The moment Dakota's scent reached him—warm, sun-kissed, and threaded through with the faint sweetness of Takoda's presence—Kade's focus snapped upward from the reports scattered across his desk.
Everything else in the room simply ceased to exist: the meeting notes, the low murmur of voices beyond the door, the weight of pack business that had consumed him only seconds earlier. All of it dissolved.
He rose without haste, yet with absolute certainty, crossing the space between them in three measured strides.
By the time Dakota had fully stepped inside, he was already there, hands reaching first not for her, but for the small, sleeping figure nestled against her chest.
"Shouldn't you have woken her up?" He eyed the girl and then to her.
