Page 92 of Harvest Moon

I knew better than to put all my hopes in one basket, but there they were. Alexis’s family would be safe and happy and whole with a brand-new baby on the way. I’d have land to work and care for, and I’d get to share the idea of conscientious stewardship with my pack.

“That’s—”

I didn’t have words, but I pushed off the wall. At the same time, Alexis hopped off the bed and wrapped his arms tight around my waist.

“Perfect!” he supplied.

It was. All this was perfect, and I only had it because of the incredible man in my arms.

I pressed a kiss to the top of his head, and when I straightened, he was looking up at me with wide, excited eyes. “So we’re going to talk to the Hills about that house, right?”

“A house?” Birch asked.

Alexis nodded. “For us. Not for this very second, but, you know, once the baby comes, I’m sure you two’ll want your space.”

“Ohsure,” Claudia said. “It’s us who’ll want our space.”

Alexis was so gorgeous when he smiled, all my thoughts flew to the wind when he looked up at me. “Yeah. But until then, Ridge is staying right here.”

I almost protested, but when I caught Birch’s eye over Lex’s head, the alpha gave me a smile and a nod. In this house, I wasn’t an inconvenience or a burden. It wasn’t even that they were trying to pay me back for telling them about Sterling.

They just wanted me around. Maybe it wasn’t the family I was born into, but between the Wilsons and the Hills, I had people here. I had family.

And the center of it all was the man I’d loved since we were kids, who’d made me the luckiest man in the world, and who set up shelves full of rocks just because he liked me back.

“Okay, well, we’re going to leave you to your fries.” Alexis slipped his hand in mine and tugged me toward the door.

Once again, there wasn’t a single damn person in the house who was convinced this was for Claudia and Birch’s benefit. Still, no one kicked up a fuss that two young wolves in love wanted to be alone.

We were in love. Sure, Lex hadn’t said the words right to me, but he’d still said them. And strangely enough, I’d never needed to hear them exactly. Alexis showed how he cared with every move he made, even when it meant running hours away to try and get away from me.

But when he dragged me back to his room and I saw the little trinkets all over his shelves, over every surface—years and years of things I’d pulled out of the ground and handed to him, kept because he thought they were important, because he thought I was important—there was no sense doubting how much he cared.

As soon as the door shut behind us, Lex pulled me down for a kiss. We still had plenty we needed to talk about though, and this time, I didn’t want to leave it all down to him to find the words.

I put my hands on his shoulders, feeling how they were round with muscle and firm, how good he felt against me.

“We’re talking about buying a house together,” I said against his lips, peppering small kisses against his soft mouth with every demanding sound he made.

“Sure are,” he confirmed, threading his fingers through my hair and walking us both back toward his messy bed.

“And I love you.”

“Uh huh.” His lips fell to my neck when he realized I wasn’t going to shut up right away. Everything got warm and fuzzy then, his teeth scraping up against my skin in a cruel facsimile of what I wanted from him.

“And you love me.”

“I do.”

I tipped my head to the side, allowing him more room even as heat flooded my cheeks.

“I want that to be forever,” I blurted out before I lost my nerve. “You and me. I want your mark, and I want you to have mine. I want everybody to know we belong to one another, and I don’t want you to ever worry again that every choice I make isn’t to protect our life. Our family.”

Alexis pulled back and stared up at me, a furrow to his brow that made my heart jump nervously in my chest.

“You want my mark.”

“I do.”

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