walker's mind blinked out.

it wasn't until two days later that everyone was functional enough to have a rational discussion. they met in the main conference room, the lieutenants from around the state coming in via comm feeds. cooper's mate stood by his side, while the others in the snowdancer web, as the laurens were calling it, took seats around the conference table. the only ones missing were the children, and the healers from the other sectors-they'd decided to head back home, leaving lara as their representative.

"that was some trip," tomas said, breaking the ice. "holy hell, i was on speed for two days. i swear i ran patrol nonstop for thirty-six hours."

"we healed everyone," lara said, flexing her fingers, her voice too jerky, too fast. "everyone in the infirmary, everyone in the pack that we could find with even the slightest injury. anyone have a sore back? scratches?"

beside her, walker did something hawke wouldn't have expected from the quiet, contained psy. he put his hand under lara's hair, curving it around her nape. it was a very changeling display of possession-a signal to every other male in the meeting that lara was now off-limits.

hawke's wolf approved.

"i had sex," drew said with a grin. "lots and lots and lots of sex."

indigo threw a balled-up piece of paper at him, but she was grinning. catching the paper, he said, "hey, no use in good energy going to waste."

everyone chuckled, the atmosphere nothing like it would've been a few days ago if they'd been talking of sienna's power. "so," hawke said, playing his fingers through his mate's hair, "it looks like we all got a boost."

"she acts like a mini-reactor," walker said in that intense, contained way that had everyone paying attention. "her power is infinite."

"so we're going to keep getting mega-hits like this?" tomas's dark brown eyes sparkled as they landed on sienna's down-bent head. "not that i don't appreciate it, sugar, but it did make me 'hyper,' according to my mother."

"toby hasn't slept for two days and counting," lara said. "he outran his changeling friends-he thinks it's wuuuuuunderful. his word."

sienna spoke for the first time. "i think that was a one-off," she said, twisting her hands under the table where she thought hawke couldn't see it. "walker and i have been talking, and our theory is that it was because i was trying to contain the power and it built up to a critical mass. if i release a steady stream of it, it'll boost your energy levels without having a discernible impact like it did this time around."

leaning over, hawke nipped at her ear. she turned bright red. "hawke."

"no one is angry at you, sienna," he murmured. "look at them."

he saw her raise her head, glance around, felt the staggering relief that poured down the mating bond. when she turned and reached up to pull his hand from her hair, bring it to her lips, he was undone, his wolf her slave.

looking away from her only when she put his hand down on the table, her fingers tangled with his, he found the others had begun to speak amongst themselves, giving him and sienna privacy. "it's clear that walker acts as a filter . . . a valve," he said during a lull in the conversation.

matthias looked troubled. "what if something happens to walker?"

"we've been talking about that," sienna spoke up, a confidence in her voice that had been missing earlier. "the helix appeared in walker's mind around the time my mother was pregnant with me, so there's a chance one of the other psy in the network would develop the ability."

if they were right, she'd explained to hawke, the implications were astounding. it meant the neosentience in a psychic network didn't only organize the network, it could influence it on the individual level. which, if the rumors about the current rot in the psynet were true, led to some very disturbing suppositions.

"however," sienna continued, "we're not relying on that. now that we know what walker's mind does, judd thinks he can train his own to mimic the effect. it won't work anywhere near as well, and the power surge will be a lot rougher-"

matthias cut her off. "it'll work." a fierce smile. "that's the important thing."

kenji glanced at walker. "does it take anything out of you?"

"no." walker tapped a finger on the table. "in fact, i've never felt more alive. for the first time in my life, i'm making complete use of my abilities. the valve runs automatically in the background, so it won't interfere with my normal duties."

jem stared at the psy male. "wow, i never heard you say so many words in a row before."

that made tomas and drew burst out laughing. alexei, cooper, and matthias were a tad more restrained, but even they had grins on their faces. hawke's wolf laughed deep within. his pack, his mate. all here. life was good . . . except for the fact the psy council now knew that not only sienna, but the entire lauren family, was alive.

walker kept his hand on lara's lower back as they exited the meeting room. "do you have patients?"

"no. i healed everyone, remember?" a sparkling look from those tawny eyes. "everyone! even the ones who were dying. i was super-healer. or okay, super-healer with super-healer assistants. did you know tai kissed evie right in front of indigo? with tongue. and maria baked everyone cupcakes."

"you're still power-drunk." it made sense. from what they'd learned over the past few years, it appeared that there was always a neo-sentience in any psychic network, and even the most embryonic one would've understood that the healers needed the power more than anyone else. except that there'd been so much energy, giving lara and the others extra really hadn't been necessary. "how many fingers am i holding up?"

lara giggled. slapped a hand over her mouth. "i'm so happy-all those injured, healed. i actually ran out of people. too bad alice eldridge isn't a wolf or i could've woken her up. elias is kinda mad i found him and fixed him up without leaving even a teeny-tiny scar that he could brag about. when are the rest of the juveniles coming back? i bet you they'll give me something to heal."

hiding his laugh at the rapid speech that reminded him of his daughter-who was attempting to break the world skipping record in the white zone-he nudged her in the direction he wanted her to go. "tomorrow."

"oh, good."

as she slid an arm around his waist, he said, "drew said he had lots of sex. want to do that instead?" he needed to claim her on a fundamental level, to touch and stroke and caress and know that she had come out of the flames of war unscathed.

lara's head snapped up. "now?"

"yes."

she grabbed his hand as if to drag him along behind her. "hurry up."

"wait," he said as they reached her quarters, "are you too power-drunk to give consent?"

lara recited the periodic table back at him. "see, all my faculties. now can we have sex?"

"yes."

her breath turned jagged when he nudged her back into her quarters and locked the door behind himself. those big eyes didn't get any smaller when he unbuttoned and stripped off his shirt, then kicked off his shoes and socks. as he took the belt out of his jeans, she sucked in a breath, walked forward.

and bit him.

right on his pectorals, sinking her teeth deep enough to leave a dark red mark. it snapped what control he'd maintained, and he found himself picking her up and throwing her on the bed. she got up as if to get away, but he'd been in the pack long enough to know her wolf was playing with him. pulling off her shoes, he tore off her jeans and panties with a lack of finesse that might've worried him if lara hadn't been making low, needy sounds in the back of her throat.

"take off your sweatshirt." it was an order.

one she obeyed with shaking hands.

"the bra."

it was gone an instant later. however, instead of lying back, she stretched out on her hands and knees in front of him, looking up with a distinctively wolfish look in her eye. "i'll be gentle." solemn words that made him want to smile. "i know you're a virgin. psy don't have sex do they?"

"no." intimate touch was forbidden in the psynet. "but i think i have the concept figured out." surrendering to temptation, he stroked his hand down the curve of her back.

she arched into the touch, her skin shimmering with heat. "are you teasing me?" a suspicious look, even as she rose up on her knees to tug open the top button of his jeans.

"a little." he bent down to nuzzle at her, biting her gently on the earlobe as he'd done that night in her apartment when they'd talked and done so much more.

she shivered. "you remembered."

he remembered everything about her, from the way she made those tiny sounds when he licked his tongue across hers, to the way she pushed her breast into his hand when he pinched her nipple. "on your back," he whispered, because the need in him was a demanding thing, one that wanted to brand, to claim in a way he'd never before experienced or understood.

obeying without argument, she braced herself on her elbows, looking at him with those brilliant eyes as he shucked his jeans. her gulped in breath was a caress across his senses. taking a grip on her ankles, he spread her thighs. "who do you belong to, lara?" he asked quietly.

"you." it was a whisper. "only you."

he wasn't surprised to feel her inside him, inside his very heart. of course that was where she'd be-it was the only way to make sure he could protect her. lara was one of the most vulnerable people he had ever met. she had the capability to face down even hawke if she thought the alpha was causing himself harm, but by that same token, she'd cut out her own heart and give it to him if it would keep him going. walker wasn't sure how she'd survived this long without someone to watch out for her.