Wild Invitation

They’ll want to meet your girl.”
    “Talk to you later, Annie.” Wiggling her fingers, Noelle ran off with her twin.
    Annie didn’t know whether to laugh or shake her head in amazement. “Four younger sisters?”
    He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and cuddled her to his side. “They’re the reason for my gray hairs. See?” He dipped his head.
    The dark silk of his hair made her want to stroke it. “You big liar. You don’t have a single gray hair.” Held against him, she’d never felt safer or more protected. Fear ignited. Okay, she thought, quashing the emotion, this relationship was becomingmore important than she’d originally believed it would, but it wasn’t as if she was going to do something stupid—like begin to rely on Zach.
    Cerise laughed. “She’s on to you, boyo. I bet she gets along with Jess like a house on fire.”
    “Speaking of Jess”—Annie frowned—“doesn’t Bryan have an older brother? When did Jess get married? Mated,” she corrected herself.
    Cerise was the one who answered. “At twenty. She’s thirty now, only a year younger than Zachary here. Her oldest is nine.”
    “Twenty’s so young,” she murmured.
    “She found her mate early,” Zach said, a shimmering joy in his tone, the love of a brother for his sister. “And that was that. She always wanted a big family, so the kids came soon afterward. She’s happy.” A simple statement, and yet it spoke of such love, such trust. Annie couldn’t imagine taking that big a leap of faith, putting that much of herself into a man’s hands.
    “Yes, she’s very happy,” Cerise agreed. “But enough of family talk—why don’t you two grab some food before the juveniles inhale it all. I swear, I don’t know where it goes.”
    “Into the hollow leg every teenage boy possesses, of course.” The voice was male and familiar.
    “Lucas.” Cerise hugged the tall man with green eyes, as Annie pegged him for the DarkRiver alpha. “Oh dear.” Zach’s grandmother drew back, her attention on something over Lucas’s shoulder. “I think I need to go rescue a cub that’s climbed a bit too high. And if that’s not one of Tammy’s boys, I’ll eat my boot.” She headed off in the direction of an ancient fir, from where Annie could hear the pleading strains of an adorable growl.
    “Hello, Annie, isn’t it?” Lucas held out a hand.
    As she took it, she had the strangest sensation that everyone was watching her. “Good memory. You only met me once, at last year’s Christmas pageant.”
    He grinned. “Let’s just say I had some advance intel. So, how was the tour?”
    “Perfect,” Zach said, arm tightening around her. “But for some unfathomable reason, Annie’s still deciding if she wants to date me.”
    “Zach!” She glared up at him.
    He grinned and dropped a fast kiss on her lips. Blushing, she wondered if such public affection was normal within the pack. She got her answer a few seconds later as an exotically beautiful woman wrapped her arms around Lucas’s neck from behind and pressed a kiss to his jaw. Her eyes, when they met Annie’s, were the night sky of a cardinal Psy. White stars on black velvet.
    “Hello, you must be Annie.” Her voice was summer breezes and open fires, welcoming and gentle. “Lissa and Noelle,” she explained, at Annie’s surprised look. “They’ve been telling everyone they covet your jacket. They’re planning to charm it off you before you leave. Be careful.”
    Annie couldn’t do anything but smile in response to the warmth in that voice. “Thanks for the warning.”
    “Sascha,” Zach said, “Annie made chocolate mud cake.”
    Sascha’s face lit up like a child’s. “Really?” She moved to grab Lucas’s hand. “Come on, or the juveniles will eat it all. Talk to you later, Annie!”
    Annie watched the pair leave and breathed out a sigh. “Your pack’s…overwhelming.”
    “You’ll get used to them.” He rubbed the back of her neck. “They’re just curious about you.”
    She felt another warning flicker in her mind, but then someone else was calling out Zach’s name, and she was being introduced to more people, and then Zach was feeding her with the teasing smile of the cat flirting on his lips, and she forgot what it was that she’d worried about.

Chapter 7
    THEY ARRIVED AT her apartment a few minutes after six. “I’ll shower and change quickly,” she told him as she unlocked the door and entered.
    “Can I use your shower after?” He