Allegiance of Honor

  The NetMind sent him a sense of the negative.

  The DarkMind, meanwhile, swam into the dead space, becoming at one with it. The two were created of the same primordial soup--all the rage, anger, jealousy, and other dark emotions the Psy race had refused to feel for so long. Only it hadn't ever disappeared. It had simply collected in dark pockets of the psychic network until it split the NetMind into a stable innocence and a murderous darkness.

  Today, neither half could tell him why the PsyNet was breaking apart, filament by filament, even as the Honeycomb fought to hold it together, even as the sparks of color that were the emanations of the Es spread through the black night of the spaces between minds.

  The PsyNet should've been healing. Instead, it was simply dying more slowly.

  Chapter 8

  SASCHA HUNG UP after a troubling conversation with Ivy Jane. Her fellow E and president of the Empathic Collective had called to discuss the information she'd just received from Kaleb Krychek. Coming on top of the possible threat to Naya that Lucas had warned Sascha about earlier that day, it left her worried on multiple levels.

  Naya was her first priority and always would be, but there were tens of thousands of children in the PsyNet, too. Even if the Honeycomb meant the PsyNet wouldn't collapse on them as it had done in sections prior to the awakening of the Es, the disintegration and hidden weakness within had to be having an impact on all those developing young minds.

  It frustrated her that she hadn't been able to give Ivy any answers. Part of it was because she'd been out of the PsyNet since her defection and was receiving all data secondhand, but mostly it was because they were all stumbling in the dark. No one knew the exact extent of the damage done by a hundred years of forced conditioning, of erasing emotion.

  "Coming," she said when Naya made a questioning noise from the living room.

  It would've sounded like "da mi" to most people. Sascha knew her daughter was asking after her milk. Setting aside the issues preying on her mind for now--Naya was far too good at picking up emotional nuances--Sascha breathed deep to calm herself. "On its way, sweetheart."

  She'd just brought out the milk to warm it on a low setting on the cooker when Ivy called. Naya liked it when Sascha made her milk that way, especially if she dusted it with a little dark chocolate.

  "Her mother's daughter," Lucas said with a sinful grin each time he saw Sascha sprinkling chocolate onto Naya's milk. Not a lot, never enough to harm their baby's health. Just the tiniest taste to make this a sometimes treat now that Naya was almost one and starting to become more adventurous with her food choices. The milk would hold Naya over until Lucas arrived home and they could have dinner together--changelings tried to have meals together with their cubs whenever possible.

  Naya's mind touched hers right then, sending her hungry thoughts.

  Sascha's lips tugged up at the corners, all stress suddenly melting away. "I know you're not starving, munchkin," she said, layering her response with emotion so Naya would understand her meaning.

  Her and Lucas's baby was smart, but she was still a baby.

  Guilty giggles sounded from the living area. Even as her smile deepened, Sascha told herself to be firm. It was extremely difficult when Naya was smart enough to know she could get out of trouble by being adorable, and when Sascha was terrified of ever hurting her baby's heart as her own had been hurt when she'd been a vulnerable child. Consciously, she understood that gentle correction was nothing like the harsh lessons she'd been taught as a child, but it took real effort of will for her to put that into practice.

  Every time she began to backslide into being too permissive, she reminded herself that Naya was a happy, settled child who knew she was deeply loved. She asked for affection whenever she needed it, with zero expectation that she might be refused or rejected--that idea was simply not part of her worldview, exactly as Sascha wanted for her. She was also secure enough to be naughty.

  Lucas had had to chase Naya around the aerie at bedtime last night--her walk might still be a little shaky, but she was a rocket when it came to crawling. Dressed only in a diaper, she'd laughed uproariously and said a loud, firm "No" each time Lucas caught her and put her in her crib.

  After which she'd clamber out--she'd figured out how to escape a month earlier--and the game would begin again. Of course, since Lucas was a cat, he'd been having just as much fun as their daughter. Sascha, meanwhile, had sat in the living room with a cup of hot chocolate and just indulged in the sight of her mate playing with their cub.

  She'd had to pretend to be stern when Naya ran over and pleaded her case with loud sounds and wild gesticulations of her hands. "No, Naya," she'd said, biting her tongue in an effort not to laugh. "It's time for bed. Go with Papa."

  At which point, Naya had growled at her, eyes sparkling with mischief.

  And Sascha had cracked, laughing so hard she'd had to put down her hot chocolate before she spilled it. Lucas had shaken his head as Naya plopped down on her diaper-covered butt and joined in, clapping her hands at having made her mommy laugh. "No discipline." Lucas had mock-growled at her before picking up their misbehaving baby. "And you"--a growly nuzzle that made Naya laugh harder and pat his stubbled cheek--"time for bed."

  He'd finally got her to sleep--by walking around with her pressed up against his bare chest.

  Today, their cub was playing in the living area just outside the kitchen nook. Sascha had locked the aerie door to ensure Naya wouldn't undo the latch and go out onto the balcony, and Lucas had childproofed the entire main area of the aerie, so Naya was free to roam as she liked. A lot of the time she practiced her walking skills. And no matter how often she fell down, she started back up again after a little break.

  Stubborn, determined baby.

  Peeking out from the kitchen, Sascha found her concentrating on stacking the colored alphabet blocks Faith and Vaughn had given her as a gift. Beside her sat a more than slightly ragged wolf plush toy, aka "The Toy That Shall Not Be Named." Hawke had given that to Naya when she was a newborn, and it remained her favorite snuggle toy, much to her father's despair.

  Though Lucas did enjoy it when Naya went leopard on the toy, growling and "fighting" with the wolf. Then he'd smile and say, "That's my girl."

  Laughing softly and making a note to steal the toy for a wash after Naya went to sleep one night this week, Sascha returned her attention to stirring the slowly warming milk. As she waited for it to reach optimum temperature, she picked up an organizer with her other hand to finish reading a note from Tamsyn about the joint DarkRiver-SnowDancer event she and Lara had proposed to celebrate the birth of Mercy and Riley's babies.

  The pupcubs would, after all, belong to both packs.

  It's a good excuse to acknowledge how deeply the two packs are now linked, the pack healer had written. I think we need to recognize that, start getting everyone used to the fact that with the birth of the pupcubs, we're going to truly become two independent parts of a much stronger whole.

  To her original message, Tamsyn had added an update: SnowDancer has suggested Mercy take the lead on this. I can see their point.

  Sascha smiled. Lucas had decided on Mercy, too, but had been waiting to hear back from the wolves, see if they'd insist on a more hands-on approach. It would aggravate him that he and the wolves--especially Hawke--were on so much the same wavelength.

  Grinning, she tapped back a message to Tamsyn, thanking the healer for the update and saying she'd pass it on to Lucas when he returned to the aerie. She and her mate switched off with child-care duties during the times Naya was home, but they were never out of touch with each other or the pack.

  As alpha, Lucas had the heaviest workload, but Sascha had carved out her own place in DarkRiver, was the main point of contact for multiple matters so he could be free to focus on the wider picture. She missed Naya when she was away from her, but changeling cubs thrived on social interaction with other packmates. As a result, Naya was often at nursery school or on playdates with friends.
br />   Conscious of the responsibilities that befell the alpha pair, their packmates were more than willing to take full charge of those playdates, but Sascha and Lucas took their turns as the hosts.

  Naya needed to see her parents just as much as any other cub.

  Pack was built on the bonds of family.

  Putting down the organizer as the milk heated to just a little hotter than the temperature Naya liked, she turned off the cooker and carefully poured the milk into a sippy cup. It would be the right temperature by the time she got it into Naya's impatient hands. She was just sprinkling on the dark chocolate--from her personal stash, courtesy of her mate--when she felt a ripple along the mating bond that connected her to the man who was her heart.

  She smiled and looked out at Naya. "Papa's almost home."

  Face lighting up, Naya ran to the door on wobbly legs. She banged her small palms against it while saying, "Pa-pa! Pa-pa!" Her speech development and comprehension skills had kicked in closer to the Psy timeline than the changeling one, the likely result of her having constant telepathic contact with her mother.

  Sascha screwed on the lid of the sippy cup before she walked out barefoot to pick up her daughter. Only when she had a firm hold did she unlock the door and open it to the early evening darkness. Lucas jumped up onto the balcony less than a minute later.

  He'd clearly run full tilt from where he usually parked his car overnight; changelings took care not to ruin the environment in which they thrived, and if that meant a long run home, so be it. Lucas's T-shirt was stuck to his chest, that chest heaving. Given his fitness, he had to have run really fast.

  "Racing to beat your best time?" Sascha asked as Naya stretched out toward her father, a wriggling, excited armful.

  Lucas's grin was pure sin, his green eyes all panther right then. Smacking a kiss on Naya's cheek after taking her into his arms, he hauled Sascha close with a grip on the back of her neck and claimed her mouth in a distinctly adult kiss. Even after more than three years as his mate, Sascha's bones melted.

  Pressing her hands against his chest, his heart thumping strong and fast under her palms and the scent of sweat and man around her, she rose up on her tiptoes, only breaking the kiss when her lungs protested. "I'm glad you're home." She hadn't seen him since six that morning, when he'd had to leave for an international conference call held in the comm room of DarkRiver's Chinatown HQ. To do with the fragile new Trinity Accord, it'd had too many participants for him to take the meeting on their home comm screen.

  Since Sascha had no external meetings of her own, she'd chosen to stay home with Naya, though they'd barely actually been at home. Aside from the afternoon play session, they'd gone out for an hour in the morning so Naya could play with Anu's toddler--the sweet-natured two-year-old and Naya were fast friends.

  Sascha had taken the chance to have a coffee with Anu as the two of them watched their children play. She'd expected stories of juvenile shenanigans from the cheerful maternal female, Anu's task in the pack to monitor the emotional health of the eleven-to-thirteen-year-old group, but Anu had shocked her with the news that the children hadn't gotten up to any tricks over the past week.

  "The good behavior won't last," she'd predicted with faux solemnity, her prettily plump face set in suspicious lines. "They're just lulling us into a false sense of security. Then . . . pounce!"

  Sascha was thinking she had to share Anu's comment with Lucas when he nipped at her lower lip.

  "I'm glad to be home," he said. "It's been a hell of a day." Another kiss, this one hard and fast, before he looked at Naya again. "Why are you pulling Papa's hair?"

  Naya's smile was pure gleeful cat. "Ooo!"

  Sascha tensed her stomach in an effort to fight her laughter; she knew that only encouraged their daughter. But, God, it was hard--she had no idea how Tamsyn did it with her twins. Who, incidentally, had taught Naya the word "oops" as a way to respond when caught making trouble. She could only enunciate "ooo," but her meaning was clear. She also knew the names of the twins, though she couldn't say Roman and Julian yet, only Ro and Jul.

  "Ooo is right." Lucas growled at Naya.

  Naya growled back, the sound so adorable and their cub's pride in making it such a huge, happy thing, that, once again, Sascha just could not keep a straight face. Turning away to hide her tearing eyes and laughter so Naya wouldn't realize how easily she could cute her way out of trouble, she breathed deep. Only when she had herself under control did she turn and take Naya back into her arms. "Come on, let's go have your milk so your papa can shower."

  Following at their backs, Lucas pulled the door closed and locked it again. "It's safe to release the escape artist."

  Sascha loved carrying Naya, loved feeling her warm weight, but she'd learned that leopard changeling cubs did best if they were allowed a certain independence from a young age. When Naya wanted a cuddle, she'd find her. So she stole another cheek kiss before putting Naya on the play mat on which her daughter had stacked her blocks. Then she watched her mate walk toward the shower.

  Her sigh was deep.

  It was unfair, how good he looked in an old pair of jeans and a simple T-shirt.

  Glancing over his shoulder as he reached the safely folded and stowed screen they used to separate out the living and sleeping areas when they had guests, Lucas grinned. "Hold that thought until our princess is asleep."

  Sascha kept her gaze locked to that of her wild panther, let the cat know she saw it prowling under his skin. "Oh, I intend to."

  A chuckle before he went the rest of the way to the shower located off the bedroom area.

  Going into the kitchenette, Sascha picked up the sippy cup and brought it out to Naya. "There you go, baby girl."

  Naya held the childproof cup with firm hands, little fingers around the handles on either side. Her eyes widened when she took the first sip out of the raised bit designed to ensure the milk wouldn't spill should it fall from her hands. "Cho!"

  "Yes, chocolate. You were very good at Anu's--I thought you deserved a treat." Rising to her feet, she went into the kitchenette to finish dinner preparations. Naya's meal was easy--when Sascha dropped off the twins this afternoon, Tamsyn had given her a fresh jar of toddler-appropriate stew that Naya loved.

  If only adult food were so straightforward.

  "Right," she said, and continued what she'd been doing before stopping to make Naya's milk.

  She was still a terrible cook overall, but she'd learned to make a few things that were fail-safe, and since Lucas had made sure they were fed three days running, it was only fair she take a turn.

  However, not only were her skills as a cook dismal, she had nothing on how sexy Lucas looked while cooking. Especially since he had a tendency to walk around the aerie wearing only his jeans, those jeans hanging precariously low. Sighing again at the memory--then grinning because he'd probably come out of the shower with nothing but a towel hitched around his hips, she put the potato cheese bake she'd already prepared into the oven.

  Her plan was to pair it with the chicken she'd put in to roast prior to the troubling call from Ivy Jane. She crossed her fingers that the chicken wouldn't burn or be undercooked. It remained her nemesis, along with a thousand other things.

  Picking up the organizer, she walked into the living room. She'd watch over Naya while Lucas showered, then put away work for the day. But first she had to reply to a--"Eep!"

  She jumped at the feel of something biting her ankle, glancing down just in time to see a furry black head disappear back under the small pink play table next to her. Eyes wide, Sascha tiptoed closer, was about to look beneath the table when she felt a deep need to do this with her mate by her side. "Lucas," she whispered, reaching for him through the mating bond.

  The shower shut off a heartbeat later, and then a dripping Lucas, white towel wrapped around his hips exactly as she'd imagined, was walking out. "What's the matter?"

  Sascha just pointed to the table and waved him down onto his knees. Awareness dawning in e
yes that rapidly went from human to panther, he came down beside her. Then, together, they both pressed their weight onto their palms and looked under the table Naya liked to use to put her toys on when she was "tidying."

  Bright green leopard eyes glowed at them before a tiny panther cub bounded out into their arms--or tried to. She wasn't very coordinated, more slid across the floor than ran. Pride burned in her eyes, in her mental presence, in her growling.

  Lucas growled back, chuckling and rubbing Naya's little head when she tried to pounce on him. Her concentration that of the very young child she was, she then turned to Sascha and tried to climb into her lap, Sascha having sat up on her knees.

  Sascha's heart had burst open at first sight of her child's new form. Jet-black like her father except for those bright green eyes, her leopard rosettes hidden in the black, Naya was astonishingly beautiful.

  Fighting happy tears, she said, "Clever, clever girl." She'd been told changeling children shifted around one year of age, and with Naya's birthday a bare week away, Sascha had been watchful--but she'd thought she would feel a mental change when Naya shifted for the first time. "Why didn't I feel you shift?"

  "Because it's normal for her." Lucas turned over onto his back on the play mat, uncaring of his wet state.

  Taking the silent invitation, Naya immediately ran over to climb laboriously onto his chest. She had to rest afterward, her tiny body heaving up and down under Lucas's hand. Once recovered, she stood on his chest and tried to bat playfully at his face. He deflected her with gentle hands, but in a way that told Naya it was all right to continue this game. "She's always Naya, whatever form she takes."

  "But when you shift, you feel wilder." Sascha didn't know how else to explain it.

  "She's a baby, closer to her primal state."

  Naya looked up and purred when Sascha petted her, then fell flat on her belly, legs splayed out. Sascha helped her get back on her feet, where she once again started to "fight" with her father, safe in the knowledge that Lucas could easily handle her mock-attack.

  "No claws." Lucas caught one small paw and tapped on the claws.