Epilogue

One Month Later

Splitting wood was a nice, mindless task— a swing that stretched my muscles, the controlled fall of the sledgehammer, the clang of the wedge, the sharp crack and pine resin scent as the log broke apart—

"There's a strange wolf in the diner, Alpha."

I leaped away from my woodpile and whirled, sledgehammer ready. The man— no, wolf— who'd spoken stood twenty feet away at the edge of the lawn. He was old, perhaps older than Wilde, but he held himself poised and balanced like the white-haired sensei at a dojo where I once trained.

"Thanks, Julian," I managed as my brain caught up with my eyes, my heart rate returning to normal. "Good to meet you."

"You haven't, yet." He was gone an instant later, fading into the trees like he'd never been there.

My wolf grumbled, You're too slow , in my head, and I sighed. I'm not going to chase him. My wolf wanted to gather in all the lone ones, and Julian was a thorn in his side. Wilde was too, since the old wolf was still holding out on swearing to me. Although, since he joined us on some of our pack runs, still let Asher room with him, and wasn't stinting with general advice, it amounted to the same thing. Almost.

Not quite. We will have the elder one day.

My wolf was a freaking egotistical optimist. But that was a problem for another day.

A wolf at the diner. I wondered who it could be. One of my old pack, here to check up on us? I'd sent word back that Rob and I were fine, so no one would worry, but no info about where we were. Still, some of the guys were smart and computer-savvy.

Or someone just passing through, as we had? Or possibly one of George's wolves. I'd been on alert for the past month after we disposed of his body, waiting for some kind of backlash, but none materialized even when the cops found his car in the river a week after he died. They hadn't found the body yet. He was missing, presumed dead due to a motor vehicle accident, a long way from here.

Sheriff Frazer had come prowling when the news of George's disappearance reached law-enforcement circles, asking questions of me and Asher, but the sheriff had no proof George had ever made it this far. The bastard had done us the favor of not stopping to eat or buy gas along the route so his credit card couldn't be tracked. He'd chased after us without ever getting out of his car, and his sedan had been anonymous, one of many similar on the roads. A local had complained about our high-speed chase to the sheriff, and Frazer was no doubt suspicious, but he had zero facts.

From what Rob could make out, prowling online, human law enforcement in Nebraska had given up the active search for George or his body. I doubted his pack had, although they would've felt him die.

I set down my sledgehammer, eased the wedge out of the log I was splitting, and headed for the house. Rob sat bent over his computer keyboard, deep in his work, and I thought about not bothering him, but he'd rip my face off and he'd be right. He turned to look up as I approached, and I stooped for a fast kiss that he tilted his head to share.

I'm so damned lucky.

"The elusive Julian just appeared out of the trees to tell me there's a strange wolf at Ellie's diner."

"Crap." Rob shoved his chair back and stood. "Your truck or mine?" He looked me up and down. "Might want to put some different clothes on, Alpha. Not that I'm complaining." He grinned.

I dusted my hands on the bark-smudged thighs of my sweatpants. I'd been working shirtless despite the early October chill. It turned out Rob had very similar fantasies to mine, and his office window looked out on the back lawn. "Right."

Our bedroom was next to his office. I hesitated for a second, wondering if I should go formal with a power tie. Melody once told me I looked even bigger in a suit. But time was short and really, fighting room counted for more. A T-shirt, skimpy stretchy briefs that made Rob whistle from the doorway, and clean sweats. I could shift and fight in the briefs and shirt in a pinch, so I was one pants-tug away from freedom in fur.

We put on parkas on our way out, for human eyes because it was thirty-seven degrees. As we drove to the diner, I called Wilde. "Hey, I just saw Julian."

"Really?" His voice sharpened. "What's the disaster?"

"He spotted a strange wolf at the diner. Could be anything from coincidence to someone looking for Asher. Rob and I are going to check it out."

"Let me know if you need backup." Wilde huffed. "Meaning Blake or Phillip. I'm too old to stir my bones."

Yeah, right. I did hold back on our runs when he was with us, but only ten percent. He was a long way from the rocking chair.

At the diner, I backed into a space so I could pull out in a hurry. Rob and I both scanned the lot but didn't spot any familiar cars, and the sharp breeze kept scents from lingering enough for our human noses. "Right." I stuffed my keys in my pocket. "Let's see who we have."

As we stepped into the warm, heavenly scented space, I sniffed and pivoted right while Rob checked the left side of the room.

"There." Rob's tone had gone easy and warm.

Even with that advance notice, I jolted at the sight of my little brother Noah sitting at a table for four. He'd seated his wife and bondmate, Hailey, to his left, and the other two chairs stood empty. When he saw me looking, Noah raised a hand but didn't stand. They each had a big mostly empty glass in front of them, but no food.

"Anyone else here?" I murmured to Rob, having a hard time taking my eyes off my brother. We'd never been pals the way brothers are shown on TV. Fifteen years between us, Mom marrying Kane, and my becoming Alpha by killing him, were a lot of barriers. But Noah mattered to me, and it was good to see him looking well.

"Not that I detect," Rob replied. "Shall we see what baby brother wants?" He said the nickname with more tease than scorn. Rob had looked after Noah too, sometimes.

When we reached his table, Noah still didn't rise, but Hailey jumped up and hugged me. "David. You look great. I'm so glad. And Rob." She held out a hand, and he gripped it.

I watched Noah to see if he cared. Some wolves don't like more powerful wolves touching their human mates. But he slouched in his chair, a smile on his face, clearly secure in their bond. I pulled out the chair across from him and sat down, putting Rob on his right. "How did you find us?"

"That's a bit of a story." He pulled out his cell phone and tapped it a few times, then turned the screen for us to see. A photo showed the rear view of a pickup truck on a mountain road. My truck, in fact, climbing the two-lane toward Brightcave Peak with the skyline clear ahead.

"Where'd you get that?" Rob demanded.

"We probably want to talk about that somewhere more private," Noah murmured.

I raised my hand, and Linda, the server, came over. "Can we get a dozen bread rolls and a bowl of the hot spinach dip boxed up?" I handed her my credit card.

"Sure thing. Give me five minutes."

We spent those five minutes eyeing each other while Hailey made small talk about the kids in our old pack. Not that I wasn't pleased to get news of them, but I'd put such a wall between my old life and my new that it unsettled me to hear about Remy starting kindergarten and Miles playing a prank on an unamused elder.

As soon as we had food to compensate Ellie for using her table, I led the way outside. "What are you driving, Noah?"

"Rental." He pointed at an SUV.

"Follow us." I whirled for my truck. When Rob stepped on my foot pointedly, I turned to him. "What?"

"You're not Noah's Alpha anymore. Might not want to snap out orders." His smile was gently mocking.

I glanced back. Noah raised his hands. "Why change the habits of a lifetime?"

"No, he's right." My balance was off. " Please follow us."

Hailey laughed. "Was that painful?"

"Deeply." But some of the tension in my chest eased, and I managed to grin at her before getting into my pickup.

"Where are we headed?" Rob asked as we pulled out. "The house?"

"No." I trusted Noah and Hailey— mostly— but part of me still didn't want them in the house I so clearly shared with Rob. "The bird stand."

"Gonna be chilly for Hailey."

The bird stand was an observation platform built on a nearby mountainside at the end of a gentle trail. In warmer weather, hikers liked it for the views and the chance of seeing bald eagles nesting. By now, the nests stood empty, and I could hope to find the wooden platform unoccupied. "She's wearing a parka and gloves. She'll manage."

The parking area off the road held just one car near the ridgeline trailhead. I stopped on the other side of the lot, and Noah pulled in beside me. I did ask Hailey as they got out, "Are you warm enough for a bit of a hike?"

"I'm from Minnesota. This ain't cold yet."

Noah slung an arm around her. "I'll keep you warm, baby."

She leaned into him and grinned. I liked seeing them together. "Right, this way."

The trail was an easy ten minutes' hike to the lookout. There, the stand consisted of a roofed hexagonal gazebo with benches around the inside, ten feet from the cliff's edge. A person could look out three hundred and sixty degrees, giving a clear sight of anyone approaching. The wind in that exposed spot worsened the day's chill, but carried the glorious fresh scent of wide open air and pine woods.

Hailey walked over to the far rail and looked out across the valley. "This view's worth the hike."

"Isn't it?" Rob said. "This is pretty country."

"Bet it's really frigid in winter if this is October," Noah suggested.

I couldn't handle more putzing around. "Much as I love chatting about the weather, you have a story, Noah?"

"Yeah, okay." He sobered. "About three weeks ago, a strange wolf showed up in town, looking for Alpha David Hammersmith."

"What kind of wolf?" Rob asked sharply.

"Mid-ranked, middle-aged, uninteresting."

"Except that he was asking for me," I pointed out.

"Yeah. So Alpha— Sherman—"

"He's your Alpha now. You can call him that."

Noah dipped his head slightly. "Alpha figured as your brother, I should speak to him, with Fred for backup."

I grinned briefly because Fred was two hundred and fifty pounds of backup. "And?"

"He wanted me to convey a message. He said, one of his outstate pack who'd committed a crime had been out of touch. The last thing they'd heard from him was a phone message with that photo. The wording said, ‘Find out who this is,' and then he went silent. When he failed to reappear, they tracked down the truck's license plate."

"What did they want with David? Was there a threat?" Rob asked.

"No, the opposite. He wanted me to assure my brother that…" Noah closed his eyes. "Wait, let me get the wording straight. It was weird. They said to tell Alpha David that if something had happened to their missing packmate, they expected that, despite his rank, punishment had been justified, given his past actions. Their Alpha would prefer to know the missing wolf's fate for sure, but he held no grudge toward you for dealing with the wolf when they had been unable to do so." He opened his eyes and looked at me, adding after a moment of silence, "I think you have a good idea what that was about."

"How did you find me here?" I asked instead.

"The mountain. I cropped out the truck, put the picture online on a travel site, and asked if anyone knew what mountain that was and where. Took about three days for someone to recognize Brightcave Peak and post a matching picture."

"Took you another two weeks to mosey on over here?"

"Who says mosey?" Noah smiled. "Hailey and I had to get time off work. That message didn't sound life and death, so we wanted to make the travel worthwhile."

"Can you stay, then?" I wasn't sure how I felt about that, despite my wolf wanting to tuck Noah into our pack. Not happening. He has a life.

"For a couple of days. If you want us to. Otherwise, we can take a scenic route back to the airport, take in the sights."

"I wouldn't mind if you stuck around," I said casually.

Rob laughed, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

Hailey looked back and forth between us, her eyes bright.

"So, what was the story?" Noah asked. "Am I allowed to know?"

"Can you keep it to yourself?"

Noah folded his arms. "I'm thirty-eight, not fifteen. I've learned a little self-control."

"I guess. Sure." I figured it would bug him not to know, and I didn't want him searching farther. "That wolf was their Alpha, and not a good one. You made sure they didn't follow you?" Of course, they could track us down from the photo, same as Noah had. Would it make their next Alpha feel weak if he didn't punish me for taking out George, or was it plausible they were simply relieved to have the bastard gone?

"I was careful, and Sherman made sure their wolf left town that same afternoon. Their Alpha, huh?"

"Yeah. He was kind of crazy. After messing with us here, he left town, heading back east. I heard they found his car in a river somewhere a hundred miles away, but they never found him. Accident, probably. Not looking where he was going."

"After messing with you." Noah looked between me and Rob, then asked Rob, "You think they'll ever find him?"

"Might," Rob said. "Eventually."

Noah nodded slowly.

Hailey said, "I get the feeling I don't want to know the whole story."

"Probably not," I agreed.

"You know what I do want to know, though?" The intensity of her tone rang alarm bells in my head.

"Hailey, don't." Noah took her arm.

She ignored him, pulling free to step in front of me. "David? Are you and Rob finally together? For real?"

Ice water shot through my veins. "Rob's my Second. Always has been."

"And that's all?" She sounded sad.

Noah snapped, "Hailey! I've told you a hundred times. There are no gay wolves."

"And I've told you a hundred times, bullshit." She didn't take her eyes off me. "It's the twenty-first century. In Connecticut and Iowa, two men can now get married, if they want to. A few other states, too."

I froze. Saying no was like denying what Rob and I were building. Saying yes might turn Noah's worried expression furious and threaten us all.

Hailey added, "My cousin Jasper and his boyfriend got married in Connecticut. Noah and I sent them a wedding present. I promise, Noah's fine with gay men."

Noah kicked a rock across the gazebo floor. "Yeah, I guess."

In a gentle tone, Hailey told me, "Melody always thought it was sad that Rob couldn't hope for anything better than being your buddy, but after she died, I wondered."

"Melody speculated about Rob?" If so, she'd risked his life. I turned to find him staring steadily at me. Our eyes met.

Hailey said, "Only to me and always carefully. And I didn't even tell Noah for years, despite how far he's come, not till this trip. Don't worry. We knew how backward the packs are."

Noah huffed but didn't challenge that.

I hadn't managed to pull my gaze away from Rob. Our bond tended to drift shut, which was just as well day-to-day. I opened it now to see what he was feeling. A golden current flowed through me, and love was at its heart. Love, pride, eagerness, a little worry, but mostly Rob at the top of a glorious cliff, spreading his wings to jump, sure that I would catch him.

"There are gay wolves, of course," I said, still looking in Rob's eyes. "I'm not one of them." Then before the chill of disappointment could touch more than the edge of our bond, I added, "I'm bisexual."

"I'm gay," Rob offered cheerfully as the sunlit warmth of his approval flooded the link between us. "A hundred percent."

Noah choked.

Hailey said, "I thought so. I'm so glad that leaving us was a fresh start for you both."

Ignoring another sound from Noah, I went to Rob, tipped his chin up and kissed him, soft and sweet, in front of my brother. "We are too."

Noah mumbled, "How does that work? I mean, you're both dominant…"

Rob gave him a sharp grin. "You mean, who tops? We take turns, honey. Even Alphas sometimes like to be dicked down— Ouch." He shook out his shin where I'd kicked him.

Hailey laughed.

I told Rob, "Don't provoke Noah. He's still catching up."

Noah was shaking his head but more in confusion than anger or disgust, if I was reading him right. "So you're what? Mates? Really?"

"Close as it gets," I said. "Bonded, living together." The bond was Alpha to Second, but I didn't think the distinction needed to be made.

"Don't you miss a real pack, though? I mean, that leaves you all by yourselves, hiding."

I shook my head. "I have a pack, one that doesn't care what Rob and I do in our bedroom or out of it."

"Well, our Fifth did say he wouldn't mind watching," Rob noted unrepentantly.

"Fifth." Noah licked his lips. "You have other wolves…?"

"We're not talking about them. Yes, I have a pack. Most of them are straight but not narrow. But what about you?" I took a couple steps toward him, letting my big frame loom over him. Noah wasn't small, but I had three inches on him and a lot more bulk, and I'd always been his big brother. "What will you do now?"

He frowned. "Are you asking if I want to join you?"

"Huh? No. I mean, you'd be welcome, but that wasn't what I meant." I glared at him and he blinked back.

Hailey tucked her arm in his. "Sweetie, David wants to know if you're going to tell Sherman or the rest of the pack about him and Rob." The tease left her voice. "He wants to know if he might have to run again from the insane, murderous bullshit of old-fashioned wolves."

"Or fight them," Rob said, fully serious too. "If Sherman comes after us here, David won't give him the break he got last time. I know who I'm betting on."

"God, no!" Noah stared up at me. "I wouldn't do that. If you love Rob, that's your business, not theirs."

I hadn't realized how scared I'd been that Noah would hate me until this moment. I'd imagined his disgust, rejection, denouncement, a thousand times over the years, and had been so careful, in part so I'd never have to know. Now, when he stared up at me shaking his head, a lump the size of a baseball choked my throat. I couldn't say a word.

Rob came and put his arm around me. "You're sure, Noah? A good wolf should run to his Alpha to purge the pack."

"David's not in our pack now, and anyhow, Hailey's right. That's bullshit."

My knees didn't go weak because I was a fifty-three-year-old Alpha who'd faced far worse, but I was glad of Rob's strength at my side.

"Everything all right?" Wilde stepped out of the trees downwind and walked across the open ground toward us, his attention on Noah.

"We're fine," I told him, realizing he must've seen me openly kiss Rob around a strange wolf. "They're not going to cause problems. What are you doing up here?"

"Following him from the diner." Wilde tilted his chin toward Noah. "Making sure you didn't need backup." He gave his most charming smile. "Hoping to be introduced to the lovely lady."

I said, helplessly, seeing this whole conversation getting away from me, "My brother, Noah, his bondmate, Hailey. Pack elder, Wilde." I didn't say my pack but couldn't resist the implication.

Wilde side-eyed me but didn't correct the impression. "News from home? I hope it's not bad."

"No. Everything's good back home. In fact, you can tell my Third that George's pack tracked me down as far as my brother to send us a message. Apparently, they're fine with us taking care of their discipline problem."

"Are they now?" Wilde tilted his head. "Fascinating. And hopeful. Your Third will be pleased. How did you get tagged, though?"

"George had one of those message app things," Rob said. "And a good cell phone camera."

"Ah. Modern technology will be the death of us wolves yet. Or perhaps, the making of us." Wilde asked Noah, "Are you going to stick around and visit David for a while? I'm sure he missed you."

When Noah turned to me, I was able to nod, and he said, "For a couple of days. If we can find a place to stay."

Wilde said, "It's hunting season so rentals are hard to come by, but I know some of the local B&B owners well. I'm sure I can find you a room." He glanced at me, then gestured to Hailey. "Come on, lovely lady. It's getting cold up here for a human, even a hardy one. Convince your mate to head down to the cars with us, and I can make some calls while you stay warm."

Noah kept his eyes fixed on mine. I'm not sure what he saw, but after a minute, he said, "Good idea. Come on, Hails, let's get you tucked away with the heater running." He glanced over his shoulder once as they started off down the trail, then followed Wilde.

My feet were glued to the ground. I watched them stroll out of sight.

"Right." Rob turned me toward him. "Now kiss me properly."

I grabbed Rob and kissed him, my mouth wild on his, crushing him against me, glad he was a big strong man who could maul me back just as eagerly. We'd been together in every way for a month, but some last restraint broke loose then. I kissed him, wanting to inhale him. He was air and life, and if I could've pulled him inside me, I would've. He broke free, laughed, and bit my neck hard enough to leave a bruise.

I put my hand to it. "You just had to mark me, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. You're mine and I don't care who knows it."

His smirk begged to be kissed off his lips so I did that, then cradled his face in my hands. "You ever think about taking a trip to Iowa together?"

I'd managed to surprise Rob for once. His jaw dropped and he shook his head.

"Do you like the idea?" Part of me desperately wanted that— recognition, out in the open, of what we were to each other. Husband and mate.

"Probably not smart." Rob's voice had gone husky and low. "Your name and mine on a legal document? Not now. But someday?" He captured my mouth in a kiss that felt different, slow and sweet, his lips almost reverent against my own. "Yeah, I like it."

"Someday," I promised and meant it. "When the packs change, when the world changes. We've got sixty years yet, maybe more, to be together. One day." I lifted his hand and nipped his fourth finger. "I'll put a ring there, Second, and you'll say, ‘I do.'"

"And they'll say, ‘Kiss your husband,' and I will."

"And then we'll come back here, and Wilde, God willing, will give us a hard time about not doing anything exciting for our honeymoon, and Blake will say something inappropriate about gay sex to shock Asher, and Phillip will look bored." I gazed along the path down the hillside. We were hidden from below, but I imagined Wilde, Noah, and Hailey arriving at the cars. People I never pictured together. "Maybe we'll invite them all to witness."

"Naaah," Rob drawled. "The wedding will just be for you and me, but we'll throw an epic party afterward."

"Really? Just you and me?"

"I guess there has to be one witness, but…" He held my gaze, his eyes dark and serious. "This, you and me, our bond? This is special. This is separate from all the world. When I was eight years old, I met you and my heart said, him . In all this time, I never changed my mind."

"I was derailed for a while," I told him. "And I found my heart was big enough for two. But you were always in there, first and last." I set a hand on his cheek. "Kiss your mate," I whispered.

And Rob did, well enough and long enough that it took the faint honk of Wilde's car horn to break us apart.

We laughed, left the gazebo, and headed down the trail toward the others, holding hands.

Rob

I dreamed I was twenty-three again, living in a crappy rental apartment in a big city. None of my friends were wolves, because I didn't want to be tempted to join any other pack or to submit to any Alpha. I lay on my narrow single bed, chilled and hungry because funds had come up short that month, aching in every muscle because the Krav Maga instructor took me seriously about not going easy on me.

I was training for a reason. I was alone for a reason. The pain was only an annoyance— wolves heal fast. But, at best, a lot of years lay ahead, before the day when David might be strong enough to take on Kane. Year after year of this focused, narrow, lonely life before I could even think of seeing David again, if I didn't want our next meeting to be the death of us both. In my cold little room, I doubted my plans, worse than I ever had. I didn't know if I could make it that long…

I rolled over and realized I was warm at the same moment my flailing arm hit David. He grunted, woke long enough to give me a bleary-eyed glare, then fell back asleep. I propped myself up on one elbow and watched him in the faint Wyoming morning light. Stubble marked the sharp angle of his jaw. A few faint lines creased his forehead. Our white sheet outlined the strong, mature curve of his shoulders.

In that cold, cramped, big-city room years ago, I'd fallen asleep at last and dreamed of warmth and sunshine, and of David. A fleeting dream but enough to keep me going the next day. Then the next. And here we were…

"Do I have something on my nose?" David murmured without opening his eyes.

"Not yet." I kissed his temple. "But that could be arranged."

"Tell me more." He blinked up at me.

I did better, I showed him, and while he didn't hit his nose with jizz, we did have to turn over the pillow. "Laundry tomorrow, Alpha," I told him, afterward.

"Mm." He pulled me against him, both of us loose-limbed in the aftermath. "Glad I didn't ask Noah and Hailey to stay here for the night."

I licked him under the chin, just because I could, and he giggled. I get that sound from the dreaded Alpha. "I do like all your loud noises."

"Pretty sure Noah wouldn't." David sighed contentedly. "Anyhow, the bed in your office is a single."

"There's the couch. We could've given them this bed, and you could've had the single and me the couch."

"Or we could've stayed put and given Hailey the single and Noah the couch. What we have together here in this bed, in this life, isn't any less important than what those two share."

I jolted. That casual throwaway statement rang inside me like a bell.

"What?" David asked.

"I think I needed to hear you say that."

He raised an eyebrow, looking puzzled.

I didn't explain, just kissed his neck.

David grinned. "Plus, Noah's my little brother, so it's my job to make him suffer. Practically a duty. That's how brothers work."

I coughed. "Bullshit." I knew how much he'd sacrificed to protect Noah in those years under Kane.

"Well, it would be only fair. He put a mouse in my bed when he was a kid."

"What, you didn't eat it?"

We both chuckled. I loved that I got to see this side of David, the silly, joking, goofy, loving, sometimes unsure, always kind man that lived inside the Alpha. Everyone else got Alpha David, powerful and smart and certain. But the fallible man was mine.

The pack bond between us had drifted shut in the aftermath of sex, shared intensity giving way to a quiet companionship. David opened it wide again now, and the tide of his warmth and protection and amusement, and a vast sea of love, rolled through me.

In my cold little room at twenty-three, at the low point in my life, this was what I dreamed of in my most impossibly hopeful moments. And yet, here we were, hands, arms, legs touching, skin on skin, in a bed smelling of our sex, with the joy so powerful it could make me fly.

Then David nipped me and tickled under my arms, for which he needed to be pinned down and punished, a task easier said than done. By the time we finished wrestling, I was panting with laughter and halfway to hard again. I looked down at him, my David, with his eyes gleaming mischievously, grinning up at me in the dim light, and I kissed the laughter off that full mouth. "You're the most ridiculous Alpha in the whole world," I told him. "And I love the hell out of you."

"Good." He pulled me close. "Now let me sleep a bit longer. Gonna be a busy day."

"You think the rest of the pack will be okay meeting your brother?"

"I'll give our guys the choice. Especially Blake, though Noah won't remember him." He nuzzled into my hair. "Either way, we're going for a hard run, teach my flatlands brother about mountains." His nuzzling became a kiss on my ear. "Now sleep, Second, that's an order. Let your elderly Alpha regain some strength."

I spanned the width of the hard forearm across my chest with my fingers and snorted. But my time-sense said we had an hour before we had to get up, and I'd never turn down an hour snugged up close to David in our own bed. "Yes, Alpha. Of course, Alpha. Whatever your Alphaness requires." His thick palm came over my mouth, muffling the rest to an "Mmmph."

I licked his hand, letting the beloved taste of his skin fill my senses. Yeah, this was what I'd dreamed of all those years ago, and I'd do whatever it took to let us keep our love forever.

"Still thinking too hard," David murmured in my ear. "Sleep."

Since it was my pleasure to follow my Alpha's commands— except when I didn't want to— I pulled his hand down from my mouth so I could breathe, pressed his palm over my heart, and obeyed.

####### The End #######