Lion's Lynx (Veteran Shifters Book 2) by Zoe Chant (2)

Lynn went through her early client meetings in a daze. It was lucky she’d guided hundreds of people down the trails she was using, or she would’ve been completely incoherent with them. But the well-practiced speeches on topography, history, and plant and animal life fell off her tongue with almost no input from her brain.

Her brain, meanwhile, was screaming Mate, you left your mate back there! Go back and find him!

But underneath that, there was this impossible-to-ignore well of uncertainty and doubt. Not of Ken in particular. Lynn had no reason to doubt him, nothing that made her think he wouldn’t be a good mate.

But she’d been completely alone for so long. And her family had all left her, through disappearance or death.

Partway through the day, she realized that it wasn’t just uncertainty she was dealing with. It wasn’t thoughts that she needed to process, it wasn’t just the newness of the whole idea of having a mate.

That was real. That was there, but it wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to stand up to the pulse of joy she felt whenever she thought of Ken.

No. This was plain old fear.

More than fear, even—almost panic. There was a deep, old knowledge inside her: that anyone she loved would leave before long. Her parents hadn’t stuck around long enough for her to know them. Her sister had left long ago, and right afterwards, when Lynn had needed her most, her grandmother had succumbed to a heart attack.

She couldn’t blame her mother or grandmother, of course; they hadn’t chosen to die, and if there’d been another option, they would’ve taken it. Her father and her sister...well, she could blame them, but she’d found it better to put her energies elsewhere.

But she couldn’t forget.

Even if she didn’t think about it much anymore, even if she was able to live her life without feeling lonely, most of the time...

The second she’d realized that Ken was her mate, that here was someone who would stay with her forever, who would never leave—

The fear had roared up inside her. It had made her desperate to get away, because some ancient, wordless part of her brain was sure that if she stayed, Ken would leave.

Well, she wasn’t going to let that scared little part of her win.

No way.

***

Ken showed up at Oliver's, the local diner, promptly at six.

He'd washed up and groomed as best he could out in a freezing mountain lake, and put on his least-wrinkled clothes—and then scoffed at himself. Did he think Lynn would care if he wore the plaid flannel button-down that was seventy percent wrinkles, as opposed to the plaid flannel button-down that was ninety percent wrinkles?

She wouldn't, he knew. But the fact remained that he cared. He wanted to put in the effort for his mate.

Even if she was feeling ambivalent about him.

Ken was trying not to be tense about this. But it was surprisingly difficult.

Normally he was an easygoing guy. He went with the flow. If things didn't go his way, well, there were always plenty of other ways they could go. He'd pick a different one and be happy with that. After all, any other way of living just meant you'd be constantly disappointed, frustrated all the time.

So when Lynn had wanted some space, had wanted to wait all day and then meet for dinner in public, at a diner, Ken had started to argue and then stopped himself. It was fine, right? Sure, he would've preferred to be with Lynn as much as possible today. But he understood that she had to think. And he would've preferred to meet somewhere private—back out in the woods, maybe. Or at her home. He had no idea where she lived, he realized, and he wanted to see that.

But he'd gone with the flow, like he usually did.

And as the day progressed, he'd started to realize that he wasn't happy with it.

He wasn’t used to caring so much about what other people did. He really wasn’t used to feeling so on-edge, so desperately in need of certainty.

He got a table at Oliver's and waited. It didn't take long; Lynn appeared in the doorway a minute later, and her eyes lit on him. She came over and sat across from him.

Their feet touched, and it gave Ken a thrill. Even through two pairs of hiking boots. He still felt like he'd regressed to age thirteen.

“Hi,” Lynn said. Her clear topaz eyes locked on his. She sounded breathless.

“Hi.” He sounded breathless too. Yep, thirteen or so, that seemed about right.

Lynn was hesitating. “I'm sorry,” she said after a long minute. “For making you wait all day. I realize that must have been...difficult.”

I realize that must have been difficult. It sounded so detached. Like it hadn't been difficult for her, too. Ken took a deep breath and tried to summon a rational adult to corral his inner infatuated teenager. “It was.” His voice came out quiet and even, and he applauded himself.

But Lynn still winced. “It's nothing to do with you, I swear. Or the mate-bond. It's just—me.” She rubbed her eyes. “It's me, that's all.”

She sounded exhausted, and whatever Ken had been upset about evaporated in a puff of smoke. “Is everything okay?”

She looked at him again, and this time he really studied her eyes. She seemed...

Afraid.

Lynn was afraid. Of what? Or who? Ken felt rage rise inside him at the idea that someone might have frightened her. He'd find whoever it was and show them what an alpha male lion could do—

Lynn looked away, and Ken let out a shuddering breath. Time to summon that inner adult again, maybe.

Because he doubted that some amorphous boogeyman had appeared from nowhere today to scare Lynn. Speaking of adulthood, there was plenty to be scared of right here between them.

His lion didn't like that idea at all. Our mate can't be scared of us, he insisted. We protect our mate. There's nothing for her to be scared of when we're here.

“Everything's not okay,” Lynn answered finally. Ken gave his lion an imaginary thump on the nose and focused on his mate.

“What's wrong?” he asked softly.

But before she could answer, one of the servers came over and they had to order. Ken hadn't even glanced at the menu, but he just asked for a burger, medium-rare. Lynn had the same, and then they were looking at each other again.

“I'm used to being on my own,” Lynn began. “I'm not used to the idea that a person might—stick around for a while. I had to accept that a long time ago. To understand that for me, personal connections had always been temporary. That they probably always would be.”

“I'm not going to leave,” Ken said instantly, and his voice rang with his own conviction. He knew it was true, down to his very bones.

“I can't tell if I'm afraid to believe you, or afraid to disbelieve you,” Lynn said on an airless laugh. “I just know I'm afraid.”

Ken reached across the table, his hand open. Lynn's hands were hidden below the tabletop, so he waited.

Lynn stared at it. “I don't know how you do that,” she said finally, as she slowly brought up one hand and rested it in his, twining their fingers together.

He frowned. “Do what?”

“Put yourself out there like that,” she said softly. “Make an offer and wait, without knowing what the response will be.”

Ken looked at their hands. “You responded, didn't you?”

“But what if I hadn't?”

“Then I would've asked you why not, and we would've talked about it. Maybe some traumatic hand-holding experiences in your past?” He tried for a grin.

There was the tiniest quirk of her mouth in response. Ken felt a surge of warmth, and decided right then that making his mate smile was going to be an ongoing, lifelong project for him.

“That sounds so simple,” she said. “I don't know why the idea seems so scary to me.”

“I'm pretty sure I do,” he said.

She raised her eyebrows. “You do?”

“It's like in combat. You know you’re safer when you’re behind cover. If you have...” He waved a hand. “A big berm, and your Humvee, and maybe some body armor, between you and the open air, then you can think, hey, if something bad happens, at least I’ve got all this protection around me. But if you’re just out in the open, in the middle of the road with nothing around, then if someone attacks, you’re toast. It’s the same when you make yourself vulnerable to someone you care about.”

Lynn shook her head. “But this isn’t combat. I shouldn’t feel like that when no one’s attacking me. I’m not in danger.”

“We're both in danger,” Ken said quietly. “That's what happened when I put my hand out, without knowing if you'd take it. I put myself in danger. In danger of having to show that I wanted to hold your hand, and learning that you didn't want to. And sometimes the brain thinks that's just as bad as being in danger of violence. If not worse.”

“Worse,” Lynn said quietly. Thoughtfully.

“I'd much, much rather face a big, strong guy—big, strong guy, I'm talking like the Rock here—and also he's a shifter, right, something huge. A gorilla shifter.”

There was that quirk of Lynn's mouth again. Ken loved the sight of it.

“—I'd rather the Rock, if he was a gorilla shifter, come after me with everything he had, really do some serious damage, than learn that you didn't want to hold my hand. Okay? That would be worse.”

“Worse than a gorilla-shifting Rock.” Lynn’s voice was dubious.

“Way, way worse,” Ken said seriously.

Now Lynn had a little frown between her eyebrows, thinking. Ken wanted to kiss that line, just press his lips to it and see if he could make her smile again.

“I guess I didn’t think about it as going both ways,” she said finally. “Are you telling me you’re afraid, too?”

“Big, strong men who could take on the Rock as a gorilla shifter are never afraid.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Utterly terrified,” he admitted, and some sincerity crept into his voice without his permission.

But it was good for her to know this, wasn’t it? And good for him to know it. Because that was what had been behind his anger, earlier. It wasn’t that he was angry with Lynn for needing some time to process, or wanting to take things slow.

It was that he was afraid that she wasn’t as committed to this as he was. That the mate-bond meant less to her than it did to him.

If he’d been totally confident in her feelings, after all, he would’ve known that everything would turn out fine, and it wouldn’t have mattered as much.

He tightened his fingers around her hand. “I don’t want you to be afraid alone.” Sincerity bled through his voice, and he wondered if it was going to just spill out onto the table. He wasn’t used to being this serious for so long. “I don’t want you thinking you’re alone. The whole point of all this is that we’re together, right? So, sure, it’s scary. But we don’t have to be scared by ourselves.”

Lynn smiled. This wasn’t the little amused quirk, but a dawning happiness that spread slowly over her face. Ken drank in the sight.

“I wasn’t thinking about it like that at all,” she said. “I was thinking—what if you left, or died, or something, and then I was all by myself again? But I was behaving like I was all by myself anyway.” She squeezed his hand back. “Being together while we’re scared sounds like the better option.”

“By a lot,” Ken agreed. “Hey, here’s our food.”

They were both presented with burgers and fries, and so they took a break from the heavy emotional stuff to commit themselves to meat for a while. Ken noticed with approval than Lynn attacked her burger with just as much gusto as Ken did, clearly hungry and not ashamed of it. He liked a woman who could eat.

When they’d both reduced their plates to remnants of dinner, Ken pushed his away and sighed. “That was good.”

“Oliver’s is a good restaurant,” Lynn said. “It’s like a diner, but the food is a cut above. My assistant, Nina, used to work here until I hired her away.”

Ken remembered her saying something about that earlier. “So you’re doing well enough with the tour guide business to need an assistant?” he asked.

Lynn nodded. “Nina’s mother, Mavis, helped me with some of the business side of things—she’s a financial consultant, and she used to work for bigtime clients in the city, but when she moved here, she starting putting a lot of work into helping little local businesses like me. I have her to thank for the sudden business boom, really.”

“Mavis,” Ken said slowly. “Isn’t she the one Colonel Hanes was really obviously falling for, back when we were all here for Cal’s wedding?”

Lynn nodded. “Turns out they’re mates. The Colonel’s been living here for a few months now.”

Ken blinked. “Wow. I am out of the gossip loop if I didn’t know that.” Although he’d really been burying his head in work the last few months, determined to get noticed over his younger peers. That was how he’d landed this Glacier assignment, after all.

He glanced around surreptitiously, suddenly aware that he could be surprised by his former commanding officer at any moment. “Do they come in here a lot?”

“Sometimes,” Lynn said, starting to laugh. “Are you afraid of Colonel Hanes seeing us together?”

“Well, if you put it like that, it sounds dumb.” Ken tried to figure out whether Lynn laughing at him counting as making her laugh. He’d give it to himself, he decided.

“No, no,” Lynn said. “I just didn’t realize we had to make this a—a stealth operation.” Her eyes twinkled.

She was teasing him. His heart bloomed with happiness. “Quick. You cover the exits, and I’ll sneak out the back. We can rendezvous back at the vehicles.”

She laughed, and for a moment, Ken forgot about everything in the world but the sound of her laugh, generous and unashamed.

“We do have to pay the check, at least,” she pointed out when she’d caught her breath. She started digging in her pockets.

“No way,” Ken said immediately, and found his wallet, catching the waitress’ eye.

“I invited you—” Lynn started to protest.

“Nope,” Ken said. Lynn subsided when the waitress came over, not willing to argue in front of her, but the second the check negotiations were over and the waitress had gone off with Ken’s credit card, she gave him the evil eye.

“Next time,” she said.

“You’re on.” He grinned at the thought of a next time—of many, many next times. Having to execute more stealth operations to try and beat Lynn out for the check. He wondered what she’d look like when she won, and then was caught by a sudden burning need to see her with a smug winner’s smile on her face.

Now, though, she looked hesitant. Ken leaned forward, wondering what was on her mind.

“Would you...” She stopped, breathed, and focused on him. After a moment, she smiled. “Would you like to come back home with me?”

An answering smile broke over his face. “I would love to come back home with you,” he said.

She held out her hand. Ken reached forward without any hesitation and grabbed hold of it. “Then let’s go,” she said.

***

Ken hadn’t been sure what to expect from Lynn’s home. Something utilitarian, he’d figured—maybe a small, neat house, or a duplex or something. She didn’t seem like the sort of woman who’d want something extravagant.

He took in the big, old, rambling home that she led him to with muted astonishment. All right, he still wouldn’t call it extravagant—it was clearly old, and the paint was peeling in places, and it wasn’t like it was a mansion or anything—but it was definitely more house than he would’ve thought she needed.

She led the way up the walk, and said over her shoulder, “This is my family’s house. I inherited it when my grandmother died.”

Oh. That explained it.

“Well,” she added, “technically, my sister and I inherited it together. But she doesn’t live here anymore.”

Ken made a mental note to find out more about Lynn’s sister. From the bits and pieces he’d heard so far, it seemed like there was a story there.

Lynn put her key in the lock and opened the old, weathered front door. Ken followed her inside...and stopped, staring.

The foyer was enormous, stretching up two stories; only his shifter eyes allowed him to see the ceiling in the unlit gloom.

Then Lynn turned on the light, and Ken could suddenly see the whole place stretching out around him—not just the enormous foyer, but the beautiful carved-wood staircase going up to another floor, a hall leading back into the depths of the house, and on either side of him, large rooms. The one to his left had huge windows, a fireplace, and a lot of overstuffed furniture, while the one to the right...every wall that Ken could see was made of built-in bookshelves full of books.

“Wow,” he said finally.

Lynn was looking at him, he realized when he tore his eyes away from all of the...house. She had a little frown between her eyebrows, but it didn't look like an upset frown. More surprised.

“It's been a long time since I've brought anyone here,” she said. “I forgot that it makes an impression.”

“A hell of an impression,” Ken agreed. “This place is amazing. I want a tour.”

Lynn smiled. “Of course. There's the front room.” She gestured to the room with the fireplace and the couches. “When I'm home, I spend a lot of time there. With the fire going, it's cozy. This place can get pretty chilly in the wintertime, so it's good to pick a room, close up all the doors and windows, and heat it as best you can.”

Ken pictured Lynn, wrapped in blankets, curled up in front of the fire, and smiled. “And over there?”

“That was my grandmother's library,” Lynn said, a little wistfully. “She read a lot. That's something I didn't really inherit—Stella's the one who loves books, and her daughter Eva. I wish they spent more time here, so someone was using it. Anyway, my grandmother used to write her letters at that desk there. Back before email.”

Ken pictured it—a sturdy old woman, keeping in touch with her friends and family, writing gracefully with some kind of antique pen. Surrounded by books. “I wish I could've known her,” he said quietly.

“Me, too,” Lynn said, even more quietly.

“I'll know her through you.” Ken took her hand, lacing their fingers together, and she squeezed it and smiled at him.

“And through the house,” Lynn added. “My great-grandfather built this place, her father, and she grew up in it and made it hers.” She nodded toward the hallway. “Come on.”

They went back down the darkened hallway, which opened up into an enormous kitchen. “This is wasted on me,” Lynn said over her shoulder. “I barely cook. The appliances are all old, but they're sturdy, built to last.”

Ken wasn't much of a cook, either, but he liked the idea of learning in a place like this. Mastering this enormous space. Cooking for his mate. Bringing her breakfast in bed. He smiled to himself.

Lynn was already moving forward. “There's a sun room back here—perfect for curling up and taking a nap when you're shifted.” Ken saw a big room encased in windows, with wicker furniture but also a nice, thick carpet. He could just picture a sunny afternoon in there, stretching out in his lion form alongside Lynn, snoozing together.

“And a bathroom, and a pantry,” Lynn finished. “And the yard, of course, but you can barely tell the yard from the forest. Half the time, I forget where our property technically ends.”

Ken could see the darkness of the trees stretching out from the house, sloping upward towards the mountains.

“Some of the neighbors get a lot of wildlife messing with their gardens or their trash cans,” Lynn said with a smile, “but we never do.”

Ken smiled back. “They must smell that this is a predator's territory.”

“They sure do,” Lynn said, with casual confidence.

That was sexy. Ken hadn't ever quite realized it before, but there was something about a woman who was also an apex predator, just like him. Who was sure of her ability to protect her home and her family.

Yep. Very, very sexy.

“Okay, upstairs,” Lynn was saying, so Ken followed her up the stairs.

Appreciating the view as he did, of course. He kept his hands to himself, because he was certain that Lynn was not a woman who’d appreciate a surprise grope on the staircase. But he was tempted.

“Mostly bedrooms up here,” Lynn said. “My grandmother’s sewing room is back there. Except she never really sewed.” She smiled. “She said that she called it her sewing room so that she’d have somewhere to go where people would think she was doing something useful and serious, when really she just wanted to read a trashy novel without anyone seeing.”

Ken laughed. He liked Lynn’s grandmother more and more every time Lynn mentioned her.

“Otherwise, it’s bedrooms.” Lynn pointed them out. “That was Grandmother’s.” She opened the door, and Ken saw a beautiful old four-poster bed with a floral blanket on it, and windows looking out over the mountains.

“And that’s Stella’s, and that’s my niece Eva’s, and...this is mine.” Lynn led him down the hall to a back corner, and opened the door.

It was immediately clear to Ken that this room, alone of the rooms he’d seen so far, had a person living and breathing within it. Lynn's things were spread all around—jackets and shirts in a pile on a chair, papers on the dresser, random little bits of outdoor-survival equipment scattered around. A pile of loose change on the nightstand. The bed was only half-made, the comforter in a soft-looking pile on top of the sheets.

Ken wanted to soak it all in. Learn what sorts of things Lynn left lying around. What she carried in her pockets and dropped absentmindedly onto an end table when she undressed. What she forgot she was carrying and set down in the first place that came to hand. What she was always meaning to clean up, and never quite got around to.

When he looked over at her, though, she was blushing. Ken tried to remember if he'd seen her blush before. It was endearing as all hell.

“Sorry it's such a mess,” she said. “I'd claim that it's cleaner most of the time, but, well, I'd be lying.”

Ken smiled at her, feeling strangely tender in the face of normal life detritus. “I don't mind,” he said. “I usually keep a tight camp, but when I'm at home, I leave stuff lying around all the time.” He'd probably do it more often if he had more stuff. Being in the Marines had taught him to make do with whatever he had, only have what he needed, and that had carried over into the rest of his life pretty thoroughly.

It didn't help that he'd lived mostly in tiny studio apartments, moving around for school and then for his job, and now he spent weeks or months at a time away on research trips. He’d never had the opportunity to sit down and acquire a normal person’s amount of stuff.

And now, he might be—

Shit. The implications of Lynn showing him around this place suddenly hit him. Hard.

They were still holding hands, which he was glad of, all of a sudden. He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it, a soft kiss, and watched her shiver in response. “Have you lived here your whole life, then?”

Lynn nodded. “Born and raised in these four walls, never lived anywhere else.”

“It’s a beautiful home,” he said softly.

Lynn nodded. “Gorgeous. My great-grandfather really knew what he was doing. He built a lot of the homes in this area.” She shrugged. “But it’s too big of a house just for me. I rattle around in it like a penny in a can, sometimes. Hardly use most of the rooms—some of them have been shut up for years. I love it, but...I wish my sister Stella hadn’t left, sometimes, even though we fight all the time when she’s here.”

“So,” Ken started, “this is one of those moments where I’m going to say something scary. Maybe we could just stand here after I say it and be freaking terrified, okay?”

Lynn stood up straighter. He saw a challenging spark in her eyes, just before she said, “Say what you gotta say, mister. I’m not scared.”

He couldn’t help but grin. “Fine, if you put it like that.” He took a deep breath. “Do you want me to come live in this house with you?”

She met his eyes. Despite her words, he could see the tremulous fear in them. But her answer was a brave, “Yes.”

Ken let out his breath, and somewhere in the process it turned into a laugh. “Oh, good.”

She hesitated for a long minute—and then copied what he’d done to her: she lifted their joined hands, and pressed a kiss to the back of his.

On the one hand, it was a strange thing: women didn’t kiss men’s hands, not like that. But the soft press of her lips against his hand, and the way she held his eyes when she did it, unblinking, made a warmth rise in Ken’s chest, a feeling of safety, of homecoming.

This was his mate, and she wanted him to come live in her home, cook food for her in her kitchen, curl up in front of her fire and stretch out in front of her sunlit windows. Leave things lying around in her room.

Sleep in her unmade bed.

Ken was so overwhelmed by the thought—by the moment—by everything, that there wasn't any room for doubting: he had to kiss her. He leaned down and caught her mouth, pulling her into his arms, tasting the surprised noise she made.

And she melted. Like liquid in his arms, she curved up against him, conforming to his body, surrendering completely. Ken felt the same hot flash run through him that he'd felt when she'd taken control this morning.

The idea that they could trust each other this much, that they could let each other do anything they pleased, knowing that they were in safe hands...

Ken loved it. And he was going to take care of the precious gift he'd been given. He opened Lynn's mouth with his tongue, holding her tight, until they were caught up together in a close, warm meld of breath and lips and bodies. Lynn sighed in pleasure, and Ken let his eyes close with the knowledge that this was perfection.

Lynn's phone rang.

She jumped, although she couldn't move far, since Ken wasn't letting her go just yet.

It kept ringing.

She sighed. This wasn't the little-kitten sound of contentment that had thrilled him a second ago. It was an I-can't-believe-this sigh. A sorry-I-have-to-get-this sigh.

“I should at least look at it,” she said.

Ken let her go reluctantly. He consoled himself with the reminder that they were mated. This relationship was forever. They could have many, many other moments like this.

But this one was perfect, his lion muttered. We shouldn't have let her go.

We weren't about to just hold her hostage, Ken reminded him. We're not the kiss jailers.

Any further unhelpful comments from his toothier side were forestalled by Lynn's voice rising in alarm.

“Wait—Stella—you're not making any sense.”

Ken frowned, his annoyance slipping away, being replaced by concern. Something was wrong.

***

Stella was tripping over her words. “Todd brought the pack over—I mean, that’s not the problem, they’ve been over before, but this time it’s—it’s really a problem this time, and I sent Eva to her room but I don’t know what sort of trouble they’re going to stir up—”

Lynn took a slow breath, made sure her voice was absolutely calm, and said, “Stella, what do you need?”

“Will you come get us?” Stella asked miserably. “I’m sorry, I know it’s a long way, but my car died last week and Todd’s been driving us. He’s a good guy, you know, it’s just the pack—when they’re all together like this, and they’ve been drinking—”

Stella’s boyfriend was a wolf shifter. Lynn had only met him once, and she hadn’t been at all impressed. She knew Eva didn’t like him, either. Not liking your mom’s boyfriend was probably embedded in the teenager code, true, but Eva was a smart kid with a good head on her shoulders. Lynn would probably trust her judgment before she trusted Stella’s.

“Has anyone threatened you? Or Eva?” she asked, looking around for her keys. Oh, they were in her pocket. Good. “Can you call the police?”

“The p—I mean, that wouldn’t be any use out here,” Stella said. “That just wouldn’t work. They all know each other.”

Lynn’s fingers clenched on her keys. She hadn’t missed that Stella had avoided using the word police. Had answered the question in the most generic possible terms.

Her sister was impulsive and quick to trust people she shouldn’t, but she wasn’t an idiot. She was afraid of what might happen if the wolf pack heard her talking about the police, and that meant Lynn was afraid, too.

“I’m leaving now,” she told Stella, “but it’ll be a couple hours before I can get to you. Will you be safe that long? Is there somewhere you can go? Could you and Eva shift and get to the woods?”

“I don’t want to do that,” Stella said quietly. “They might—it might turn into a game.”

With the wolves shifting too, and chasing them. Christ. “Okay.” Lynn summoned all of her willpower and did not start yelling at Stella for moving in with this worthless guy in the first place. “You and Eva stay out of the way, stay as safe as you can, and run if you have to. I’m coming.”

“Okay,” Stella said. She already sounded calmer and stronger than she had when she called.

“And call again if you need to,” Lynn added. “I’ll see you in a couple hours.”

“Okay,” Stella repeated. “Thanks. Thank you.”

“Of course,” Lynn said. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Stella hung up.

Lynn let out a breath, staring at her phone.

Warm hands landed on her shoulders, and she nearly jumped out of her skin before remembering Ken.

Ken. God. She’d been so focused on her sister, she’d literally forgotten he was there.

“I guess you heard all that,” she said. With shifter hearing, he would’ve heard Stella’s side of the conversation, too, no problem.

Too late, she wondered if she should’ve avoided mentioning the police, if she should’ve tried to make the conversation sound innocuous, in case any of the wolves were listening in. But Lynn hadn’t heard any angry male voices on the other side, no sign that someone other than Stella was reacting to what she’d said. Maybe it was okay.

“I did,” Ken said. “Your sister’s in trouble, it sounds like.”

Lynn nodded grimly. “And my niece. She’s seventeen, and I don’t want her anywhere near a pack of rowdy wolves.” She held up her keys. “I’m sorry about this, but I really have to go get them. I can’t leave them there with those wolves, not knowing what’s going to happen...”

“Of course you can’t,” Ken said, sounding offended that she’d even apologized for it.

Good. That was good. And...she hesitated.

“What is it?” he asked quietly.

A pack of wolves. Stella hadn’t said how many there were—Lynn should’ve asked, she realized now; maybe she should text Stella to see—but a pack was definitely more than one or two. If she tried to get Stella and Eva out of there, would the wolves object?

Stella wasn’t a fighter—she was much more likely to try and run away. Lynn wasn’t about to let Eva fight anyone or anything. Which meant that if there was a real problem, it would be her alone against—five wolves? Six? Ten?

“Would you...” God. This was harder than she’d thought.

Lynn was so used to doing everything herself. So used to depending on no one, to being the older sister who had her life together and who could take care of everything. Her own business, that she ran alone. Her own house, where she lived alone.

Her own life—alone. She might not need anyone, but that meant that she didn’t have anyone, either.

Wasn’t asking for help a good thing? Because it meant that she had someone to ask. Someone in her life who would help.

And it wasn’t like she was uncertain of the answer, after all. She knew what Ken was going to say before she asked. There wasn’t any question at all.

“Will you come with me?” came out of her mouth, all at once.

It was easier to say than she’d thought it would be.

And if anything, Ken looked even more offended at the idea that she might’ve thought about going alone. The expression almost made her giggle. Or maybe that was the rush of relief.

“Of course I’m coming with you,” he said.

The relief wasn’t because he’d said yes. She’d known he’d say yes.

She was relieved she’d been able to ask.

Maybe she could figure out this having a mate thing, after all. Maybe she wasn’t an incurably single cantankerous middle-aged spinster, and she really could work this man into her life, learn to depend on him the way couples depended on each other.

“Lynn,” Ken was saying, “if you thought I would leave you to walk into a literal den of wolves by yourself, we’re going to have to have a conversation about what being mates means.”

Now she did giggle. It was strange to laugh in the middle of a serious situation like this, but it didn’t feel inappropriate, somehow. “I guess I wasn’t thinking about it in those terms, exactly.”

She was learning that that was just how Ken was. She bet he’d joked around when he was overseas, in combat with other Marines, too. It was a way of letting out the tension that could hover thick in the air. Making it easier to breathe, easier to think clearly.

“Well, now you know.” He took her hand. She was already getting used to the feeling of his big, warm fingers engulfing hers. It was calming. “In the future, just remember: anytime you’re facing a den of wolves, I’m going to be right there by your side.”

She nodded. “No dens of wolves alone. Got it.”

“Good. Time to get going, then.”

“Yes.” She led the way out of her bedroom—with a sudden faint pang of regret for the lovely, sexy evening that they’d been about to have, that she’d been anticipating with her entire body when he kissed her.

But they’d have other evenings.

They took her car, because there wouldn’t be room in Ken’s truck for everyone. Lynn felt a little more secure as she pulled away, because at least she was doing something, even if it was only driving. Ken settled in next to her, looking alert, but not jittery or tense.

“You don’t seem worried,” she said to him after a few minutes, casting a look over at the passenger’s seat. “There’s going to be a whole group of wolves there. They might not care that Stella and Eva are leaving, but...they might.”

Ken nodded. “I get it. But I don’t think we’ll be in any danger. Most shifters will back down from a lion at first—even a whole pack of wolves is going to take a minute to regroup and figure out what they want to do, if I shift. And a minute is all we need, if we’re extracting your sister and her daughter and getting the hell out of there.”

Extracting. “You make it sound like a military operation.”

“There’s two responses to that.” Ken sounded surprisingly thoughtful. Lynn had expected him to either say that it was just like a military operation, or to laugh.

But instead, he was settling in to an explanation. “First, yeah, I was using a little bit of military language there. Just a little. And that’s just because I’ve had training for situations like this—removing civilians from a hostile environment. Which is good. I’m pretty sure I can help settle this whole thing without any real trouble, even if the wolves want to make some.”

“That’s good.” But there was still a kind of uncomfortable feeling in her stomach at the idea of Stella and Eva just being referred to as civilians in a hostile environment.

“On the other hand,” Ken was continuing, “this is nothing like a military operation, because you’re my mate, my family, and that means that those two women in there are my family too. And I want you to understand that, if I were in the military, I’d have orders and priorities and people I had to report to, and primary and secondary mission objectives, and a lot of bullshit flying around.”

“But?” she asked. Her mouth felt dry.

“But I’m not in the military. I have only one priority here, and that is you. You want your sister and your niece out of there, well, I’m getting them out of there. No question, no other focus, nothing but that.”

Lynn flushed, full of wonder at this idea. That someone's priority could be her. It seemed like a silly thing to want, for a grown-up. Shouldn't her own priorities be enough? But apparently they weren't, because the idea felt like a kind of completion.

“Thank you,” she said finally, although it seemed inadequate.

He smiled warmly. “Believe me when I tell you that putting you first is my pleasure.”

She blushed. God, she'd blushed so much in the last couple of days, when normally she never, ever did.

“So tell me about your sister,” Ken said, as though sensing her embarrassment, responding with a change of subject. “We’ve got a long drive, so there’s plenty of time to catch me up on this new family. What was it like growing up together? I haven't heard anything about her yet, not like your grandmother.”

Lynn sighed. “Well, there's kind of a reason for that.”

“Oh?” She could hear the curiosity in his voice.

“Stella is...she's a little flighty. She doesn't like to be tied down, doesn't want anyone to tell her what to do. But she doesn't always plan very well for herself, so that can cause some problems with her life, when she doesn't think about practicalities and then ends up in trouble.” Lynn shook her head. “She's always been like that, ever since we were kids. And I—well.”

“You're not like that.” Ken was smiling, she could tell without looking.

“No,” she said on a let-out breath. “No, I'm not. I like to have a plan, I like to know what's going to happen, and I like to be in control of a situation. So basically, that means that whenever Stella and I are together for too long, we start fighting. Because I see that she's about to trainwreck and I try to stop it, but she doesn't want to hear it, and if I tell her not to do something, that just guarantees she's going to do it anyway. And then I'm angry she didn't listen to me, and she's angry that I wouldn't trust her—even if it clearly wasn't going to work out—” She made herself stop.

Ken was quiet for a minute, thinking. What he came up with, finally, was, “That sounds frustrating as hell for both of you.”

Lynn laughed humorlessly. “Yup. So we don't spend a lot of time together. Unless,” she said pointedly, “she gets herself in trouble so bad that she needs my help to get out of it. Like tonight.”

“And you still drop everything and go running,” Ken said softly.

Lynn glanced at him. “Well. Yes. She's my sister. I'm not going to abandon her if she really needs help.”

“Some people would say that she made her own bed, and she should have to lie in it,” Ken said darkly.

Lynn experienced a flash of insight—she wondered if this was how Ken felt, when he seemed to be reading her mind sometimes. “Like your parents?”

A startled pause. “Well,” Ken said finally. “Yes.”

“What was it like growing up with them?” Lynn asked softly.

Ken was quiet for a minute. “It was tough,” he said finally. “I think I'm naturally more like your sister than like you. I like to go with the flow, I don't tend to make plans too far in advance. But my parents weren't having any of that. No sense of humor—my dad especially. He wanted to know exactly where I was at all times. And they were both terrified of what might happen if they didn't have everything locked down months or years in advance.”

“That sounds even more frustrating,” Lynn said. “My sister and I can argue with each other, and neither of us can really tell the other what to do.” Although she tried sometimes. “But if it was your parents...”

“Yeah,” Ken said. “There's a reason I ran away and joined the military.”

Lynn felt her mouth quirk a little. “Where they told you what to do and wanted to control every aspect of your life?”

“Hey.” There was laughter hinting at the edges of Ken's voice. “I never said it was an especially smart decision.”

“But it worked out for you.” Lynn was honestly curious.

“It did,” Ken said, thoughtful. “I think I ended up kind of a hybrid. My parents and the Marines trained me to be prepared for every possibility, always be ready in a crisis, know what was going to happen next. And I'm good at that, when I have to be. But I still like to go with the flow, when I can. I never thought I'd end up as an environmental scientist, after all. I just figured that I'd go back to school and do something that let me be outside a lot.”

“Well,” Lynn said, “I'm glad you did.”

His voice was warm. “Me, too. Although I bet we'd have ended up finding each other, no matter what I did.”

“I hope so.” Lynn didn't like to think about the possibility that they might not have. That she could've been driving out to face a wolf pack alone...she shivered.

“Hey.” His hand was warm on her thigh. “I'm here, don't worry about it. Tell me more about your family. Stella has a daughter?”

Lynn broke out into a smile. “Eva. Eva's a great kid. Although—” She had to laugh at herself a little. “It's possible I'm saying that because Eva's more like me.”

“Oh, man. A planner daughter and a flighty mom? I'm picturing the epic fights now.”

“You're not wrong.” Lynn gave in and laughed a little. “It's not as much of a disaster as it could be, I don't think. Stella has an easier time listening to Eva than she does listening to me, for whatever reason. But Eva's still a kid—seventeen—and so she can't always know what the best thing to do is. And, of course, sometimes Stella's just going to do what Stella's going to do.”

“Like getting with this guy?”

“Like getting with this guy,” Lynn confirmed.

“Do you know anything about him?” Ken sounded more serious now. “Or his pack?”

“Not much,” Lynn admitted. “I only met him once. He didn't seem dangerous or anything, just kind of—whiny and unimpressive. The sort of guy who gets captivated by Stella because she's pretty and funny all the time. I don't know why she picked him. He's attractive, I guess.”

“You guess?” Ken's voice was teasing again.

“I don't like them little and weedy,” Lynn said pointedly. “I want a guy with some substance to him.”

“Aha,” Ken said. “I better not quit lifting, then.”

Lynn didn't dignify that one with an answer. “Anyway, I've never met the rest of his pack at all. There's a lot of wolves in the forests up here, and I've never gotten to know most of them very well. They stick together.”

Ken nodded. “Wolves are like that.” He leaned back in his seat, thinking. “Okay. Well, let's figure that first we text or call Stella when we get there, see if she thinks it's safe for her and her daughter to just come out on their own. Say they're going out for food or something.”

Lynn nodded. That would be easier, for sure.

“Then, if they think that isn't a good idea, or if someone tries to stop them, we can go in. I'll go first.”

Lynn shot him a glance. “What if I want to go first?”

“I'll point out that if there's a room full of hostile wolf shifters in there, I want to be the one they're looking at, because I'm a Marine veteran and my shifter form is scarier than yours,” Ken shot back.

Lynn sighed. “Fair enough. I just don't like the idea of you putting yourself in danger.”

“Well, neither do I, and I have a better argument so I win,” Ken said, with an air of finality.

Lynn had to laugh. How could he make such a serious situation seem funny? And there wasn't any sense of—ignoring it, or making fun of how worried she was. She knew he was taking this absolutely seriously, that he did want to protect her, and that he was depending on his combat experience to see this through.

And yet somehow, he knew exactly when to turn the conversation lighthearted, so anxiety didn't completely take over her body, leave her tense and shaky and too scared for Stella to think things through.

“Anyway, this works tactically as well. Because I'll come through the door, and the wolves won't be expecting me, and they'll see me as a threat and not you, because I'm willing to bet they're sexist as hell, right? So they'll be staring at me, and meanwhile you can hustle Stella and Eva right out the door, and we can all run away like little bunnies before they even know anything's wrong,” Ken finished.

Lynn glanced over. “Like little bunnies?”

“Terrified little bunnies,” he confirmed. “That’s the smartest tactical choice, unless they make a real move to stop us leaving.”

Suddenly, another thing to worry about. “You think they will?”

Ken shrugged. “Not sure. I’ll have a better idea when I meet them. And if they do, just keep back and don’t worry. They won’t be expecting a fight, and I’ve stayed in good practice since I left the Corps. How far out are we?”

“Still a ways,” she said. Despite all of his cheerful optimism, a chill was starting to seep into her bones. “Will you—?” She stopped.

“Will I what?”

“Nothing. It’s stupid.”

“Don’t you call my mate’s ideas stupid,” he said with gentle reproof. “What?”

She sighed. “Will you just—talk? About something silly? I need a distraction.”

“That is so far from stupid, Lynn,” he said, still in that gentle tone. “Getting worked up and scared before doing something dangerous is a bad idea. It makes you reactive and dumb, in the moment. You want to be calm and relaxed, and sometimes the best way to be calm and relaxed is to tell silly stories. Very well-established Marine training technique.”

She smiled. “Oh, yes?”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “Here, I can tell you about some more well-established Marine training techniques. You’ll appreciate them, I’m sure.”

And he launched into a series of stories about Marine recruits doing the dumbest things she had ever personally heard of. Each one was sillier than the last.

“Balancing it on his head,” she repeated once, not sure if she could quite believe it.

“Did his entire drill that way,” Ken confirmed. “Which reminds me of the time that Rafferty dared Jansen to eat an entire MRE off the top of Kowalski’s head—”

Marines, Lynn eventually had to conclude, were a crazy bunch.

The stories passed the time so well, they were pulling onto the street where Todd lived almost before Lynn realized it.

“This is it,” she interrupted a tale of Vandalization By Condom Balloons. “Coming up here.”

Ken peered out into the gloom. “He lives down here? He has a house?”

“Yep,” Lynn confirmed. She’d memorized the address when Stella had given it to her, a couple of months ago. Just in case something like this happened.

“Okay. Pull up a little ways away—not into the driveway, far enough that he won’t be alerted we’re right outside. Then text your sister that we’re here, ask if she can get out fast and easy.”

Lynn nodded. It was such a relief to have someone with her who knew how best to handle this situation, who would be prepared if something went wrong.

It was more of a relief that that person was Ken. Her mate. Whose warm, encouraging voice told her that he trusted her, too.

She pulled over and got out her phone, texting Stella, I’m here. Parked on the street. Can you and Eva come out?

There was a long, long pause while she waited. Ken reached over and took her hand. “If she doesn’t respond, that’s okay,” he said. “There are plenty more steps to take.”

Five minutes passed. Seven. Ten. “I don’t think she’s going to answer,” Lynn said finally.

“That’s fine. Try calling her.”

So she did. It rang once, and then suddenly Stella’s voice was loud in her ears. “See, she’s calling me!” she shouted. “Lynn, I’m coming—!”

“No, you aren’t!” a male voice yelled.

“Stella, I'm coming in right now,” Lynn said tersely. “Don't do anything stupid.”

Ken was already getting out of the car, and Lynn followed him, keeping the call open in case anything happened in the few minutes it took them to run up the drive towards the house.

Ken reached the door first. He didn't bother knocking. It wasn't locked, and he burst in with Lynn right behind him.

The occupants of the house froze in surprise at the sight of them. Lynn took in the tableau with a quick glance.

There were six men in the room. All shifters, Lynn was pretty sure—this must be the pack, then.

Todd, the boyfriend, had Stella's arm in a tight grip. Behind her was Eva, looking white and scared. Standing next to Eva was the biggest of the six pack members, a six-foot-plus hulking man with a bushy beard. Eva's eyes jumped to Lynn as the door opened, but then they went right back to the man.

"Called your sister to come rescue you, huh?" Todd snarled as Lynn came in. "That's not going to help. Even if she brought her boyfriend."

"Are you hurt?" Lynn asked tensely, looking from Stella to Eva.

"No," Stella said, her voice steady. Eva shook her head.

"They're not leaving," the big man said.

"What do you care?" Lynn snapped, taking a step forward. She could feel Ken as a warm, solid presence at her back.

The other four members of the pack, thankfully, were sprawled in front of the TV, where there was a game on. Clearly they hadn't thought that a fight between Todd and his girlfriend was enough to stir themselves.

But now they were starting to sit up and take notice. Lynn kept her focus on Todd and the big man. The pack alpha, maybe?

"Well," the big man said reasonably, "that's none of your goddamn business, is it? You're not a part of this pack."

"Neither are they," Lynn said. "They're not wolves."

Behind her, Ken said thoughtfully, "How many women do you have in this pack of yours?"

There was a long silence.

Lynn understood, and then wished she hadn't. These guys hadn't been able to keep any female shifters around—no wonder, if this was how they treated them. The alpha didn't want to let Stella and Eva go, because then they’d be an all-male group, not a real pack at all.

"You can't just kidnap people like this," she said firmly, and strode forward, hoping that the men's focus would turn to her, and Stella and Eva would have a chance to run away.

It sort of worked.

The big alpha definitely turned his focus to Lynn—he stepped up to meet her, reaching out to grab her by the elbow before she could reach her sister or her niece. Eva took the opportunity—smart girl! Lynn thought—and darted away while his attention was on Lynn, disappearing behind Lynn’s back somewhere.

Lynn tried to yank her arm away, but the alpha’s grip was too strong, and he caught her other arm when she tried. “Ow!” she said, glaring.

There was a rush of air.

The alpha’s hands slipped from her like they were made of water, and when Lynn was able to focus again, she saw that Ken had him up against a wall, one arm twisted up behind his back. The alpha was swearing a blue streak, but Ken’s voice cut sharply over him when he said, “Don’t touch her again.”

The room seemed to freeze for a moment. Lynn wondered if the others were afraid. Any fear she’d felt had vanished in the moment her mate made his presence known.

Ken kept the alpha in an armlock for a few more beats...and then stepped back and released him.

“Okay,” he said calmly, as though nothing had happened. “You’re going to let these women go now. We’re all going to head out and drive away, and no one’s going to be hurt.”

“Or what?” Todd got himself together enough to whine. He turned to Stella. “You think this is all over just because you brought your sister’s boyfriend to come try and beat me up?”

The alpha was shaking himself out, watching Ken with a bit of a bewildered look on his face, like he couldn’t understand what had just happened. Ken was staying between him and Lynn.

“I'm not her boyfriend,” Ken said. His voice was mild, but somehow it still carried throughout the room. The other men had started muttering to each other—when Lynn looked over, she saw that they’d stood up, no longer staring at the TV—but they fell silent when Ken spoke.

“I'm her mate,” Ken continued. “This is my family that you're threatening. I don't appreciate it when people threaten my family. I also don't appreciate it when a man won't let go of a woman when she wants to get away.”

“She doesn't know what she wants,” Todd blustered.

Which was when Stella decided to speak up—with perfect timing, for once in her life. “Let me the hell go,” she snapped.

Todd looked over at her, startled, and his grip must have loosened, because Stella yanked her arm free and took several steps back. She didn’t seem to know what to do, though—she was eyeing Ken with a bit of wariness.

“Baby,” Todd said, “what are you doing? You said you wanted to stay with me. You promised.”

“I changed my mind,” Stella said, her voice shaky. “I don't want to be here anymore.”

“Why not?” He took a step or two forward, and Stella took a step or two back. Ken was still standing easily, as though he was totally relaxed. But Lynn could—feel the readiness in him somehow.

Todd’s alpha finally seemed to get himself together. “Okay, that’s it,” he said. “Todd, quit whining and do something. Boys, this asshole and this interfering lynx need to get gone.”

The wolves moved.

But Ken moved faster.

Lynn had been prepared to shift. She couldn’t fight in human form, had never been trained like Ken had, but she could do some damage as a lynx. But if she shifted, so would the wolves, and those would be much, much worse odds.

But as it turned out, no one needed to shift. These men didn’t have the kind of deadly, focused attention that Ken brought. Before any of them had raised a hand, he’d knocked two of their heads together, leaving them slumped against the couch, rubbing their foreheads.

He did something complicated to the third one that left him doubled over clutching at one eye, and popped the fourth one in the solar plexus.

It was all quick, neat, and involved no blood or broken bones. Lynn had never seen a fight quite like it.

Stella took advantage of Todd’s distraction and broke for the door, and at a glance from Ken, Lynn followed.

Out in the cool night, Eva was waiting, hesitating by the door. “Come on, let’s get to the car,” Lynn said tersely, and hustled the two of them down the walk.

When she glanced back, Ken had appeared in the doorway, following more slowly. Keeping himself firmly between them and danger, Lynn understood.

Only Todd followed, though. And all he was doing was yelling.

But he yelled, “You can't just leave like this, Stella! You're going to regret it!”

Lynn sure hoped that wasn't true.

She followed Stella and Eva to the car, and Ken must have been moving faster than he’d looked to be, because he arrived just as they were getting in. “We’re clear for the moment,” he told Lynn. “Drive.”

She put the key in the ignition and drove.

The fight was still replaying in her mind. It was so clear to her that Ken could easily have hurt those men very badly. Maybe even killed them—if he’d hit the one man in the throat instead of the solar plexus, for example.

But he hadn’t. He’d taken care of the problem quickly and efficiently, without any danger of trouble from the police, or any awful things for Stella and Eva to remember.

Lynn only breathed out once they were safely off Todd’s street, accelerating away from the house.

“Thank you, Aunt Lynn,” Eva said from the backseat. “Thank you so much. Those guys were awful. Scary and—and awful.”

“Did they hurt you at all?” Lynn asked tensely. “Get too close, even?”

But she could see Eva shake her head in the rearview mirror. Thank God. “No, they just said stuff that made me—worry. Mom never left me alone with them.”

Lynn let out a breath. “Good. That’s good.”

“I wouldn’t leave my daughter with those assholes,” Stella said indignantly. “I know you think I can’t do anything right, Lynn, but for God’s sake.”

“Well, I just had to drive out here in the middle of the night to rescue you from your boyfriend, so forgive me for being a little worried about both of you!” Lynn said explosively.

Now that they were out of that house, her fear was transmuting itself into anger at Stella for getting into that situation in the first place. Hadn’t she known going in that Todd was a loser who was part of a pack of no-good jerks?

“Todd wasn’t the one causing the problem!” Stella protested. “It was the rest of them. They’re basically a gang, they sucked him in and now he can’t get out, and they’ve been coming over every day, causing trouble—they’re dealing drugs, I think—”

“It sure looked to me like Todd was causing some trouble,” Lynn said grimly. “The way he was holding on and he wouldn’t let you leave.”

“That’s just because he loves me,” Stella said, but her voice was smaller.

The tone made Lynn regret what she’d been saying. Stella had just been in a scary situation, with a man who didn’t want to let her leave, and now Lynn was piling insults on top of that. Sure, Stella didn’t always make good decisions, but there was probably a better time to talk to her about it than right now.

So she said, “I’m sure he does,” although the words threatened to choke her a little bit on the way out.

But it wasn’t like she knew the inside of Todd’s head. Maybe he did love Stella—but was just too much of a coward to stand up to his friends on her behalf, and couldn’t let her go when she wanted to leave.

Of course, that wasn’t the sort of love that anyone should want.

“Aunt Lynn,” Eva said in a determinedly cheerful tone—Lynn recognized it, and felt bad all over again, because that was the sound of Eva trying hard to keep the two of them from fighting—”will you introduce us to your friend?”

Lynn realized with a start that Ken had been sitting absolutely quietly in the front seat, not pushing himself into her and Stella’s little argument at all—even though neither of them had been very reasonable, and they probably could’ve used a more rational voice.

He was paying attention, though. At Eva’s comment, he turned a bit in his seat to smile back at them.

“This is—” Lynn stopped. What to say about him?

“He said he was your mate,” Stella said, looking at him speculatively.

Oh, yes. He had said that, hadn’t he. So now they knew, and Lynn was just going to have to—figure out how to explain it.

“That can’t be true, though,” Stella was continuing, still with that frowning look. “Right? Are you someone my sister...hired? Or a coworker? One of those park rangers she works with sometimes?”

Ken glanced at Lynn, who had no idea what to say. His smile quirked, and he turned back to Stella to say seriously, “Nope, it was the truth. I’m Lynn’s mate.”

Lynn found her voice enough to add, “That’s right. We’re mates.”

Into the sudden silence came Eva's voice. “Wow. Congratulations, Aunt Lynn. And—uh—”

“This is Ken,” Lynn said, finally remembering something that looked sort of like manners. “Ken Turner.”

“Nice to meet you,” Eva said.

“Likewise.” Lynn could hear Ken's smile in his voice.

The tension was dissipating. The weirdness of introducing her mate to her family in the wake of a semi-violent confrontation was overpowering, but with every passing moment, the fight seemed to recede. The way Ken was settled easily in his seat, smiling like he always did, helped a lot.

“Wait a second,” Stella broke in. “Are you really serious? This is your mate?”

“Hi.” From the sound of it, Ken's smile had broadened into a grin.

Lynn tensed as she waited to hear what Stella could say next. It could be anything, frankly, and she wouldn't be too surprised if it was insulting.

“Well.” Stella sounded a little stunned. “I have to say, Lynn, I never thought you'd be quite this lucky.”

“Hey, thanks,” Ken said easily, while Lynn processed slowly through that. “But really, I'm the lucky one. Your sister's quite a woman.”

“This is supremely unfair,” Stella said after a pause.

Lynn finally managed to find her voice. “Excuse me, that is my mate you're talking about. He's not open season!”

“That's what I'm complaining about!”

“Ladies,” Ken said, “please.” A pause. “Continue.”

Stella started to laugh. “I don't know where you found this guy, Lynn, but please take a look back there and see if there are any more for me.”

“You guys,” Eva said plaintively. “This is gross.”

Lynn finally gave in and laughed too.

It was amazing. She'd been sure that whatever Stella said, it would devolve somehow into a fight, because usually that's what happened whenever Stella made a casual remark about something important. Lynn objected, Stella took offense, and then they had an argument.

But this time, it hadn't happened. And somehow, she felt pretty sure that Ken was responsible. Because he hadn't taken offense at all, Lynn had felt like it was okay to let it go.

And then he'd made a joke, too, but somehow with him, it wasn't the same. Maybe because Lynn knew for certain that he valued their relationship just as much as she did, and he was just making a little lighthearted fun—kind of at his own expense, she thought, maybe poking fun at the idea that he could be vain enough to appreciate Stella being envious?—and it didn't bother her at all.

That was something to think about. Why was she okay when Ken joked around, but not when Stella did? This time, at least, they'd been making exactly the same joke.

“Fine,” Stella was saying to Eva. “I'll let it go. For now.”

“I'm not forgetting this,” Lynn said, and the words came easily to her, the idea that Stella was just joking, and Lynn was joking right back.

She settled in to drive. Maybe with Ken here, something might change, for the first time in decades. Maybe.

***

Ken breathed out an inaudible sigh of relief.

When he'd heard that Lynn's sister—and her teenaged niece, good God—were trapped in a house with a pack of hostile wolves, his mind had instantly sketched out all of the ways the situation could go wrong. Very, very wrong.

He was incredibly glad that none of those possibilities had come to pass. And also that he'd been there in the first place, because if he hadn’t been—

If they'd only been faced with women, it would have been a different story.

That infuriated Ken. The idea that some men, knowing that they were stronger than women, would use that strength to just take what they wanted, was something he found absolutely disgusting. If you were stronger than other people, it was your responsibility to protect them. Or at the very least, the absolute minimum, you needed to make sure you didn't scare them with it.

Stella and Eva, for all they were joking around now, had clearly been terrified. The laughter in the car had that post-adrenaline edge to it, the giggling relief that you were finally safe. And as for Lynn—Ken recognized her irritability with Stella as disguised fear for her sister's safety.

Although there was a certain amount of existing annoyance there, too.

Now Ken had to hide a smile. As an only child, he'd always been fascinated by the ways siblings interacted with each other, and he could tell that Lynn and Stella had a well-established pattern. Lynn was the responsible one, the one who sacrificed to take care of them, and Stella was the wild child, who insisted on being a free spirit and got in trouble. It was just the way Lynn had described it, and seeing it in action was—interesting.

Eva had mostly kept quiet, so he didn't have too much of an idea of her personality yet. Except she was very perceptive, and very good at speaking up at just the right moment to defuse a potential argument.

The car was mostly quiet for the drive back. Eva had leaned across the seat to rest her head on her mother's shoulder, and Stella had an arm around her, occasionally stroking her hair. Lynn had slowly relaxed, scaling the car back to a reasonable speed. Ken put a comfortable hand on her knee and spent the time running through potential scenarios in case they had to confront the wolves again. At some point, after all, they'd probably have to go back to get Stella and Eva's things, so even if the pack didn't think it was worth it to come after one estranged girlfriend, there were tactics to consider.

That was if Stella didn't decide to go back to Todd. Ken hoped she didn't, but he knew that these things were often more complicated than they appeared to outsiders. And she might not think she had much of a choice.

Well, Ken would do his best to help Lynn show her that she did.

After all, there was that whole enormous house. It seemed a shame to move in with just him and Lynn.

His lion growled approvingly, and Ken blinked at himself. Was he nesting?

Maybe finding your mate changed you more than he'd realized.

Everyone was still quiet when they got back to the house. Inside, Lynn turned on the light, and Ken was able to see Stella and Eva clearly for the first time.

Stella resembled her sister in almost every way: short, curvy, blondish-brown hair, the same clear topaz-colored eyes. But her hair was cut in a short, flyaway do that framed her face and looked like she'd put some styling effort into it, unlike Lynn's severe bun. And she was wearing a flowing dress with a flower print on it, and stylish-looking leather boots, and a good amount of makeup, again totally unlike Lynn. Ken could see their separate personalities easily in how they presented themselves to the world.

Stella was pretty, but Ken definitely preferred Lynn's no-nonsense outdoorsy look. He couldn't explain just what about it made it so sexy—everything, he thought with a private smile. Lynn's everything was what he wanted.

Eva had the same clear topaz eyes as her mother and her aunt—was she a lynx shifter too?—but she was taller, with straight auburn hair to her shoulders. She was wearing jeans, sneakers, and a hoodie, looking like any other teenager, except that the hoodie had what looked like a blue telephone booth printed on it. Some kind of pop culture thing, probably.

“Okay,” Lynn said on a sigh. “You guys know where your rooms are. The kitchen has food if you want it. I figure we can take a break, get some sleep, and figure out more plans in the morning.”

“You don't have to make plans for us,” Stella said, with a hint of the confrontation she'd had in the car. “We can figure it out ourselves.”

This time, Ken could feel Lynn tensing up, ready to respond with something irritated. Maybe a comment on how clearly they couldn't figure it out themselves, or none of them would be in this situation in the first place.

“Look,” he said, keeping his voice light and calm. “No one wants those assholes to cause any more trouble, right? So we might as well put our heads together and do our best to make sure that doesn't happen, if we can.”

Stella looked at the ceiling. “I suppose so.”

Lynn relaxed again, and Ken smiled at Stella and Eva. “I hope you don't mind if I hang around. I can clear out if you'd be uncomfortable having me here in your space.”

He didn't want to, of course, but this was their home and he was a strange man, and they'd probably had enough of strange men invading their home. Especially Eva.

But both of them shook their heads. “No, not at all,” Stella said. “You're Lynn's mate, you should stay here. As long as you knock before entering any closed doors, there's no problems.”

“I will definitely, one-hundred-percent knock,” he assured them.

“Okay,” Lynn interrupted. “You guys have everything—crap, do you not have toothbrushes and stuff? I think there's extras, maybe—”

Stella hefted her bag. “I had Eva pack for us while she was in the back bedroom. We’ve got enough things for a couple of days.”

“Good. Great. Let's go to bed.” Lynn threw Ken an imploring look.

“Sounds like a plan,” he said, and took her hand, letting her lead the way up the stairs.

Behind him, he could hear Stella's muttered voice. “Man, she really did hit the jackpot, didn't she?”

Lynn growled under her breath, and Ken had to grin. He could tell that Lynn wasn't actually worried about Stella stealing him away—that would be a major shifter instinct moment, he bet it'd be hard to miss—so he felt okay about laughing at the way her hackles rose at Stella's comments.

And it felt good. That she cared enough to get protective of her claim on him. That was something a man could grow to appreciate.

And when they reached the end of the hall and got through the door into Lynn’s room, he had her in his arms before the door was fully closed.

He could show her how much he appreciated her possessiveness now.

“Oh thank God,” Lynn said between kisses. “That entire drive back, I swear to you, all I wanted was to pick up where we left off, earlier.”

That was hot. The idea that she’d been sitting there, quietly driving along the dark back Montana roads, and all the time she’d been thinking about...

He kissed her again, fiercely, caught up in the taste of her. “We’ve been too far away from each other for hours,” he growled. He wanted to surround himself in her scent, wrap himself up in it like a blanket and carry it around with him forever. He wanted her to smell like him to any other shifters she met, for everyone who saw her to know that she was his.

“No argument,” Lynn gasped into his mouth. “Oh, God, you feel so good.”

She was wrong—she was the one who felt good. But he didn’t have time to argue the point with her, because he was too busy kissing her mouth, her cheek, her neck, burying his nose in the curve of her shoulder and inhaling deeply, then latching on to that spot with his mouth and biting gently, laving the area with his tongue.

She made a noise that was higher-pitched than anything he’d ever heard out of her, going up on her toes. He pulled back. “All right?”

“All right,” she gasped, and he grinned and went right back in.

He wanted to taste her all over. He wanted to bury himself in her, fill himself up with Lynn, leave their essences clinging to each other.

And he could.

“Clothes off,” he said. Which was the best approximation of a sentence that he could manage, with his cock throbbing between his legs and his hands on fire with the need to touch her all over.

She pressed her mouth to his, licking in to taste him, and then pulled back to gasp, “You're going to have to let go of me for that to work.”

Boy howdy, he did not want to do that.

But he made his hands loosen, letting her step back, leaving him tingling with desire and tearing at his own clothes. Shirt, pants, socks, boxers, shit, why were clothes so goddamn complicated?

But finally they were off. Ken looked up at Lynn, who was halfway out of her pants, and wondered if the air between them really was heated, or if it was just his imagination. He had to clench his hands to keep from pouncing on her while she was still yanking her jeans over her ankles.

The second she was naked, though, he sprang. She laughed in surprise as he propelled her back onto the bed, getting her legs over his shoulders and descending mouth first.

God, she was wet. He sucked on her clit, tasting her salt-sweet and so, so hot. Sex on his tongue—going down on a woman had always driven him a bit crazy, the idea that sex was happening right there in his mouth. And with Lynn, it was so far beyond anything he'd done before. He felt like he was tasting her core, white-hot and intoxicating.

And the way her legs fell on either side of him, the soft skin against his bare shoulders, muscles clenching as he licked her clit, how her high-pitched noises filled the air, added to how her taste filled him: it was like he was utterly surrounded by Lynn's pleasure.

He lost track of any technique he might've known once, too caught up in the way she felt, tasted, sounded. He wanted to catch every moment of her pleasure, taste every hint of her. When she shuddered under his tongue, he felt it echo through his own body, his cock throbbing and his stomach clenching with desire.

He nosed downward from her clit, searching for more of her. When he traced his tongue around her entrance, she made a strangled noise, and when he plunged his tongue inside, her muscles clenched instantly. Ken spread his hands over her hips, pulling her forward into his tongue, and drowned in her.

He was halfway to embarrassing himself by coming right there on his knees, against the side of the bed, when she reached down, scrabbling at his shoulders, and pulled him away.

It took him a second to catch his breath, relearn what it meant to be up here in the air instead of down there, breathing her. “What?” he said. It came out as a growl, a rasp.

“Get inside me,” Lynn said. Her eyes were wild, topaz flames. Her hair had slipped free of its tie and was a wild halo around her head, and her own voice was throaty and hoarse. Ken could hardly tear his eyes away from hers, even with the glorious curves of her body on display.

Then he processed what she'd said. “Yeah,” he said, still hearing his voice as that low growl of want. “Yeah, Lynn, I need—”

The sentence got lost somewhere as he looked down. Her legs were open, the silver-blond curls surrounding her entrance were damp with her wetness and his spit, and he needed to be right there.

He got up on the bed, catching her knee as he went, tugging her open. She reached for him, pulling him in. Like he needed encouragement, yeah right.

Sinking inside her was everything he'd ever wanted. The way she felt around him, so hot, so wet—he surged forward, losing any of the scraps of intention he'd had of going slow. But she didn't protest. Instead, she grabbed his hips, like she wanted him even further inside.

Ken let go of the ragged edges of control and let himself surrender to the wild rhythm that was driving him. Lynn met him at every thrust, just as wild as he was. Her breaths had a little whine at the edge of each one, and every time he bottomed out inside her, she clenched hard around him. His cock jerked inside her, and he knew it wasn't going to be long.

“Can you—God—what do you need?” he panted.

“Just this, just this, just keep doing this—” Lynn's face was caught up in a gorgeous overwhelmed twist of pleasure, and Ken kissed her hard. She ground her hips up against him, once—twice—God, she was strong, he'd never been with a woman who could match him strength for strength like this, had always had to be careful, take his time.

And now he'd surrendered to the wildness within and found her right there with him. He tore his mouth away from hers and bit her neck, right where he'd bitten earlier, but harder. And at that, Lynn's fingernails dug into his back, and her muscles clenched impossibly tight. Ken lost track of anything that was happening other than the feeling of her locked up, orgasming around his cock, and the little pricks of pain from her fingers, which somehow only got caught up with the pleasure.

That rough edge was the thing that did it: he drove in as deep as he could, and came harder than he ever had in his life. His climax was like a firestorm of pleasure, overrunning his thoughts, his vision, his hearing. He couldn't say if he made any noise, because all he could hear was the roar of blood in his ears as he filled Lynn with himself.

It seemed like a long, long time passed before he was aware of anything else. Eventually, he blinked his eyes open and realized he'd collapsed on top of Lynn. He went to extricate himself, because having that many pounds of sweaty man on top of her couldn't have been pleasant—but she made a protesting noise as he moved, grabbing at his waist and refusing to let go.

So he settled back in. He certainly wasn't complaining. His mate was the best pillow he could've asked for.

They lay there together for who knew how long. Ken listened to Lynn's soft breaths, feeling the rise and fall of her chest. Eventually, the soft skin of her shoulder looked too inviting to ignore, so he rested his fingers on it, stroking softly over a spot that seemed particularly smooth. Lynn made a contented noise, and he kissed her collarbone.

She still tasted like sex, he thought lazily, but now it was exhausted, wrung-out sex. The taste of the moment right before you needed to go get a glass of water, when everything was still hot and damp and saturated. When you felt like you'd smell like each other forever.

He hoped so.

***

Lynn wondered if the bar for best sex of my life was just going to keep going up, from now on.

She’d been so sure that when they’d made love out in the woods, that that was the best she could possibly feel. That she’d reached the highest heights of pleasure, and there was no way anything could possibly be better.

But she’d clearly been wrong, because the way Ken had devoured her in there, like he was dying of thirst and he needed to wrap himself in her to survive, had been—it was some strange combination of the hottest thing she’d ever seen, and something that left a deep, sharp feeling inside her chest.

Mate, she thought wonderingly, feeling his weight on top of her like a blessing, a gift. That’s what having a mate is.

Eventually, they had to move. Lynn breathed deep as he finally sat up, stretching out her achingly tired muscles. Well, if there was a better way to end a long, long day like this, she didn’t know what it could be.

Ken was looking down at her with a soft warmth in his tawny eyes. The look gave her a pleasantly squirmy feeling in her stomach, something she didn’t quite know how to deal with.

Instead, she just looked back, letting the squirmy feeling stay there, and thinking that she might still be self-conscious, she might still feel uncertain and strange at the idea that he really felt this way about her, that he was really here to stay, forever—but that was all right. She could live inside that feeling, and it wouldn’t hurt her.

And there was nothing to compare with the feeling of realizing that it was true, that she didn’t need to be uncertain. She looked forward to a lot of that in the coming weeks and months.

And years. Maybe by the time it had been years, though, she wouldn’t feel it any more. Just a simple confidence in his love. Peace with the knowledge that he’d always be there for her.

That was something to look forward to, for sure.

She finally broke the silence with, “Thank you for doing this, tonight. Coming with me to get Stella.”

“I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else,” he said with absolute certainty.

“I know,” Lynn said, and she really did. “But I’m still grateful. Or—maybe that’s the wrong word.”

He sat quietly while she figured out what the right way to say it was. That was another thing she liked about him. He could joke around and make light of a situation, but if the moment called for quiet seriousness, he didn’t flinch away from it.

“It’s not that I’m grateful, like I think you were doing me a favor,” she said finally. “Like there was a possibility that you wouldn’t have been there, and so I’m grateful that you were. Instead, I’m just grateful for you. I’m glad that there was a Ken, to come with me and help my family. I don’t know if I could’ve done it by myself. Or not the same way, not so easily.”

He leaned down to kiss her softly. Lynn let any serious thoughts go and just breathed the kiss into her body like it was air.

After a long minute, he sat up again and said, “I’m grateful, too. That there was a Lynn who needed my help, and so I could show her what it was like to have someone who could come with her, who could stand by her side and support her. Who could take the lead if she needed it.”

Lynn smiled helplessly at him. “God. I really can’t believe this.”

He grinned, and the twinkle was back now. “What?”

“That I’ve become the sort of sappy lover who says these kinds of things. Who likes them, even.”

The twinkle kept going. “What, like, I love you forever?”

“Exactly like that.”

“Like, I’d do anything to make you happy?”

Lynn covered her eyes. And then uncovered them, because she didn’t want to stop looking at him. God, this was ridiculous. “Stop it.”

“Nope.” He kissed her again, then murmured into his mouth, “I want to wake up with you every morning for the rest of my life.”

“Ack!” She started giggling. “I can’t believe all those awful love songs are true. I always thought all those sappy lines were just made-up drivel. But it isn’t! I really do want to be with you more than anything, and I want you to hold my hand as we walk under the moonlight and gaze into each other’s eyes and all of that crazy nonsense.”

“Mmm, tell me more.”

Lynn laughed helplessly into the warm masculine scent of his skin and thought that she was luckier than she’d ever dreamed of being.

***

In the morning, there were practicalities to address.

But, Lynn realized, suddenly even those were different, were easier. Because Ken was there to help. Even just talking things over with him made everything seem more manageable.

“They’re going to have to stay here,” Lynn said to him first thing, after they’d both gotten up and grabbed a shower, but before going down for breakfast. “I don’t think Stella has a job right now, and she makes sure Eva concentrates on school rather than making money, so there’s no way they can afford to get their own place. So they have to stay here.”

“But?” Ken pulled a shirt over his head and emerged with his hair messed up, looking at her questioningly.

Lynn had to smile at the sight of him. She reached up, and he obligingly ducked his head to let her smooth his hair back down. Just touching him made her calmer, somehow.

“But I’m afraid of what might happen if Todd convinces that wolf pack to start hassling her here. This place isn’t a fortress, it’s just an old house. They could vandalize the place, they could break in...” She shuddered.

Ken caught her hand. “I think that’s a legitimate worry,” he said seriously, “and I’m not going to tell you to just relax about it.”

Now it was her turn to say, “But?” to his leading tone.

“But I think that we can make it much less likely that they’ll cause any trouble, with a bit of tactical work,” Ken said with a smile.

Just hearing his confidence, even without any real idea of what he might be planning, made the tension in Lynn’s shoulders start to melt away. “Okay,” she said, with a deep breath. “All right. Good.”

“Good,” he repeated. “Okay, what else?”

Lynn bit her lip. “This one is stupid.”

“I will bet you good money that it isn’t,” Ken said. He was still holding her hand, and he squeezed it tight. “Tell me.”

Lynn sighed. “Stella and I haven’t managed to live under the same roof without making each other miserable since we were little kids,” she admitted. “If they stay here, she and I are going to fight, and that’s going to be hard on Eva, and I don’t—” She made herself finish. “I don’t want you to see me being all petty and irritable like I always am with her.”

“Okay,” Ken said slowly. “That one’s harder to get tactical about.”

Lynn smiled ruefully. “Tell me about it.”

“But,” he said pointedly, “maybe someone with an outsider’s perspective can help a little bit?”

“Please,” she said. “If you have any suggestions or advice, offer them now, before we go down to breakfast and the cycle of aggression begins anew.”

He grinned. “Well, I think I saw the rumblings of it in the car last night.”

Lynn sat down on the bed and rubbed her hands over her face. “Right. Yes. So you’ve already seen me be petty and irritable.” She’d almost forgotten, after...everything else that had happened last night. She and Stella had fallen into their old patterns right away.

“So, I have a small suggestion just from what I heard,” Ken said cautiously. “And I might be way off base, so don’t hesitate to tell me that I’m butting in and thinking I know best.”

Lynn looked up at him and smiled. “Great. I won’t.”

“What if,” he said, “you pretended that Stella wasn’t going to make any mistakes?”

Lynn thought about that for a long minute. “Can you explain that more?”

“Sure.” He sat down next to her. “I think when you were fighting last night, it was because you were worried about her, right?”

“Yes,” Lynn sighed. “That’s always how it goes. I just want her to be happy, and have a good, comfortable life. And I can see her heading down the road to screwing up, but she never listens to me when I tell her to take a different route.”

“And so you fight.”

Lynn nodded.

“Well,” Ken said, “if she always takes the other route anyway, what good does it do to tell her where to go?”

Lynn opened her mouth—and closed it.

“Again,” Ken added, “seriously, tell me if I’m off-base.”

“No,” Lynn said. “No. You’re right. God. I just want her to know what the right thing to do is!”

“But it never helps,” Ken said.

“No. No, it never helps. She gets pissed off that I’m trying to tell her what to do. When she was younger, sometimes she’d do just the opposite of what I said on purpose, because she was so mad. And that always made me more mad, and I’d yell that I told her so, and we’d have a huge screaming fight. And I could never back down, because I was right, and she could never back down, because she’d already made her choice.”

Ken nodded. “I’m an only child, but my buddy Ty has this enormous family, and he always used to talk about the dumb things the younger ones did. And what he said was that you had to just act like you trusted them to make the right decisions, take responsibility and be mature, whether you thought they would or not. And most of the time, they’d step up. And even if they didn’t, you had to remember that they sure wouldn’t step up in response to someone acting like they couldn’t take care of themselves.”

Lynn thunked her forehead against Ken’s shoulder. “God. You’re right. You’re completely right. And I feel like I knew that, or I should’ve known. But in the moment, it always gets overwhelmed by how anxious I am about whatever she’s doing.”

“And that’s totally understandable,” he said. “I wouldn’t want my hypothetical little sister getting herself in trouble, that’s for sure. I don’t know what I’d do if I saw her dating someone like that asshole wolf, but I can promise you it wouldn’t be very constructive.”

“I don’t believe you,” Lynn sighed. “This is good advice. Thanks.” Could she behave like Stella was an adult who could make her own decisions?

The fact that she was even doubting herself about that...well, that made her wonder how many of their fights had been purely Lynn’s fault.

She’d always known that she overreacted to Stella’s screwups. But she’d never thought about the possibility that if Lynn had supported her decisions, given her trust and love instead of anger and judgment, Stella might have stopped screwing up altogether. Or at least quit doubling down on bad decisions.

“Okay,” she said finally. “All right. I’m going to make this work.” She stood up. “Let’s go get breakfast.”

Ken grinned. “Good, I’ve been starving since I woke up.”

Lynn shook her head and led the way out of her room.

When they got downstairs, it turned out that Stella wasn’t up yet, which was a bit anticlimactic. But Eva was sitting at the table, eating Cheerios and scrolling through her phone, hunched in the same Doctor Who hoodie she’d been wearing last night.

“Good morning,” Lynn said as they came into the room, and Eva jumped, her spoon clattering against the bowl.

“Oh—crap, I didn’t see you there. Good morning, Aunt Lynn.” Her eyes tracked back behind Lynn’s shoulder. “Ken.”

“Morning, Eva,” Ken said cheerfully. “You looking for anything more substantial than Cheerios? I’m not that much of a cook, but I can make pancakes and eggs.”

“I’m fine, thanks,” Eva said quietly.

Ken went to the fridge anyway, pulling out eggs and milk, and said, “No problem. I’ll just get something going for the rest of us, then. Lynn, have a seat.”

Normally, Lynn would’ve offered to help, but Eva was obviously feeling nervous, so she just said, “Thanks,” and sat down next to her niece.

Eva gave her a small smile. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Lynn said. “How are you doing?”

A little shrug. “Okay.”

“That was scary, last night,” Lynn said. “And it’s no fun to leave your home like that.”

Another shrug. “You know, we’ve done it before. And that place wasn’t so great. I didn’t like Todd, and his pack was a bunch of assholes.”

Lynn thought about calling her on her language, but decided, “You’re right, they were.”

Eva smiled.

“Are you worried they’re going to come back?” Lynn asked, as gently as she could.

A long pause, and finally Eva nodded. “Yeah. And we have to go back at some point and get the rest of our stuff, and I don’t want to.”

“You will not have to go with anyone who’s getting your stuff,” Lynn said firmly. “You can just tell us what you need, and we’ll get it for you.”

“I packed it up,” Eva offered. “Mom said we couldn’t carry suitcases around waiting for you to show up, to just have a normal bag that wouldn’t look weird, but I packed everything and left it in my room. So it’ll be easy to grab. If Todd hasn’t messed with it.”

Lynn saw red at the idea of Todd messing with a teenage girl’s stuff. “If he has, he’ll be sorry,” she said grimly.

Ken took a break from cracking eggs into bowls and mixing things up to come over and slide into the seat next to Lynn’s. “Hey, Eva,” he said. “Listen. I think we can make it so Todd isn’t going to want to mess with you guys any longer, and I can definitely promise that me and Lynn can take care of getting your stuff for you. You don’t have to worry about that. Okay?”

Eva bit her lip. “Thanks,” she said. “But what if he shows up here with his pack?”

“That’s what I’m working on right now,” Ken said. He got out his phone and held it up. “I just left a message, and when I get a call back, we’ll see what we can make happen.”

Eva smiled a little. “That’s very mysterious.”

“I’m a mysterious guy,” Ken said with a serious face. “Anyway, there’s nothing we can do quite yet, and I’m betting that pack of assholes aren’t the type to get up at six in the morning and pile in the car. So we’ve got a few hours at least.”

“You could catch me up on Doctor Who,” Lynn suggested. “I think I’ve missed a few episodes.”

Eva rolled her eyes. “You’ve never seen a single episode, Aunt Lynn!”

“But I feel like I have,” Lynn said, with real sincerity. “My favorite was the one about the weird time-traveling aliens.”

“Aunt Lynn.” Eva’s voice was exasperated, and music to Lynn’s ears. “That’s every episode.”

“Is that what’s on your shirt?” Ken asked, getting up to go supervise breakfast again. “What’s it about? Weird time-traveling aliens sound pretty cool to me.”

Their collective ignorance about sci-fi television seemed to finally overwhelm Eva’s anxiety, because she heaved a deep sigh and started explaining to Ken what Doctor Who was. Lynn listened attentively, because every time she spent some time apart from Eva, the whole idea of the show got kind of fuzzy and weird time-traveling aliens was the only thing she could really remember. It had been Eva’s favorite thing in the world for a couple of years now, so she liked to stay in touch as much as she could, which admittedly wasn’t much.

“—and this is the TARDIS,” Eva was saying, pointing at her shirt. “It’s a spaceship. It’s bigger on the inside.”

“I guess it would have to be,” Ken said. “That thing’s only about eight inches tall. Unless they’re really small aliens.”

“No,” Eva said, exasperated again, although a little smile was peeking out. “This is a picture of it. On a sweatshirt. Do I have to explain what a sweatshirt is, or can I keep going about the show?”

“I mostly grasp the basic concept of a sweatshirt,” Ken said thoughtfully. “If you want, we can get into some of the more philosophical interpretations later, but for now, I definitely want to hear more about the show.”

Eva relaunched her explanation, and as she talked, her shoulders gradually relaxed, and she stopped peeking over them out the window. Lynn mentally blessed Ken for knowing exactly how to distract her from being scared.

Ken was dishing up pancakes and eggs by the time Stella appeared in the kitchen doorway. She looked hesitant, and she was avoiding Lynn’s eyes.

Time to follow through, Lynn thought. She took a deep breath and said, “Morning, Stella. Want some pancakes?”

Stella looked startled, and then relieved. She’d probably been expecting a lecture right off the bat, Lynn thought. This really was an unhealthy pattern that the two of them were in.

“Thanks,” Stella said after a second. “Pancakes sound great.”

She got herself a plate and Ken deposited two pancakes on it. She sat down next to her daughter, reaching out and rubbing her shoulder. “Morning, sweetheart. You okay?”

Eva nodded. Her mouth was full—she’d snagged a pancake after all, and eaten it like it was a cookie, no syrup or anything. Lynn had always known she was an unnatural child.

“I was just telling Ken and Aunt Lynn about Doctor Who,” she said after she swallowed.

Stella smiled fondly. “Of course you were. I don’t understand a thing that happens on that show,” she confided to Lynn.

“Mom,” Eva said. “You’ve seen, like, twenty episodes.”

She turned back to Ken, and Stella whispered, “I never pay much attention. But she likes it when I sit with her while she watches.”

“I like it when she tells me about it,” Lynn said back in a low voice. “But I never remember any of it.”

They smiled at each other, and Lynn was struck by the moment—when was the last time they’d been in perfect accord like this? And it all would’ve been ruined if Lynn had started the morning by criticizing her sister about choices she’d already made and couldn’t take back.

“So what do you want to do now?” she asked, as neutral as she could manage.

Stella looked startled again. Then she scowled. “You mean, how am I going to fix this latest screwup?”

Lynn’s instinct was to scowl back, but she stomped down on it and smiled instead. “No, I mean, what do you want to do now?”

The scowl slowly faded as Stella studied Lynn’s face, maybe searching for signs of derision or sarcasm.

“Well,” she said finally, “I have to get our stuff back from Todd’s place. I guess I’ll wait until he’d be at work, and go pick it up. So that’ll have to wait until tomorrow, he’s off today. And then...” She hesitated. “We’ll need to stay here until I can get a job.”

In the past, Lynn thought, she might’ve made some comment about Stella having been fired from half the jobs in town already, so what plans did she have for somehow getting a new one? Now that she thought about it, she realized how unhelpful that would’ve been.

It was true—or, well, not half the jobs in town, but a few of them, for sure. And Lynn had always thought that that made it all right to say. After all, if Stella couldn’t face the truth, how could she ever change?

But being reminded of past failures wouldn’t put her in a mindset of success, either. That was for sure.

“I hired one of the Oliver’s waitresses away a little while ago,” Lynn said instead. “They had another girl working for a bit, but she quit in a hurry. I think they’re still looking. They’d probably be happy to have you.”

Stella had worked for Oliver’s on and off over the years. As far as Lynn knew, she’d never been fired, only left when she was moving in with this or that boyfriend or leaving town for this or that wild idea.

Stella blinked. “Thanks. I didn’t think—”

“Didn’t think what?” Lynn asked after a second.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter what I thought. Thanks, Lynn, I’ll definitely do that.” She smiled, and the warmth in it was genuine.

It was funny, Lynn thought—she’d always figured Stella for capricious and unreliable. She’d decide to do one thing one moment, and then the next moment, she’d want something else. She’d leave a boyfriend, go back to him, and then leave him again.

But another way of thinking about it was that Stella was too warm-hearted to hold a grudge. She never wanted to believe that someone could truly be cruel, and she never wanted to let go of an opportunity for something good to happen.

She was perpetually optimistic, and it got her in trouble. But seeing her little sister smile happily at her, just because of a few words of encouragement—when she’d been half-expecting Stella to be suspicious of her, because Lynn had criticized her so much in the past—Lynn couldn’t judge her for it.

Maybe there was a virtue in Stella that Lynn had just never recognized. Maybe Lynn could stand to be a little more optimistic, a little less suspicious. A little happier with whatever might happen.

After all, she’d been hit with something totally unexpected, in the form of one Ken Turner, and that was the sort of thing Lynn usually hated. And she’d been suspicious of him. But it had turned out to be the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to her.

In the same situation, Stella would’ve been delighted from the start.

It was something to think about.

After breakfast—a more pleasant breakfast than any Lynn could remember, the morning after one of Stella's stunts—Ken's phone rang.

“Aha,” he said, and answered it. “Hello, sir.”

Oh. Lynn suddenly understood what Ken's plan was. He was going to ask his old commanding officer for help.

Help. Of course.

It was such a foreign concept to Lynn. She'd always been so sure she had to stand on her own two feet, especially after Grandmother had passed away. After all, no one was going to do anything for her, were they? And she had to prove that she could make it on her own.

Why, though? Why did she have to make it on her own? That wasn't how people worked—humans or shifters. People lived in towns. Shifters had packs.

Lynn had never had a pack. The idea suddenly seemed amazing. Having a whole group of people to rely on—and people she could help, if they needed it. People who all relied on each other.

And enough people so that if one left, like Stella always did, or passed on, like Grandmother had, no one would be left all alone.

Ken was explaining the situation in a low voice. Then he said, “Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I'd appreciate that. You can? Thank you, sir.” He hung up.

“Colonel Hanes?” Lynn asked, eyebrows raised.

Ken nodded. “I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up before I heard back, because God knows he's not under any obligation to drop everything and help one of his former Marines. And I didn't even know if he was currently in town.”

“You could've asked me,” Lynn said, smiling. “I work with his stepdaughter, after all.”

Ken looked startled. “That's right. You mentioned that, and I didn't even think of it. Wow, small towns really are all interconnected, aren't they?”

“They are.” It occurred to Lynn that she could've called Nina, or Cal, and asked for the Glacier leopard pack to come help. They would have come, she thought.

Maybe she'd been less alone than she realized, even before Ken arrived.

“So he's coming?” she asked Ken.

“I shouldn't have had a second of doubt,” Ken said ruefully. “Of course he's not going to leave one of his Marines to face trouble alone. That's how he always was, and he hasn't changed.”

And in fact, it wasn't long at all before a car was pulling into the driveway, and out came Colonel Wilson Hanes (retired), of the United States Marine Corps—and his mate, Mavis, Nina's mother.

Both of them were snow leopard shifters, although Mavis had only been changed recently, after she and Wilson met. Lynn had only met Mavis in her professional capacity as a financial advisor, and only spoken to Wilson a few times, but she heard Nina talk about them so often, it seemed like she knew them well.

They came up the drive and knocked, and Lynn opened the door with Ken standing at her side. “Come in,” she told them. “Thank you for stopping by on such short notice. I really appreciate the help that you've offered. You didn't have to.”

“Turner here asked me to come, and I wasn't about to say no,” Wilson said. His voice was deep and warm, and he held out his hand for first Lynn, and then Ken to shake. He had a strong grip, but none of the attempts at showing off that some men would put into handshakes.

Mavis smiled at Lynn. “And I wasn't about to stay behind. Hello, Lynn, it's always good to see you.”

“You as well.” Lynn smiled back, feeling the same thing she always felt around Mavis: a little rough and unkempt. Mavis was only a few years older than Lynn, maybe fifty or so, but she was still beautiful, and—more intimidatingly—graceful. She had a sort of understated elegance about her that Lynn would never, ever be able to emulate.

And would always have sworn that she didn't want, of course, but when she saw Mavis, she always had a moment of wistfulness, wondering how the other woman achieved such a stunning effect.

And she looked happy, too, which was always nice to see. She and Nina had had such a tragic history. Even though Lynn only knew a little bit about it, she was so glad that mother and daughter had finally found each other again, and that Mavis had a mate like Wilson to care for her, after what sounded like a truly awful marriage in her past.

“Let’s have a sit-down and talk tactics, then,” Wilson rumbled, and they all somehow found themselves in the front room, with Stella and Eva sitting on the chairs by the fireplace, and Ken and Wilson positioned with their eyes on the windows. Lynn narrowed her eyes and seated herself next to Ken.

She might not have been a Marine, but she knew enough to keep an eye out for trouble, and she wasn’t going to be left out of defending her little sister, if it was necessary.

“So we’ve got a pack of wolves,” Wilson was saying. “We know how many?”

“Six at least,” Ken answered. “Don’t know how many would bother to show up here.”

“Maybe they won’t come,” Stella piped up, sounding a little desperate. “There’s no reason to mess with us. They’re not all bad guys, just a little—rowdy.”

Perpetual optimism again, Lynn thought.

“Has Todd contacted you?” Ken asked her.

Stella had her phone in her hand, Lynn realized. She clutched at it, her knuckles whitening. “Well...yes.”

“What did he say?” Lynn asked. “Did he threaten you?”

“Not—well.” Stella sighed. “Not really threaten. He wants me to come back.”

And what did you say? Lynn thought suspiciously, wondering if Stella’s perpetual optimism was going to get in the way again.

But Eva beat her too it. “You told him no, Mom, right?” she asked, nervous.

Stella put her arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “Of course I told him no, sweetheart. I’m not letting you go back to that house again, I promise.”

Of course. Stella might always be willing to give people a second chance, but she was a fierce shifter mother, and she’d never let Eva stay somewhere she might be in danger. Lynn shouldn’t even have doubted.

Another reason that she should lighten up on Stella, she thought. It wasn’t even just that Stella didn’t benefit from remembering the past—it was that Lynn was conditioned to assume things about Stella. And maybe those things weren’t always true. Maybe Lynn was remembering things wrongly, sometimes, because of how angry she’d gotten in the past.

“Anyway,” Stella said, “he seemed to think—well, I think he's going to show up and cause trouble, for sure. I don't know if the pack'll be with him or not.”

“Probably,” Eva said bitterly. “Those guys can't do anything by themselves. They're like a preschool class on a field trip, all holding hands in a big long line.”

There was a pause while everyone took this in, and then Ken laughed, a big, bright laugh that relaxed the room immediately.

“I like you, kid,” he told Eva. “Okay. Sir, you have any suggestions for tactics?” he asked Wilson.

“Let's keep a few people on watch here today,” Wilson said thoughtfully. “The more time goes by, the more likely it is these wolves will get bored and forget about the whole thing. Today's the day we're most likely to see real trouble.”

“Today's my day off,” Lynn offered. “I was thinking about taking walk-ins, but Nina can handle those.”

Mavis smiled in real pleasure at the mention of her daughter. “I'm sure she can. She's settling in so well with you.”

Lynn nodded sincerely. “I'm not worried at all. She can handle the office by herself, no problem.”

“Good.” Mavis turned to Wilson. “I can work remotely today. I've even got my laptop in the car, so there's no issue with sticking around.”

Wilson took her hand. “You don't have to. The rest of us can handle any trouble. I know you don't like violence.”

“I don't like entitled men thinking they can frighten women into submission, either,” Mavis said tartly. “And if I have a chance to stop some of them, I'm going to stick around and take it.”

Wilson smiled. “Then I'll be glad to have you here.”

Stella was looking around the room with a startled frown on her face. Lynn knew how that expression felt. “You'd all stay here for us?” she asked. “You don't have to. I don't even know you,” as she turned to Wilson and Mavis. Then she looked over at Ken. “And I just met you yesterday.”

“It's just like I told Todd,” Ken said to her. “Lynn's my mate. So you and Eva are my family now. And there's no way I'm going to stand aside and do nothing when I could be protecting my family.”

“Besides,” said Wilson with a dark expression, “it's to nobody's benefit to allow a pack of wolves to go around terrorizing women and children. I don't want dangerous men like that roaming around thinking they can do whatever they want. Particularly not in the town where I live with my mate.” He touched Mavis' shoulder.

“And you know I'm not going anywhere,” Lynn added. She moved to sit closer to Stella, leaning against her side. “No one threatens my little sister and my niece and gets away with it.”

Stella smiled, blinking a little too fast. “Well, then, I'm—I'm grateful. I'll make it up to you guys.”

“Make it up to us by being happier without that jerk in your life,” Lynn said. “For now, let's work out how we're going to keep these guys away.”

***

Ken and the Colonel worked together to set up a perimeter. The women were willing participants; Eva was sent upstairs, but Mavis, Lynn, and even Stella wanted to be part of the watch crew.

“This might be for nothing,” Ken warned them as they were pointing out the best spots to take up a position. “Maybe no one will show up today and nothing will happen. Being on watch is pretty much always boring. And boring's what you want, because that means nothing's going wrong.”

Lynn nodded seriously. Stella quirked her mouth in a smile and said, “I'd actually rather they did show up, because then I'd know something. If nothing happens today, then I'm just going to be wondering when I'm going to turn a corner and Todd'll be there.” Her smile flattened out. “Although I guess that even if they do show up today, they might just show up again later.”

“Trust me,” Ken said with conviction, “if they show up today, they're going to learn that they've made a mistake.”

Lynn had smiled grimly. It was clear as day to Ken that she was looking forward to making some wolf regret his decisions.

It was also clear as day that she was the perfect mate for him. A woman who could kick ass—what more could a man want?

Now, he was out in the yard, scanning the forest from the cover of the patio.

Then he caught the scent.

Wolf.

He crouched and waited, easing his phone out of his pocket to text the Colonel. He didn’t shift yet. In his human form, his scent wouldn't be as noticeable, and they'd be expecting there to be people around. He didn't want to scare them off before he had a chance to give them a piece of his mind.

There was a soft tap on the glass door behind him, and he glanced back to see Lynn just inside. He motioned for her to stay where she was, and they waited together.

His mate guarding his back. That was a hell of a nice feeling.

The wolves came out of the forest in shifted form, two of them. But once they were in the yard, they shifted back to human. Neither of them was Todd, but Ken recognized them both as part of the game-watching group last night. They were nudging each other and laughing to themselves.

“Take a look at that house,” one of them was saying to the other. “She must have money.”

“What was she doing in that hole of a place with Todd, then?” the other wondered. “There's no way. Maybe her other boyfriend lives here.”

“Guess we better show her what happens when she disrespects a wolf like that,” said the first one. They both laughed again.

A fun prank, Ken thought grimly. Showing up to terrorize an innocent woman and her seventeen-year-old daughter. What a great time for the whole pack to enjoy.

One of the wolves had found a rock, about the size of his fist. He showed it to his buddy, who grinned, and then he hefted in his palm a couple of times.

Ken couldn't think of a better opening than this. He shifted, keeping his body low-down behind the big bushes next to the patio. They still hadn't seen him, and the wind was in his favor, so they weren't scenting him, either.

The wolf hauled his arm back, ready to send the rock through one of the windows. Just as he was about to release, Ken leaped, letting out an ear-splitting roar.

He landed, crouched, in front of the two wolves. The rock fell from the first guy's fingers, landing behind his back with a thump. The two of them scrambled backward, shifting belatedly.

Ken eyed them with disdain. They were small and scruffy; they didn't look like they could handle themselves in a fight at all. Probably spent most of their time in human form drinking beer and watching TV, he thought—and when they were shifted, making trouble for others instead of hunting or learning anything about how to handle themselves.

He could see them sizing him up. Two against one, they probably thought. But he was a hell of a lot bigger than either of them.

The sound of the glass door got his attention. He cocked an ear, keeping an eye on the wolves in front of him. One of them had moved his attention to where Ken could hear the sound of footsteps. The other kept his frightened eyes on Ken.

There was a puff of displaced air, and then the scent of stalking lynx rose on the wind. Ken took one step to the side, leaving room for Lynn to take up position next to him.

Now there wasn't even the slim chance of victory they might've hoped for before, facing just Ken. Two big cats against them, and even Lynn was at least as big as either of them, and in way better shape.

One of them decided to try anyway. With a snarl, he leapt at Lynn—choosing the smaller combatant, maybe hoping to enrage Ken by hurting her, push him into a bad decision.

He didn’t get the chance.

Ken leapt a split-second after he did, and they collided in mid-air. The wolf’s leap went sideways, and they landed hard on the grass, all of Ken’s considerable lion weight slamming into the wolf’s body—and his claws were out.

The wolf let out a high-pitched yip and showed his throat. One glance at the other one showed that he was backing away.

Oh, no you don’t. Ken shifted, standing up smoothly and stepping back out of claw range. “Shift,” he ordered them. “Now.”

They shifted to human.

Lynn followed suit. There was a long moment where they all eyed each other.

“Well,” Ken said finally, “why don't we go on around to the front of the house, where I guess your friends probably are. I'm sure we all want to have a nice talk.”

The two wolves exchanged glances. “How about we just get out of your hair?” one suggested.

“How about not,” said Lynn. Her tone was steely. When the wolves still didn't move, she shifted back.

“Okay!” said the one who'd spoken before. “Okay, okay, fine, let's go.”

Ken shifted too, and he and Lynn flanked the two men and herded them out of the yard. Working in tandem with his mate like this—well, the circumstances could’ve been better, but the experience was something Ken wanted to have again, for sure.

They emerged around the side of the house to find the rest of the pack facing two snow leopards and another lynx. There were four wolves to the three cats, and the wolves were still hesitating, not sure if they had the advantage or not.

Not, Ken could've told them. Definitely not.

At the sight of their buddies trudging, defeated, in human form, followed by another lynx and a big male lion, the pack startled. They fixed on Ken especially; he was as big as any two of them, and he let a low growl escape his throat, watching them size him up.

Finally, one of the wolves gave an exasperated twitch of his ears and shifted to human. This one was the pack leader for sure, Ken thought, and his suspicion was confirmed when the man said, “You guys were supposed to be backup. Stealth backup.”

“They were waiting for us,” one of them whined.

The other three wolves shifted back, too, and at that, so did Stella. Lynn stalked up to sit behind her, teeth bared.

“Who the hell are all of these guys?” Todd was saying to Stella, nasal and unhappy.

“None of your business who they all are,” Stella snapped back.

“Hey, boss,” one of the other wolves said in an undertone to the pack leader. “We should watch out for the snow leopards. I’ve been hearing some things about the snow leopards out here by Glacier. You don’t want to mess with them. There’s a whole lot of them, and they don’t like people threatening their friends.”

“You never mentioned any of these people before,” Todd kept on. He took a step forward—and Lynn snarled at him.

He took a step back.

“That’s my sister,” Stella told him. “I told you about her.”

“But you never said—” He looked around wildly. “You never said you had a pack.”

“So what?” Stella snapped. “So then it’s okay to run after me and harass me? It’s okay to make my daughter afraid to live in her home? Just because I don’t have a pack? That’s still not okay, Todd!”

“I just want you to come back,” Todd grumbled. “But not if you hang out with a bunch of assholes like this.”

“Todd...” Stella rubbed her eyes. “Please just...”

“I’m not going to just anything,” he said in a flare of temper. “Not if you’re going to hide behind all your friends like this. I guess we can’t talk to each other for real, if this is how you’re going to—”

Lynn shifted.

Todd broke off speaking, startled, as she took three quick steps forward, putting herself between him and Stella. “Shut up,” she said.

He frowned. “Hey—”

“Shut up. You showed up here with your pack like you had some right to be here, to harass my sister. If you found more than you bargained for, that’s your fault. Stella’s got a family, she has people who care about her, and we’re not going to put up with you hanging around like this. She’s worth a hundred of you. Of any of you,” she added, looking around at the pack.

Ken padded forward to take up a position next to her, looking around himself. None of the pack looked like they wanted to argue.

“So. I’m only going to say this once,” Lynn said. “Get out.”

There was a long pause. Finally, the pack leader said, “Come on, guys, this isn’t worth it,” in a disgusted voice.

“But boss,” Todd whined.

“You want to fight two women, a lion, and a bunch of goddamn snow leopards? There’s probably fifty more of them out in the forest,” the leader snapped. “Let’s go.”

As he watched them walk away, Ken was struck by a feeling he’d never known before.

He’d protected people plenty of times. As a Marine, sometimes just as a big guy who didn’t want to see a woman hassled.

But he’d never protected his family before. Never stood up and made someone realize that this was his place, his pack, and no one who lived here was ever going to be vulnerable and alone again.

So as the wolves disappeared from sight, Ken shifted back and caught Lynn up in his arms. “That was amazing,” he said into her hair. “You were amazing.”

“I could only do it because I knew you were right there behind me,” she murmured back.

Was it possible for your heart to actually grow inside your chest? Ken kissed her mouth, tasting happiness, and thought that he had everything he could ever have wanted.

***

Back inside, Lynn couldn’t believe it was all over, just like that.

Mavis and Wilson said their goodbyes, waving off Stella’s thanks like it was nothing, and departed with smiles. Stella hugged Eva hard and said, “Let’s go for a run together, honey, okay?”

Eva grinned. “Awesome.”

The two of them went out the back and shifted together. Eva’s lynx form was still rangy and young, and she bounded ahead as Stella trotted behind her. Lynn smiled after them, and turned to Ken.

“Hi,” he said, grinning.

“Hi.” She smiled back.

“That was amazing,” Ken said. “The way you told him off.”

Lynn shook her head. “What's amazing is how you organized this entire thing. I just gave a single jerk a piece of my mind, that's all.”

“I could watch you give jerks a piece of your mind all day.” Ken leaned down and kissed her. “I love how you're always so certain of yourself.”

Reflecting back on the last couple of days, Lynn had to say, “I've been uncertain about a lot, recently.”

“Not what I meant, exactly.” He frowned. “Even when you think you're wrong, you don't hem and haw. You say, 'I need to think about this,' and then you think about it and come to a decision. And if you know you're right, you're completely unafraid about it. I love it.”

Lynn had always just thought she was blunt. She considered this new perspective. “You do?”

He nodded. And then grinned. “It's hot.”

Lynn rolled her eyes and caught him around the neck, pulling him down into a kiss.

She'd just meant to distract him, but she guessed he did find her bluntness hot, because he opened his mouth on hers and sent the kiss spiraling upward into a hot, gasping thing, in a way she hadn't been anticipating. When they broke apart, she was quickly forgetting anything that didn't involve her hands on his body.

“Upstairs,” she managed.

“Sounds good to me.” His voice was heated, and he turned and led the way. Lynn watched his hips move as he went up. She hadn't paid much attention to the back view before, and she'd clearly been missing out.

When he reached the top, he vanished into her room, and by the time she caught up, he was half-undressed. Laughing, she followed as quickly as she could, stripping her clothes off and joining him on the bed.

He caught her up in his arms and kissed her. As always, the feel of his mouth sent shivers of desire through her body. “Mmm,” she said, and twisted to roll them over so that she was on top, straddling his hips.

He raised his eyebrows at her. “Switching it up?”

“It’s my turn,” she informed him. “Any complaints?”

He grinned. “Not a one.”

Lynn couldn't wait to take advantage of the chance to explore his body, as he'd already explored hers. Watching her look, Ken stretched his arms up over his head, giving her a view of the muscles shifting in his chest, letting her know it was up to her.

God. Where to even start?

She spread her hands over his pecs, luxuriating in the knowledge that all of this was hers. His chest hair was the same silvery-auburn as the hair on his head, and when she touched a nipple experimentally, he let out a breath. She tried it again, and he made a quiet noise. That was good to know.

Lynn explored further, moving off of his hips so that she could run her hands over his abs. After a second, she gave into the half-formed desire she'd had since the first time she'd seen him shirtless, and bent down and licked them.

His muscles shivered under her tongue as he laughed. “Like what you see, there?”

“You bet I do,” she said as she lifted her head.

Then she got more serious with her exploration. She came up and licked his collarbone, kissing up to his neck, while stroking her hands down his sides to grab his hips and hold on. She wondered if she could ever hold him down—he'd have to let her, she thought, but she bet he would let her if she asked him. The idea sent a rush of heat through her.

She bit the join between his neck and shoulder, listening to him groan, and then moved to kiss down his breastbone to his chest again, paying more attention to his nipples with her mouth. He shuddered when she bit one, very lightly. She'd never realized that men could have sensitive nipples just like women could.

When she reached his stomach again, she didn't linger; she was on a mission this time. She kissed the soft, thin skin over his hipbone, and then couldn't resist a little nip there, too—and had to pull back fast when his hips jerked up.

“Sorry,” he rasped. He sounded breathless. Lynn looked up at him, and was arrested at the sight—he was breathing hard, his eyes dark with desire, bottom lip caught between his teeth.

She'd done that. He looked like he was caught up, overwhelmed by lust, and it was because of her.

“Please feel free to keep going,” he said after she'd spent a long minute just looking at him. It sounded like putting the words together took a lot of effort.

Lynn grinned and looked down again, this time further south than she'd been yet.

He was hard as a rock, his cock flushed with blood and lying flat on his stomach. That was one part of him Lynn hadn't tasted yet, and finally, she bent down and took him into her mouth.

The noise he made felt like it might shake the earth. Lynn's stomach was liquid with desire, her clit pulsing with the knowledge of what she was doing to him. To her mate. His taste filled her mouth, salty-sharp. She sucked lightly, moving her tongue around the head. He groaned.

Lynn hadn’t done this much before. With other men, she’d found that she felt degraded, like they were looking down on her for doing it.

Not with Ken, though. She wanted to linger, to really taste him, hear all the sounds he made. To know that she had her mate in her mouth, and remember how he’d made her feel when he’d done the same to her. She reveled in his shallow, aborted thrusts, like he was trying to stay still for her, but the feel of her lips and tongue was too much and he had to move.

That idea made her clit pulse, her stomach liquid with desire. She sucked harder. Everything was wet, and hot, and smelled like sex, and she couldn’t think of anywhere else she’d want to be than here.

She lost herself in it for a while, the taste and feel of him, until finally he rasped, “Lynn, you’ve gotta stop if you want me to be good for anything else. I can’t last much longer.”

Lynn had to make herself think about that for a moment. She wanted to bring him off with her mouth, she realized—she wanted to really feel him lose control like that. Already she was almost holding him down anyway, her hands on his hips, keeping him mostly flat on the bed.

But she wanted him inside her, too. Her core ached with the need to feel him sheathed in her. So reluctantly, she pulled away, catching her breath.

He shuddered. And then suddenly he was moving, catching her around the waist and switching their positions, kissing her hard. If she’d had a moment, Lynn might have wondered if he’d hesitate to taste himself on her, but he didn’t—he devoured her mouth, and she moaned underneath him.

“Now?” he asked, urgent.

“Now,” she said, and he thrust into her. She was so open and wet that he went straight to her core in one smooth glide, and Lynn shuddered, already starting to twitch and clench around him.

“God, your mouth,” he growled as he drove into her. “Never felt anything like it.”

“Back atcha,” she managed to gasp, and he laughed, and shuddered, and laughed.

“I love you.” He kissed her, then nosed his way down into her neck, scenting her as he moved inside her. Muffled, he repeated, “I love you.”

“I love you,” Lynn said back, feeling herself tensing with the beginning shudders of climax. “I love you, I—oh God—”

Orgasm flooded her, leaving her clinging to Ken as she cried out and clenched down, shoving herself up to feel him as deep as possible while she spasmed around him. He held her tight, gasping with each of her tremors until the last one tipped him over the edge too.

It took a long time before either of them wanted to move.

Finally, Ken lifted his head, resting his chin on her chest and looking up at her with those tawny eyes. “Hey,” he said.

Lynn smiled down at him. “What?”

“I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you.” He grinned.

Lynn felt her own smile growing, until she wasn’t sure it was ever going to leave. “Me, either.”