Riley smiled at the paintings on the walls around her. She’d made every single one. Every pain-staking hour, every moment she was in her room, dedicated to capturing the things that made her happy. She looked out over the people watching, family and friends, visitors from other prides, socialites and shifters from Denver.

“Welcome to the opening of my gallery, Wild at Heart!” She announced, her eyes teary. She was met with cheers, her guys hollering and screaming like a bunch of hooligans how much they loved her.

She had chosen the name for a purpose. Every single subject of every painting was a shifter. Some, she had met in passing over the last few months, some she loved with every breath she took. And they always would be the subject of her work. Something about the human intelligence behind those animal eyes entranced her on the canvas. She couldn’t resist painting them, couldn’t resist trying to capture the humans inside the animals, or the animals inside the humans.

To any human who didn’t know, she did portraits of wildlife and humans, a strange mix. But next to a painting of Brenton in his study was a lion yawning in the field on their property. A painting of Andrew hung next to a painting of a cougar laying in the sun on a rocky ledge. The same for Troy, playing in the snow or sitting on his motorcycle. Gabe, covered in grease or a shadow in the night. Zachary, shirtless, every tattoo painted with accuracy, and a large white tiger jumping into the stream.

And on it went.

She stepped down from the chair she was standing on, the only way for her to be close to tall enough for the announcement. She laughed as her men kissed her cheeks and swung her around.

“I’m so proud of you,” Keith whispered when she hugged him.

“Thank you,” she mumbled back, squeezing him.

“You should have had this sooner,” he sighed.

“It’s in the past,” she reminded him. “We have a future, Dad. Let’s keep our eyes on it.” As he nodded, she went to drift around the party.

“Kitten, this is wonderful,” Sheriff grunted, pointing at a painting of him and Patty. Riley smiled and hooked her arm with his.

“You can have it,” she whispered to him. “I painted it for you both.”

“Really?” He frowned at her and she nodded slowly.

“I’ve put a lot of these paintings up for sale, the animal ones, but the portraits are for the people who stood for them. So, your bear may be sold off tonight, but not this one. This one is going to go home with you. If you want it.”

“I would love it,” Sheriff mumbled. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Riley chuckled. She touched Sheriff’s cheek. “You gave me so much more than I ever thought I could want—a protector, a cheerleader. A father.”

“You have one of those, again,” Sheriff grunted, throwing a look over at Keith, who was talking to Andrew about something.

“I can have two,” Riley reminded him, flicking his nose softly. “Big old bear. Don’t be daft, as Thomas says.”

“Fine, fine,” Sheriff laughed, waving her hand away. “Any weddings he and I will fight over in the future?”

“No,” Riley told him plainly. “I don’t think a big dress and flowers are in my future. I don’t think it’s necessary. I love who I love, and I have them. No one is going anywhere and… well, we have this plan, you see.”

Sheriff was howling while she walked away. She was grinning and looked around. Who else needed her for a moment?

The wolves were arguing with one of her employees, a young shifter she’d hired who was trying to get into the art world. A rogue. She drifted over to them and listened in.

“Look, we just want to buy the painting of the doe, alright?” Thomas growled. “It’s not like I don’t have the money.”

“We aren’t selling tonight, I’m sorry sir.”

Riley gasped and edged a little closer. The drama floating around the wolf Pack and Abigail was juicy and Riley wanted to learn every piece of it. Zachary knew something, but he wasn’t offering it up. Abigail was flustered whenever Riley asked.

It wasn’t Riley’s problem though, she was just happy to be a bystander to the unfolding issues. Abigail was still dragging her feet, and the wolves were still trying, for reasons unknown, to get her in the pack.

Well, Riley huffed, not completely unknown. It was obvious the wolves quite liked Abigail.

“Let them buy it,” Riley finally intervened as Thomas got growly. “He has the money, he runs a successful little bar in Wild Junction.”

“I do,” Thomas confirmed. “I closed on Rocker’s back in February. And it’s only been doing better since I took over.”

“Are you sure, ma’am?” Rachel asked quietly, unsure. “You know if we let one get sold…”

“It’s fine,” Riley laughed. “Remember to calculate your commission on any sales. And if they have a red tag on the title, they are not for sale.”

“Of course!” Rachel nodded, smiling. She was a coyote shifter, and she was always happy. Riley wondered how she even found such a peppy, bright young woman to work for her. Not very young. Riley was only about five years older than her, putting Rachel around twenty.

She wandered away, listening to Thomas, James, and Antonio begin planning where they were going to put the three-by-four-foot painting in their little farm house on the outskirts of Wild Junction.

Then she hit a smell that made her sigh. She wasn’t shocked by it. She’d expected it. She found Finn staring sadly at a painting she’d done just for him.

“Are you okay?” She asked softly, walking up to his side. He nodded silently. “It’s for you. To help you remember, since I know you don’t have many pictures of him.”

“Thank you,” Finn whispered.

Riley and Finn looked at the painting for a long time. She had asked Finn to run with the Pride one night, and she’d been stunned by the beautiful red fox he’d become. Later inquiries led her to learn that Finn and his twin, Huck, had been identical, in human form and shifted form. So, she had painted them together. Two red foxes playing in deep woods, a game of hide and seek. Light dappled throughout.

“You got it so right,” Finn finally choked out. “Thank you.”

“I’ll have someone take it to the apartment for you,” she told him kindly, touching his arm. Someone she’d met on happenstance, now a part of this strange community she had. She just hoped someone taught Finn how to live again.

The conversations continued all night, Riley telling people how to get their paintings delivered to their homes and offices. People congratulated her, but she found she only had eyes for a certain group.

After the party died down, the thing she’d been anticipating was ready. She locked the doors after the last guest left and turned to her Pride. Brenton wrapped an arm around her and kissed her softly.

“Tonight was lovely,” he whispered to her. Grunts and nods from the other guys said they agreed with Brenton’s sentiment.

“Thank you. Brenton,” Riley started, “we’ve been keeping a secret from you.”

“I have noticed,” Brenton growled softly. “For months now. Any of you want to tell me what is going on?”

“We may have done something crazy,” Troy laughed. “Like really crazy.”

“It was my idea,” Andrew mumbled. “From something you said and… we know the politics and the pressure on your shoulders from other Alphas has been rough.”

“They just want to keep making sure we will never cause any trouble, at least purposefully,” Brenton sighed. “It is what comes with my name, I know that.”

“But you don’t have to do it alone,” Zachary growled softly. “Because we’re family.”

“I already know that?” Brenton frowned at Zachary, and Riley snorted. She watched him turn the frown on her.

“Yeah, but you carry your name like a burden, and we don’t like it. We don’t want you to feel alone, even surrounded by all of us.” She pulled her wallet out of the purse she’d had to carry all night. She then pulled out her new driver’s license.

She waited for all the guys to do the same.

“What did you all do?” Brenton growled, narrowing his eyes. She handed him the ID and watched him read it. Watched his eyes go wide.

“We’re family,” Riley whispered as Brenton took all their driver’s licenses.

“You’re all mad,” Brenton mumbled.

“We’re all Kingsons,” Gabe laughed. “Because damn it, Brenton, we’re family.”

Riley watched a tear roll down Brenton’s cheek. It was impractical and stupid. But they had done it anyway. For him to understand what this meant to them.

On her driver’s license, she was now Riley Kingson. Then there was Zachary Kingson, Andrew Kingson, Troy Kingson, and Gabe Kingson.

Wildly stupid, and it was the only thing they thought would be enough to show him that he wasn’t alone. That he really did have a real family, not just in heart or in name, but in both. It helped her know this was her family. Her place was with them.

Zachary and Andrew caught him before he fell. He clung to them and held on for a moment. Then he grabbed the brothers and held them.

Riley screamed when he got to her and swung her around.

“This is going to piss people off,” Brenton laughed. “Oh, why would you all do this?”

“Because it was the right thing to do,” Andrew chuckled. “You said you would give us your name. I decided that we should take it, shoulder the burden with you. And Brenton, it makes us family, just like Riley said. And she brought up a good point.”

“What’s that?” Brenton frowned, holding her close.

“I’ll never have to choose which one of you to marry,” she whispered, “because you all belong to me, and I belong to all of you. We belong together.”

“Well,” Brenton coughed, looking over at the guys, who snickered. “Thanks for this, guys. For being so good at secrets.”

“Yeah man, it was a pretty hard line to ride.” Zachary chuckled. “Now give her the damn thing.”

Riley sputtered as Brenton pulled a small box from his pocket. It wasn’t small enough to be one ring though, so Riley didn’t know where this was going. He opened it slowly and revealed six rings, simple and gold, like his eyes. Four of them had a tiny stone in them, one had all four stones, and the final one was pure gold.

“We know marriage isn’t your thing,” He whispered. “But I think we can have something to make this official anyways. No weddings, just us. Forever.”

She felt a tear roll down her cheek as she nodded. Brenton slid the ring with all the stones on her finger and the plain gold onto his own. Zachary’s had a small sapphire. Troy’s had a diamond. Gabe’s had an emerald. Andrew’s had a ruby.

“Brenton’s gold gives us a solid base,” Gabe told her. “And you keep all of us.”

Riley pulled him in for a hug, and Gabe held her for a moment. She cried and nodded, unable to find the words.

“Are you okay?” Andrew asked as she released Gabe. She kept nodding.

“I love you all. Forever. Always.” She whispered. “No matter what.”

She couldn’t wait to see where their lives would lead them. Maybe there was more trouble on the horizon. Mostly, she figured there were only happy adventures for them to come. New discoveries about each other, about their love, and their future.

But she knew she would always have them. This family that stormed into her life.

And that was all she could have ever wanted.

* * *