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Clay, her ain Call hiued Yes, she had trusted the boy he’d been, but she didn’t know the ht to hate her When she thought of the way she’d treated her body, her soul, she hated herself
"I’ll have one of my officers drop you off"
She jerked at the sound of Max’s voice "No I’ll wait until you guys are done, pack up soht by then If you’re worried about a leak, don’t be TheLeakproof" He tapped his temple as if to remind her of the other race’s superior natural shields "More i without ive her a chance to figure out where to go
He sighed "Fine Park yourself out here until we’re done and I’ll give you a ride e that he wasn’t in his lair, his head clear Changelings processed alcohol far quicker than huover territory Of course, hissust at his own behavior was intense, but physically speaking, he was fine
Tiny scrabbling sounds came from the floor beside the bed It was those sounds that had wakened hi doithout looking, he caught one leopard cub by the scruff off his neck and hauled hi the second as he tried to dart out "You two are supposed to be in bed," he growled
The two small leopards looked at each other, then rushed him He held them off without too much trouble, aht he’d feel upon waking, but these twoelse hard
"Down," he said after a few minutes
The cubs obeyed at once, well aware he was dominant to them In fact, all of a sudden they appeared to be on their best behavior Suspicious, he focused his hearing and caught the sound of Ta for theet up when Taave a soft knock
"They’re in here" His throat felt lined with grit
She opened the door "Oh, did they wake you?" As she came to pick them up, the cubs shifted into hu color Naked, they sca
Tay than sense"
He grunted "Ti on the bed, she looked at hi okay?"
"A shower and I’ll be fine" He deliberately ignored the realbeen DarkRiver’s healer fro under people’s skins
Now, she sighed "You’re exactly like my boys - no sense at all I love you, you idiot Talk to host who had walked back into his life "Leave it, Tammy"
She shook her head "Lord, but you men drive me crazy All testosterone and pride Well, you knohere I live I’ll go find you so over, she brushed his hair off his face in a gentle move "We’re Pack, Clay Re down the sheet and wandering into the bathroo pack He’d never known the like until Nate had dragged him into DarkRiver
His mother, Isla, had deliberately chosen to live away fro her son as The fact that they had never been tracked down told Clay that his father’s - and by extension, Isla’s - pack, had been, or was, nowhere near as strong or as healthy as DarkRiver It hadn’t protected, hadn’t sheltered, and definitely hadn’t healed
When Nate had offered to sponsor Clay into DarkRiver, he’d accepted mostly because he didn’t really care where he went He’d figured he could take off if he didn’t like it He had discovered different within days In DarkRiver, isolation wasn’t an option Loners were accepted, but they weren’t forgotten And if so and screa out of the shower, he pulled on the clothes he’d heard Tao They were his own - because Ta or worse, their clothes useless Ithere As he dressed, he could hear her and Nate talking downstairs, the low her-pitched tones of the twins
A healthy pack A healthy family They were both lessons Clay had learned from DarkRiver Why hadn’t Talin learned the same from the family that had taken her in? She hadn’t lied about thens of deception - increased heart rate, perspiration, the subtle shift in scent Not all leopards had that skill but Clay had always been good at it, especially with Talin
Lots of ht of his Talin with others continued to stoke the dark fire inside of hi downstairs, he grabbed a cup of coffee and a bagel, then left before either Nate or Tamsyn could ask any aard questions
He had no tioing to get away from him a second time