"Lynx part of a group?" Lucas asked, his voice having dropped into leopard range.
"I couldn't track any particular scent and they're known to be happier in small family groups." She glanced at her alpha and, at his nod, continued. "He was messed up, and not like the Psy get on Jax. When I found him, he was in human form but his hand was a paw and he had random patches of fur over his body."
Vaughn didn't understand the problem. "He was changing?"
"No. He was stuck midshift. Babbled enough that I was able to figure out he hadn't been able to shift properly since a few days after he first took the damn stuff."
It was a horrifying thought. To be unable to be the animal was akin to losing one's soul. "Where is he?" Vaughn felt pity for the creature. That was what made him changeling rather than pure, savage beast.
"Dead." A flat response. "I didn't do it, though. I couldn't. It would've been like kicking an injured pup. I was herding him back to our healer when he went into convulsions. His body snapped into the change then back out several times. When it was over, he was dead and... messed up." Her voice held traces of shock, unexpected in a woman reputed to be made of ice-fired steel. "Human, lynx, skin inside out and bones in the wrong places. Christ, I've never seen anything like that."
"The body?" Lucas looked at Hawke.
"At the den. We want Tamsyn to come out and have a look at it with Lara and the other healers."
"I'll send Nate and Tammy over as soon as we've finished talking."
"We can pick them up in the car," Hawke offered, a certain look in those pale blue eyes that were the same shade in either form.
Lucas snorted. "Would you trust your mate to one of us?"
"That'll never come up." Hawke's tone was very final - as if he knew he'd never have a mate. If that was true, no wonder the alpha was terminally pissed.
"Here."
Vaughn caught the image slide Indigo threw across and took a look. His stomach revolted. "Fuck." He handed it to Lucas. "Let's get this out - both the fact that someone's peddling this stuff to the weaker changelings and the effect it has. That should stop anyone who wants to give it a taste."
"I say we send copies of the pictures," Indigo suggested. "Once you see those, even the idea of Jax will give you hives."
Hawke watched Lucas study the slide. "We have to move soon. I don't want to chance someone else being sucked in."
Lucas nodded. Vaughn was in complete agreement. Being at the top of the food chain came with responsibilities. When under attack, it was the predators the other changelings looked up to. And in California, SnowDancer and DarkRiver were it.
"Cian can coordinate the info spread with that old wolf of a librarian in your pack." Lucas returned the slide.
"Dalton." Indigo put it back into her pocket without looking. "He's good at this sort of stuff. I'll get him to contact Cian."
They were about to break up when Lucas asked, "How're the Laurens?" He was referring to the family of Psy defectors who'd found unlikely sanctuary with the wolves. The Council believed the Laurens dead, which gave the wolves a strategic advantage. But not enough to balance out the aggravation, if Hawke's scowl was anything to go by.
"Your mate's roped Judd into helping her with Brenna and you can imagine how popular that was with Andrew and Riley. He so much as blinks wrong around their baby sister and they'll slice him up - except the crazy Psy doesn't seem to give a shit about anything, which might be the only thing keeping him alive." The alpha folded his arms. "And yeah, Walker's trying to train the kids to do something with their shields so they don't accidentally give away the game."
Which left out Sienna Lauren. The teenager was probably the cause of Hawke's scowl. The alpha confirmed Vaughn's guess a second later.
"Sienna's so damn much trouble, I'm starting to think the brat's a she-wolf in bloody disguise."
"You're too easy on her." Indigo's words didn't go with the spark of amusement in her eyes.
Hawke let out a low growl. "You think it's so funny, I'm putting you in charge of training her in self-defense. She fights like a housecat, all hiss and no bite."
Indigo paled and that was one thing Vaughn had never expected to see. "How long?"
"As long as it takes." Smile satisfied, Hawke returned his attention to Lucas and Vaughn. "We'll keep an eye out for your people. Give Sascha darling a kiss from me."
The wolf barely avoided having his throat torn out by Lucas's claws.
Vaughn shadowed Lucas back to the site of the joint Psy-changeling housing development, close to where Hawke had called the meeting. His alpha, his friend, paused at the edge and took a slow breath. "It hurts Sascha to see Nikita. It damn near tears her up."
"I know." Vaughn understood exactly what it did to a child to watch her mother walk away.
"It'll be better once there's another Psy in DarkRiver. The Laurens are different. They're locked into their own familial Net. Another mind in the Web is what she needs."
Vaughn fisted his hands. "I can't force Faith."
"What about persuasion?" Putting his own hands into his pockets, Lucas rocked back on his heels.
"I'm not in enough control." The blunt truth.
"Trust yourself. You can't hurt her."
"The cat's getting desperate." Desperate enough that Vaughn could feel claws constantly pressing against his flesh, a mere thought away. How the hell could he trust himself with Faith's delicate skin?
"Then feed it," Lucas finally said. "We aren't Psy and Faith has to accept that before she makes any choice. Show her what you are."
"I've hardly been gentle with her so far."
"But you haven't demanded what you need either. I can feel your tension and it's already affecting the younger males in the pack." Another blunt truth - as sensitive as they were to scents in either form, Vaughn's unceasing sexual need was probably rubbing the juveniles raw. "Take her or find a cat to scratch the itch."
He bristled. "Would you fuck around on Sascha?"
"Exactly." Lucas shook his head. "You can't live without her. Do you even want to try?"
Hell no! And that quickly, he knew what he had to do. "Can you deal without me for a day or two?" The cat had had enough. It was taking over.
Lucas's attention shifted to the car gliding to a quiet halt on the other side of the site. "Good hunting. I'm going to go kiss my own woman."
Vaughn melted back into the forest, his beast stirring in anticipation of the most important hunt of his life. He was through playing by Faith's rules. The jaguar was loose and it was hungry. A roar came from his throat, rough and dangerous. Faith NightStar was about to come face-to-face with a predator determined to possess her. No compromises. No mercy.
Faith completed the forecast for BlueZ Industries, Sem-tech, and Lillane Contracting, then turned off the trigger panel. "I'm going to walk the grounds."
"Understood."
Only when she was outside and hidden by several large trees did she take a deep breath and rub her hands down the front of her jeans. She'd put them on instead of her usual dress in response to an early morning vision.
A jaguar was coming for her.
The vision had been a warning: choose. But she'd already made her decision, already accepted his claim. After today she'd never again return to this house, her safe place, her familiar place. Though she'd failed in her quest to track down Marine's killer - he hadn't bitten at her open mind last night, or this morning - she had to leave the PsyNet. Vengeance would still be hers. She knew.
Returning to the house, she did three more predictions before lunch. "Are you sure you feel no stress?" Xi Yun asked after the third.
"I think I've pushed myself far enough today." She'd need her strength to handle the predator heading in her direction.
"I can request a medical team attend you."
"That's not necessary. Given the increase in my raw psychic potential, I was trying to see how far my powers had come."
"Yes, of course. You should've told me in advance. I'll forward you the details of the scans. It appears your mind is regulating your body more efficiently during the forecasts. No stress lines at all."
"Excellent." An idea came to life. "I'll probably sleep deeply after this morning's exertion, so please ensure I'm not disturbed for at least twelve hours after I retire."
"Noted."
"Thank you."
Aware she was being scrutinized for any erratic behavior as a result of nonexistent stress, she forced herself to follow her normal routines. Going into the kitchenette area, she poured and consumed a glass of the high-energy drink that carried most of the vitamins and minerals she needed, then ate two energy bars with slow deliberation. Next, she downloaded the promised medical scans onto her personal organizer and took a seat in the lounge area to go over them.
She had every intention of taking the data with her when she defected. It would likely be her last chance to access scans this detailed, and they were invaluable for an F-Psy, charting as they did every area of the brain. Including those sections most vulnerable to mental degradation. Because no matter what happened, she was an F-Psy and with that came a higher risk of insanity. It always had.
It was only after two hours that she stretched and walked into her bedroom, her eyes continuing to scan the files. Dropping the facade the second she was inside, she quickly packed her backpack with the few things she didn't want to leave behind. There wasn't much - her organizer, a holo-shot of Marine downloaded from the PsyClan's database, and one of her father. He'd consider her a traitor after tonight, but for all his coldness, he'd been the single constant in her life and she'd miss him. Finally, she threw in a change of clothes and that was it. A sad commentary on the life she'd lived to date.
