Wild Invitation

before she disappeared into the master bedroom with Brenna.
    Turning, Walker found himself being watched by eyes of gold-flecked brown. “Mating’s good for you,” Judd said, his expression shifting to betray a deep vein of emotion.
I’m alive to love Brenna because of you. And it always seemed grossly unfair that you didn’t have the same kind of love in your life.
    Walker had never known his brother felt that way.
Until Lara, I didn’t comprehend the lack.
The safety of his family had been his sole concern.
    Judd’s clear telepathic voice appeared once again in his mind.
Aden says knowing we made it, have lives, gives him hope, though he doesn’t use that word. I don’t know if he even understands it.
Judd went silent until they’d finished repositioning the dining table.
It may sound cruel, but I’m glad he doesn’t understand what it’s like to have what I have with Brenna, you with Lara.
    Walker thought of the life Aden lived, a life that had once been Judd’s.
You think the knowledge would drive him mad?
    Wouldn’t it have done that to us? To know exactly how much we could never touch?
    Walker shook his head.
The point is moot. To experience it is the only way to know.
The glory, the raw punch of emotion, no words could ever do it justice.
    “Put it down on the left,” he said aloud, seeing Drew and Hawke arrive with the second sofa, followed by Indigo—six cushions in her arms, her head peeking around the side.
    The lieutenant’s dramatic eyes, the reason for her name, locked with his. “Gotta say, Walker,” she drawled with a grin, “I never took you for a throw-pillow kind of a guy.”
    “I bought them,” Sienna said from behind Indigo, a duffel bag in hand. “Marlee and I chose the design.” Her gaze shifted to Walker, and in her eyes was the memory of the piercinghappiness she’d felt at being in charge of her own environment for the first time in her life. He recalled how she and Marlee had pored over the catalogue, how excited they’d been to get the cushions, put them in place precisely how they wanted.
    A tiny thing, but it had
mattered
.
    “All done?” he asked, running his hand over the distinctive dark ruby of her hair when she came to stand beside him.
Kristine’s hair.
    She leaned into his body, cardinal eyes brilliant with stars as she spoke. “I gave the place a final sweep, picked up any odds and ends. It’s clean, but Evie, the kids, and I will give it another polish tomorrow to make certain it’s ready for the next occupants.”
    “Thanks, sweetheart,” Lara said, coming out of the bedroom sans box. “But for now…” Walking to the cooler, she pulled out a bottle of champagne and one of sparkling grape juice. “A thank you from us.”
    That simple drink turned into an impromptu dinner, complete with takeout brought up by Riley and Mercy when they finished a security run in San Francisco, and special desserts prepared by Lara’s mom. Having returned from the tutorial he’d been running for his junior engineers up at the hydro station, Lara’s father, Mack, was also able to join them.
    As Walker sat and listened to the ebb and flow of the voices—the laughter—around the table, an unexpected vocal music, he realized his family had grown by a factor of multiples in a few short years. Each Lauren mate had brought a cascade of family and friends into the mix, adding to the bonds he, Judd, Sienna, and the children had formed, and those connections would only continue to grow, lives entangling and intertwining.
    It was an extraordinary network, beautiful and steel strong. Never again would any member of his family have to fight alone, hurt alone.
    His eyes lingered on the wild curls of the woman who had banished the agonizing, endless loneliness that had lived in him for so long, he’d believed it part of his psyche. Even now, though she was laughing at something Indigo had said, her hand was a gentle heat on his thigh, the intimacy already familiar. He’d placed his own arm along the back of her chair, his fingers brushing her hair.
    Regardless of what the future held, one thing he knew: He could never go back to the way he’d been, his body nothing but a tool he maintained because it was useful. It had become so much more, a source of pleasure for him and for his mate.
    Fox-brown eyes meeting his own. “Happy?”
    He twined a curl around his finger, his answer instinctive. “Yes.”
    Lara’s smile was slow, deep, for him…as it was that night