Impulse

her. “You’re not the reason,” she said finally. “You’ll be the reason a few snotty wolves have to deal with me…but you’ll be the reason hundreds more are afraid to treat me like shit ever again. You don’t have to make it worth it. You’re the one who could have an easier life by picking a wolf.” And that was the part that hurt. The secret fear. “When you say that, I wonder if I need to make it worth it.”

“That isn’t what I want.” He sat up and smoothed a section of the comforter. “Marry me, and we’ll call it even. Worth every second, no matter what.”

Her heart stuttered. It was like getting hit on the head again, the room doing a crazy, swooping dance, but everything was warm and perfect this time. No pain. No fear. Just-“I want to have babies with you,” she blurted out, because yes wasn’t enough and it was the truest thing she could think of to say. The only thing that encompassed how far past yes she was.

He touched her cheek, traced the curve of her face down to her jaw. “Even if they won’t be coyotes?”

“Even if they would be coyotes.” She shivered and closed her eyes. “That was the possibility that always scared me the most. But it doesn’t with you. I don’t know if our kids will be wolves or coyotes or neither, but I know they’ll be safe and loved.”

His breath stirred her hair and then blew across her skin as he leaned close. “Because I love you.”

“That’s all I want.” She turned and whispered the words against his cheek. “Not a species. A family.”

“Family,” he echoed, then groaned. “Your dad. Is he gonna kill me?”

“No.” Relaxing back into the pillows, she smiled up into his too-serious eyes. “He’s going to worry. He’s my dad, he can’t help it. But I think he likes you well enough…for a wolf.”

“Good. Though I can’t say he’s my favorite coyote ever.”

“Better not be.” She traced the bridge of his nose with her fingertip and marveled at the simple gesture. Hers. He was hers to touch, to cuddle, all the tiny little things that she’d missed about keeping a man around longer than it took to screw him. She could spend the rest of her life touching him in a hundred ways, drowning in his strength, his love, his scent-His scent. She shot upright fast enough to wrench a stab of protesting pain from her back, and barely noticed it. “Oh my God. Oh God, I hadn’t even thought.”

Julio shot up after her. “What? What is it?”

“My mom.” A different sort of pain closed in on her, pressing against her chest until it was hard to drag in a breath. “She freaked out after I spent two nights in your guest bedroom. Your scent was barely on me. Not like now. What if I can’t ever see her again?”

“You can.” He gripped her hand and turned her face to his. “We’ll figure it out. It might take time or magic or both, but you can’t go without seeing your mom.”

“Magic. We can try magic.” Her racing heart slowed as she turned her face to his palm.

“Maybe you can even meet her. As long as you don’t tell her I just took the Lord’s name in vain.

She’d whoop my ass.”

“Not throwing any stones, sweetheart. My mom would’ve done the same.”

Sera shifted her body to curl against his chest. “We can try, after we finish up here. Or at least get things settled. I suppose we’re never going to be finished up here. This house is going to be home.”

He combed his fingers through her hair. “It doesn’t have to be. We can split our time between here and New Orleans for a while.”

“We can figure it out. Where to live, and when…” And how she was going to finish college, because she wanted that accomplishment. That giddy success, the security of knowing she had skills and credentials to fall back on. The relief of knowing Julio wouldn’t hold her back, or view her independence as a threat.

She didn’t have to ask because she didn’t have to wonder, and that made the words she murmured true. “Wherever we are, it’ll be home.”

“Mmm.” He nuzzled her temple. “It sounds really good when you say it like that.”

Warm, lazy hunger unspooled in her belly, a creeping awareness still too gentle to be arousal. She rubbed against him with a satisfied sigh and nipped at his jaw. “I bet it’d sound even better if we were naked.”

“Everything does,” he agreed, and rolled her to her back.

Callum stood next to Julio at the edge of the garden, his unwavering gaze fixed on the two women seated together under a magnolia tree in full bloom. There was a fierce sort of concentration in the empath’s stance, but that didn’t stop him from poking at Julio. “You and I have vastly divergent opinions of what constitutes a vacation, my friend.”

“I got out of town. Took a road trip.” He grinned at Callum. “Found myself. Isn’t that what you headshrinkers always want people to do?”

“Mmm. Road trips, perhaps, but we do tend to advise people in crisis to avoid major life changes. Things like changing jobs, marriage, moving, fomenting revolutions and patricide.”

“Yeah. That last one, I’m maybe going to have to talk to you about. But the rest of it…feels good.”

The corner of Callum’s mouth ticked up. “I can tell. You’re grounded again, and that’s an important start. Some people go through their lives without finding something that gives them purpose, which is a pity. Purpose brings immeasurable strength.”

He spoke from experience, an experience that Julio hadn’t quite trusted before he’d left New Orleans and figured out that some things were stronger than blame and self-doubt. Things like tenacity, like giving a shit about more than yourself. “I have things to do. I told you that before, and it hasn’t changed. But it’s not a job anymore. It’s a way for me to make people’s lives better, and I’ll take it.”

“Good.” But darkness shadowed the word, a renewed tension Julio could see in the empath’s tight shoulders and tiny frown. “Remember to stay grounded. It’s easy to lose yourself in the lives you can touch. To be swept away. You can give those who look to you hope and happiness and safety, but before you can give anything, you need to have it in your own life.”

“We’re not talking about me anymore, are we?”

Callum didn’t look away from Sera and her mother. “We’re talking about you learning from the experiences and mistakes of others.”

Callum’s experiences and mistakes. “You don’t think my situation is a little different?”

“In most of the ways you’d notice and none of the ways that matter. It’s the urge at the heart of it. You want to help people. The stronger you are, the more you can accomplish.”

“I’ll remember that,” he promised, then nodded toward the garden. “Think it’s time yet?”

“Very nearly.” The empath finally turned to face Julio. “I’ve been working with her since you called me. The charms Patrick provided will mask your scent, and scent has always been her strongest trigger. Approach slowly, and hold your ground if she challenges you. Be what you are, Julio. A dominant protector. Sera’s protector, because that’s what Kelly needs to know.”

Maybe so, but rushing things could cause an ugly scene that would only upset Sera. “If we need to hold off, we can.”

“Don’t flinch now, Mendoza. You can do this. I won’t let it get out of hand.”

“Right.” Julio shoved his hands in his pockets and walked down the stone path. Sera sat with her back to him, and he caught Kelly’s gaze and held it as he approached.

Anger tightened the older woman’s eyes. She flowed to her feet as Julio drew close and put her body in front of Sera’s. “Run, honey. You need to run.”

“Mom, no.” The sunlight caught on Sera’s engagement ring as she rose and grabbed her mother’s arm. “This is him. This is Julio. He won’t hurt either of us.”

Kelly dragged in a deep breath, tasted the wind—and froze. A furrow appeared between her brows. “What are you?”

“I’m a wolf,” he answered quietly. “And I’m Sera’s fiance.”

She blinked at him. “Sera’s not a wolf.”

“I know that. Don’t really care.”

For a few seconds she looked baffled, so comically confused it might have been grimly amusing under other circumstances. Then a shrewdness narrowed her eyes, a glint of pure cunning. “You won’t feel bad about killing coyotes.”

“I won’t kill anyone unless I have to.” He reached for Sera’s hand. “But no one is going to hurt her.”