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envied Caleb his happiness, he didn’t envy him the road
he was about to follow. Kylar’s own father had taught him how difficult it
could be to rear happy children and made him a firm believer that parenting was
a job better left to the other members of the Pride. To men and women who
didn’t have quite so many…issues. “That’s great news, Caleb. Tell Kerrick and
Mercy I’m happy to hear it.”
    Caleb threw his arms around him, his body warm through his
clothes against Kylar’s skin. The contact only lasted a few seconds, but it
felt good, a mercifully uncomplicated embrace. “Thank you! We’re having a party
to celebrate next week. You’ll come, won’t you?”
    “Of course. Just tell me when, and I’ll be there.”
    “Great. We’ll call you.” And with that Caleb was off,
running farther into the woods, still shouting his happiness into the trees and
sky.
    Kylar stood there for a long moment, watching his friend’s
body disappear into the forest. Stranger things could happen than the
fulfillment of the secret wish that had crept into Kylar’s mind. Caleb and
Kerrick had taken a chance. They’d asked for a female mate and they’d gotten
one. Who would have ever thought a warrior-mated couple as devoted to each
other as Caleb and Kerrick could open their hearts to a third, and that their
love could shine even brighter for the addition? But they had, and they did.
The three-way mating hadn’t diminished their connection, it had simply added to
it. Kylar had never seen three people so happy in his life.
    So if they could do it and grow their love…why couldn’t
Gable and Varek? Was it possible that’s what they wanted? Was it possible for
him to put aside his own emotional baggage and let them speak their truth?
    He had to find out. If he didn’t, he knew it was something
he’d regret for the rest of his life. He turned and headed back into the woods,
back the way he’d come.

Chapter Four
     
    Varek dove—down, down, into the icy water at the bottom of
the creek bed—forcing himself to hold his breath until it was almost painful,
until his lungs ached and burned and his chest felt it would implode. Only then
did he shove his feet into the sand and surge upward, heart racing as he
wondered if he would make it to the surface in time.
    One stroke, two, three—
    “Ahh!” He sucked in a desperate breath and—for a moment—the
sweet bliss of oxygen pouring into his lungs was the only sensation in his
body. He was light and free, purified by his swim.
    The free feeling lasted all of a minute and a half. As soon
as his breath leveled out and the urgency and need of those last moments under
the water faded, the fear crept back in. Would Gable succeed in his mission?
Would Kylar ever give Varek the chance to prove he was more than an obstacle to
be overcome? Was his and Gable’s dream of a permanent partnership just that—a
dream, one that would never be more than a phantom that came in the night?
    Anxiety pinched at his shoulders, made his stomach cramp.
What was going on across the woods at Kylar’s house? Not knowing was maddening,
and even a swim hadn’t helped as much as it usually did. But maybe if he swam
harder, stayed down longer…
    Varek was about to dive back down into the depths when he
saw him—Kylar. He stood near a clutch of trees on one side of the bank, silent
as a shadow, watching him. The hair on Varek’s neck stood on end, the animal
part of him wondering if Kylar had come as a friend or a foe. It was too dark
to judge by Kylar’s expression. Night had fallen and the rays of moonlight that
illuminated the swimming hole didn’t penetrate the thick foliage near that part
of the bank.
    “I thought you were in trouble,” Kylar said, his voice soft
and deep, lacking the hostility from earlier in the evening. Varek felt a bit
of the tension ease from his shoulders. So he hadn’t come as an enemy then. “I
was going to dive in and save your life if you’d stayed down another