Chapter 24

I bring our linked hands to my lips. “I suspected,” I confess. “The female dogs, Athena and Nike, have been very protective of you lately, more than usual. Athena was protective of you when you were pregnant with our son, remember?”

“Yeah, she wouldn’t leave my side for a second.” She laughs. “Kristin was the first to notice. She called me from Atlanta and convinced me to get a pregnancy test.”

I smile at the memory. Kristin was the first person to notice something was different during Rosalie’s first pregnancy. She called us one evening from Atlanta and spent half an hour insisting Rosalie was pregnant before finally convincing her to take a test. When it came back positive, she was so excited she nearly cried over the video call.

I knew it the second I heard them on the phone. Even from Atlanta, Kristin still knew Rosalie better than anyone.

Now three years later, every piece of my life has fallen perfectly into place.

“Soon, we’ll have a household full of babies and puppies.”

“Yeah.” She sighs happily, resting her head on my chest. “Isn’t that great?”

“It’s perfect.”

Three years ago, I never would have imagined this. Training and breeding dogs was my passion, and not hers. She came into my life and had to live with dogs that terrified most people, and although they loved her and she seemed to love them back, there was still a question of how it would work out long-term.

But it became her passion too—caring for the female dogs and their puppies. She quit her job at the diner and put her time and effort into helping me, focusing on the breeding side of things.

“I love every single one of those fur babies,” she says, echoing the same words she did when I raised the question allthose years ago. “I never had much of a family before. I lost my parents at eighteen, barely an adult, and even before that, I rarely saw them. Then I met Kristin, and through some twist of fate, I was led to you. Suddenly I had everything I never realized I was missing. I wasn’t alone anymore. Even when you’re not here, I’m not alone. I wouldn’t trade this life for anything in the world.”

I dip my head and brush my lips over hers as words fail me. There simply aren’t enough to express what I feel for her.

Mine.

My life. My world.

“I love you.” My blood heats as I deepen the kiss, my hands moving over her body with renewed urgency, seeking to reignite the fire that had only just begun to cool. My mouth seeks hers with a hunger that calls for me to mark and claim what’s mine. She’s my entire world, and as the words fail me, I decide it’s only right that I show her with my touch.

~The End