cardinal gaze was full of delight. Hawke spun her back into his chest a second later. Landing with her hands flat on her mate’s body, she tilted up her head just as the wolf alpha bent his.
Walker looked away from the kiss that said a thousand things without a word being spoken, and down into the glowing face of his daughter. One day, she, too, would have a mate to love, a mate who loved her in turn. When that time came, he’d let her go with his blessing to live a life extraordinary and beautiful and full of freedom, but until then, he’d watch over her.
Now, catching her wide-eyed interest in something Drew was doing to Indigo, he copied the move and dipped Marlee over his arm. She giggled in girlish delight, saying, “Again, Daddy!” when he lifted her up.
So he did it again.
Marlee was flushed and happy when the song ended.
“Come on Marlee-Barley, time to dance with me.” Toby held out his hand.
Walker’s nephew was in the awkward gangly phase, but he’d scrubbed up for today in black pants and a short-sleeved shirt in dark blue that had epaulets and visible stitching as detailing. His hair, as ruby red as Sienna’s and as striking, was neatly brushed but already falling forward. It was his eyes that made Toby though—cardinal starlight, they held a sweetness it was rare to see in a boy his age.
Walker worried about Toby, but sweet as he was, his nephew seemed to be holding his own, even in the midst of a wolf pack. According to Lara, he seemed to have the same effect on his packmates as a fledgling healer, engendering trust and making people feel better with his simple presence.
Perhaps it was because Toby had an empathic gift or maybe it was simply that Toby had been born with a deep gentleness of spirit. He’d have been crushed into line under Silence, but here, he was free to grow into his personality.
Tonight, he took a delighted Marlee as his dance partner and they spun into a fast dance, both of them stamping their feet and moving their arms with the beat. When Ben, dressed in a tiny tuxedo Lara had pronounced “deathly adorable,” ran over to join them, they laughed and made a space for his small body.
“What’s my Benny going to do when Marlee matures before him?” Ava asked, having come to stand beside Walker at the edge of the temporary dance floor. Her glossy dark locks were streaked with metallic blue and glittering silver and swept up in a complicated braid. “It’s already happening.”
“He’s tough. He’ll handle it.” Ben and Marlee had long been firm best friends despite the age difference between them, some indefinable aspect of each speaking to the other. However, like Ava, Walker could see that relationship altering shape in front of his eyes. Their interests were diverging, would take them in different directions in the coming years.
“But,” Walker said as they watched their children dance, “whatever happens, I can’t see them ever drifting totally apart.” Their relationship was too strong, too rooted, and for all his childish antics, Ben was oddly astute. As if he saw people for exactly who they were.
A boy like that would grow up into an extraordinary man.
Ava sighed. “She’s still going to break my poor boy’s heart in a few years. No girl of fourteen is ever interested in a boy of ten.”
Wrapping his arm gently around Ava’s shoulders, Walker held her to his side with the affectionate skin privileges that had developed between them over the time Walker had been mated to Lara. The two women were best friends, Ava in and out of their home, as Lara was Ava’s. Walker also liked Ava’s mate, Spencer, a great deal and they often had dinner with the other couple, while Marlee loved spending time with both Ben and his baby sister, Elodie.
The toddler was currently laughing uproariously with Naya Hunter, both of them seated on an outdoor play mat.
Their baby laughter was making several nearby adults grin. Walker couldn’t resist his smile, either. “I don’t think a small thing like a broken heart would stop Ben from pursuing Marlee as soon as he’s old enough,” he said.
Ava chuckled. “You’re right. My boy has stubborn determination down to an art.” Rising on tiptoe, arm around his back, she tried to look out over the dancers. “Where’s Lara?”
“Chatting with Tamsyn about the pupcubs.”
Looking over to where the two healers stood, Walker saw them