement involvement But not only had Clay not had a pack, he’d crossed a racial boundary in his cri hiiven the Psy Council an edge in the cold war it was currently waging against the changelings - the Psy had treated him as a curiosity, an animal behind bars It was the animal who had watched and learned Noatched as Talin shifted froain

"I ith kids in San Francisco," she said without warning "I’ve been doing it ever since I graduated But not here I was in New York until the start of this year"

"Is one of theer?" He felt the embers of his fury flare into life at the realization that she’d been in his territory for close to three ht a hint of her scent in Chinatown or down by Fisherer; he’d thought it a sign he really had gone over the edge

"Not like that" Dropping her arht-glow "Clay, please Stop doing the cat thing and come out so I can see your face"

"No" He wasn’t ready to show her anything "Did you knoas in the city?"

"Not at first I had no way to track you after you got out of juvie" She kicked at the grass "Then one day, a feeeks ago, I thought I saw you Droveup fantasies of what you would’ve looked like as an adult"

He didn’t respond, despite the near-echo of his earlier thoughts

She blew out a breath "I swear - " The abrasive sound of teeth grinding against each other "I went back to where I thought I’d seen you, realized it was the DarkRiver business HQ, and looked them up on the Internet I still wasn’t sure - there was no photo and you changed your last name to Bennett"

It had been a way to drop off the face of the world, to lose any si media attention But over the years, it had beco ut "First, tellto scareto cut and run"

In that bravado-filled challenge, he caught another fleeting gliirl she’d been The day they had met, she’d sat there beside him, wide-eyed and terrified to her tiny toes, but stubborn enough not to leave till the paraer into sarcasood at it"