My Neighbor is a Wolf

Epilogue

Hunter

One Week Later

“ H unter, did you finish up the apple crumble for dinner?” Rachael called to me from the bathroom.

“I'm finishing it now, sweetheart!” I put the last touch on the dish then headed to the fridge for the chilled bottle of wine.

We rescheduled the dinner from last week, seeing as I shifted and caused issues. Specifically, gnawing off Chad's hand.

Benny used his connections in town to help cover up the incident. The cops hadn't looked too closely at our story about the gunshot being a blank once we produced a limbless Chad. We convinced them that he had wandered into the woods drunk and when we found him, his hand was missing. They chalked it up to some sort of coyote attack. An ambulance took him to a trauma hospital a few towns over. The last we heard, Chad had been too terrified to talk about the incident.

After I had put on some clothes, I convinced Rachael to let Liliana give her a once over. I hated to even think about Chad's hands on my woman. Theo and Azalea had stopped by during it all, curious as to where everyone was. With everyone gathered in one place, it was easy to spill my secrets to them all.

Azalea used her magic to search for the origin of the spell and found faint traces of what she referred to as the True Love’s Curse. Apparently, the witch who hexed my great grandpa had doomed my family line to the effects of the curse until one of us sacrificed ourselves for our fated mate. It was strange, thinking that something I never would have thought twice of doing was the thing to break the curse.

After gathering her necessities, Rachael had come back to my apartment. She had spent every night since with me. Tonight, I would make sure she knew I never wanted her to leave. The whole fated mates thing would hopefully help seal the deal.

Soft hands wrapped around my waist, slipping under my shirt. Rachael pressed herself against my back. Even through my shirt, I felt her warm breath against my skin. Her heart beat in rhythm with my own.

I turned in her arms, pulling her against me and pressing my nose into her hair. Every day, I thanked whoever was listening for giving me this woman.

She leaned back, looking up at me with those beautiful eyes. “Are you ready to go, love?”

“Not quite yet.” I pressed my lips to hers, drinking her in and cherishing every moment. She melted in my arms. I held her to me, deepening our kiss.

When we both pulled away, our gazes held each other as we stood there breathless. I tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. My fingers lingered on her cheeks.

“I love you,” I whispered, smiling down at her.

“I love you, too.” She ran her hand through my beard and cupped my jaw. “Now we better leave. Or Benny will come knocking. He's still pissed about having to fix my apartment door for a second time.”

I laughed. She was right, of course. Thor would probably come sneaking in to report back to Benny if we weren't there soon.

Grabbing the dessert in one hand and Rachael's hand in my other, I led us out of my apartment down the hall to Benny's place. We stood at the door, but before I knocked, I bent down and stole one more kiss.

“Let's get this over with,” I said. “So I can take you back home and worship you the way you deserve.”

She winked at me as the door opened in front of us. Benny welcomed us both and ushered us towards the open living room where all of our friends had congregated.

Rachael pressed into my side, her arm snaking around my waist. I held her against me as her body shaped to mine. Standing in this room and looking at everyone, I realized just how happy I had become. Something I never thought would be possible.

And to think, none of this would have happened if it weren't for me being the wolf next door.