Wild Invitation

Fiction

Berkley titles by Nalini Singh
    Psy-Changeling Series
    SLAVE TO SENSATION
    VISIONS OF HEAT
    CARESSED BY ICE
    MINE TO POSSESS
    HOSTAGE TO PLEASURE
    BRANDED BY FIRE
    BLAZE OF MEMORY
    BONDS OF JUSTICE
    PLAY OF PASSION
    KISS OF SNOW
    TANGLE OF NEED
    Guild Hunter Series
    ANGELS’ BLOOD
    ARCHANGEL’S KISS
    ARCHANGEL’S CONSORT
    ARCHANGEL’S BLADE
    ARCHANGEL’S STORM
    Anthologies
    AN ENCHANTED SEASON
    (with Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson)
    THE MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CAT
    (with Lora Leigh, Erin McCarthy, and Linda Winstead Jones)
    MUST LOVE HELLHOUNDS
    (with Charlaine Harris, Ilona Andrews, and Meljean Brook)
    BURNING UP
    (with Angela Knight, Virginia Kantra, and Meljean Brook)
    ANGELS OF DARKNESS
    (with Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook, and Sharon Shinn)
    ANGELS’ FLIGHT
    WILD INVITATION
    Specials
    ANGELS’ PAWN
    ANGELS’ DANCE

Wild Invitation

    NALINI SINGH

    BERKLEY SENSATION, NEW YORK

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

    USA / Canada / UK / Ireland / Australia / New Zealand / India / South Africa / China
    Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
For more information about the Penguin Group visit penguin.com
    WILD INVITATION
    A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
    “Beat of Temptation” by Nalini Singh copyright © 2009 by Nalini Singh.
“Stroke of Enticement” by Nalini Singh copyright © 2008 by Nalini Singh.
“Declaration of Courtship” by Nalini Singh copyright © 2013 by Nalini Singh.
“Texture of Intimacy” by Nalini Singh copyright © 2013 by Nalini Singh.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any
printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy
of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
    Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group.
BERKLEY SENSATION ® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
    For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
    ISBN: 978-1-101-60221-8
    PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market paperback edition / March 2013
    Cover art by Don Sipley. Hand lettering by Ron Zinn.
Cover design by George Long.
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product
of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for
author or third-party websites or their content.
    “Beat of Temptation” previously appeared in
An Enchanted Season
,
published by Berkley Sensation.
“Stroke of Enticement” previously appeared in
The Magical Christmas Cat
,
published by Berkley Sensation.

ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON



Beat of Temptation

Happiness
    THE PSY COUNCIL tried to outlaw Christmas once.
    It was in the year 2019, four long decades after the implementation of the Silence Protocol. The Protocol itself arose out of the overwhelming incidence of insanity and serial killing in the Psy populace. Driven to the edge, the Psy made a choice. They conditioned their young to feel nothing—not jealousy, not rage, and certainly not joy at the thought of Christmas morning.
    So it was that by 2019, only ice ran in the veins of the Psy politicians who wanted to make Christmas illegal. Since the Psy race controlled government then as it does now,
Law 5198: Deletion of Christmas and Associated Holidays
was near certain to pass.
    There were a few minor hiccups. Some elderly Psy—those who had been too old at the inception of Silence to allow for true conditioning—weren’t certain they wanted the holiday outlawed. But the old ones were few; the last, unwanted vestiges of an emotion-filled past the Psy preferred to forget. They were ignored, their fading voices drowned out by the Silent majority.
    Law 5198
was read into the statute books and life moved on.
    Except that the humans and changelings, the other two parts of the triumvirate that is the world, took no notice. Christmas trees went up as usual, gifts were bought, and carols were