Wild Invitation

his twin, who shot off down the field. “See that—a few more years and they’ll be pummeling everyone else on the field. So, what about the Christmas tree?”
    “Idrove out there yesterday.” A living Christmas tree had become a tradition, a happy memory that had survived the turmoil of the bleak years after the ShadowWalkers’ attack. “Our tree is still going strong.”
    “Just like the pack,” Nate said, echoing her thoughts.
    She wrapped her arm around his waist. “Just like us.”
    He glanced down, a tenderness in his gaze that would have surprised those who saw him only as the most experienced of DarkRiver’s dangerous sentinels. “As if I’d ever let you go.”
    “Sweet talker.” She leaned up and kissed him, thinking that her mate was simply getting sexier with age. He now had the darkly sensual beauty of a leopard in the prime of his life, pure hard muscle and a finely honed sexuality that demanded everything she had. She found him irresistible. “I love you.”
    He nibbled at her lower lip and there was smug male pride in his eyes as he said, “I know.”
    She laughed. It had taken her years to get him to that point, where he believed she truly was happy with their life. Never once had she regretted mating at nineteen. She’d been one of the lucky ones—she’d found her mate early.
    And then he whispered, “Always,” and she fell in love with him all over again.



Stroke of Enticement

Wishes
    December 8, 2060
    Dear Santa Claus,
    I’m not sure I believe in you anymore, but I don’t know who else to ask, so I hope you’re not just imajinary like Daddy says. I’m in the hospital, but don’t worry, I don’t want you to use up your majick to make me better. The M-Psy came and looked at my leg and said I’d walk again. You know the Psy don’t have feelings. I think that means they can’t tell lies. And the nice changeling nurse—the one that can shapeshift into a deer—she told me with
rebalit
rehab, I’d be o.k.
    The reason I’m writing to you is because I’m lonely. Don’t tell my mom, o.k.? She comes to see me but she’s always so sad. She looks at me like I’m broken, like I’m not her strong little girl anymore. And my daddy doesn’t visit me. He never paid any
atent
attention to me anyways, but it still makes my heart hurt.
    I know you can’t make my daddy come see me, but I was wondering, since you’re majick, do you think you could send me a friend? Someone fun who wanted to be with me and who didn’t care that my leg was all mangled up. The kids here are nice, but they all go home after a little while. It would be wonderful to have someone who was mine, someone who didn’t have to leave.
    My friend can be human or Psy or changeling. I won’t mind. Maybe you could find someone who was lonely,too, and then we could be unlonely together? I promise I’ll share all my things, and I’ll let her (or even a boy) choose the games we play.
    I think that’s all. Thanks for lisening.
    Annie
    p.s. I don’t mind if you don’t give me any other presents at all.
    p.p.s. I’m sorry about the speling mistakes. I had to miss a lot of school but now I’m trying really hard to catch up with the hospital’s computer tutor.

Chapter 1
    ANNIE LOOKED UP and met the angry eyes of the seven-year-old sitting at the child-sized desk in front of her own, arms crossed and lip jutting out. Bryan glared at her, the fury of his leopard apparent in every line of his body. Annie was used to teaching changeling children—a lot of DarkRiver kids came to this school, close as it was to their territory. She was used to their affectionate natures, their occasional accidental shifts into leopard form, and even their shorter tempers when compared with those of human children. What she was not used to was such blatant disobedience.
    “Bryan,” she began, intending, once again, to try to get to the bottom of this.
    He shook his head, stuck out his chin. “I’m not talking to anyone but Uncle Zach.”
    Annie glanced at her watch. She’d called Bryan’s uncle twenty minutes ago, not long after last bell. “I left a message. But he might not check it straightaway.”
    “Then we wait.”
    She almost smiled at the stubbornness of him, but knew that that would only make matters worse. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell me why you hit Morgan?”
    “No.”
    Annie tucked back a strand of hair that had escaped the bun she’d anchored with a pair of lacquered chopsticks in a vain