Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Casey remembered how much he’d worried about her throughout her pregnancies—he was just a worrier when it came to those he loved. Probably because he’d already lost one of them and knew just how easily it could happen.
She also remembered how proud and elated he’d been when holding both his babies for the first time. He’d been a hands-on father from the start. Whenever he’d fed them during the night, she’d heard him talking softly to them—sometimes it was utter nonsense, sometimes it was a story they were far too young to understand, but he seemed to have loved it.
He’d once confessed that some part of him worried that he’d be taken from them when they were young, just as his own father had been taken from him. As such, he made the most of every moment he had with them—particularly since he wanted them to have nothing but fond memories of him.
Tracing circles on his chest, she looked up at him. He was wearing a pensive expression. “What’re you thinking?” she asked.
“That I’m a lucky bastard.” He palmed the side of her face. “Thank you.”
She blinked. “For what?”
“For being mine. For moving to my pack. For giving me two amazing kids. For just being you.” Eli sipped from her mouth. She was his little powder keg. The person who made every single shitty thing he’d been through worth it. His wolf plain fucking adored her; would do literally anything for her. He was just as gone for her mink.
Their mating ceremony—which had taken place a month after the Ignacio business was over—had been, hands down, one of the best days of Eli’s life. She’d already fully committed to him by that point, yes, but he’d loved that they could finally celebrate it without the cloud of danger lingering over their heads.
All her teammates had attended the ceremony, so it hadn’t been a surprise that a “friendly” game of soccer commenced at one point—the Hounds vs. the Mercury Pack males.
Yeah, his pack mates had lost in a dramatic fashion.
“I used to think that fate was cruel,” he told her. “Don’t get me wrong, I was thankful that I had a true mate out there somewhere and I was determined to find you. But it still seemed shitty that the universe would predestine two people to be together, that it would make them two halves of a whole, if one of those people was fated to die a lot sooner than the other.”
She nodded. “I get it.”
“But fate’s far from cruel. It gave me you, and nothing on the fucking planet could make me regret finding you, even if—God forbid—our time together was cut short. You’re by far the best thing that ever happened to me. Every single one of my all-time favorite moments have you in them. The only thing I regret is that I didn’t find you sooner. When it comes to you, it’s the only regret I’ll ever have.”
She swallowed and bit her lip. “You’re gonna make me cry. And then I’ll have to hurt you.”
He spoke against her mouth, “You can take a few compliments—you’re tough. I love that about you. Love all that spirit and fire and grit inside you. Love that you’ve passed it all onto our kids.”
“Nah, I think they get it from you.”
“No, they got that whole ‘them being a trial at times’ thing from me.”
“Oh, there are times when you can be a real handful,” Casey conceded.
Eli’s lips twitched at the unintended inuendo. “A real handful?”
“Yep. You push and push, and you’re not gentle about it. But I can take it, I know how to push back. And it’s not like you’re too hard to handle or you expect me to bend all the time. Or that we’re always going back and forth over the same—” Casey broke off when his lips curled into a wide smile. She felt her face heat. “Okay, I’m shutting up.”
Shaking with silent laughter, he put a hand over his eyes.
She poked his side. “You can stop laughing any second now, Chuckles.” But he just laughed harder, the bastard. “Seriously, stop. You’re making the bed rock, idiot. It’s like the more I tell you to stop, the harder and harder you do it. What’s worse is that you do it in public, too, even though you know it makes me all flustered. Believe me, I don’t like that this stuff comes out of my mouth. If I could swallow it back, I would. Especially since you always erupt into—” And then she realized she’d done it again. “Oh, shut up.”