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Christopher elbowed Grunt and then shooed Henry away.
I smiled while shaking my head.
Rose tapped my chin lightly, pulling my attention away from the people around us.
“Is this what I’m marrying into?” I teased her. “The bartender seems kind of…”
She sighed. “He grows on you.”
“Like mold?”
She cackled. “Something like that. He’s always been very protective of us.”
“I understand. You’re not like the Beaufort Pack.”
“What do you mean?”
I tugged her into a quiet corner. Neither of us had grabbed a mimosa yet. It was like time had sped up and slowed down at the same time. “You don’t have an alpha. It’s just the four of you.”
She nodded. “Well, our family is growing.”
“What about our family?”
“You mean like…” Her eyebrows shot up. “Like having kids?”
I nodded, unable to bring myself to say it. Because if I said it, then it would become real. And I wasn’t sure how to cope with that yet.
Rose touched her stomach lightly while smiling gently. “I’d love to start a family with you, Matty.”
“Yeah?”
“It’ll take some balancing between work and the research, but I think we can manage it.”
I sighed with relief. “To make a family with you would make me the happiest man alive.”
“Oh, I think you’ll still findsomethingto be grumpy about.”
“And how do you know that?”
She beamed while pinching my cheek. “Because of that vein vibrating in your forehead. Heavens, it might explode with the right kind of annoyance. I wonder—”
“Rose.”
“—maybe Lorena has a potion for temper tantrums. You never know when—”
I growled. “Little boxer.”
“—come in handy when you least expect it. Especially when dealing with—”
“Little wolf.”
She squeaked when I embraced her, folding my mouth over hers to get her to stop talking. I knew she was just pushing my buttons—and I loved her for it. The ease with which she got under my skin made me bristle with anger as much as it did adoration. Everything about this woman was amazing to me from the way she laughed to the way she made love.
A phantom breeze tickled my cheek. I broke the kiss to look into her eyes, noticing how the icy void in my heart no longer existed. It had melted away under the heat of her summer, the very stars in the sky illuminating all the horrors of my past. She hadn’t blinked. She hadn’t looked away.
Nothing scared her away from me.
She was perfect in every way, the wondrous lights of the carnival sucking me in. I was helpless to her influence in every way, even when I was in charge. And that didn’t bother me one bit. Only she could have collared my heart in such a way and gotten away with it.
Guilt drifted into the background. Shame dissipated. Fear dissolved. All the things that stopped me from fully embracing her were no longer in my way, shoved aside by the magic between us.
She had brought me back to life.
And for that, I owed her my life.
*****
THE END
