Read with BonusRead with Bonus

Epilogue

Epilogue

L

exi

“I do not know

what you are making, but it smells wonderful.”

“I promised the girls meatloaf and gravy.” I’d made friends after Von took me to his home fortress. It was a community surrounded by smaller villages, all of them teaming with everyday people living everyday lives. I was one of the few women who lived in the fortress, but I didn’t lack for friends. Besides the other Interstellar Brides, we’d created quite a community with the local women, children.

“Hmmm.” He nuzzled my ear, distracting me from the vegetables I was chopping for dinner. “And where is my princess?”

“She’s outside feeding Bryn the cookies she sneaked off the counter.” Our daughter had just turned three, and she had her daddy wrapped around her little finger so tightly I teased him every time she crawled into his lap demanding an extra bedtime story or extra hugs and kisses.

I thought her at her limit when she’d begged for a pet, but three days later he’d returned from a Coalition mission with a strange little puffball that looked like a cross between a pit bull puppy and a fox. She’d promptly named the beast Bryn, which caused much laughter at dinner that night as she fed the creature treats from her plate beneath the table.

Fuzzy Bryn grew into a beast nearly half my size, yet he never left her side, more a babysitter than pet, and I realized that even in this, Von was loving us, protecting us.

And me? I’d arrived, taken one bite of their horrible food, and promptly taken over the kitchens. Now I had several others working with me to keep the hungry Hunters and their mates well fed. Within a few weeks, I’d completely remade their kitchens and learned Von’s favorite Everin meals and shared some of my own from Earth. It had been so much fun to combine both cultures to create exquisite culinary masterpieces. The spices on Everis were exotic and wonderful, but if I, or one of the other brides, craved cinnamon or chocolate from home, Von would order it for me.

Cinnamon delivered via transport across deep space.

Life couldn’t get any stranger, but I loved it. Loved every minute I spent with my mate.

Von wrapped his arms around my waist and snuggled up behind me as I stood at the kitchen counter. I felt every inch of him pressed into my back, even the thick ridge of his cock and I leaned into his embrace. “I missed you.”

He’d been gone less than two days, but when the Hunters went out on patrol, I always worried. He was mine. Worry went with the territory.

“Daddy!”

“Your daughter did, too,” I added.

I turned in his arms to look at both my mate and our daughter. She’d been conceived that very first time. Von hadn’t been surprised, considering how many times he fucked me that night. He also didn’t doubt his virility, nor my fertility.

I’d heard it only took one time from sex-ed in high school and the woman had been right. To say Von had been thrilled was an understatement. To say that he’d become protective to almost a smothering level was also an understatement. I’d had to endure his constant attentions, love and possessiveness for nine long months.

But when she was born, he transferred the bulk of his protectiveness to her. I wasn’t neglected, of course, but Von had been expecting a boy.

A boy to teach to fight, to Hunt, to protect the females of Everis. Instead, out came a dark-haired little girl and he was ruined. Destroyed by love.

A year later, our little one fell in love with her daddy. Two years later, they were inseparable. I had my time with her, but she was definitely a daddy’s girl.

I was, too.

Von’s eyes were dark with love as he lowered his head and kissed me. The gentle hello quickly became hot and urgent…until little hands tugged at mommy’s leg.

“Hungry, Mommy.”

I smiled as Von bent to lift her in his arms. When he straightened, emotion swamped me. I wanted another child. A boy, knowing Von’s heart would burst with joy at the news.

I wanted a Hunter growing inside me, a strong little boy I couldn’t wait to meet. Right here, my entire life was within the circle of my arms, my reason for being.

“Both of you can have a snack before our guests arrive.” I grabbed a

breet,

a Everian vegetable that looked quite a bit like a carrot. It was big enough to satisfy her until dinner. She happily took it and quickly began munching, her head dropping to rest in the crook of her daddy’s shoulder.

“You spoil her,” Von said, but he stroked her long dark hair with undisguised gentleness.

“With a vegetable?” I countered.

“You spoil me, too,” he insisted and I couldn’t argue. I’d found my bliss on this alien world and I did everything I could to make sure Von knew how I felt.

He grunted and gave our daughter a little squeeze. She giggled around the top of the

breet

but held on even tighter, her small arm like a vise around his neck.

“Just you wait,” I added. “Until she grows up and the young Hunters start eyeing her.”

His grunt switched to a deep, full-bodied growl. “That will never happen.”

“I guess you’d better tell the doctor to get back to work on his stopper formula.” My father used to tease me when I was small, threatening to give me the magical

stopper formula

so I would stay little forever. I was teasing Von, of course. I loved teasing him about, well, everything.

“No one will dare speak to her. Cosmo was reassigned to the prison moon, relaying cargo. That punishment will pale in comparison to any male who wishes to mate my daughter. They’ll be dead and their body floating across the second galaxy of Naron.”

I had no idea where the second galaxy of Naron was, or if it was even real, but I laughed because I had a feeling it was very, very real, and very far away.

“Then don’t you think she should have a brother to protect her along with her father?”

Von’s eyes flared with instant heat. The attraction never diminished between us. I wanted him more than ever.

“Brilliant thinking, mate.” He set our daughter down, who ran gleefully back out to play with Bryn. Once she was well out of hearing range, he turned his heated gaze back to me. “After this dinner, we’ll work on your plan. I want you naked, on your hands and knees, ass in the air.”

God, I was already wet and we had four more hours of dinner guests and small talk to survive before I could get my mate naked and thrusting inside me. “You do realize you need to come in my pussy to make a baby.”

“Is that why it hasn’t happened?” he asked, a smile turning up the corner of his mouth. “I guess I will have to stop fucking that tight ass of yours until the job is done.”

I didn’t like the idea that much and I realized he was teasing me in turn.

“Are you wearing panties now?” he asked, eyeing me carefully.

“Do I ever?” I countered.

“Just checking.” A knock at the door turned our attentions and I heard a number of voices outside. Our guests had arrived. Von kissed me quickly, our lips lingering, both of us reluctant to part. “Later, mate. Later.”

He went to the door to greet our guests.

Later.

Later there would be tender touches and hot kisses. Laughter and teasing. Wild fucking and slow, gentle rides.

I smiled and rested my palm over my still flat abdomen where our son grew safe and protected, loved. The doctor had confirmed it this afternoon. I would tell Von tonight.

Later, our son would be born, our daughter would grow, and that monster of a pet would protect them both.

Later, Von would bend me over our bed and fill me up, make me whimper and beg and chant his name. Later, later, later…

Oh, yes. A forever of

laters

sounded absolutely perfect.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter