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"You'll marry me."

"I will."

"You'll stand beside me as my alpha female."

"I need to see that job description in writing."

"You'll be amazing at it."

"No doubt. I still want to review the Standard Operating Procedures."

He chuckled. "Pups?"

"I'm still deciding," I said. "For the record. I'm still figuring out what I want my life to look like. I'm not sure what it looks like for a panther princess and a wolf Alpha to run parallel operations across two different pack structures without either of them losing their minds or their independence. But we can tell everyone we're engaged. And then we can take our time and work it out for ourselves — what being together looks like, what our future looks like, how to do this without either of us becoming something we're not."

Magnus looked at me for a long moment. Then he smiled.

A full one. A surprised, complete, unmanaged version that threatened my heart.

I was within his reach, but he prowled. The slow, deliberate approach of a wolf who had decided on a direction and was taking it.

"One question," he said.

"What," I said.

"What are we going to tell Rosalind?"

I looked at him. "About what?"

His eyes went to the bed behind me.

"About her sheets," he said.

And then he picked me up and tossed me onto them. But I wasn't about to be edged. I had decided that I wanted all of him.

I managed to twist in mid-air. Magnus landed on his front. He rose on his forearms, eyes wide, brows high, amber eyes flashing back, canines bared.

I was not intimidated. Something in me rose to the surface. The scene before me shifted. Everything appeared sharper. The light shifted, sharpened; the low lamp suddenly unnecessary because everything was clear in a way it hadn't been a second ago, every line and shadow resolved into sharp lines.

Magnus's eyes were no longer amber but a luminous yellow-gold, brighter than I'd ever seen. His tanned skin shifted to the same golden hue.

I blinked. My gaze fixed on his collar bone. His unmarked collar bone. My mouth watered, gums aching, mouth feeling too full of teeth. Instinct rose, urging me to put my claim there.

"Nell?" His voice was filled with wonder.

I pounced.

EPILOGUE

GUNNAR

The wood of the closed bedroom door was thick, but it wasn’t thick enough to dull the sudden, heavy silence that had fallen on the other side.

They’re definitely fucking in there. Dry amusement tugged at the corner of my mouth. The humor faded from my chest as quickly as it came, replaced by the crushing weight settling squarely onto my own shoulders.

I was completely fucked.

Not tomorrow. Not next week. Tonight. I was getting married tonight to Rosalind Lobo.