Wild Invitation

after taking a swig of the coffee Lara had taken responsibility for bringing. “No.” It felt strange and yet perfect to tease her, to know that he had the ability to play in this way.
    Wrinkling her nose at him, she ate another forkful before saying, “Can you look into the web for me?”
    “Anything you ask.”
    Pausing in her meal, she pinned him with eyes gone wolf. “I adore you.”
    Her love stunned him, as it always did…but he thought he might be becoming used to it deep within. Never would he take it for granted, but he might just come to expect it, and that was an agonizingly beautiful gift she’d given him, that expectation of love, of tenderness. “What do you want to know?”
    “I did a fairly complex healing earlier,” she said, sipping from the coffee when he lifted the cup to her lips, “but I don’t feel drained at all.”
    Interest spiked. “You think the neosentience in the web is feeding you Sienna’s excess power.” Every psychic network had a “mind.” The one in the SnowDancer Web, which now included his entire family, was but a speck, nothing like the vast NetMind that was the guardian and librarian of the PsyNet. But it
did
exist, and as they’d seen in the aftermath of the battle, it could influence the web.
    Lara chewed and swallowed before answering. “It crossed my mind.”
    Opening his psychic eye, Walker looked at the energy currents that rippled along the familial and blood bonds, saw the rerouting that must’ve taken place this morning. “You havepriority,” he murmured, closing one of his hands over her raised knee. “When you need the energy, it goes directly and only to you.”
    “That’s good to know. If I’m ever in a triage situation, I’ll be better able to judge what I can or can’t do.” Having finished her risotto, Lara put the container neatly in the thermal carry case.
    “Here,” she said, handing him his second sandwich. “I hope you brought more food for yourself. You’re way too tall and muscular to survive on two sandwiches, non-boring or not.”
    Her frown as she dug into the carry case made parts of him he’d believed long buried stretch to enthusiastic life. No one had ever worried over him, not the way Lara did. If he’d considered the idea of it before they’d become a couple, he would’ve probably predicted an annoyed reaction to any such care—but he wasn’t the least annoyed by his mate’s desire to look after him.
    Not when he felt the same piercing need to care for her.
    “Here we go.” Having discovered a closed container, she opened it to reveal two more thick sandwiches. “Seriously?” A laughing look. “Oh wait, this one’s ham with cheese and tomato. You wild man, you.”
    Tugging her to him with his hand on the back of her nape, he kissed her laughter into his mouth. “Eat your fruit,” he murmured afterward, nipping at her lower lip…and suckling at it when that wasn’t enough.
    He wasn’t sure how the food got pushed aside, Lara stretched out on the grass beneath him, but they were tangled in a hot, wet kiss, his hand splayed on the silken skin of her abdomen when someone sprayed water all over his back and nape.
    Jerking up, he found himself looking into the innocent eyes of a wolf pup who’d just shaken himself dry after jumping into the lake and racing up the slope to them. Recognizing the scamp, Walker gripped him by the scruff of his neck and brought that furry little face close to his own. “You are in big trouble.”
    Ben growled at him, batting at his chin with tiny claws that did no damage.
    Husky laughter intertwined with the baby growls.
    Turning, he found Lara sitting back up, having fixed the pretty spring green cardigan she wore as a top. “Give him to me.” She shook her head at the teacher who’d started to clamber up the slope after the runaway.
    Grinning his thanks, the older male went back down to the shore. “You,” Lara continued, “finish your lunch before time runs out.”
    Realizing they only had about twenty more minutes, he obeyed the order as Lara gave Ben a smacking kiss before putting the pup down in the sunshine. “Dry off first, then I’ll cuddle you.”
    Ben gave a huge sigh, but sat down on his haunches, muzzle turned toward Walker and ears pricked so hard they might as well have been frozen. Wanting to laugh, Walker broke off half his sandwich and held it out for the pup to grip in his teeth.
    Lara leaned into him as Ben put the sandwich on the grass and