Wolf Rain (Psy-Changeling Trinity #3)(131)

He’d also become aware of the growing pet population in the empathic compound. Jaya was back with Phantom—and both had fallen in love with the blanket Memory had knitted for her friend’s pet. The cat had been known to drag it out of his basket and onto the sunny porch so he could lounge in comfort.

While Phantom was, at present, the only resident cat, Ivy Jane dropped by often with her energetic mutt, three other trainees had dogs, one had a bird that followed the E around of its own free will, and another one had a hamster. He’d also heard that a family of wildcats regularly visited Sascha, each member waiting patiently for their turn to be showered with attention.

Es and pets seemed to go together.

“You keeping the little monster, then?”

Another glare that made the wolf inside him grin. “He’s too small to be out in the forest.”

“I don’t know. He’s a feral thing.” He growled for good measure.

The kitten hissed back at him before cuddling up to Memory. The tiny creature seemed not to realize it was all bone and a bit of fur. Alexei had picked him out of the litter exactly because of that. That litter had been in DarkRiver territory, but he’d been given first pick when he’d told the leopards why he wanted a kitten.

The runt might be tiny, but he’d also been the most ferocious.

Now, the kitten jumped out of Memory’s hands to land on the forest floor. Tail in the air, it began to prowl around. “Thinks he’s king of the forest instead of a bite-sized snack.”

Putting her hands on her hips, Memory glared at him again . . . then ran over without warning to throw her arms around him. He lifted her up with a grip on her waist, smiling smugger than the cat as she kissed him again and again. The wolf inside him rubbed up against his skin. “I guess this means you want to keep the tiny beast,” he said darkly.

“I know you like him, so stop pretending.” Pressing her nose to his, she gave him a stern look, but she was stroking his nape with her fingers while he held her with her feet off the ground. “What will the rest of your pack say when I bring a kitten into the den?”

“Our pack,” he said, “will say it’s all Riley’s fault. He went and mated a leopard, and now we’re inundated with cats.”

“Oh! Beast, come back here!” Memory wiggled down and went to collect her pet—who was about to wander off into the forest.

“Beast?” He grinned. “I like it. And don’t worry about him getting lost. I’ve got his scent.”

But the kitten was curled up against Memory’s chest, purring like an old-fashioned motor, so he put his arm around his mate and they walked back to the den. The pups gathered around them in astonishment when they reached the play area. Memory put Beast down and all parties stared at one another for a long time.

“No biting Memory’s beast,” was the consensus before the pups returned to their play.

Beast stayed back, watchful and probably planning world domination.

Picking the kitten up again, Memory turned to Alexei. “I love you.”

“I know.” He laughed when she elbowed him, sunlight in his soul. “I love you, too, lioness. Even if you do let me get mauled by tiny beasts.” Reaching out, he scratched the beast on its head.

It threatened to bite his fingers.

Memory leaned up and kissed his jaw. “You’re not on security shift, are you?”

“No, I went to get your ferocious beast.”

“Then come inside and I’ll kiss your sorely mauled body better.”

Alexei’s vision altered, his wolf rising to the surface. “Come on, mate, let’s go scandalize the beast.”



* * *



? ? ?

IT took a month for Kaleb to notice the change. The PsyNet area around Memory Aven-Rose’s mind was healthier, stronger . . . solid.

Much more so than could be explained by her fledgling abilities.

His eyes went to the place where the wild amber bond disappeared into nothing. A bond the neosentience of the PsyNet continued to protect with an intense and strange secretiveness. And a bond that connected the PsyNet with a changeling pack. Not just any pack, but the biggest and most powerful in the world.

Kaleb couldn’t access SnowDancer minds via the link that appeared to go nowhere, but was it possible the invasion was occurring in the other direction? Primal wolf energy entering the PsyNet? It would do the wolves no harm—choice underlay a healthy PsyNet, else Psy would’ve forced humans into bonds long ago.

To test his theory, he checked the area around Silver’s mind. Healthy. Extremely so. And his former aide and current director of EmNet wasn’t an empath, so that eliminated one possible factor. In point of fact, the two women had only a single similarity: each was mated to a dominant predatory changeling who was part of a sprawling pack.

Whatever was happening, it appeared to be a passive transfer that no one else had noticed. Kaleb would tell only Sahara. These bonds could not become political. They were too important.

“The wolves, bears, and humans of two deadly packs might help save tens of thousands of Psy lives,” he said to her that night.

“Kaleb, we have to tell the alphas at least.” Her blue eyes asked him to choose the side of right, of conscience.

She was his lodestar.

He made it a conference call with Hawke Snow, Valentin Nikolaev, Silver, Memory Aven-Rose, and Alexei Harte.