Wild Embrace (35 page)

“With fries,” Garnet promised, dropping another kiss on Ruby's head.

Tex was too smitten with his pup and his mate to notice when they left.

“A death and a birth,” Garnet mused as they walked through the corridor. “The birth makes things feel normal, natural again.”

Twining his fingers through hers, Kenji said, “A death, a birth”—lifting up her hand, he kissed her knuckles—“and a mating.”

Mush, she was all mush again, emotion a knot in her throat. “Shift with me?”

No hesitation, light shattering the air as the agony and ecstasy of the shift reshaped their cells. It was an exquisite, beautiful pain. When it was over, her wolf stood face-to-face with a proud timber wolf with eyes of husky amber.

Her mate.

He bumped muzzles with her.

She bumped back.

And then they were racing through the den as their laughing packmates jumped out of the way and their hearts beat in tune. As they'd do until time
ended.

Thank you to Mamta Swaroop, MD, FACS, for her invaluable and patient help in explaining the consequences of knife wounds to the thoracic aorta.

Arigatou gozaimasu
to my friend Akbar Rahman, for checking my rusty Japanese and helping me make up the word
umiōkami
.

I would've never predicted I would one day be discussing stab wounds and blades with a trauma surgeon, or how to invent words in the Japanese language; I love the research journeys on which writing takes me—and the people I get to meet as a result. Mamta and Akbar are both awesome. Any mistakes are mine (and I freely admit I did take artistic license here and
there).

KEEP READING FOR AN EXCERPT FROM THE EXTRAORDINARY NEW BOOK IN NALINI SINGH'S BESTSELLING PSY-CHANGELING SERIES

Allegiance of Honor

NOW AVAILABLE FROM BERKLEY
BOOKS

Sascha hung up
after a troubling conversation with Ivy Jane. Her fellow E and president of the Empathic Collective had called to discuss the information she'd just received from Kaleb Krychek. Coming on top of the possible threat to Naya that Lucas had warned Sascha about earlier that day, it left her worried on multiple levels.

Naya was her first priority and always would be, but there were tens of thousands of children in the PsyNet, too. Even if the Honeycomb meant the PsyNet wouldn't collapse on them as it had done in sections prior to the awakening of the Es, the disintegration and hidden weakness within had to be having an impact on all those developing young minds.

It frustrated her that she hadn't been able to give Ivy any answers. Part of it was because she'd been out of the PsyNet since her defection and was receiving all data secondhand, but mostly it was because they were all stumbling in the dark. No one knew the exact extent of the damage done by a hundred years of forced conditioning, of erasing emotion.

“Coming,” she said when Naya made a questioning noise from the living room.

It would have sounded like “
da mi
” to most people. Sascha knew her daughter was asking after her milk. Setting aside the issues
preying on her mind for now—Naya was far too good at picking up emotional nuances—Sascha breathed deep to calm herself.

She'd just brought out the milk to warm it on a low setting on the cooker when Ivy called. Naya liked it when Sascha made her milk that way, especially if she dusted it with a little dark chocolate.

“Her mother's daughter,” Lucas said with a sinful grin each time he saw Sascha sprinkling chocolate onto Naya's milk. Not a lot,
never
enough to harm their baby's health. Just the
tiniest
taste to make this a sometimes treat now that Naya was almost one and starting to become more adventurous with her food choices. The milk would hold Naya over until Lucas arrived home and they could have dinner together—changelings tried to have meals together with their cubs whenever possible.

Naya's mind touched hers right then, sending her hungry thoughts.

Sascha's lips tugged up at the corners, all stress suddenly melting away. “I know you're not starving, munchkin,” she said, layering her response with emotion so Naya would understand her meaning.

Her and Lucas's baby was smart, but she was still a baby.

Guilty giggles sounded from the living area. Even as her smile deepened, Sascha told herself to be firm. It was extremely difficult when Naya was smart enough to know she could get out of trouble by being adorable, and when Sascha was terrified of ever hurting her baby's heart as her own had been hurt when she'd been a vulnerable child. Consciously, she understood that gentle correction was nothing like the harsh lessons she'd been taught as a child, but it took real effort of will for her to put that into action.

Every time she began to backslide into being too permissive, she reminded herself that Naya was a happy, settled child who knew she was deeply loved. She asked for affection whenever she needed it, with zero expectation that she might be refused or rejected—that
idea was simply not part of her worldview, exactly as Sascha wanted for her. She was also secure enough to be naughty.

Lucas had had to chase Naya around the aerie at bedtime last night—her walk might still be a little shaky, but she was a rocket when it came to crawling. Dressed only in a diaper, she'd laughed uproariously and said a loud, firm “no” each time Lucas caught her and put her in her crib.

After which she'd clamber out—she'd figured out how to escape a month earlier—and the game would begin again. Of course, since Lucas was a cat, he'd been having just as much fun as their daughter. Sascha, meanwhile, had sat in the living room with a cup of hot chocolate and just indulged in the sight of her mate playing with their cub.

She'd had to pretend to be stern when Naya ran over and pleaded her case with loud sounds and wild gesticulations of her hands. “No, Naya,” she'd said, biting her tongue in an effort not to laugh. “It's time for bed. Go with Papa.”

At which point Naya had growled at her, eyes sparkling with mischief.

And Sascha had cracked, laughing so hard she'd had to put down her hot chocolate before she spilled it. Lucas had shaken his head as Naya plopped down on her diaper-covered butt and joined in, clapping her hands at having made her mommy laugh. “No discipline.” Lucas had mock-growled at her before picking up their misbehaving baby. “And you”—a growly nuzzle that made Naya laugh harder and pat his stubbled cheek—“time for bed.”

He'd finally gotten her to sleep—by walking around with her pressed up against his bare chest.

Today, their cub was playing in the living area just outside the kitchen nook. Sascha had locked the aerie door to ensure Naya wouldn't undo the latch and go out onto the balcony, and Lucas
had childproofed the entire main area of the aerie, so Naya was free to roam as she liked. A lot of the time she practiced her walking skills. And no matter how often she fell down, she started back up again after a little break.

Stubborn, determined baby.

Peeking out from the kitchen, Sascha found her concentrating on stacking the colored alphabet blocks Faith and Vaughn had given her as a gift. Beside her sat a more than slightly ragged wolf plush toy, aka “The Toy That Shall Not Be Named.” Hawke had given that to Naya when she was a newborn, and it remained her favorite snuggle toy, much to her father's despair.

Though Lucas did enjoy it when Naya went leopard on the toy, growling and “fighting” with the wolf. Then he'd smile and say, “That's my girl.”

Laughing softly and making a note to steal the toy for a wash after Naya went to sleep one night this week, Sascha returned her attention to stirring the slowly warming milk. As she waited for it to reach optimum temperature, she picked up an organizer with her other hand to finish reading a note from Tamsyn about the joint DarkRiver-SnowDancer event she and Lara had proposed to celebrate the birth of Mercy and Riley's babies.

The pupcubs would, after all, belong to both packs.

It's a good excuse to acknowledge how deeply the two packs are now linked,
the pack healer had written.
I think we need to recognize that, start getting everyone used to the fact that with the birth of the pupcubs, we're going to truly become two independent parts of a much stronger whole.

To her original message, Tamsyn had added an update:
SnowDancer has suggested Mercy take the lead on this. I can see their point.

Sascha smiled. Lucas had decided on Mercy, too, but had been waiting to hear back from the wolves to see if they'd insist on a
more hands-on approach. It would aggravate him that he and the wolves—especially Hawke—were on the same wavelength.

Grinning, she tapped back a message to Tamsyn, thanking the healer for the update and saying she'd pass it on to Lucas when he returned to the aerie. She and her mate switched off with child-care duties during the times Naya was home, but they were never out of touch with each other or the pack.

As alpha, Lucas had the heaviest workload, but Sascha had carved out her own place in DarkRiver, was the main point of contact for multiple matters so he could be free to focus on the bigger picture. She missed Naya when she was away from her, but changeling cubs thrived on social interaction with other packmates. As a result, Naya was often at nursery school or on playdates with friends.

Conscious of the responsibilities that befell the alpha pair, their packmates were more than willing to take full charge of those playdates, but Sascha and Lucas took their turns as the hosts.

Naya needed to see her parents just as much as any other cub.

Pack was built on the bonds of family.

Putting down the organizer as the milk heated to just a little hotter than the temperature Naya liked, she turned off the cooker and carefully poured the milk into a sippy cup. It would be the right temperature by the time she got it into Naya's impatient hands. She was just sprinkling on the dark chocolate—from her personal stash, courtesy of her mate—when she felt a ripple along the mating bond that connected her to the man who was her heart.

She smiled and looked out at Naya. “Papa's almost home.”

Her face lighting up, Naya ran to the door on wobbly legs. She banged her small palms against it while saying, “Pa-pa! Pa-pa!” Her speech development and comprehension skills had kicked in closer to the Psy timeline than the changeling one, the likely result of her having constant telepathic contact with her mother.

Sascha screwed on the lid of the sippy cup before she walked out barefoot to pick up her daughter. Only when she had a firm hold did she unlock the door and open it to the early evening darkness. Lucas jumped up onto the balcony less than a minute later.

He'd clearly run full tilt from where he usually parked his car overnight; changelings took care not to ruin the environment in which they thrived, and if that meant a long run home, so be it. Lucas's T-shirt was stuck to his chest, that chest heaving. Given his fitness, he had to have run
really
fast.

“Racing to beat your best time?” Sascha asked as Naya stretched out toward her father, a wriggling, excited armful.

Lucas's grin was pure sin, his green eyes all panther right then. Smacking a kiss on Naya's cheek after taking her into his arms, he hauled Sascha close with a grip on the back of her neck and claimed her mouth in a distinctly adult kiss. Even after more than three years as his mate, Sascha's bones melted.

Photo by Deborah Hillman

New York Times
bestselling author
Nalini Singh
is passionate about writing. Though she's traveled as far afield as the deserts of China, the temples of Japan, and the frozen landscapes of Antarctica, it is the journey of the imagination that fascinates her the most. She's beyond delighted to be able to follow her dream as a writer.

Nalini lives and works in beautiful New Zealand. You can contact her directly through her website: nalinisingh.com. While visiting the site, Nalini invites you to join her newsletter for up-to-date news about both the Psy-Changeling and Guild Hunter series, as well as fun exclusive extras, including free short stories set in her worlds.

You can also find her online at twitter.com/NaliniSingh, facebook.com/AuthorNaliniSingh, and instagram.com/AuthorNaliniSingh.

Looking for more?
Visit Penguin.com for more about this author and a complete list of their books.
Discover your next great read!