Epilogue
ROSCOE
Soon it’s December, and Emelia’s lease has run out. She’s been slowly packing up her things, but that night, Harry, Arin, and I work together to carry all of her boxes of mementos, books, and mysteriously, her favorite college papers, across town to my house. Then we buy everyone pizza.
I enjoy standing in the doorway while Emelia places each of her books on my bookshelf, making sure they’re all in the proper order.
She sets right away to putting pots of flowers around the house without telling me, so they just appear one day on the front step—bright pops of color that bring a new life to my little home by the railroad tracks.
She even buys Salem a new cat bed he probably doesn’t need.
Thankfully, Emelia’s morning sickness abates after a few more weeks. She gets wild cravings, and it’s always an interesting challenge heading to the store after work so I can best figure out how to utilize pickled peppers.
Tentatively, I reach out to Jason to make holiday plans. We always get together for Christmas if he doesn’t fly to Illinois to see his mother. I’m also testing the waters to see if he’s cooled off enough that we can talk.
I’m surprised when I get an answer right away.
Is she living there?
I wonder if he heard from someone Emelia knows, or if it’s just his intuition.
Yep. Do you want to meet up and talk?
Again, the reply is quick and sharp.
The chophouse at nine.
I sigh and put my phone away, telling Emelia the news.
Jason’s there already when I arrive right at nine, drinking a beer and eating wings while watching the TV. He doesn’t even look at me as I slide into the booth.
“I can’t believe you fucked my girlfriend.” He barely turns his head when he glances at me. “And knocked her up.”
Cold open.
“I’d say I was sorry, but I’m not.”
Jason chuckles dryly. “You certainly don’t seem sorry. You’re grinning like an idiot.”
“My coworkers say that, too.”
Finally, Jason turns in his seat to face me and cleans his hands on a napkin. At least I taught him some manners.
“And what? You two are gonna raise that kid together?”
“That’s the plan.”
He sighs and drops his head into his hands. “Damn it, Dad. I’m trying to be pissed at you.”
“You’re the one who picked up the phone that night in a room full of other women,” I remind him.
“Yeah, but my father isn’t supposed to be the one picking up the dropped ball.”
I sigh. “If all you can do is compare a woman to a football, then maybe you should work on yourself some more before you criticize me.”
His eyebrows jump. “Damn. You have changed.” He tilts his head, studying me. “I guess it kind of makes sense. She was too nice for me.”
I nod, because this is true.
“You’re supposed to disagree,” Jason says with a grunt.
“Sorry. But I’ve always been honest with you, haven’t I?”
With a reluctant sigh, he answers, “Yeah.”
“I will say that I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. Not that you asked.”
My son is quiet as he picks up another wing and eats it. Finally, after wiping his hands again, he speaks.
“I can tell. Mom’s gonna lose it when she finds out, though.”
I shrug. “Oh well. I can wolf out with Emelia like I never could with her.”
Jason’s brows rise. “She doesn’t mind that you’re a werewolf?”
“Not at all.” I don’t go into detail about how much she likes it when I ruthlessly fuck her in the woods.
“I can’t believe you’re gonna have a baby,” Jason says, shaking his head. “I’m going to get a… half-sibling? At twenty-seven? Fucked up, man.”
“Yeah, kinda.” I take a swig of my own beer, which tastes great because I haven’t been drinking around Emelia while she’s pregnant. “But sometimes that’s how it shakes out.”
“Crazy world. Well, I’ll come for Christmas, I guess.”
I reach across the table to slap him on the shoulder. “Good. Thank you.”
He pushes my hand away. “Whatever.”
EMELIA
No, my parents are not happy when they find out about Roscoe and the baby. And I still haven’t told them he’s a werewolf.
But that feels like our private business.
Natalie was, to my surprise, more understanding. We spent a long night talking about what Jason had done, how it all ended up like this, and why Roscoe is the best thing to ever happen to me.
“It seems like you found love in a truly unexpected place,” my older sister says. “Well, I’m happy for you, Em. I’ll come out for the wedding. When is it?”
“The baby is due in April, and we’d like to get married before that—so February.”
“I can’t believe it,” Natalie says, sighing. “My little sister, having a baby. Excited to see you. I’ll be there for the bachelorette party.”
The first thing my parents do is hop on a plane to come visit.
My dad is all huff and bluster when he arrives, but as always, Roscoe is disarming—unfailingly polite while also gruff, charming as much as he is understated.
Before any of us knows it, Roscoe’s showing my dad out to the garage and his 1970s project car, and they both start bonding over the slick paint job and repaired leather seats.
Mom inspects every corner of the house in the meantime, then pulls me aside.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asks, using that concerned mom voice I know so well. “There are other options. He seems like a good guy, but he’s twenty years older than you are.”
I shake my head vigorously. “Mom, I love him. I love him so much, more than I thought possible.”
She cocks her head. “Really? That much?”
“I’m… I’m really excited to have a baby with him.” I put my hand over my stomach, even though there’s not even a bump there yet. “I want to do life with him.”
She sighs, but I think she understands when she pulls me in for a hug. “Fine. Dad and I will split the cost of the wedding with you. Okay?”
“Thanks, Mom.”
It’s not Roscoe’s first wedding, so he wanted something small and private. I’m not against that, of course—but once upon a time I did dream of having a princess wedding with flowers and a fancy church, so he agrees to a middle ground without much fuss.
Then we start decorating the house for the baby’s arrival.
We cover the old paint in what used to be Jason’s bedroom with fresh paint in a soft, sunny color, getting it all over ourselves and each other.
Now, everything seems to be forgiven between Roscoe and Jason, and Jason comes over on the weekend to help us assemble the crib and hang up mobiles.
Yeah, it’s weird. It’s super weird. But we both try not to make it weird, assuming a stalemate because we each love Roscoe in our own way.
All sorts of other stupid pregnancy stuff starts to happen, though. I get gestational diabetes, which sucks, the test being the worst part. As I get bigger, my feet hurt more, and I’ve got to pee all the time.
“Damn baby squashing my bladder,” I grump as we watch TV and I get up for the millionth time.
Roscoe chuckles when I come back. “Yeah, everything’s moving aside to let baby in. Pretty crazy what you can do.”
“True. We made a whole person together.”
I’m also horny as fuck, pretty much all the time. I asked him not to shave because something about rubbing his stubble is soothing, and I love when he goes down on me.
And then, that knot. I drool over it. Even in werewolf form, we’ve worked up to a point where he can start using it on me, and it drives me absolutely mad. It seems impossible, but when he squeezes it inside me, it’s all I can do not to come on the spot.
When we have sex, he loves to hold my belly in his hands, caressing my tits as they get bigger. He’s obsessed with my changing body, and I think it’s made him just as relentlessly horny for me.
“Look at you, getting ready for our baby,” he says, testing my sensitive nipples. “What a good girl.”
It always drives me up to the moon when he says that.
We decide to find out the baby’s gender, and we’re overjoyed to learn it’ll be a girl. It also sends Roscoe into a fresh existential crisis over whether he’ll be a good dad. It reassures my nerves sometimes to see that he still worries, even though he’s the most capable, level-headed person I know.
It’s tricky finding a wedding dress that will work with my growing body, but I manage to find something we can adjust at the last minute. The seamstress takes it as a personal challenge.
I feel like a balloon about to pop.
Finally, I get my wish, finding my amazing man standing at the end of the aisle when my dad leads me in.
He’s impossible not to love, especially with the way he’s opened up.
He smiles much more often now, which he does when I appear.
Chin shaven clean, his salt and pepper hair combed back, his eyes crinkling as I approach…
I want nothing more than to jump his bones in that handsome suit.
Finally, all the sermonizing ends, and it’s time.
“Will you be my wife?” Roscoe asks, as Jason stands off to one side as his best man. “Forever and ever, until death do us part?”
I blink back tears. “I do.”
He rubs a thumb across my cheek, then leans down to kiss me. He gives me all of himself in that kiss, the wolf and the man, until our audience is cheering and flower petals are falling through the air.
The baby comes right on time. My husband is by my side, holding my hand, when little Sofia enters the world. She screams a shrill scream, and we’re both relieved to finally hear her voice and know that she’s safe and sound.
And she likes to make good use of it. Within a few months, we’re run ragged, but at least we can have sex again.
When Sofia is asleep, my werewolf brings me into his lap, licking the milk off my nipples.
On full moon nights, Arin is happy to watch the baby so we can go out into the woods, where Roscoe chases me until I’m panting and wet, then he snatches me off the forest floor and takes me up against a tree.
“Thank you,” Roscoe whispers, nuzzling my nose with his big one as he sinks his knot inside me. “Thank you for being mine.”
THANK YOU FOR READING!