"Mason!"

"Mommy! Daddy!"

Grinning as the pup, who'd spontaneously transformed into his furry brown wolf shape, was swallowed up in a four-armed embrace, Lara hugged Silvia to her side. "You did well, sweetheart." She'd used her head, hadn't lost her courage even when the comm had been answered by an unexpected male voice.

A relieved smile brought a glow to the rich brown of her skin. "Sorry for interrupting you and Walker."

"How do you know it was Walker?"

Smile turning into a grin, Silvia tapped her nose. "I'm a wolf." A short pause. "And I saw you two sneaking a kiss a while back."

Then the teenager was gone in a shimmer of delighted laughter, and Lara's wolf was turning at the scent of dark water that held a thousand secrets.

"I'm not likely to be an easy mate."

And though she knew their love was steel strong, would never bend or break, her heart ached as she wondered if he would one day tell her those secrets...or if part of him would remain forever closed, forever a mystery.

Texture of Intimacy Chapter 2

DUCKING INTO HER quarters on their return, Lara glanced at Walker, a lingering trace of anxiety in her gut at the idea of never quite knowing this man who touched her deeper than anyone else ever had, or would again. "I could shower here," she said, feeling unsure for the first time that day, "and meet you afterward to go find the children." He closed the distance between them, cupped her jaw, his gaze direct.

"Do you want to?"

"No." It came out husky, neither part of her wanting to be separated from him. Not yet. Not when the bond was so new, so raw, shocking her senses each time she became consciously aware of it.

A quiet smile that shattered the anxiety, made her stomach clench, her toes curl. "I've never shared a shower before," he murmured.

She wasn't certain how she made it to his apartment after grabbing a change of clothing from hers. Because she knew that look in her mate's eyes. It was the same one she'd seen before he decided to "explore the concept of oral sex." Walker's version of "explore" had left her an incoherent, trembling, pleasured pile of Lara-shaped jelly.

The man had concentration down to an art.

As he proved once again in the shower, when he ran soap-slick hands over her body and murmured he wanted to "explore" the idea of having sex standing up. Not that Lara minded being pinned to the wet tile by her mate's hard body, her legs locked around his lean hips and hot water cascading over them both while they "explored" the hell out of the concept.

Unsurprisingly, it took her extra time to get dressed after they exited the shower, her body boneless. "For some reason," she said, pressing a kiss to the center of his naked back before he pulled on a fresh shirt, "I never expected you to be so physical." So very demanding in that quiet, determined Walker way that made every feminine cell in her body sing.

He ran a finger under her bra strap when she circled around to his front, an easy, affectionate caress. "I have a lifetime of sensation to catch up on." Tugging her closer with a pull on the strap, he ran his hand down her back.

"With you."

Oh, man. She really stood no chance. "Stop that." It came out sounding less than firm. "Children, remember?"

Walker angled his head the slightest fraction, as if listening. "Yes, I think we'd better go collect them." He circled his palm over her back, warm and a little rough, and answered the question she'd been about to ask. "Neither is in distress, but they need to be back with family."

Lara's wolf was in full agreement, and it only took her a couple more minutes to pull on fresh jeans paired with a thin sweater in her favorite shade of green. "Let's go," she said after slipping on her sneakers.

Toby, who appeared to have grown an inch since the last time she'd seen him - there was no longer any question that he'd end up as tall as his uncles -

hugged her with thin but strong arms when she found him kicking a ball around outside, his joy in their mating unhidden. "I'm really happy you're our family now," he said. "Even that first day in the infirmary, when I was so scared of everything, I was never scared of you." Words poignant with memory.

"Your hands were gentle. Like my mom's."

Tears burned the backs of her eyes.

"She loved you very much." Toby's mother had fought for him until the violent power of her telepathic gift had sucked her under. A gift her child had inherited, his eyes the night sky of a cardinal, white stars on velvet black.

But Toby would never have to deal with his ability in isolation - physical or mental, his support structure a sprawling network of family, other Psy, wolves, and leopards. "I hope you'll let me love you, too."

Toby's smile was sweet...with a fine, fine hint of mischief that told her he might just turn into a hellion juvenile one o f these days. "You already do - you love all the pups in the pack. I can sense it." He hugged her again, whispering,

"But if you want to love me and Marlee especially, I won't tell."

"Deal." Laughing, she went to brush his hair out of his eyes when Marlee appeared around the corner with Walker and ran full-tilt to throw her arms around Lara.

"Dad says you're ours now!" Green-eyed and with a clean line to her features, she was her father's daughter, but her nature was her own. Uniquely Marlee. "Is it true?" Strawberry-blonde strands kissed her face, having escaped the elastic band at her nape. "Are you?" Any worry Lara had entertained about Marlee resenting her fell away under the force of the enthusiastic questions. "Yes," she said, bending down to embrace Marlee's small body, the girl's arms wrapping around her in turn. "All yours."

"Yay!" Dancing away with that sound of uninhibited glee, Marlee caught Toby's hands, made her cousin spin her around in dizzying circles. "Faster, Toby!" She squealed as her hair went flying, her feet up off the ground. "Don't drop me!"

Toby laughed at her scream, but it was the good-natured laugh of an elder brother - and that's what he was, regardless of their actual relationship -

his hands gripping hers tight. "Want me to stop?"

"No! Faster!"

Lara looked up with a laugh of her own, caught Walker watching the children, his expression shadowed.

Walking to him, she slipped her hand into his, touching the fingers of her free hand to the smoothness of his shaven jaw until he met her eyes. "The Council will never again steal their right to be happy."

He said nothing, her mate. But she loved him, knew him...and sensed the violent depth of his emotions in the tightness of the arms he closed around her.

His mood seemed much lighter the next day, and when he left to do a rotation on the border that night, he said,

"You're spoiling them." The brush of his knuckles against her cheek, his lips at her ear.

"I know," Lara admitted as she put together a tray of chocolate cookies and milk for the children - both currently sprawled on the floor in front of the large comm screen in the living room, hypnotized by a quiz show.

Fiddling with the buttons of his shirt, his chest wide and strong, she said,

"It's okay, isn't it? For just a few days?" Though she'd taken care of plenty of pups, it had always been short-term, where it didn't matter if she was indulgent. "I thought after everything, they deserved a little extra pampering." Walker wanted only to kiss that rueful smile off of her lips...then realized on a surge of bone-deep pleasure that he could. Anytime he pleased. She'd given him that right. "I can see I'll have to be the tough one here," he murmured after both their hearts had turned to thunder.

She scowled even as she smoothed her hands over his chest, affectionate and possessive both. "I can be tough.

Just ask the juveniles."

Yes, she had an unflinching courage, his mate. His pride in her strength of heart and determination was absolute. But he also knew that she was inherently kind, that she forgave far easier and quicker than anyone else he'd ever met, and that she'd cut off her own arm if it would heal another's hurt. No doubt, she'd spoil the children more than a little...but that was what mothers did.

What they should do. He would never stop her.

Because even Marlee, in spite of her chirpy, chatty personality, had an inward maturity he wished she didn't.

His daughter had learned the harsh realities of the world at an age when her spirit should've been innocent, without a single bruise. Instead, she'd been kicked in the heart by the very person who should've protected her beyond all others.

Never would he forgive Yelene the broken look in his baby's eyes that ugly day months after their defection when Marlee had turned to him and said,

"Daddy, did my mother not want to come with us?"

For the first time in his life, he'd lied to his child, telling her that Yelene hadn't been able to get out in time. He hadn't wanted to wound her by sharing the brutal truth - that Yelene had written her child out of her life the instant she became a hazardous inconvenience. But Marlee, his little girl with her wise soul, had shaken her head and hugged him.

"It's okay, Daddy. I know she didn't love us. "

"Walker?"

He swallowed the memory of the cold rage that had gripped him in its teeth that day as he held his daughter, not wanting the past to taint the wonder that was his family, his mate. "I better go or I'll be late."

"Take care of yourself," Lara said, her eyes seeming to see right through him, to places only she had ever reached.

That tawny gaze ignited a sense of acute and gnawing vulnerability within Walker, but regardless of his discomfort, he fought the urge to close himself off, to attempt to block the mating bond using his psychic abilities. That would hurt Lara on the innermost level, and the one thing Walker would never consciously do was hurt his mate.

"Be good for Lara," he said to the children as she walked him to the door.