I roll my eyes. I can’t help it. Talk about alpha male bullshit.

Brekker growls, and I put a hand on his chest, staring up at him. He cannot lose his shit at this nonsense.

“You want to know why I married a human?” There’s an inherent challenge to the question, and the bearded man snaps his jaws. “Because I never would have been able to mate a wolf. I carry the bloodlust gene, and if my instincts are right, you do, too. So I chose a human woman who brings me joy and who settles my wolf. Who will bear me cubs.”

“I’ll what now?” I squeak.

“Shh,” Tessa tells me.

“The human woman can carry the Wulfric bloodline?”

“Aye, and she can take my knot.”

Silence meets this pronouncement, and I swat at Brekker’s arm. “Why did you have to say that? They don’t need to know that,” I hiss, my face on fire.

The crowd has grown in front of us, murmuring and whispering.

“Is this true?” the bearded werewolf asks, stunned. “She can… the humans can…”

“This is inappropriate,” I belt out, earning a few gasps at my bellow. “You don’t need to know what my husband and I do in the bedroom.”

“They do, actually,” Tessa says out of the side of her mouth.

I glare sidelong at her. “No.”

“She can take my knot, and she will make a fine mother for my cubs.”

I turn my withering stare onto Brekker, and a few of the wolves laugh out loud. “Don’t say another word about that.”

“When my little mate is ready, that is.” With that, he plants a kiss on my mouth, and I frown for a split second until I melt into him easily.

“More human women!” one of the wolves cries out. “We must apply to the Starlight Lottery for more.”

Tessa barks out a laugh, shaking her head as they practically stampede back inside.

“I knew you would help,” she says, laughing as Brekker finally lets me up for air.

I dust off the soft blue pants, blushing furiously. “None of that is anybody’s business.”

“No, of course not. Except that it is. A third of the men here thought they were doomed to live alone—those who are interested in a life with a female, anyway—because of their genetics.” She shrugs a shoulder. “There aren’t enough females in our clan anyway.”

“You knew there were more than me? That had the gene?” Brekker voice is flat, but there’s a hint of amusement around his eyes.

“Just because you males are too stubborn to talk about it doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t. I suspected the human would help. Still, I didn’t want to give away your secret until you were ready.” She looks incredibly smug, the wolf who ate the cat who ate the canary. “All’s well that ends well.”

She flounces back through the door, but not before she throws a wink over her shoulder at me.

Slowly, I look up at Brekker, astonishment plain on his face.

“Cubs?” I ask, putting my hands on my hips. “Do I get a say in making baby wolves?”

“Of course you do, love,” he says easily, slipping his hands around my waist until he cradles my ass. “Do you want to start trying now? Or just practice?”

I can’t help but laugh as he smacks my butt. “Practice. Just practice for now.”

“Well, I can’t deny you that.”

I yelp as he tosses me over his shoulder, running inside the huge Clan Claw keep with me there.

All’s well that ends well—and being safe, in Brekker’s arms, and well-loved—is the best possible beginning to our story I can imagine.

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EPILOGUE

BRIDGET

“No, no, no, no,” I mutter, my eyes darting around, shock and trepidation turning to steely resolve.

The shuttle that was supposed to be taking me to the Starlight Lottery hub nearest my assigned position doesn’t make the normal sounds of a healthy ship.

Nope.

The normal sounds, if there are any left, are currently being drowned out by the crew screaming at each other in various languages, the full-on klaxon of the emergency alarms, and the immense noise of my own breathing.

“We’re being boarded,” someone screams.

“Of course we are,” I say cheerfully. That’s the shock, I think. The tentacle I absconded with from my station wriggles in fear, the tip of it slapping my neck. “Sorry, buddy. I thought we were on our way to a better place. I thought our luck had turned.” My tone is bright, my smile slapped on like a doll’s. It’s all I can do to follow passenger protocol and buckle myself into a space suit.

Most of the rest of the passengers have lost their heads completely, and I watch them from behind the clear material of the bubble helmet like they’re exhibits at the curiosities shop I just left behind.

“I hope Aileen is having better luck,” I say, the words sounding hollow in the mask.

The tentacle wriggles into the suit lining, its self-preservation always astounding for a creature without any sort of obvious brain.

“We’ve left the brain behind,” I say in a sing-song voice.

Is this what a nervous break is? Hmm. I’m oddly calm. Completely detached.

So when the space pirates make it on board, sorting us into groups for what purposes I couldn’t guess, I just smile up at them stupidly as they inject something into my suit’s life support system.

The tentacle goes limp first, and that’s when my brain screeches back into existence.

“Oh, we are completely and totally fucked,” I tell it.

Then I lose consciousness with the wriggly tentacle wrapped around my waist.

**

Read Bridget’s story, Alien Kraken’s Prize!

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CHAPTER 15SNEAK PEEK: BARGAIN WITH THE ROGUE

Welcome to Wild Oak Woods… where the stakes are low, the spice is hot, and the men are deliciously monstrous.

A new cozy monster romantasy world coming soon.

WREN

Istop in my tracks, unable to process the sight before me.

Three Fae. Unseelie, judging by their lilac skin and icy eyes, except for the green one.

Fenn’s darted past me, and I stare at the trio settling at one of Piper’s tables in utter dismay.

Unseelie Fae and an… orc? In Wild Oak Woods?

We have minotaurs and harpies and all manners of what most humans call monsters, and I’m pretty sure there’s even a vampire or two… an elf runs the boutique on the other side of my store, and a few shifters live in town as well… but a Fae —an Unseelie at that— unheard of.

Two High Fae from the Underhill.

My hands tremble slightly, and I shove them behind me.

“Aren’t you a surprise.” The male speaking hasn’t so much as glanced away from me since I walked through the door of Pixie’s Perch, hoping for peace after the lunch rush and a charmed pick-me-up pastry before I went back to inventorying gems.

I swallow hard.

He’s beautiful, easily the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.

But beautiful in the way a too-sharp tool might be, all perfectly honed edges and dangerous in uncareful hands.

He’d cut, and deep, and you might not even feel it until you saw the blood.

That is, if anyone were foolish enough to let him too near.

I step closer, intrigued and slightly terrified.

“Who are you?”

Long black lashes flutter shut as he inhales deeply, before a wide smile stretches the corners of his mouth. It’s a shade darker than the light purple of his skin, like he bit into a fresh blackberry and it stained it with a summery burst.

“Why, I could be your future, little love,” he says, all cockiness.

A thick black vine of a tattoo crawls out from under the sleeve of his shirt, and I blink at it. Surely some trick of the light, or of his, but it looks like the tattoo marks are bleeding into existence while I watch it.