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I closed the distance between us and caught his lips in another passionate kiss.

It filled me with an emotion I was too scared to name.

I rolled onto my back, so he was hovering over me, and he pulled away to gaze down at me.

After a moment, he kissed the corner of my mouth, then my jaw, then my neck. “You ever think about having another?”

I slid my hands over his shoulders. He couldn’t mean… “Another kid?”

“Mm-hmm.” I felt the shape of his smile against my neck. “Ever thought about it?”

“Oh.” Heat rolled through my body—a slow and intoxicating sensation.

Another kid. Another kid with Steph. He’d be such a good, doting dad during my pregnancy—I’d get all those moments I never had with Dylan.

He’d make me breakfast. Rub my feet when they were swollen.

Build the crib. Coo at my pregnant belly and play the baby his favorite songs.

God, that sounded nice. Even if it was a fantasy.

“Well?” He kissed my neck again.

“Let’s talk about it when you’re not in a territory war of your own.” Miraculously, my voice remained steady.

“Fair enough.” He smirked at me. “Doesn’t mean we can’t get some good practice in, though.”

“Steph!” I squawked, then smacked his chest. He laughed and shushed me, though it’d probably take a nuclear bomb to wake Dylan up right now.

He kissed me again, his lips still curved in a smile. It didn’t feel like other kisses we’d shared this summer—there was a little laughter and still a lot of weight from the emotions resonating between us.

Stephan slid his hand under the hem of my T-shirt and trailed his fingers over the curve of my waist. His touch sent sparks dancing across my skin. More heat settled low in my belly. A gentle touch, a single kiss, and I was already getting wet.

I ran my hands through his hair as I studied his face. God, he was really the sexiest man I’d ever met. Sometimes when I looked at him, it was like I was seeing him for the first time.

“What are you smiling about?” he teased.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I guess I just like being here with you.”

His hazel eyes flashed gold, and then he crashed his lips to mine.

We managed to wriggle our way out of our clothes, piece by piece. Finally we were both naked, wrapped around each other, tangled up and kissing each other like we needed it to survive. His hands skimmed all over my body, then his lips, and I lost myself in his touch.

Quickly, my desire turned to need, and my body thrummed with it. The hard line of his erection pressed into my hip. I rocked my hips up, gasping into the kiss. “Please,” I whispered. “Need you.”

“I got you,” he promised. He slid his hand down my waist, my hip, then grasped my thigh and positioned me where he wanted me.

Fuck, I loved it when he did that. When he showed off some of that impressive strength like it was nothing.

Then, the thick head of his cock pressed against me where I was wet and hungry for it.

I gasped, then looped my legs around his waist to urge him closer.

“Fuck, Harley,” he groaned. He hid his face in the curve of my neck, then slowly, slowly pressed inside.

I clung to him and threw my head back. Pleasure raced up my spine. It was electric. Intense. It blasted the rest of the thoughts from my head. The stretch, the pressure—it felt fantastic. Like he was meant to be inside me.

“Please,” I whispered. “Move.”

He did. Each thrust sent another intense roll of pleasure through me. Deeper each time. It built inside me, pleasure on top of pleasure.

I was saying something—his name, maybe, or an endless request for more, more, more.

I couldn’t get close enough. We kissed sloppily, and he fucked me deeper, harder, then bared his teeth into the skin of my neck.

He was just as close as I was. Something about that knowledge made my pleasure build and crescendo.

“Harley,” Stephan groaned into my neck. “Harley, fuck, I love you.”

He thrust his cock deep inside me. I gasped and arched my back, as if I could press even closer, and then I came so hard I saw stars.

My entire body tensed and relaxed as pleasure rolled through me from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet.

I raked one hand through his sweaty hair and lifted his mouth to meet mine.

The words danced on the tip of my tongue.

And in that moment, hazy with pleasure and happiness, I couldn’t think of a reason not to say them.

“I love you, Steph.”

He exhaled a soft, surprised sound. I was already halfway asleep when he guided my head onto his broad chest. I fell asleep to the slow rhythm of his heart as the sky outside gave way to dawn.

The next morning, if you could even call it a morning considering we didn’t get up until ten, was almost domestic .

Stephan kissed me when he woke up and said he had to head out to sign the final paperwork for an upcoming business deal—a real, legal endeavor.

I had errands to run, so I sent him on his way with a smile, but not before asking him to make enough coffee for the both of us.

His returning smile was radiant.

I could get used to this.

I let Dylan sleep in, and he didn’t come out of his room until noon. I couldn’t fault him for it—he needed the sleep. I made him an enormous breakfast, and he devoured all of it.

“Thanks, Mom,” he said with a still-sleepy smile.

I tousled his hair. It was good to see him in a brighter mood, even if he was still exhausted from his first shift. “Get dressed, and we’ll go run some errands,” I said. “We can pick out whatever you want for dinner.”

His eyes widened. “Whatever I want?”

Oh boy. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into, but there was likely to be a lot of ice cream in my future. “It’s a special occasion.”

We headed toward the grocery store, and lucky for me, the pharmacy was on the way. I glanced in the rearview mirror as we drove. As expected, one of the guys was behind us, following at a respectful distance.

My heart warmed. I didn’t have to ask, and Stephan didn’t have to tell me. While we were in Lakeview, he’d make sure we were safe.

We pulled into the pharmacy. “Come on, kiddo, this’ll take only a second.”

“Okay,” Dylan said. He had his handheld video game console with him. Usually, I would’ve asked him to leave it at home, but when he was this tired, he deserved a break from the chaos of errands.

Dylan plopped into a cushy seat near the pharmacist’s counter and curled up with his game. I handed my prescription to the pharmacist, and he nodded and said it’d be a few minutes, so I stood off to the side to wait and pulled out my phone.

Me : I can’t believe I almost forgot my birth control. This whole situation has my head in such a mess.

Cassidy: I can. You subconsciously want another one, don’t you?! Btw, that job I sent you has a good maternity leave policy…

She followed that up with a few laughing emojis and devil ones, too.

I smiled down at my phone. I’d always told Cassidy I was a one-and-done type of mom. I’d never even thought about having more kids—I’d never met a man I’d want to have kids with. So, I’d been diligent about taking my birth control, even when I wasn’t dating. It was easier to keep taking it.

But somehow, in Lakeview, it had slipped my mind. And when Stephan had mentioned having another, there was a tiny part of me that considered it. Even this morning, I’d thought… What if I simply let it lapse? Rolled the dice and saw what happened?

Of course, I wasn’t going to do something so impulsive and irresponsible. I wasn’t twenty anymore. But I’d thought about it.

I glanced over at Dylan. He was still curled up in the chair, focused on his game.

I imagined a little girl, identical to Bella, tugging at his arm for his attention.

Another little shifter blowing smoke out of her nostrils.

Dylan as a teenager, asking me to show him how to install the car seat in his first car…

Dylan, in his twenties, meeting his sister’s first boyfriend and scaring the life out of him…

I was typing out my response to Cassidy when another customer came to stand next to me. I shuffled slightly to the side.

“Wow,” a familiar-yet-unfamiliar voice said. “He really does look like a mirror image.”

I looked up, then took a stumbling step closer to Dylan’s chair and farther away from the strange man.

The strange man who wasn’t so strange. It was unnerving to look at him: tall, broad-shouldered, with messy blond hair, a stubbly beard, and hazel eyes.

He was the spitting image of Stephan. At a quick glance, I would’ve thought he was Stephan, if not for the ugly, raised pink scar jutting over his right eye.

“Sean,” I whispered. I regained my footing and angled my body so I stood between Dylan and Sean. Dylan twisted in his chair and looked up. I grabbed his shoulder and squeezed hard before Dylan could say anything, and to my surprise, Dylan stayed quiet. I wondered what his dragon sensed about Sean.

I didn’t have super-senses like shifters, but even I could feel the anger radiating off Sean like a stench. His fists were clenched at his sides, and his hazel eyes were flecked with a burnished gold, though not nearly as bright and shining as Stephan’s.

Stephan had told me he was dangerous. I had believed him, but it was different than seeing it up close.

“That’s right,” Sean growled. “Surprised to see you out on the town all by yourself, girly. Especially when my brother has made himself so many enemies.” He grinned, showing his sharp canines.

I couldn’t tell if they were his fangs, or if his human teeth were simply that sharp.

“Seems irresponsible for an alpha to leave his mate so defenseless .”

“What?” I glanced anxiously around the pharmacy. “I’m not alone. The enforcers?—”

“Oh, is that who that was?” His grin widened. It was clear he knew exactly who had been following us. “You should tell Stephan to choose someone a little stronger to look out for you.”

My heart dropped to my feet.

Sean narrowed his eyes, then peered over my shoulder at Dylan. “You know, it’d be a shame if your little dragon got involved.”

Dylan shuddered under my touch, and I tightened my hold on his shoulder. “You stay the hell away from my son,” I snarled, as if I were a dragon myself.

“Miss Founty?” the pharmacist asked from behind the counter. He had his hand on the phone behind the counter. “Your prescription. Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” Sean answered for me. He took a step back and threw a friendly smile at the pharmacist. “I’ve got to run. But you might want to tell Stephan he’s got an enforcer to tend to.”

Sean stormed out of the pharmacy. My knees nearly gave out as relief crashed over me. I turned toward Dylan, and he scrambled off the chair and hugged me hard. He was shaking. Or was that me? My hands quivered as I called Stephan.