Tegan squeezed his forearm and stood, picking up her weapon case. “I’ll be back for my shift at nine. My stuff is packed and in the car.” She walked out of the room.

It was silent for long minutes until Nina turned to Lex and Cade, who glowered at her from the table.

“She wants to move on. She needs to. Can’t you see that?”

“Did she tell you that? Because the woman who just walked out of here isn’t one I’ve seen in a very long time,” Cade said.

“You know she didn’t. She doesn’t tell anyone anything she doesn’t have to. But I have eyes. She’s lonely. I didn’t know Lucas but I do know what it’s like to have a mate.

I can’t imagine losing one. Worse having her anchor bond, Abe, mated and therefore unavailable to her romantically. Sure she didn’t lose her life when her mate died, but to not have the fallback of an anchor to replace the original mate bond would be difficult.

Like losing a mate twice over.

“But I have noticed her actually seeing men for the first time since I met her. She’s more…” Nina shrugged her shoulders, “…alive than I’ve seen her. I know you all say she was vivacious before Lucas was killed but she’s been on lockdown since I came into this Pack and I’ve seen her starting to open the doors a bit. This is good. Let her move on. My God, she’s only twenty-eight, she has time to find love again.”

“That’s what this is about? Her getting out to get laid?”

Nina narrowed an eye at Cade. “Hey, f**k you. That’d be like me saying, so, this is about you not having a guard at your beck and call?Unfair and petty. This isn’t about her sex life but so what if it was? You know better and you’re all grumpy and talking like an ass because you’re worried about her. It’s your way.”

Cade harrumphed in her direction but Lex still glared.

Undeterred, Nina leaned back and sipped her coffee. “She’s getting back out to live her life. She’s been here living as a guard for all these years. She needs friends, she needs her own schedule and things to do. And she needs a man. Is it so wrong to want that?

Don’t you want that, Cade? Someone to snuggle with in front of the TV at night after your day is over? Someone you can take to dinner, who makes your heart beat faster?”

Problem was, Cade was more than a little in love with Nina. She probably shouldn’t have asked but these two males were myopic on the issue of the women they loved.

“I suppose the other females are in your corner on this?” Lex raised an arrogant brow at his wife, saving his brother from answering.

Nina stood with a slow smile. “Lex, my most luscious Scooby, you want to protect everyone. It’s who you are. And your big dumb brother too. I haven’t consulted the Warden women but if I did, I’m sure they’d all agree Tee needs this. Let her have it or I’ll kick your ass.”

Lex sighed and sat back in his chair, eyeing Nina appreciatively. “You owe me.”

“Like that’s a punishment?” She laughed as she left the room.

“Keep an eye on her, Lex.” Cade’s voice was low.

“I already had a better security system put in at the house and her car has bullet proof glass and reinforced doors.”

Cade patted his brother’s arm. “Good.”

Tegan walked into the front doors of Wild Ginger and saw her sisters already seated with Nina. Waving, she moved to sit with them.

“Thanks for getting my back with Lex and Cade last week.” Tegan smiled at Nina.

“Well if I’d been doubting it was the right choice I’m convinced now. You look great!” Nina grinned.

“You do. Man, Tee, I don’t think I’ve seen you in makeup in—”

Tegan interrupted her twin sister, Megan. “Four years. I know. I’m working through it.”

“What happened? Why the sudden turn around?” Their oldest sister, Layla, looked up from her menu.

Out of all her siblings, Tegan was closest to Layla. It was Layla who’d held her as she wept when they’d come with news of Lucas’s death inAfghanistan . Layla who helped her choose the casket and the headstone. Layla never pushed, she just let Tegan deal with it in her own way and that meant so much to her. Layla truly listened to Tegan in her grief. While others tried to fix it, Layla had a mate, she’d known there was no fixing it. Layla never compared how Tegan was before the death to the way she was afterward. No one but Layla seemed to understand that a part of her died that day when those uniformed officers had come to her door.

But it was time to live again.

“I had three dreams in the last month and one a year ago. Lucas was in all of them.

The first ones were sort of hazy, but I got the feeling he was telling me something. The one I had two weeks ago was clear. We were in the kitchen of our old house and he was peeling potatoes. He turned to me and he told me to move on. He said that I was wasting my life and my heart and that he would be ashamed if his death was the reason I never found love again.” She stopped, hands trembling a bit as she took a sip of water.

“Anyway, he said it was coming. A bunch of big stuff and that I had to be ready for all of it. Told me to live my life again and that love was out there and a piece of him would always be there but it was time to let him go. And so I have. Or I’m trying. I’ll always love him. He was my mate. But I went out two nights ago. And I liked it. I’ve had dinner with our old friend Ryan and his boyfriend. It feels like what I’m supposed to do.”