For a second, I lie still beneath the heavy comforter, listening to the quiet sounds filling the cabin around me: the crackling fireplace downstairs, the wind brushing through the trees outside, the soft little snores beside me.
My chest aches instantly.Not the bad kind of ache, the good kind that still sneaks up on me sometimes when I realize this is my life now.
Taylor is curled against my side, one arm wrapped around my waist, while our youngest son sleeps sprawled across both of us like he owns the bed.Which, honestly, he kind of does.Three-year-old Rowan sleeps hard, completely boneless and dead to the world like his mother.
A smile tugs at my mouth as I look down at them.Taylor’s hair is a mess across the pillow, her lips parted softly in sleep.The mating mark on her neck peeks out from beneath the collar of my shirt she stole years ago and never gave back.
Mine,my wolf purrs inside me.
The bedroom door creaks open quietly.I glance up to see a tiny blur launch herself at the bed.
“Daddy!”
I barely catch Ivy before she lands directly on Taylor’s face.Our four-year-old giggles wildly as I grab her around the waist and toss her onto my chest instead.
“Easy, troublemaker,” I rumble.
She grins at me, completely unapologetic.Dark curls frame her face in every direction, and her green eyes—Taylor’s eyes—sparkle mischievously.My daughter has me wrapped around her finger so tightly it’s embarrassing.
Taylor groans sleepily beside me.“What time is it?”she mumbles.
“Too early for tiny terrorists to be awake,” I answer.
Ivy gasps dramatically.“I’m not tiny!”
“You’re definitely tiny.”
She climbs onto my stomach and plants her hands on her hips.“I’m big now.I’m four.”
“So old.”
She nods seriously.“Very old.”
Taylor laughs softly beside me, finally opening her eyes.The sound still wrecks me after all this time.Five years later, and hearing my mate happy still feels like winning something I never deserved.
Her sleepy gaze finds mine, softening instantly.“Morning,” she whispers.
I lean down and kiss her slowly before either kid can interrupt us.Unfortunately, that lasts all of three seconds.
“Ewwww,” Ivy says loudly.
Taylor snorts.Rowan finally wakes up with a grumpy little growl that makes me grin.
Yep.Definitely my kid.
He blinks sleepily before immediately climbing onto my chest, nearly knocking the wind out of me.
“Hungry.”
“Of course you are.”
The kid is always hungry.
Taylor stretches beside me before sitting up slowly, and my attention instantly shifts to her stomach beneath my shirt.
Round.
Beautiful.
