Nathan walked over to place Rome with his playmates, including Jules. The boy stayed in human form but curled around the others. They, in turn, moved in their sleep to snuggle around him, and he was soon blanketed in golden fur spotted with black as well as the soft brown fur of wolf pups. Naya slept in the protective circle of his arm, Jules's furred body on her other side.
Sascha was right.
One day, these children, too, would head out to roam.
Lucas looked back toward the place where Kit had disappeared and wished that cub well. The pack would be waiting for him when he was ready to come home, whether that was a month from now or ten years. Each leopard's journey was his own. Knowing adventure and discovery awaited Kit, Lucas and his mate rejoined the party that celebrated a bond signed in blood and welded together by loyalty--and now, by three newborn lives.
The parents of those newborns, a wolf lieutenant and a leopard sentinel, danced to a soft, slow ballad with the unconscious grace of a couple in sync on the deepest level. And though they appeared lost in one another, Lucas was fully conscious that Mercy Smith and Riley Kincaid knew the exact whereabouts of each of their three babies. The new parents tended to only be able to bear the separation from their pupcubs for about five minutes at most.
Then they'd reclaim Belle, Ace, and Micah, cuddle them close.
Smiling within, he took in the others here: lethal and dangerous Kaleb Krychek who'd just emerged from the forest with his laughing mate; easy-humored Max Shannon and his wife, Sophia Russo; ex-Psy Councilor and current member of the Ruling Coalition, Anthony Kyriakus. Then there was Teijan's sharply dressed presence near Ivy Jane, the empath currently chatting to Tally--who gently cradled a pupcub, while Ivy's Arrow mate spoke with the Rat alpha.
Nearby, Forgotten leader Devraj Santos chatted to Jon and Clay, and not far from them, Katya Haas was deep in conversation with Ashaya Aleine and Alice Eldridge. Ashaya's twin had turned down an invitation to attend, having no desire to be part of any kind of a social gathering, but Lucas knew she was present in some sense through her unbreakable tie with Ashaya.
Myriad bonds connected the people here.
It was a tangled kaleidoscope. One he could've never imagined the day he first sat across the table from a beautiful woman with eyes of cardinal starlight. Those eyes met his at that instant, her body warm at his side. He went to draw her into a kiss when he felt a tug on his pant leg.
Leaning down, he scooped Naya into his arms. "I couldn't have imagined you, either," he said to their mischievous cub, who'd padded away from her sleeping friends and now growled happily at him.
Sascha's laugh was soft, her kiss passionate against his lips. Held between them, her mother's hand on her back, Naya purred, happy and safe and with no awareness that she was the embodiment of change.
Nadiya Shayla Hunter would never have an ordinary life.
And perhaps, if the adults here and around the world got it right, she'd never know anything but friendship and family and hope. Not war. Not racial discord. Not anger and distrust.
"I like to imagine a future," he said to Sascha, "where one day, our daughter stands in the center of the United Earth Federation and when she speaks, the ears that hear her voice are Psy and human and changeling and Forgotten and every possible blend."
Eyes shining wet, Sascha whispered, "No divisions, no artificial lines."
"Yes." He tapped Naya on the nose when she tried to bite his jaw. "Just a vibrant peace."
"Well," his mate said slowly, "not quite three-and-a-half years ago, when we mated, you punched Hawke hard enough to knock him down. Tonight, he's rocking a pupcub who technically belongs to you. Roughly three years for wolf and leopard to become family." A deep smile. "It's not a bad start."
She took their baby when Naya jumped over, nuzzling and cuddling their cub with sweet maternal affection. "I believe in us." Her eyes met his, streamers of color in their depths. "All of us. I believe we'll find a way out of the darkness. The Consortium won't win--and in defeating it, we'll forge bonds no one will be able to break."
Lucas ran his knuckles over her cheek. "Trust an empath to find a silver lining."
Turning her head, Sascha kissed the skin above the pulse in his wrist. "Our daughter will stand in the United Earth Federation and when she does, we'll proudly tell everyone we know that that's our baby."
Panther prowling to the surface of his skin, Lucas gathered his mate and their child in his arms. "Hold Trinity together, defeat the Consortium, help the Psy save the PsyNet, and help the humans figure out a way to block psychic intrusion, and finally, set up the UEF." He nodded. "Let's do it."
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