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She comes closer. I can hear her heartbeat, but it isn’t racing with fear. Her scent holds excitement, warmth, and the familiar trace of desire that always makes the wolf and me pay attention.

She lifts her hand, then pauses, waiting for me to choose.

That nearly undoes me.

I step forward and lower my head until my forehead touches her palm.

Her breath catches, then both hands sink into my fur. “Oh my god. You’re so soft.”

I huff as I stare at her.

She laughs. “Was that a complaint?”

I bump my head against her shoulder.

She stumbles and gives me a mock glare. “That was rude.”

I do it again, and she wraps her arms around my neck, laughing into my fur. For the first time since the Halloween night that everything changed, being the wolf doesn’t feel like becoming something I have to survive.

It feels like being me.

Different shape. Same man.

The thought stays with me long after I shift back.

Nora is sitting on the blanket again when I stand upright, naked and hard for her.

She tilts her head as her gaze travels down my body. “There’s a phrase for what I’m considering.”

I raise an eyebrow.

“Hot monkey sex.” Her smile widens as she stands. “Although…” She steps closer and runs one finger down my chest. “I think I prefer hot wolf sex.”

She laughs when I grab her. She keeps laughing when I carry her inside. She stops laughing when I get her naked and slide inside her. Then her moans fill the air, fill me, and for a while, there’s nothing in the world except Nora.

This is what my life looks like now. Her things in my house. Mine in hers. Her laughter in rooms that used to be silent. Her body under mine at night, and her hand reaching for me in her sleep.

Happiness, apparently.

And lately, it doesn’t end at Nora. Reid is back in my life too. We’re taking it slowly because we both know years of absence can’t be repaired overnight. I help him fix a sticking rear door on their truck. A few days later, he turns up at one of my jobs with coffee and spends an hour handing me tools I don’t need handed to me. Neither of us mentions that he could have left after the coffee.

One Sunday morning, Nora is leaning against the counter while I make breakfast when she says, “We should have Reid and Scarlett over for dinner. Nothing elaborate. Just the four of us.”

I glance at her over my shoulder. “You’ve thought about this.”

“A little.” She comes up behind me and slides her arms around my waist as I turn back to the pan. “You don’t have to.”

That’s what gets me. Nora never pushes or expects more than I’m ready to give. She just lets me choose.

I cover her hands with mine. “All right.”

Her cheek presses between my shoulder blades. “Thank you.”

I turn in her arms and kiss her softly. “No. Thank you.”

The next evening, Reid and Scarlett come to dinner. Scarlett is visibly pregnant, the small curve of her stomach impossible to miss beneath the soft blue fitted dress she wears.

Reid’s hand settles automatically at the small of her back as she steps through the door. He pulls out her chair without thinking, shifts the breadbasket closer when she reaches for it, and keeps one eye on her even while he’s talking to me.