The Wolf Marshal's Pack (U.S. Marshal Shifters 3)

She wrapped her arms around him, burying him in the wildflower and cedar scent of her hair. She was holding onto him like she never wanted to let him go.

*

“Are you going to turn into some kind of super werewolf now?” Mattie said, staring at the white bandage on Colby’s shoulder. “Some kind of double werewolf?”

“No,” Colby said. “I’m still just me.”

“Being you is always enough,” Mattie said seriously.

He was still a little pale, but his shifter healing had already started getting him back on his feet, and Aria had secretly been relieved when he had wanted to have another dinner with her family and finish it this time. She knew they’d wanted to see for sure that he was all right.

That they were both all right. It felt like it had been a long, feverish nightmare.

But now everything bad had boiled away and all she was left with was the sweetest, most lasting part of the dream.

No. Of the reality.

Tomorrow she would have to start dealing with some of the more complicated parts of reality. She’d made a vow to spend more time with Susan, and she was going to start taking her on walks through the preserve so she’d be less freaked out by the wilderness. She would have to spin her some story about Eli. And she would, in general, have pictures to take, trail mix to assemble, dirty dishes to wash.

But she would also have Colby.

It felt good to be home with her family again, and it felt good to have him be part of that.

It was sweet to see how much Mattie already liked him. Aria liked watching the two of them together: Colby sitting on the fireplace with his long legs stretched out, and Mattie sitting cross-legged on the floor, looking up at him with a solemn, fascinated expression.

She didn’t have her camera with her, but she at least had her phone. Time to capture some classic mate and child memories. She aimed the phone and took a candid shot of Mattie trying to imitate a wolf howl.

Mattie heard the click of the camera app and turned around.

“Mom,” she said sternly, “I’m not nature. Neither is Marshal Colby.”

“Just Colby, sweetheart,” he said. “And we’re all sort of part of nature.”

She shook her head. “We’re in the house. If you take nature inside, it becomes domesticated.” She pronounced the word carefully. “Like a cat or a potted plant. We’re domesticated. Mom’s only supposed to be photographing wild things.”

Aria laughed. “I think you definitely qualify as a wild thing sometimes.”

“I think you should only take pictures of me when I pose,” Mattie said.

“I’ll consider that.”

Colby stood up, stretching. Aria was glad to see that he was past wincing whenever he did it. He joined her on the sofa and put his arm around her, letting her snuggle up against him.

Her mom and dad came in bearing plates with slices of her mom’s famous devil’s food cake.

Colby turned his head against Aria’s ear and whispered, “Is it just me, or is your mom’s lipstick a little smudged?”

“It’s not just you,” Aria whispered back. She’d resigned herself to this a long time ago. “I told you, they’re crazy about each other. And we know how tempting it is to make out in the kitchen.”

She accepted a cake plate with thanks.

“So,” her mother said, elegantly situating herself in an armchair. She could be dignified no matter what amount of smudged lipstick she had on. “I think all’s well that ends well.”

“All’s well that ends with cake,” Ben said.

“Both of these are true,” Aria said.

And all, she thought, was well so long as it ended like this, with her family all around her and Colby’s arm over her shoulders.