“Nah, let’s stay here awhile. You never know, we could go home and be right back where we started.” The smile on her lips was all it took.

“Yeah, and this is really important.”

“So important,” she said. “We don’t want to rush this in case it backfires.”

“Exactly, and it’s so new.”

“Oh, so new.”

He pulled her down, rolling her onto her back as he slid between her thighs. “Now I’m going to make love to you.”

“I’m here, Lucas. Always here.”

Epilogue

Five years later

“You’re stealing the pineapple again,” Lucas said, wrapping his arms around his very pregnant wife and mate.

Mabel held a piece up for him. “And I’m eating the cheese. I’m not totally mean.”

He laughed and took a piece, chewing on the sweet fruit as well as the savory cheese. “Tastes so good.”

“I know, but I’ve got to stop. All I keep thinking is they would taste so good with fried tofu,” she said.

Lucas moved down the tables as his wife tried little nibbles. He kept his arms around her.

It was a fair in town, and the pack was surrounded by tourists and their fellow civilians. The full moon was only a few days ago, and Lucas had spent it near his wife. They owned a small house in the center of town. Since his wife was also pregnant, the need to change wasn’t as strong as it usually was. He had the choice to run out in the open or stay indoors loving his wife.

Mabel was the most important person in the world to him. They’d been able to get away with another four months alone at the island before Duke had come to take them back. The pack had accepted them with open arms, and now, five years later, married, mated, and with a little baby on the way, he couldn’t be happier. Mabel worked for him, helping him with the pack. She was learning her duties from his mother. There wasn’t a lot of time for anything else. Running the pack was a full-time occupation, but he saw her still ferociously typing away at her laptop, creating a brand-new world.

“People are staring,” she said.

“Let them look.” He kissed her neck, breathing in her scent. “They’re probably wondering if you’re ready to drop.”

“Pfft, I’ve got another couple of months yet.”

He ran his hands over her stomach, loving everything. Life, his wife, his child, their town, their pack. All of it.

After nearly losing it all, there was no way he was going to let anything go, not ever again.

“Why don’t we skip the fireworks?” he asked.

“What do you have in mind?”

He pressed his teeth against her neck, nipping at her flesh before sliding his tongue across a path with a promise of what was to come.