Male pride, such a fragile, precious thing. She nodded at Noor, now entering the cockpit with Clay. "She hasn't got a mark on her. Did you protect her?"

He shrugged. "They said if I cooperated, they'd lay off her for a bit, but that was a lie." His eyes went to Dorian as the sentinel slid into the pilot's seat. "Who's that?"

"Dorian," she told him. "He's Clay's packmate."

"Like a gang, huh?"

She didn't quite know how to answer that but Clay turned around and did it for her. "The ultimate gang," he said, his hand rubbing gently over Noor's back as she lay curled up against his chest. "We mean it when we say Pack is One. And you did good, kid. Screaming is a fact of life - hell, Dorian here would never shut up when he was your age."

Dorian threw Clay an unfriendly look, then glanced at Jon. "Don't listen to a word he says. He's scared of needles." He turned back to the gauges. "Ready for lift off, boys and girls?"

Jon relaxed, apparently happier now that he'd had some male feedback. Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, she dared put an arm around him. To her surprise, he let her hold him. When she pressed a kiss to his brow, he didn't even fidget.

Smiling, she met Clay's eyes. Her kids were home.

Turning back to face the windshield, Clay caught Dorian's tense expression. The other man was worried for the same reason as him, a reason Tally had forgotten in her happiness. This wasn't over. And the next target was most likely going to be Talin herself. Not that the fuckers would get anywhere near her.

Mind on their next move, he leaned back and closed his eyes against the glare. This was one mean bitch of a headache. It felt like red-hot pokers driving into his brain. He'd have worried the Psy soldier had caused permanent damage if he hadn't been in pain since waking up that morning. Reassuring Noor when she shifted restlessly, he decided he'd have to talk Tally into petting him tonight.

They all ended up crashing at Nate and Tamsyn's upon their return late in the afternoon. Not only did she have a big house, the kids needed to be looked at, and together, Tammy and Sascha made a pretty good medical/healing team. By the time everyone had bathed, eaten, and been checked out, it was too late to talk, so they scheduled a meeting for midmorning the next day.

Noor fell asleep without trouble, but Talin had to coax Jon into a herbal sleeping remedy that Tamsyn had made up.

"I don't want any more drugs in my fuck - " He bit off the curse. "No drugs."

"It's natural, won't mess up your body or cause addiction." When he remained stubborn, she dared touch him, stroking her fingers over his face. "They hurt you, Jon. Your body needs to rest so it can heal. This'll help. Please."

It took ten more minutes, but she finally won. With both children asleep, she was free to tackle Clay. "Lie down," she ordered, careful to keep her voice lower than a whisper. "Do you want me to ask Tamsyn for headache meds?"

His answer was predictable and, unlike with Jon, she knew she wouldn't be able to wear him down. "Hate drugs." But he did stretch out on his back on the bed.

Having already spoken to Tamsyn about what worked best on changeling physiology, she poured out drops of an un-scented natural oil onto her fingers and began to rub them in slow, gentle circles around the general region of his temples.

Groaning, he closed his eyes. It made her throat lock, he looked so vulnerable. It wasn't a word she associated with Clay, wasn't a face he often showed. But tonight, he had trusted her with it. Swallowing her tears, she continued the gentle massage. Some time later, she realized he'd fallen asleep. She sat there and watched him for the longest time.

He was her everything.

But the original reason for their coming together was now complete. Jon was safe. So was another child. What if Clay decided he couldn't forgive her enough to continue this relationship, his leopard's territorial nature too strong? She bit down hard on her lower lip when her fearful pain threatened to shift into sound. If Clay rejected her - now or later, for any reason - she would break once and for all.

So she watched him, drank in his image. By the time she forced herself to get up, strip off her clothing, and crawl into bed beside him, her skin was cold and she was aching with the hunger to belong to him, to prove to herself that he wouldn't leave her. But he slept. And after long, tortured minutes, so did she.

She woke to strong, sure fingers between her thighs, luscious wet kisses along her jaw, an aroused male body spooned around her. "Feeling better?" she managed to gasp out as he dipped his fingers inside her welcoming heat. She was wet, embarrassingly so.

"You feel like warm, lickable cream."

All embarrassment fled, to be replaced by sheer need. "Come inside me. I need you." To hold on, to never let go. Please don't leave me alone again. Please, Clay.

He spread her open with his fingers and began to slide in, so big from this angle, so hot. Then he murmured in her ear-earthy words of passion, quiet, sexy endearments that made her feel like the most beautiful of women. She pushed back into him, undone. When he lifted her thigh to deepen the penetration, she had to clench her jaw to hold off a cry.

He paused. "Did that hurt?"

"You feel too good."

A masculine chuckle. "I love the way you smell." He nuzzled at her neck, flicked out his tongue to taste her. "I love the way you feel. So soft, so hot." When he finally rocked her to climax, that hungry place inside her soul was almost filled up. Almost.

Even as Clay's heartbeat continued to race from having loved Tally, he could feel her hurting. It confused the hell out of his leopard. She was his mate. He should have been able to ease her pain. That he couldn't, struck a blow to his pride. "Tally, baby, what's wrong?"

"Don't let me go, Clay."

His heart broke a little at the unguarded statement, at the glimpse she'd given him into her deepest fear. "Never again, I promise you." Even if he had to fight the gods themselves to claim her, he would not let anyone - or anything - take her from him.

She didn't answer. He whispered more petting words in her ear. After a while, he could feel her hurt retreating, as if she had decided to trust his promise. His heart relaxed.

Tally's pain was the one thing he couldn't handle.

Chapter 39

Nine thirty the next morning, Talin stood with Clay's packmates in Tamsyn's kitchen, feeling deliciously sore and an idiot over her recent self-pity attack - Clay would never just decide to abandon her. He was far too loyal.

Her mood dimmed again. What if that was all that was tying him to her? Loyalty and friendship, the kind of friendship that wouldn't allow him to rest until they had beaten the unknown thing killing her from the inside out? Her illness hadn't struck since the day she had woken unable to gasp in air, but it would, and then Clay would have to look after her again, would feel obligated to do so.

Her mind filled with images of how she'd massaged him yesterday. That, done in love, had been no hardship. She wouldn't cheapen Clay's commitment to their relationship by imagining he felt any differently. But that's not what she wanted to be to him, someone to be looked after, a friend in need. She wanted so much more - she wanted all of him.

Clutching at her coffee cup, she looked out the window to find Jon talking to one of the teenagers she'd first seen at the bar - a tall, auburn-haired boy who was starting to grow into his long legs and powerful shoulders.

"That's Kit," Tammy said, coming to stand beside her. "Old enough to know better and young enough to get Jon. Your boy, he's strong. He's going to be okay."

"Yes," Talin agreed. "He'll become somebody if he's given the chance." But first, they had to make him disappear. Since neither of the children had family, Clay had told her the disappearing wouldn't be a problem. DarkRiver was happy to accept them.

"Tally." Clay held out his hand from where he was standing by the table.

She put down her coffee and went to him. His hand closed warm and safe around hers. "Where's Dorian?"

"Missing me already?" The blond sentinel walked through from the living room. With him were Lucas, Sascha, Nathan, and a redheaded female Talin hadn't yet met.

"I'm Mercy," the woman said, before Dorian took the floor to relate yesterday's events, with Clay and Talin filling in the gaps on their end.

"Judd coming?" Clay asked before Dorian could begin. "He deserves to know what happened. Man didn't have to help us, but he did."

Lucas nodded. "SnowDancers are turning out to be better allies than we thought."

"For feral rabies-infected wolves," Mercy muttered.

Dorian snickered. "Still mad over being the liaison?"

Mercy gave Dorian the finger, then twisted her head toward the front of the house. "He's here," she said, though Talin hadn't heard anything.

Judd walked through a minute later. "I have a certain antipathy toward this place."

Tamsyn scowled, hands on a muffin tin. "Why?"

"Because the last time I was here, I was bleeding half to death and you were torturing me with a stitch gun."

"See the thanks I get?" the healer muttered.

"If you ever need anyone killed, just let me know," Judd said with a straight face as he pulled out a chair and spun it around so the chair back was against his chest. His attention switched to Clay. "You said you got the boy and another child out?"

"Yes. Went like clockwork. Your contact have anything to do with that?"

Judd nodded. "But you got lucky with the timing, too. Something big went down in the PsyNet last night. Your op was hidden in the shadow of it."

Sascha leaned forward. "I talked with Faith this morning. She said she'd spoken with the NetMind, but that it was too agitated to make much sense."

"Damn," Clay muttered. "An assassination?"

Judd's eyes flickered in surprise. "Yes. A Council member."