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"Exactly" Lucas’s tone hid nothing of what he felt for his mate "You were all over Talin"

"What’s between us isn’t anything simple" Too ot desperate when I still wouldn’t talk He bet Zeke had never figured out the real truth of why Tally had stopped talking Clay knew And it tore hi turnsthat" Lucas scowled "We sound like a couple of wo a bad influence on iven hi up his " He laid out the facts about the disappearances "I’ll need tiular duties" He didn’t ask permission because that wasn’t how their pack worked Lucas had chosen his sentinels because of their strength They were all perfectly capable of running the show if things rong

It said so about Luc that not one of those other doed his rule Clay had never even considered it - he was too used to walking alone, and an alpha was the physical and emotional center of his pack "You want anize it," Lucas offered "Kit can do so" He was referring to the tall, auburn-haired juvenile who held the scent of a future alpha "I’d pair hi sister around as a sign that we don’t trust hiht about it for a while "If you switchterritory, Cian can run with Kit, show hi and patient "He’d still be a sentinel if he hadn’t decided he preferred being a trainer and advisor"

Lucas reement "Should work Kit knows Cian’s the one who trainedhim" Another silence as they listened to the rhythms of the forest, their aniile"

And Clay, despite his control - control great enough that it was all eling "I won’t hurt her"

"She thinks you will"

It didn’t surprise him that Lucas had picked up on Talin’s skittishness "I’ She knows that better thanto dih it et over it" No other option was acceptable

"Our animals starve without touch, Clay" Lucas’s tone was a reminder of the consequences of such starvation "It’s not healthy for you to be in a relationship with a wohn if you want to kno badly that kind of thing can screw up a hn both courted Psy," he said "At least Tally doesn’t try to hide her eht make his for hi "So back off"

"Good point" Lucas shrugged "Your woman, your call"

Yes, Tally was his His to protect His to possess Of that the leopard was as certain now as it had been the day they’d first met That didn’t blind him to the second vicious truth - that she had run from him and into the arms of other men

She was his But Clay wasn’t sure he could ever forgive her

Talin looked at Clay over the top of her coffee Though they were in Joe’s Bar again, Clay, too, had stuck to coffee as they waited for Max to arrive

"How long have you known Max?" he asked

The question was like all the ones he’d asked since Sascha and Lucas’s departure from his lair earlier that day Crisp, uneed even when he’d ferried her around the city - in an untraceable vehicle - after she had told him she needed to check in with some other Shine children

Since she had been steadily decreasing her workload in preparation for giving notice, none of those children were actually under her direct care Jon had been the final one she’d had to place into a stable situation The San Francisco Shine Guardian was Rangi, but due to a ency back hoes, and the hunt for the childrens’ killer, in her hands She’d told Clay all that as he’d driven her around, but his responses had been monosyllabic - when he’d replied at all The cool distance was easier on her nerves than that s temper of his, but she felt shut out

If she had been an unselfish woman, she would have left it Clay would take her eventual demise far better if he hated her But Talin discovered she wasn’t that good a person She was horribly selfish when it came to Clay "What’s put a burr up your butt?" she said instead of answering his question

Those beautiful forest-in-shadow eyes fixed on her with a predator’s unblinking stare "Be careful, Talin You don’t want to wake this sleeping leopard"

"Maybe I do" She pushed aside her coffee cup, adrenaline spiking through her bloodstreahter was derisive "You saw hiht of claws and bloodto be silenced this tiht years old and I had my foster father’s brains splattered across my face And that was after what he’d already done toleft a few scars"

He blinked and it was a lazy, quintessentially feline move "Where did you find your spine all of a sudden?"

"You make me so mad!" She blew out a frustrated breath "I wish I did have claws I’d use them to scratch out your eyes" Never in all these years had she been as close to violence as she was now