Page 74 of A Beta Protects

I cuddle up with the wolf who is also my husband, for a few minutes, then Dom pushes himself to his feet, licks my cheek with a rough tongue, which always makes me giggle and shove him away.

And as I rub the moisture away, he backs up. I watch him shift from wolf to man, and I will never, ever get used to it.

When he’s a wolf, I wear his wedding ring on a necklace, and when he’s a man again, he kisses me and asks for it back. It’s like every time he slides it back on his finger, he’s making another commitment to me.

He takes about a minute to shift.

As bright early morning sunlight streams over us, Dom rises from his crouch as a man, and there’s a strange new smile on his face as he moves closer.

“What?” I ask.

He lies on the straw close beside me and brushes the hair back from my brow.

“Did you know wolves have one of the sharpest noses in the world?” He kisses me, which distracts me from responding for several seconds.

“So?” I ask when he’s broken the kiss.

“So.” His next kiss lands on my throat, then he angles down, my breath catching.

When he stops, his eyes are on my bare stomach, since I’ve gotten in the habit of sleeping naked because of Dom. All that expensive nightwear Tricia picked out for me has gone to waste.

I get a strange flutter in my chest as he gently kisses my stomach.

“So when my beautiful mate’s scent changes, it usually means one thing.” He looks at me with a new, brilliant smile that I want to capture forever. “She’s pregnant with my child.”

“You’re sure?” I breathe.

He stretches beside me and touches his lips to mine. “I am.”

“But you don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl or if they will growl?”

He shakes his head, smiling. “Not yet. We’ll have to see about the growling if your scent changes again. I’ll know they’ll be a shifter when I can smell them.”

I stare up at him. “That’s so weird.”

He tickles me.

I dissolve into giggles as I bat his hands away. “Stop. I didn’t mean it.”

My laughter dies down after another solid minute of merciless tickling. When I wipe the tears from my eyes, Dom is braced on his elbow, looking down at me like he can’t believe what he’s seeing.

“What is it? Do I have straw in my hair?”

He shakes his head. “Just amazed. And I don’t care about the straw.”

“At me?”

He kisses me. “That I have this ability to put a smile like that on your face. That you love me.”

Tears fill my eyes.

Dom told me about not knowing where he came from, or even having a name. It hurts to know he didn’t have the happy childhood I had with my parents and Aaron. But maybe he can see what it could have been like when we raise our child together.

“I wish I could take away all the bad things that ever happened to you,” I whisper.

“You do. You smile, and it’s just… gone.”

“I love you.”

---