Allegiance of Honor by Nalini Singh

  "Sounds like our pack circle events." Remi's voice brought him fully back to the here and now. "All packs have gatherings, and as different as BlackSea is, they're still changeling, still a pack."

  "The goal is to reinforce pack bonds?" Aden was still rebuilding his own "pack," trying to heal his broken family, and he wasn't so proud as to ignore advice from a race that was all about family. Especially when the man giving that advice was a self-confessed "remedial" alpha who was learning right alongside Aden.

  "Sure," Remi said, as above them, an eagle flew with stately grace, circling the rock face, as if taking in their activity. "But it's also about celebrating important events like matings, births, the achievements of our cubs." He hauled himself over a near-smooth section of rock. "Why? You thinking of a gathering?"

  Aden nodded when the other man glanced over, Remi's shaggy brown hair damp with sweat and pushed off his face. "If a pack whose members often swim alone can do it, why not the squad?" Ivy Jane had already begun the process by inviting Arrows to her home for dinners. She'd even held an informal party of sorts--though with a guest list made up mostly of Arrows that party was never going to be raucous. However, it would take a coordinated effort to get the majority of his people home for an event.

  "Hell, Aden," Remi said, "from what you've told me, your people deserve a seriously epic shindig."

  Aden and the leopard alpha were now side by side, having come closer as the rock face narrowed. Meeting Remi's eyes, the color a clear topaz striated with light, he said, "I don't think my Arrows, child or adult, are ready for such an unstructured event."

  The reason Ivy's party had worked was because it had been small enough that she'd been able to have one-on-one contact with her guests, easing their way into the gathering. Any bigger and Arrows would start to withdraw behind an instinctive protective shielding. They'd bury their newfound emotions, fall back on decades-long training designed to turn them into remote, inhuman machines.

  For to be an Arrow was to live within a strict set of rules.

  Aden could soften that but he couldn't erase it. Not when the people in his family were some of the deadliest on the planet--the rules and structure gave them a chance to have lives, and now, to have families. A telepath who wasn't terrified of destroying a child's mind with a simple slip made for a far more stable and happy parent, as did a telekinetic who didn't have to worry he'd crush a child's windpipe by being unaware of his strength.

  Those mistakes simply did not happen inside the squad.

  Silence had been an ugly construct, but it had taught the squad some good along with all the bad.

  "Hmm." Remi took a grip, then grinned. "Let's talk about it at the top. See you there, Arrow."

  They began to climb with single-minded focus. As a changeling, Remi's greater strength and flexibility gave him a natural advantage, but Aden had mapped out the entire climb in his head before he ever started. He didn't need to pause or to rethink. As a result, they were evenly matched--and pulled themselves over the edge at the same time.

  Laughing, Remi slipped out the bottle of water he'd carried strapped to his thigh. "Fuck, that was impressive for a man with no claws."

  Aden took a drink from his own bottle. "You didn't use your claws." Remi's gloves were undamaged.

  The other man put aside his water to tug them off. "Yeah, well, it's only fun if it's a fair fight. Now if you'd been like your friend, the Tk, it would've been no holds barred."

  "Vasic has only one arm." Samuel Rain's attempts at making Vasic a working prosthetic continued to fail--the last one in spectacular fashion. "The newest iteration of the prosthetic currently in play shorted out in a shower of sparks that set fire to Ivy's new tablecloth."

  Aden had been at the orchard during the incident, so he knew firsthand that the empath had not been happy when she saw the damage. "She took a hammer to that particular prosthetic." And if there had been a little too much force in her blows, well, even empaths needed outlets for grief.

  Not cognizant of the sadness that had driven Ivy's incensed reaction, Remi's shoulders shook. "Vasic might have only one arm, but he's a telekinetic. They move in a way that's almost like a changeling but different. Can't explain it."

  Aden didn't need more of an explanation; he'd seen Vasic climb, knew exactly what Remi was trying to describe. "Yes, he'd beat both of us, even with only one arm."

  "Talk for yourself." Remi's tone was mock-insulted. "But the party thing--you need an excuse to give it structure. Anything good happen that you want to celebrate?" A pause. "I know your squad lost an elder recently. It's even more important that you celebrate joy in the aftermath, that you show your Arrows that life, it's got a lot of different faces."

  Aden thought of the children's achievements, decided their confidence was too new and fragile yet to put even under a celebratory spotlight. Then he sensed Zaira at the back of his mind, happy in whatever she was doing, and knew. "We've had a number of bondings. Matings." The squad had picked up and begun to use the changeling term, and they weren't the only ones in the PsyNet.

  "Ivy and Vasic had a wedding," he continued, thinking back to an orchard dressed in sunshine and scented with spring blossoms. "As did Abbot and Jaya." Held in the Maldives, the traditional Indian wedding had been a feast of color and sensation that made Aden doubt very much that the vast majority of Jaya's family had ever truly been Silent. "The rest of us had no familial or cultural need to celebrate that way."

  "A mating or a long-term bonding is a big thing," Remi countered. "It should be marked and celebrated." The alpha's eyes were leopard when they met Aden's. "Your cubs have to follow rules, as do mine, but we have to balance that by giving them a chance to run wild." A slight grin. "Your kids are probably far better behaved than ours, but give them an opportunity to realize the rules have been relaxed and I predict sweet mayhem."

  Aden couldn't imagine the children under his care ever causing mayhem . . . but then he thought of how little Jojo had "attacked" him on his last visit, growling and snarling playfully without so much as scratching him, and knew he wanted his tiny Arrows to feel the same freedom even as they continued to learn how to control their violent abilities.

  "An event to celebrate the bondings in the squad." He nodded, his eyes on the sprawling vista of trees and mountains visible from this vantage point. "I'm going to speak to my senior people, see what we need to do to pull it off. Thank you for the advice."

  Touching his water bottle to Aden's, Remi said, "I knew I was the brains of this outfit."

  Aden felt his lips curve at the leopard alpha's statement, right as another mind touched his. "Vasic just asked if I have time to meet him for a sparring session." The request had been between friends, rather than Arrow to Arrow. "I've invited him to join us instead."

  "Hell, yeah," Remi said. "I want to see him climb."

  Vasic 'ported in at the bottom of the rock face ten minutes later, having returned home first to change into clothing and boots suitable for climbing.

  Instead of telepathing--that would shut Remi out of the conversation--Aden yelled down his and Remi's climbing time. "See if you can beat that!"

  Vasic's wintery eyes were brilliant in the early evening sunlight when he looked up and pointedly raised his single arm. Aden shrugged, as beside him, Remi said, "Minimal use of your telekinesis permitted--just enough to compensate for your other arm!"

  Vasic's eyes narrowed. Stepping back from the rock face, he looked at it carefully for several minutes before returning to take his first grip. Aden could tell within minutes that Vasic was actually using far less Tk than would've been permitted under Remi's rule. "He's utilizing pure muscle and intelligence."

  Remi whistled. "I told you. Man moves like a cat."

  Watching his friend, Aden thought of the endless training sessions they'd done together at the orchard, of how hard Vasic had worked to regain his balance and fluidity in movement. Losing an arm changed everything about how a person moved, but Vasic had never complained.
He'd simply learned to adapt.

  Because the man who had once wanted only to die now had multiple reasons to live.

  "You're getting slow in your old age, Zen!"

  Vasic glanced up at Remi's heckling and Aden saw the shadow that passed across his face at the reminder of the man whose name he bore--a name he'd chosen to bear. On its heels came determination. "Want to put a wager on it?"

  Remi snorted. "Do I look mentally challenged? Only an idiot would bet against a Tk, one-armed or not."

  Laughter dawned in Vasic's eyes before he returned to his careful yet strangely fluid climb. As Aden sat there under the light of the evening sun and watched his best friend take on what should've been an impossible challenge, while a new friend sat beside him, and Aden's mate spoke with friends of her own, he felt a dizzying sense of possibility and hope.

  Ming LeBon might be stirring trouble, the Consortium was waiting in the shadows, and BlackSea's vanished remained lost and alone, but today, this night, it was a dream an Arrow would've thought impossible even six months earlier.

  Chapter 35

  CHANCE PUT LUCAS with Devraj Santos again when Jamie sent in a note the next day confirming mission success, with details to follow. Lucas glanced at the message with grim satisfaction, then slid away his phone so he could start the car. He'd offered to drive Dev up to SnowDancer territory, where the leader of the Forgotten planned to check in with the children and families SnowDancer had given shelter.

  Since Lucas had business with Hawke, it was convenient for them both.

  It turned out Dev was thinking of pulling his people out of pack lands. "Not that you haven't kept them safe and treated them well," he said to Lucas, "but the kids are starting to need more and more specialized help as their abilities develop. And while Sascha and the others here have been incredible, I think they'd do better under the training programs we've been figuring out with the Arrows."

  Lucas nodded. "Judd's really the only one with the kind of skills to teach those of your young with dangerous new abilities, and he can't handle them all." Sienna was assisting, but her training differed from Judd's and a lot of it wasn't transferable.

  "There's no question of moving William," Dev clarified, referring to a boy born with the unusual telekinetic gift that made Judd so deadly and so extraordinary at the same time. "Judd can help him in ways no one else can, but the others? I'm going to talk them through the programs we're developing, give them the choice."

  "What about the reason you moved them here in the first place?"

  "We've been quietly buying up land in a remote part of New York State," Dev replied. "It's secure but large enough that no one will feel penned in. I got the idea from DarkRiver's Yosemite territory, to be honest--though our area isn't as large, it's plenty big enough for humans and Forgotten." The other man ran a hand through his hair. "I actually wanted to run something by you in terms of our security protocols."

  Lucas listened, gave his opinion, then asked Dev if he'd had a chance to think about the dangerous disintegration of the PsyNet, an issue Sascha had brought up at dinner the previous night. While the Forgotten had no reason to love those in the PsyNet who had once hunted them, Dev and his people understood that the majority of Psy were ordinary people fighting to survive.

  The other man had offered to assist Sascha in any way he could.

  "I can't figure it out." Dev braced his arm on the door, his window down as they reached the foothills of the Sierras. "If the Es are awake and emotion is back in the Net, then it should be healing. The Forgotten didn't do anything extraordinary when we defected." His frown was in his voice. "We just stayed what the PsyNet was pre-Silence."

  The two of them talked it through but hadn't come up with anything new by the time Lucas brought the vehicle to a stop near the den.

  *

  TWENTY minutes later, as he stood waiting for Hawke just outside the White Zone, Dev having already met up with his liaison, Lucas made a note to ask Jon if the teen wanted to join the Forgotten's new training program. If he did, DarkRiver wouldn't send him alone; he'd have a pack escort, someone who was his friend as well as being tough enough to protect him.

  Not because Lucas didn't trust Dev, but because Jon was a child of the pack.

  His phone beeped right then, with the promised report from Jamie. The senior soldier had written up his conclusions and sent the result over a secure line. Everything had gone according to plan--they'd invaded the target ship without setting off any alarms, then interrogated the captain.

  Jamie was certain the man had simply been another cog in the machine.

  All he knew was that he had to pick up live cargo at a certain time and place. That time and place would've lined up perfectly had the snatch on Naya been successful so I don't think there's any question Dorian zeroed in on the right ship. The captain was told he'd receive further instructions for care of the cargo once it was on its way but that he was to set aside a cabin for the time being, a cabin that had been stripped of all small items and was capable of being locked.

  He figured it was going to be an animal of some kind, an exotic pet "for some rich asshole." He swears up and down that he had no idea he'd been hired to transport a kidnapped child. His exact words were: "I don't do people. People have other people who look for them and some of those other people are fucking scary like you and your friends."

  I tend to believe him.

  His record isn't exactly squeaky clean but he's never tried anything this ambitious or dangerous. He's a smuggler, back and forth with low-risk goods most of the time, spiced with the occasional legal job.

  He was paid twenty-five grand upfront for the transport. That wasn't enough to buy his loyalty when his life and livelihood were on the line. BlackSea did us a solid there, threatened to ban him from all the commercial waterways they control and they control a shitload. I didn't have to show him my claws before he started spilling his guts.

  Lucas made a mental note to thank Miane, knew the alpha would say she was simply repaying DarkRiver for the introduction to Tanique Gray. Faith's brother had brought BlackSea far closer to their vanished packmate than they would've been otherwise.

  Jamie's report continued:

  My gut says we got everything out of the captain. He even gave up all his commercial and personal codes. I sent them through to Dorian and Bastien so they could dig through his transactions and transmissions and they haven't found any evidence of greater involvement on his part. He was the unwitting mule hired to be the fall guy should Naya be found while he was crossing the ocean.

  Bastien's tracking the source of the twenty-five-thousand-dollar payment. It was all anonymous of course. Pretty standard in a smuggler's line of work so the captain had no reason to dig any deeper.

  I made the call to let him go, but we've bugged the hell out of all his systems. He doesn't know, thinks he was released with a warning. He's promised to share any new approaches from the individual who hired him, but for some strange reason, I don't believe him.

  I've asked Bas to tag all his financials and Dorian is monitoring all his personal correspondence using various data backdoors. We'll know if he's approached again--I figured it was better to let this piece of bait sail away, see what he might attract, but if you think I should take him in, we can easily catch his ship.

  One more step in hunting down their prey, Lucas thought, one more step in the right direction. It was slow progress, but it was progress. Sending a message to Jamie confirming receipt of the information and backing the senior soldier's decision to release the captain, Lucas told him to return to DarkRiver territory.

  The work on the water was done. Now it was up to Bastien to hack through the financial jungle that no doubt awaited.

  "Luc." Hawke's voice came just as he was sliding away his phone. "Sorry for the delay--was up in the higher elevations, hit a rockfall on the way out and had to navigate around."

  Lucas shook the other alpha's hand. "No problem." Where before they'd both circled aroun
d each other, their animals ready to attack at any behavior that even hinted of a dominance challenge, their relationship had changed into something far different over time.

  Lucas had allowed Hawke to hold Naya.

  That said everything.

  "You want to walk to the waterfall while we talk?" Hawke asked, thrusting a hand through the hair of silver-gold that echoed his wolf's pelt.

  At Lucas's nod, the alpha fell in beside him, and they moved at a steady pace as they spoke about a number of matters related to the increasing interaction between the packs, as well as a construction project DarkRiver was heading, with SnowDancer a thirty-percent silent partner. They'd worked on several such projects by now, the wolves content to remain in the background, given DarkRiver's expertise in the area.

  The two of them had just completed their discussion and returned to nearer the den when Dev joined them. After explaining to Hawke what he'd already told Lucas about the better training opportunities for Forgotten children back in New York, he said, "Excluding Will's family, it looks like my people will be out of your hair within the next month."

  Hawke nodded. "Everyone fit well into the pack, and adults and children both made friends. If they want to visit afterward, they'll be welcome."

  "I can tell you right now that they'll be taking you up on the offer--leaving their new friends was the children's biggest concern." Dev's eyes met Lucas's and, all at once, those eyes didn't quite look human.

  The irises remained brown but the flecks of color inside were suddenly glittering so bright they appeared like pieces of precious metals.

  "Dev, what the fuck is happening to your eyes?" Lucas asked before the other man could say whatever it was he'd been about to say.

  "Shit." The leader of the Forgotten squeezed his eyes shut as he lifted one hand to grip his temples in a vice. "It comes and goes, and it doesn't look like I can control it, though I'm trying the fuck hard."

  Hawke folded his arms. "You developing cardinal eyes?"

  "Or something." Scowling, Dev dropped his hand and opened his eyes.