"Can you stall?" He touched his finger to her cheek, running it down her neck before sliding his hand over her arm to link their fingers together.

Dorian moved to stand in front of them. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm supposed to be a spy," Sascha said, frayed enough to be blunt. "Part of my mission was to gather as much firsthand information about changelings as I could, and feed it to my mother and Councilor Enrique."

"How do we know you haven't been doing exactly that?" demanded a female voice from the doorway.

Sascha met Rina's hostile gaze. "You don't. You have no way of tracking the PsyNet."

The blonde came to a standstill, beside Dorian. "No lies, Psy?" Her eyes flicked nervously to Lucas even as she spoke.

Lucas's fingers tightened on Sascha's hand. "Are you questioning my judgment, Rina?"

"Are you sure you have any?" Rina's voice held defiance. "You brought a Psy into our safe house and you knew she was a mole!"

"Be quiet, Rina." Dorian's voice was harsh.

The other woman clenched her fists. "What? I'm not allowed to ask questions anymore?"

Lucas let go of Sascha's hand. "There's a fine line between asking questions and going too far."

"I have a right to know what's going on." Rina's eyes were trained on Lucas, no longer interested in Sascha. They all knew who the most dangerous person in the room was and he was concentrating solely on Rina.

"No, you don't." There was no mercy in Lucas's response. "You were made a soldier earlier this year. Your rank is so low you shouldn't even be part of this conversation."

Sascha was stunned by the flatness of that declaration. She'd never heard Lucas sound so autocratic, almost cruel. He'd clearly hit Rina where it hurt - her pride. As she watched, Dorian moved to flank his alpha. Rina was left alone on the other side.

"Lucas," Rina began, her voice shaky, "why are you being like this?"

"Because you've shown me that being soft on you was a mistake." He gripped her chin between his fingertips. "You haven't earned the right to speak to me like you just did. Do you understand?"

Rina's eyes welled up. For the first time, Sascha realized how young the female was, something her boldness had masked. Feeling sorry for her, she tried to move forward, but Lucas's furious glance stopped her in midstep. He turned back to look at Rina.

"You're a low-rank soldier," he repeated. "Your job is to follow orders. Dorian, where is Rina supposed to be?"

"Standing watch on the left side of the house with Barker." Dorian's tone was considerably harsher than Lucas's, a whip of vibrating anger.

"So you can't even follow orders." Lucas let go of the girl's chin. "Do you think we posted you there for fun?"

Mute, Rina shook her head. Sascha could feel waves of humiliation and shock coming off the girl. That alone told her neither of the men had ever before spoken to her like this. Unable to remain silent any longer, she said, "I think that's enough."

"Stay out of this." The markings on Lucas's face stood out in stark relief. "This is Pack business."

Her hurt at the clear exclusion was beyond proportion. "Do you usually rule by humiliation?"

"This isn't the perfect, clean world of the Psy. Cruelty is sometimes necessary." He looked back at Rina. "This isn't the first time you've disobeyed a direct order. You want to be independent that much, I'll let you walk away from DarkRiver."

Rina shook her head. "No." It was a whisper.

"Then do the job you're supposed to." He glanced at Dorian. "She's under your command as of now. Don't sleep with her like Barker did. It's obviously affected his ability to treat her like a soldier."

"Don't worry. Spoiled little girls aren't my type."

Sascha saw the girl's face turn bright red and her lower lip start to tremble. "Stop it, both of you."

"Dorian, take Rina and close the door behind you."

Without a word, the other two leopards left. Sascha waited until the door was closed to speak her mind. "How could you do that to her? Nothing she said was bad enough to merit that ritual shredding of her pride."

"She questioned my authority." He reached out to touch her face but she pulled away. His jaw tightened.

"No one has the right to do that? You're protected from scrutiny?"

"There are men and women in this pack who've bled for me, who've followed orders to walk into dangerous territory without a single question. They've earned the right to say what they think about me." Anger flickered in the green of his eyes. "Vaughn, Clay, Mercy, Tammy, Dorian, Nate, Desiree, Cian, Jamie, and even that idiot Barker are some of the ones who have the right to question my decisions. Rina doesn't."

"Why?" She was still angry for the put-down he'd delivered to the girl. It felt too much like what people had done to her - not good enough to be a cardinal, not powerful enough, not anything enough to matter. "Aren't you supposed to be a family?"

"Families have hierarchy." He pulled her into his embrace with such speed that she couldn't escape. She froze, wondering if this was a good time to show him that she had a few tricks he didn't know about. "The safety of the entire family depends upon that hierarchy being followed."

His words made her think. "If she questions you and you let it go, then she might not do as you ask when it's necessary." Against her cheek his heart beat strong and powerful, another indication of his physical strength.

Some of the anger in his voice lessened. "Yes. Today, she walked off her watch. That could've meant death for some of us if anyone unfriendly was out there." He dropped his chin on her hair. "The newly mature males and females who are strong and independent enough to make good soldiers are also the hardest to control. If I let them have their way, they'd cause chaos."

"You were so harsh." She gave in to her own need and slipped her arms around the heat of his body. For the first time in her life, she didn't have to worry about revealing herself. Lucas knew. The wonderful thing was, he didn't think her flaw a flaw at all.

"I've treated Rina gently in the past because I thought it would harm her to do otherwise. But she's old enough to handle real discipline. If she can't, then she's not soldier material and we'll have to drop her rank."

The simple practicality shook her. "I guess you're not so different from the Psy - only the strong survive."

"No, Sascha darling." He ran his hand over her hair. "We're very different."

The endearment felt like another caress. "How?"

"We don't kick out our weak," he said. "We don't destroy those who are different. It's true that soldiers have high rank, but Tammy's rank is even higher, as high as a sentinel's. In some circumstances, she has the power to give the orders."

Sascha hadn't known that. "Sentinels?"

"My seconds in command."

"Dorian, Nate... Clay?" she guessed. There was a sense of power around the three men that set them apart. Even Dorian's pain didn't dim his internal strength.

"Yes. You haven't met Vaughn or Mercy yet."

"Are there other ranks?"

"Yes. For example, certain of the maternal females also hold extremely high rank, because without them, the soldiers would have no family to protect."

"I see." If she'd been born part of this race, she might not have been driven to madness.

"Our laws might seem harsh but we're not inhuman. We treasure every unique individual. We make room for difference."

And that was the one thing the Psy would never do.

Chapter 15

Lucas watched Sascha walk out to the yard. She was creating her mask of Psy uniformity even as she moved. And though it enraged his beast to see her shutting him out, he knew he had to let her protect herself her way. It rubbed him raw that he couldn't keep her safe, yet he was also proud of the strength in the fragile body of his mate.

"Rina?" he asked Dorian, who was standing on the verandah.

"She'll be fine."

"I was serious, Dorian. Don't sleep with her." Like many of the leopard females who'd recently achieved maturity, Rina was very sexual. Her scent was compelling to males and he couldn't fault Barker for falling. "The second you do, she'll try leading you around by the balls."

Dorian raised a brow. "And I meant what I said. She's too young and too soft."

Lucas looked at his friend. "Sascha's worried about you." So was he. Dorian was growing harder and harder to reach, in spite of the way he'd recovered after they'd found out about Brenna's abduction.

"I can take care of myself."

"You're Pack - you don't have to face the loss alone. Kylie was ours, too." She'd been like Rina - a little wild, a little rebellious, and utterly loved. That was why Lucas had put Rina under the sentinel's control. Dorian might be a hard taskmaster but he'd never do her any real harm.

"I need to feel his blood run from my teeth." Dorian looked out to where Sascha stood by the car. "She doesn't understand our need for vengeance."

"I think she understands a lot more than we give her credit for." He'd seen a depth of compassion in those night-sky eyes that he'd never felt from any other being. "I'll be back in a few hours."

"I'll keep them safe."

Lucas dropped Sascha off around the corner from her apartment. "How are you going to explain the absence of your car?"

"I'll say it was stolen when I parked it near a changeling area. I didn't bother filing a report because the area is populated by DarkRiver leopards and I decided the car's value wasn't worth antagonizing you."