MINE TO POSSESS

Talin felt a stab of hurt followed by irritation. Who was this woman to question her about Clay? “Unsurprising, really. We were very young the last time we saw each other.” But he had walked in her soul every day of her life.

“I knew about you,” Tamsyn said from where she sat in an armchair between Faith and Talin. She was knitting something using a green wool that reminded Talin of Clay’s eyes. “ ‘My Tally,’ that’s what he called you.”

“You knew?” Faith frowned, the expression so subtle it was as if she hadn’t yet learned to share her emotions without shields. “Of course, you’ve known him much longer.”

Tamsyn continued to knit as she talked. “Yes. But he’s become good friends with you very quickly. You must have some kind of magic.”

The jealousy that hit Talin was a vicious creature, tearing and ripping and violent. “I guess he must’ve developed a thing for helpless women.” The bitchy comment was out before she could stop it.

Tamsyn’s knitting needles paused, then resumed. Faith raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think I’m helpless?” Her smile was ice.

Talin wasn’t backing off, not after the cracks Faith had taken at her. “You look like a touch would bruise you.” The other woman’s skin was a creamy gold with not a freckle in sight. “The word that comes to mind is fragile.”

Tamsyn laughed. “Sorry, ignore me. You two go on.”

Talin glanced between the DarkRiver women, felt a flush creep up her neck. “Clearly I’m missing something.” The sense of exclusion hurt all the more because she’d thought Tamsyn liked her.

“I’m sorry, Talin.” There was no laughter in Tamsyn’s gentle voice. “I was only thinking of what Clay would say if he heard you two.”

Talin kept her attention on Faith. “What are you, a telekinetic or something?” she asked, very aware of being outside the closed circle of Clay’s new family.

Faith’s eyes were intent, eerie in their focus. “I see the future.”

“You’re an F-Psy?” A being so rare that Talin didn’t know anyone who had ever actually met one. “A cardinal F-Psy?”

“Yes. Believe me when I tell you—the things I see, they’re not for the weak.”

“I take back the crack about you being fragile then,” she said. “But friend or not, you have no right to get between me and Clay.” She might be a puny, powerless human, but just let anyone, even a cardinal, try to keep her from Clay.

“You and Clay. So there is a relationship?”

“Yes.” With that single word, Talin felt a fundamental shift inside of herself. “If you have something to say about that, say it to my face instead of dancing around it.”

Tamsyn’s needles stopped completely, but Faith didn’t flinch. “I see the future. Sometimes, I see things about people who matter to me.”

That destroyed Talin’s anger as nothing else could have done. “What?” she whispered. “What do I do to Clay?”

“I don’t know.” Faith’s response was quiet, her voice so crystal clear it reminded Talin of Jon’s. “But what I do know is that the future hasn’t yet changed.”

“What does that mean?” She wanted to shake the foreseer, make her stop talking in riddles.

“It means that whatever you are, you’re not yet the woman who’ll stop him from crossing the final line … from losing his humanity.”





CHAPTER 22


Max turned to block the attack an instant too late.

They fell on him in a sadistic swarm, kicking and punching. They didn’t yell, didn’t scream, and their utter silence was a threat in itself. He fought back, but there were too many. After a while, his world narrowed down to a repetitive chorus.

The thud of flesh on flesh, the rasp of skin against the asphalt, heavy, pained breaths. A trickle of warm blood down his face.

The sound of a gun being fired. Then … nothing.





CHAPTER 23


Clay took one look at Talin’s face when she came downstairs into the kitchen and knew she’d gone head to head with Faith. She stopped with a good foot of space between them. Scowling, he closed the distance and took her stiff, cold hand. When she tried to pull it away, he had to remind himself to act civilized. “I thought we were friends.”

That made her press her lips tight, but she stopped fighting him.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Silence. “Fine. I’ll ask Faith.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Are you in love with her?”

Where the hell did women get ideas like this? “She’s Vaughn’s mate.”

“So?”

“So, what?” Clay shoved a hand through his hair. “Meddling in each other’s business is what packmates do. I don’t like it much, but you learn to live with it.”

“She thinks she has rights over you.”

Now this was interesting. “Your possessive side is showing again, Tally.”

“Stop it.” She tugged at her hand.

He refused to let go. “She does have rights over me,” he said. “Just like I have rights over Sascha or Tamsyn. It’s about looking after your own. They’re Pack.”

“And I’m not.”