She didn't know much about how and why the Psy race had stopped feeling, but it had to have been a terrible thing that had driven them down this path. Her healer's soul ached for them--for the love they would never touch, but she knew she couldn't help them. Not when they barricaded themselves in their high-rises, their minds shut to the possibility of hope.
It's why the Psy rule this planet.
Tamsyn shook her head. The stranger was wrong. The Psy might rule, but their world was limited to towers of steel and glass. They knew nothing of the joy of running under a full moon and listening to the music played by the wind, of feeling the sensation of a packmate's fur against human skin, of the sheer life that existed in the forests that were her world.
But the woman had been right about one thing--how could you miss something you had never experienced? Nathan had never been hers. Their beasts might cry out for each other, but if the human half of Nathan chose to repudiate that bond, who was she to stop him?
SHE LEFT THE NEXT DAY. THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY. IF SHE remained within reach, Nathan's beast would eventually push him over the edge. And she couldn't bear to lie with him knowing their intimacy was nothing more than the result of a physical compulsion. It would be a glimpse into her own personal vision of hell.
Her friend, Finn, was more than happy to fly in on short notice.
"The healer in our pack's not even forty, so I'm not going to get to do anything serious for a while," he told her when she met him at the airport and escorted him into their territory. DarkRiver wasn't known for its friendliness toward unknown males. They couldn't afford to be, not after the attack by the ShadowWalkers.
"I know," she said. "That's why I asked you rather than Maria."
He gave her a smile but his eyes were watchful. "I appreciate it."
She ignored the unasked question. "I'm going to introduce you to the alpha. He knows you're coming, of course, but the hierarchy has to be maintained." The laws of rank and hierarchy were there for a reason--they balanced the predatory nature of their animal halves with order.
Finn nodded. "I'll feel better once he adopts me into DarkRiver. It wouldn't do for one of your pack to slice me up because they figured me for an intruder."
Since she thought the same, she made sure to take him to Lachlan first thing. Even with that delay, she was ready to be on her way out of DarkRiver territory by late afternoon. "Take care of my people, Finn."
The twenty-one-year-old healer didn't bother to conceal his worry this time. "What about you, Tam? Who's looking after you?"
"I'll be fine." She tightened her hands around the straps of her bag. "It might be permanent, you know that, right?"
"Yes." He stroked his hand over her hair, offering comfort in the changeling way. "But it shouldn't be. You were born to be DarkRiver's healer."
"I can work with another leopard pack." But Nathan couldn't be replaced. Not when it was clear that Lachlan was preparing Lucas to step into his role as alpha sooner rather than later. When the time came, Lucas would need to rely on Nate's experience and rock-solid advice. "Try it here," she made herself say. "If everything works out..."
"No rush." Finn's tone was gentle. "I'll hold your place until you come to your senses. Then I'll happily return to the civilized world of our territory instead of this jungle."
She smiled at his joking, but as she walked away, she had the sick feeling she might never return. When she neared the fir she'd strung with Christmas decorations and lights, her eyes stung. "I'm sorry, Shayla," she whispered to the ghost that reproached her for leaving her pack when it still needed her.
They would be okay, she told herself. She'd started them on the road to healing. All they had to do was follow it. Tempting as it was to pass by quickly, she made herself look up. There was the ornament Vaughn had painted, right next to the one by Cian. Around them wove the string of lights Nate had hung after he'd growled at her for putting her fool neck in danger. And there was the star she'd almost thrown at him, she'd been so mad.
"Oh God." Blinking, she looked away...and kept walking.
Ten
NATE RETURNED HOME CLOSE TO DAWN, COMING FROM A night raid to "suggest" Solias King look elsewhere for his development. The damn, encroaching Psy would follow their advice, of that Nate was certain. Even in leopard form, he wanted to grin.
He'd stood watch for hours as Cian and a couple of others with tech training had methodically taken apart every piece of Psy equipment already onsite. While that might have been enough, Nate had gone a step further and buried several of the most expensive pieces in a section of DarkRiver land that bordered SnowDancer territory. No Psy would dare venture that close to wolf land. The feral pack had a reputation for ripping out intruders' throats and using the bleached-out bones as fence posts.
Just in case Solias King missed their point even after all that, they had also removed the semipermanent survey markers and disabled the rudimentary comm tower erected a few days ago. It was why DarkRiver had allowed the thing to go up in the first place--so they could destroy it, and in a fashion that made it clear they would brook no further trespass on their lands.
Nate was particularly proud of the crowning touch. Inspired by Tammy, he'd taken along a large Christmas ornament--an old-fashioned picture of the man in red and white--and hung it from the now useless comm tower. Then he'd wrapped a string of blinking multicolored lights around the metal skeleton.
He couldn't wait to tell Tammy--she'd bust a gut over it. Taking on the Psy wasn't usually a laughing matter, as the cold psychic race didn't hesitate to kill. But from everything they had been able to unearth, it appeared that Solias King's darker impulses were currently being curbed by his political aspirations. He couldn't afford to come down hard on the changelings. Any violence and his own Council would turn against him.
Nate had no illusions that the Psy Council cared about changelings, but they damn well did care about their bottom line. And that would suffer massive depreciation if people thought the Psy were declaring a racial war. The Council would never allow such a panic to start over a small piece of land in the territory of what they considered a minor pack. Nate had a feeling DarkRiver wasn't going to stay minor long, but until then, they could and would use the Council's sense of arrogance to their advantage.
Shifting the second he cleared the doorway to his home, he pulled on a pair of jeans and an old cable-knit sweater. He had to see Tamsyn, no matter the ridiculously early hour. The royal blue sweater had been a gift from her. Maybe it would thaw her mood--she'd been more than a little distant when he'd dropped by this morning.
But his hopeful frame of mind disappeared the instant he got near her house--the area was blanketed in the scent of an unfamiliar male.
Unbidden, scenes of the carnage that had taken their last healer from them filled his mind. "Tammy!" He pounded on the door. "Tammy!"
The door swung open to reveal a young male. "Hel--" His voice cut off as Nate gripped him around the neck and lifted him off the floor.
"What have you done to her?" He tried to ignore the fact that the male was dressed only in a pair of pajama bottoms, his hair mussed.
I'm sick of stroking myself to sleep.
No, she wouldn't do that to him. The agony he felt at the thought of Tammy, his Tammy, with anyone, much less this runt, was enough to call the beast to the surface. His eyes shifted to cat. He couldn't hear anything through the pounding roar of blood in his head, was dangerously close to killing.
The single reason he didn't do so was that his leopard suddenly started scrambling to find Tammy. He threw aside the other man and strode into the house, preparing himself for what he would find. If she was in bed--Something tore inside him.
He wouldn't hurt her. He could never hurt her.
But that boy was going to die a slow, cruel death.
He shoved open the bedroom door...and found the bed made, with no signs of recent occupation.
"I slept on the couch," a raspy voice said from the doorway.
He turned to find the stranger supporting himself against a wall, one hand rubbing at his throat. "Didn't seem right to sleep in Tam's bed."
Tam? The leopard growled, harsh and vocal. "Who are you and what are you doing in my mate's house?"
The other man's eyes widened. "Mate? She never--" He slapped up his hands, palms out, when Nate started advancing. "I'm a healer. Name's Finn."
That stopped Nate midstep. Healers, even enemy healers, had automatic protection. Only blood-hungry packs like the ShadowWalkers broke that rule. "We already have a healer." Claws raked his gut, twisted through his body like hard fire.
"She asked me to fly in and take over for a while." Finn coughed a few times. "Said it might be permanent. Our pack's got a senior healer and another apprentice, so they were happy to let me go."
"I said we already have a healer." Nate glared.
Finn didn't back down. "Not anymore you don't. She left."
The beast wanted to lash out, to tear and scar. "Where did she go?"
The healer held up his hands a second time and Nate wondered what the other man had seen in his eyes. "I swear I don't know. I figured she'd talked it over with your alpha--maybe a sabbatical or some extra training. She introduced me to him."
Nate left on a mission to find Lachlan, but it was Lucas he ran into first. He would have pushed past except that Lucas stepped into his path and said, "Looking for Tammy?"
Nate stilled. "You knew she left?" At that moment, the first rays of the rising sun hit the tree line, throwing light across Lucas's savage facial markings.
"Didn't you?"
"Damn it, Luc. Answer the damn question."
"Sure." The juvenile folded his arms. "I heard her ask Nita to drive her out of the territory."
The urge to grab Lucas and shake Tammy's location out of him was so strong, Nate looked away and took a deep breath before saying, "And neither of you tried to stop her from leaving?"
"Why would we?" Lucas's tone was hard. "You made her cry, Nathan. You made your mate cry and then you didn't hold her."
The blow hit him with bruising force. "Where is she, Lucas?"
"I don't know--you could ask Nita, but I don't think she's around." He glanced at the sun-touched trees. "I have to get to the Circle for training."
Nate didn't try to stop him from leaving, and was still standing there when Cian appeared out of the shadows. "Nate? You after Lachlan? I just left him--he's free for the next half hour or so."
"I'm trying to find Tammy."
Cian's face showed instant comprehension and not a little anger. "What the hell are you doing to that girl, Nate?"
"What's right for her." Cian didn't understand what it was to watch a woman fall out of love with her man, turn bitter and self-destructive...and finally, suicidal. He'd held his mother's dead body. He refused to hold Tamsyn's. "She's too young."
"She was too young when Shayla died. But did you hear her complain?" The sentinel's voice was a whip. "Seventeen years old and she took on a position most people don't touch until they've reached their third decade."
"Exactly!" He blew out a frustrated breath. "All that responsibility and then a mate, too? I'd demand things she has no conception of--"
Cian swore, low and pithy. "Isn't that your job as her mate? To demand but to let her demand as much in turn? You're supposed to fucking share the burden, not add to it like you've been doing with your self-pitying bullshit."
"You might be my senior," Nate said, the leopard in his voice, "but you are not my father." His father was long dead, having literally driven himself to an early grave after his wife's death--he'd wrapped his car around a tree. "You want to take me on, go ahead."
"Screw that." Cian shrugged. "If I damaged you, Tammy would have my head."
With that simple comment, the other man defused every bit of Nate's anger. "Tell me where she is. I have to make sure she's safe." The leopard's desperation grew by the minute.
"I don't know." Cian shoved up his sleeves. "To be honest, I don't think you deserve to know, either. And don't bother asking Nita--she has no idea where Tammy went after getting out of the car."
"What, none of you bothered to ask her?" He couldn't believe that, not with how protective they had become after what had happened to Shayla. As this inquisition clearly proved. "You let her go off on her own without a word of protest?"
Cian's eyes turned opaque. "She's an adult leopard. No one has the right to question her decisions."
And she'd made one to leave him. Nate leaned against a tree and stared up at the dawn sky. It promised to turn a pure, mocking blue. "Where did Nita drop her?" She wouldn't be hard to track--she was carrying his heart with her.
Cian snorted. "Sorry, you're on your own. You made the mess, you can damn well clean it up. But since you look like you've been gut-punched, I will tell you something she said to Lachlan when she made the request to leave and bring Finn in as cover."
Nate straightened. "What?"
"She said you were more important to the pack. Since one of you had to go, she decided it had better be her." The older male shook his head. "My Keelie is the most precious part of my life. How could you let your mate think she was less than you, Nate?"
Nate still hadn't found an answer to that question seven hours later when he finally located the first hint of a trail. He was certain that this was where she'd left Nita's car. He looked up and found himself close to Tahoe. Tamsyn had vanished somewhere in the lake city's streets. Nathan had every intention of hunting her down.
UNFORTUNATELY, WHEN HE RETURNED TO THE DEN TO PICK up his gear, he found another surprise waiting for him, this time in his living room.
"Where's my daughter, Nathan?" was Sadie's first question.
He began to grab what he needed. "I'll find her."
"I don't know if I want you to find her." Tamsyn's mother scowled. "You didn't do a great job of keeping her this time around."
"I'll bring her home."
"Why? So you can make her miserable?" She moved to block the doorway, fierce in her maternal protectiveness. "Let her roam. That's what you've been telling her to do. Well, looks like she listened. Don't you dare go after her."
The blunt words brought him to a halt. "I can't do that."
"Why not? It's exactly what you wanted."
"She's mine to protect."
"You gave up that right when you decided you didn't want to be her mate." Sadie shook her head. "You've done enough. Let my baby go."
He stared at her, a sick feeling in his gut. "I never said I didn't want to be her mate. Where the hell did you get that idea?" And did Tammy think the same?
Eleven
"FROM YOU, NATHAN." SADIE GAVE HIM AN ARCH LOOK AS she shook the foundations of his world. "Tammy was practically screaming for your love and you wouldn't so much as hold her. She got the message--she can't break the bond, but she might be able to mute it with distance."
"What damn message?" Impatience, anger, and a painful hunger for the scent of his mate combined to roughen his tone. "The only thing I wanted to give her was a taste of freedom before--"
"I've heard it all before." She lifted a hand. "If you really mean it, then you'll put down that pack and go sit down. After all, she's free now, isn't she?"
"That's not what I meant," he said between gritted teeth. "I wanted her--"
"You wanted her on your leash--close enough to watch over so you could satisfy your beast." Sadie's eyes went pure leopard. "It didn't matter to you that her need was turning into a kind of slow torture. You are not doing that to my baby again! You let her go. Let her find someone who'll love her for what she is."
Violent rage turned to lethal calm. "What the hell are you talking about? She's my mate. That is not negotiable."
"Not if you won't let it be. If you set her free, maybe she'll fall for someone who'll adore her like she's meant to be adored."
"I adore her!" he yelled in disbelief. "No one else has that right!"
"Do you?" Sadie's f
eatures settled into a resolute expression. "Then show her, for goodness' sake. Otherwise, free her in reality instead of just giving lip service to the idea." She vacated the doorway.
Nate walked out without replying, but her words wouldn't leave his mind, no matter how far he went. Tammy thought he didn't want to be her mate? How could such an idiotic idea have ever entered her head? The second he saw her, he was going to growl the truth to her until she damn well listened.
Well...maybe he'd hold her first. He'd made her cry and he hadn't held her. Lucas was right. That was unforgivable. But Tammy was his mate. She had to forgive him. And she had to come home. He couldn't exist without her close to him. Those months she had spent in New York had almost killed him, but at least then he'd been able to tell himself that she was still a girl, not a woman.
But now that he'd felt the lush heat of her, he could no longer kid himself. Tammy had grown up. And she'd left him. "We'll see about that." The leopard snarled, mad as hell.
Not much later, he reached the point where he'd first picked up her trail--close to Tahoe. From there, he could try to track her by scent or...or he could do the one thing certain to lead him to her. No choice at all, really.
Taking a deep breath, he released the stranglehold of control he'd held over the mating bond since the day she'd turned fifteen and he'd realized what she was to him. It felt like the whiplash unfurling of a coiled spring--a burst of pure power that actually hurt as it boomeranged off his chest, driving him to his knees.
When his head finally stopped spinning, he felt for the bond and found it stretched out taut and clear, a vibrating cord of need, desire, and belonging. He could feel Tammy deep within his core, as if he had a homing beacon tuned only to her signal. It was perfection. And he wasn't sure he could ever block it again. But he'd think about that later.
Right now, he had to survive the intensity of the emotions shooting down the bond. It felt like he could reach out and touch her. She was sweetness and hope, woman and fire, erotic heat and gentle affection. And she was his. Not fucking negotiable.