Lucas locked gazes with the wolf. Sascha didn’t understand the depths to which predatory changelings would go to protect their mates, didn’t understand that she owned him in a way no one else ever would. “No, we’re not.”
“They refuse to believe I can’t survive outside the PsyNet.” Sascha shook her head. “Tell them.”
“She’s correct,” Walker said. “She needs to have another psychic net in place to link to when she drops out. If she doesn’t, she’ll die of a kind of psychic starvation in a matter of minutes.”
“Even if we could somehow figure out a way to get her out of the Net, she’d be a prisoner like Toby and Sienna.” Judd pointed to her eyes. “We can alter our appearance and go out into the world, but you can’t hide cardinal eyes.”
“She won’t be hiding.” Lucas had no intention of burying Sascha in any way-she’d spent too much of her life buried already. “My mate is going to stand by my side.”
“The Council will find a way to kill her.” Walker ’s tone was matter-of-fact.
“Leave them to us,” Hawke said. It was clear he was talking about both DarkRiver and the SnowDancers. “Your job is to help us figure out how to keep Sascha alive outside the PsyNet.”
A deep silence spread over the room. Lucas stroked Sascha’s back and thought about how to scare the Council so badly that no one would ever dare touch her. They might not feel emotion but everyone was afraid to die.
Judd’s eyes unfocused in front of him. A moment later, Walker ’s did the same. Lucas felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise and knew the two were telepathing intensely. As if aware of his discomfort, Sascha snuggled closer, wrapping her arms around his neck. He let his body feel her soft weight, her heat, her life, and gloried in having found his mate. No way in hell was he going to lose her.
“There’s a possibility,” Walker said.
Everyone looked at the eldest Psy.
“Sienna’s been trying to convince us that our minds simply need feedback, not necessarily Psy feedback.”
“The problem is, there’s no way to test that without dropping out of the Net.” Judd looked like he was continuing to argue with Sienna even as he spoke to them.
Sascha’s forehead wrinkled. “How would I get the feedback without linking with Psy minds?”
“You’d link with changeling minds. For reasons we’ll explain, we don’t think human minds would work.”
Lucas squeezed Sascha so tight that she protested. “Sorry, kitten,” he muttered, his concentration on Walker Lauren. “Can that be done?”
“No, of course not.” Sascha sat up, tucking behind her ear a strand of hair that had come loose from her plait. “How could a link be held without Tp power on both sides? All Psy are born with telepathy to a minimal level.”
Lucas’s beast scented a kind of raw desperation in her that told him she was hiding something. “Let them talk, Sascha.”
“Why?” she cried. “So they can sell us lies?”
“Shh.” He ran the knuckles of his hand down her cheek. “Are you so eager to leave me?” How could she not want to fight for every day they could have together?
Pain fractured the beauty of her eyes. With a ragged sob, she dropped her face into her hands. “I can’t handle being given hope only to lose it.”
He wished he could take the hurt from her, wished he were the empath, not his vulnerable mate.
“Sienna is convinced it’ll work.” Walker ’s pale green eyes followed the motion of Lucas’s hand as he rubbed the back of Sascha’s neck. “She thinks the way two mates bond equals a kind of psychic link. That mating link should keep Sascha alive when she drops out of the PsyNet.”
Sascha’s head jerked up. “Don’t you think I haven’t thought of that?”
“What?” Lucas growled. “Why didn’t you tell me?” The panther wanted to bare its fangs in fury.
“Ask them why.” She was more furious than he’d ever seen her. “Because a single mind can’t supply the feedback I need without killing itself. To use a link with you in any way is sentencing you to a slow death with me.”
“Yes,” Walker said. “Our familial net functions the same way as the PsyNet but on a smaller scale-the feedback somehow accumulates. However, we’re all Psy and we all supply the Net as well as feeding from it, which we believe creates the multiplication effect.
“In your case, there would be no such effect. To make up the deficit, you’d have to link with others in your mate’s pack. With three or four minds, there’d be a pool of background feedback-spare energy every mind produces. You wouldn’t be actively draining anyone.”
“Impossible.” Sascha was leaning forward, palms braced on the table. “I agree the connection between mates is almost psychic, but that bond doesn’t exist for me with anyone else. How do I mate with more than one leopard?”
“You don’t,” Lucas snapped before he could stop himself. “You belong to me. End of story.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I know that, your highness, but I was pointing out the impossibility of what Walker is suggesting. There’s no way for me to link with anyone outside of you.”
Lucas’s beast hated the thought of her linked to anyone other than him, but he realized that if it would keep her alive, he’d share her. It would tear him to pieces but he’d do it. It was the first time he’d understood the depth of his own feelings.
“Any other ideas?” Hawke asked.
Silence.
The wolf stood. “Prepare for war.”
Sascha argued with him every inch of the drive home. “You’re going to let hundreds die because you want to keep me alive for a few extra days?”
“An hour of your life is worth more than a thousand people to me.”
“What about Julian and Roman? What about Kit? What about Rina? Are you willing to lose them?”
He felt the questions like kicks to the heart. “They won’t die.”
“Like hell they won’t!” The use of profanity told him how far he’d pushed her. “If the Council decides to eliminate your pack, every single one of you will be eliminated, even if it takes them years.”
“So you want me to lie back and let you kill yourself?” His words were so angry, her head snapped back as if he’d hit her.
“No. I want you to help me save someone’s life. I want you to give me back my pride.”
He scowled. “When did you lose it?”
“When I found out my mother was aiding and abetting murderers.” It was a brutally honest statement.
He tried to grasp her hand. She tore it away. “No! I won’t let you do this.”
“You need us to cooperate for your plan to work,” he pointed out. “No one is going to go behind my back to help you.” They knew he’d gut them, tear them into such small strips that nothing would remain. He wasn’t alpha because he played nice when his people were threatened. And his woman? He’d lay waste to the world for her.
“Maybe I don’t,” she whispered. “Maybe I’ll try it without one of you. My shields are failing one by one-exposure is inevitable. They’ll come after me within days and when they do, I’ll have to drop out of the Net anyway, to escape rehabilitation.”
And he knew. “You’re going to do it with or without my help.” He brought the vehicle to a stop in the front yard of the safe house.
CHAPTER 24
“What would you do in my place?” Her eyes were pure black when he looked at her. “What would honor demand?”
“You’re my mate. Honor means nothing.”
She opened the door and got out. He sat inside until she came around to his side and opened the door. Her hands were warm and alive on his face. “Liar,” she whispered. “Honor means everything. Otherwise, we’re exactly like them.”
Getting out, he wrapped his arms tight around her trembling form. “I’ll do it.” He wondered if she understood that he’d just torn out his heart and laid it at her feet.