Page 70 of A Beta Protects

I eye him curiously. “Yeah, a dog called Pepper. Why?” She was a tiny white Shih Tzu that my parents got for me because I was scared of dogs and they didn’t want me to be. I loved Pepper so much. When she died, I never wanted another dog. None would ever come close to her.

He starts laughing. “Nothing.”

“Dom, what is it?”

“Galen said if you’d had pets when you were younger, it might be a sign you liked animals, and wouldn’t leave me if I told you what I was.”

I stare at him. “But wolves aren’t like dogs.”

I mean, maybe they kind of are from a distance. But wolves are predators. Dogs are, well… dogs.

He kisses my knuckles. “If you would please tell him that, presumably at the kitchen table where everyone is around to laugh, I would appreciate it.”

I grin at him. “Okay.”

He squeezes my hand before releasing it. “Now we’re on the highway, you’re on radio duty.”

“And I can pick anything?” I grin at him.

He changes lanes and gives me a defeated look. “I just signed myself up for six hours of Taylor Swift, didn’t I?”

“Well, maybe not exactly six.”

And no, I do not inflict six hours of Taylor Swift on Dom. He would let me, but I don’t. We share radio duty along with the driving and the snacks.

It’s the perfect partnership.

Dom and I marry at night, in a lightning storm two weeks after his birthday.

Galen conducts the ceremony. I wear a white strappy summer dress, and a flower headband with peonies and wildflowers in my hair. Dom just wears white trousers.

No, it doesn’t make sense to wear a flower headband in a lightning storm, or even to get married under one. But to me, it’s perfect. And to Dom, it’s his perfect birthday.

So it is perfect.

And after Dom kisses me, I meet the growly, surprisingly cuddly, and protective wolf side of him.

We spend the next hour laughing in the rain, chasing each other and kissing as his packmates melt away. When the rain gets too much, even for us, Dom carries me up to the ladder to the straw bed in the outbuilding.

I’m lying on the straw as he braces himself over me, his bent elbow beside my head, and a smile in his eyes. “Did I make you happy today?”

He asks me every day. The last question of the day is always that.

“You did. But…”

He pauses before he can kiss me. “But what?”

I kiss him, soft, sweet, and exactly how I’ve wanted to all day. “I’m not sure I made you as happy as you made me.”

“You did. How tired are you?” His fingers grip the bottom of my white dress, and he slowly tugs it up. It’s strange to see the silver wedding band that I slid on his finger an hour ago. He slid a thinner, matching silver ring onto mine. We chose them together, with help from Noel and Melissa, the married owners of the jewelry store.

I wasn’t sure where the ring would go when he became a wolf, and he didn’t want to lose it in the rain, so he put it on my necklace so I could wear it for him. And as soon as he shifted back to his human form, it was the first thing he asked for.

After he kissed me, of course.

“Not too tired for that.” I smile.

He kisses my lips, then right beside my mouth. “This freckle had to be the first.”

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