The Hunter Beside Me

Epilogue: One year after that.

Owen

"No damsel in distress, don't need to save me."

Even after six months of marriage, Becks still made my heart race. Just the sound of her sweet voice singing her favorite Ava Max song in the shower put a smile on my face. I never dreamed I'd have such a perfect, normal life.

I stretched, cracking my back, and glanced at the clock. She had to teach soon, so I hurried downstairs to beat her to the kitchen, wanting to surprise her. I'd just finished scraping peanut butter on toast when she padded in.

A smile tugged at her lips as she pushed back her long hair. Her gaze slid from me to the counter. "You made me breakfast?"

"Yep, packed your lunch too." I grabbed the milk from the fridge for her, but Becks didn't move. When I straightened up, her eyes were glassy. Setting the carton down, I pulled her in for a hug. She sniffled and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"What's wrong, babe?"

"Nothing, I'm being an idiot." She sobbed.

I boosted her up onto the counter and stepped between her legs. Lifting her chin, I said, "You're not. What's going on?"

She took a deep breath and wiped her cheeks. "You're so good to me." The words were barely out before she burst into fresh tears.

A surge of pride filled me. For a guy that spent over half his time in this world alone, I'd fallen right into place with Becks. She brought out every loving, protective instinct I had and made my life worth living.

I tightened my hold and kissed her temple. "Could this be the hormones the book talked about?"

After taking a second to calm down, she said, "Maybe. Shut up." I snickered, and she smiled. "Can you handle five more months of this?"

"Are you joking?" I bent to kiss her tummy before running my hands over her soft curls and pressing my forehead to hers. "There's nothing to handle, babe. I'm ecstatic. I didn't think it was possible for life to be better, but then we found out about our little girl." My throat tightened, and I had to stop talking before I started crying too.

"Maybe you have sympathy hormones?"

She giggled, and I peppered her face with kisses before squeezing her against my chest. "I'm so damn happy."

"Me too." She cuddled against me, then gasped and pointed at the time on the stove. "Crap, I gotta go. Are you still helping with self-defense this afternoon?"

"Yep, no problem. Take it easy with your other classes, please. You can get hurt even if no one's swinging at you."

"The doctor said weightlifting and kickboxing are fine. If it's too hard when I'm bigger, I'll ease up." She munched her toast and gave me a peanut butter smirk.

I chuckled and passed her a napkin. "Let me know when I can help, and Bash doesn't mind either. I understand that you don't want to lose business, but you're more important."

"I'll use you guys more later. It might actually improve things. After Bash came, I had five trial class girls sign up for a year."

My jaw dropped in mock offense. "Are you saying they didn't join when I was there?"

"No, you caught a couple too." She hopped off the counter and smacked my butt on the way to fill her bottle. "It's different," she said over the sound of the rushing water. "You're eye candy, but you're all mine. Bash is single."

Becks opened her mouth to say more, and I held up my hand to stop her. "I'm sure you've found the perfect girl, again, but he doesn't seem interested in dating right now."