Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh

Series: Psy-Changeling, Book 4

Genre: Paranormal

Copyright: 2008

Pages: 352

Rating: 3.5  / 5

Synopsis
A ghost returns from a leopard changeling's past, making him question everything-even his base animal instincts...
Clay Bennett is a powerful DarkRiver sentinel, but he grew up in the slums with his human mother, never knowing his changeling father. As a young boy without the bonds of Pack, he tried to stifle his animal nature. He failed...and committed the most extreme act of violence, killing a man, and lost his best friend, Talin, in the bloody aftermath. Everything good in him died the day he was told that she, too, was dead.
Talin McKade barely survived a childhood drenched in bloodshed and terror. Now a new nightmare stalks her—-the street children she works to protect are disappearing and turning up dead. Determined to keep them safe, she unlocks the darkest secret in her heart and returns to ask the help of the strongest man she knows...
Clay lost Talin once. He will not let her go again and hungers to possess her with a clawing need born of the leopard within. As they race to save the innocent Clay and Talin must face the violent truths of their past... or lose everything that ever mattered

Review:
Book 5 in the ever interesting Psy Changeling series, Mine to Possess is the story of Clay and Talin . Clay and Tally grew up together, and when Clay killed Tally's foster father, the effect seeing her best friends' beastly nature scarred Tally and she ran. (no typo there, I don’t think Tally was scared - scarred is what I meant)

Clay is now a sentinel in the Dark-River leopard pack and Tally is back in his life needing his help to rescue street children being kidnapped and killed. But Clay wont be content with only helping her and letting her leave. His mate is back in his life, and he intends to keep her with him.

I loved the storyline. These two obviously loved each other, but there's been so much pain and misery in Talin's life, it hard for her to open up to Clay again. Singh hasn’t had this much sadness in her books before - but thankfully there's Clay. The man and the animal know they need Talin, and will do anything it takes to break through her defenses so that she accepts they will be together.

The other couples and characters from the previous books make their appearance in this book. As always, Singh's writing brings out the love and feeling of family among these Changelings, and you feel a part of it.

The other smaller plots about the Psy councilors, and general progress in everyone else's life makes interesting reading too, and I'm curious to know where this plot is leading to. We got more about the ghost in the net - I think part of why I'm reading is only to find out who it is. There's also a sneak peak into the next couple (or so I hope) and if I've guessed right a certain Mr. Dorian (yum) may be getting his own book after all.

As always the story begins with a lil bit from the past when the Psy were just embracing Silence, and for me that what really gets me involved in this series.

All in all, a great book. Different from the rest in that Tally was a love from the past and yet somehow connected to the psy changeling battle. This break from a psy-changeling pair came at a good time. I would have been a case of same formula - different couple names otherwise.