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Because, he understood at last, this relationship was important

His beast calmed It wasn’t the cal up his prey "I’an

"And you have needs" All softness leaked out of her face "Spare et it froht?"

Chapter 21

Clay decided it would be ih If she’d been a leopard, she’d have been showing him her claws about now "Not quite"

"What, there’s been a new development?" she snorted "Men are all the sanoring her glare, "touch is part oflunatic if I don’t get it - living without a pack for so o without the kind of touch ranted"

She continued to watch him, eyes narrowed

"But," he said, "it’s important to me" He was known as a loner but that had never meant exclusion Not in DarkRiver "Same as when I was a kid"

She folded her ar it sowithout the kind of touch the pack takes for granted," he corrected "I had another kind of touch to keepabout," she said, ar to her sides

But he could see she did remember All those times when she’d crawled into his lap, neither of the a word as he held her and they watched the sun set over the broken edges of the city All those hugs she’d given hiuile All those days she’d held his hand as he led her safely through the junkyard

"That was friendship" Her eyes filled with memory "You were my best friend"

"I still aht’ve said in anger

"So, why?"

"Is that all you want? That we be friends?"

A hesitation, then she nodded "Friends" Talin needed this relationship to be so pure, unsullied by lust and the evil it spawned

"And if I need the touch of a friend froive it to me?"

Wary of the cat’s nature, she looked into his face "Friends don’t kiss"

"Actually, a siven to a packmate is considered normal," he told her, "but I won’t ask that of you if it s you did before"

The hugs, the friendly contact, without expectation, without the dark stain of sex "Yes" She smiled and wrapped her arms around him "Yes"

His own came around her "Good"

Her smile threatened to crack her face This would work Without desire to sully up the waters, o back to the innocence of what had once been between the there on the carpet in Nate and Tas sprawled out in front of hiroan aloud in frustration A few hours ago, Tally had agreed to a friend’s touch What if she never took the step into accepting a lover’s? And he would try to becoic, he was her friend, therefore any touch of his was a friend’s touch That bit of feline reasoning gave him space to play with her and slowly, oh-so-slowly, convince her that sex between theood What he refused to consider was that he ht fail in that endeavor

"Sorry I’hts

With her arrival, all the sentinels - Clay, Vaughn, Nate, Dorian, and Mercy - were there Lucas sat on the floor opposite Clay, Sascha curled up on the sofa behind hihn’s mate, Faith, usually attended, too, but had decided to sit upstairs with Tamsyn and Tally today Clay was a little worried about that Then again, he thought with a burst of possessive pride, Tally wasafter herself

"Okay," Lucas said, "this is about the Rats" He laid out the facts "Do we accept their offer and give the back to us?" Mercy asked from her armchair