Page 102 of To Challenge a Wolf

“Sounds restful to me.” She grinned. “Speaking of, there’s something I want to ask you.”

“Yes, I will marry you,” he said.

Vivian rolled her eyes and bumped his shoulder. “We already established that one. Finally. Today.”

“You’d be bored if I didn’t do things the hard way.”

“Given Blaine is firm thatIdo things the hard way, I would probably be just fine if you took it easy for a few years.”

He grunted and turned back to his food. After only a few bites, he looked back up at her. “Well? The suspense is killing me.”

“I want to start a non-profit in Harmony Ridge,” she said. “I’ll grab a job here if I get a bite on a resume, but I want to do more too. I want to make life better for someone who can’t make it better alone. But I…well, I’m a single girl living on a single girl’s income.”

“While your wolf is living on ill-gotten millions he hardly bothers to spend.” Rhett showed his teeth.

“And building something from the ground up requires capital.”

“I love it,” he said.

Vivian blinked. She’d expected him to be on board, but those words, that simple embrace without an ounce of deflection… “Really?”

“Heck yeah. It’s you all over, and it’s something to do with money I’ll never use. I’d have to start buying sports cars and real estate to burn through it all, Viv. Thought about giving it away a few times, all but enough to live on for a little while. But this is better. This town’s so little and unknown, the only help comes from the church food pantry. A real organization could do a lot. Any thoughts what kind?”

“Not yet. It doesn’t have to be big. It just has to matter for somebody. For whatever needs are here.”

“We’ll work on it together. The pack’s friendly enough with the town, but digging in up close and personal with humans doesn’t often happen for a wolf pack.”

“I know we’ll have to be smart about it, given the way some humans are,” she said. “We should talk to Malachi too.”

“Yeah. We will.”

He leaned in and kissed her lightly, briefly, and she kissed him back, so proud of how hard he’d worked to get here. “You came for me.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “That happened a while ago, Viv. You feeling okay?”

She boxed his ridiculously muscular bicep. “It’s a special day. I’m remembering fondly how we got here.”

“Fondly, huh?”

“You came for me the way I used to imagine. My wolf came for me.”

“Well, I didn’t hold up a collapsing building for you. I just sort of…showed up.”

“But it turned out I didn’t need you to hold up a collapsing building. I needed you to show up, and you did.”

“For the heroine of her own story.” He brushed a brief kiss over her lips, but this was Rhett. Even a kiss fit for public eyes made her toes curl. He said with a smirk, “Just call me Sidekick.”

“Absolutely not.” Vivian set one finger across his warm lips, enjoying the heat that entered his eyes at her casual touch. “No sidekicks in love, wolf. It’s the hero and it’s the heroine, equal screen time, charging into battle side-by-side, together.”

He rumbled a growl and kissed her again. “Battle, huh? So much for resting and being.”

“We’ll remind each other to make time for that too. But let’s be real: it’s us. Battle’s more our speed.”

“I think I said that.”

“I’m agreeing.”

“You’rewhat?”

She gave his arm another harmless box. “Special day, remember?”

He flashed his teeth. “Fine. Just please don’t make a habit of it.”

“You might regret those words a year from now.”

“Never.” The smirk faded, and his stormy eyes grew bright, fervent. He drew her close to his side, and she rested her head on his chest. “I’m looking forward to every challenge you throw at me, Viv, from this day forward, until and beyond the falling of the moon.”

Vivian closed her eyes and let her wolf’s heat seep into her, let the conversations and laughter of her pack seep in too. Fate was a mysterious thing. All the searching, all the years, and finally here she was.

“Home,” she said. “I’m home.”