Epilogue - Zander

One Year Later

Reporting back at the manor was one of Zander's favorite times. It meant that after days, weeks or even a month away, he was just minutes away from reuniting with his mate.

As he drove up the hill, he could already picture the scene that would be awaiting him, Layla sitting on the manor porch with their infant son wrapped lovingly in her arms, a welcoming smile on her face.

And he would know, I'm home.

He'd had homes before, but not like this, not like he felt when he was with Layla. With her, they could be anywhere, and it would still feel like home. So long as she was there, it didn't matter.

And true to what had become their norm, there she was as he pulled into the yard and honked the horn of his truck.

"Look, baby, look who's home," he heard Layla say as he killed the engine and threw open the driver's side door. "It's Daddy. Can you say Dada?"

There was no way that at only a few months old their son would be saying anything anytime soon, and yet just hearing her say the words melted his heart.

When he had returned that night all those months ago to see Jack and his family playing by the bonfire, he never could have imagined that his life might be like this. He'd imagined himself a lone wolf, saying, doing and being whatever the hell he felt like when he woke up in the morning.

But Layla had changed him. Hell, he barely recognized himself anymore as he stepped up to meet her where she rose to greet him with a kiss.

"Good evening, Daddy," Layla said, grinning up at him.

He wasn't sure he would ever get used to that, but damn, he loved it.

"Good evening, Mommy," he responded, kissing her lips and her forehead before he leaned down to kiss his son's forehead, too. "How's he doing?"

The baby cooed up at him almost as if he were attempting to answer for himself, and Zander and Layla laughed together.

"He's been howling the manor down for the last hour waiting for you to get home," came the answer, though it didn't come from Layla. Instead, it came from Kane, who appeared in the open doorway of the manor. He leaned against the doorframe with his ankles crossed and his arms folded over his chest, a deep scowl on his face. "We were about to call you and tell you to hurry your ass up."

"I don't believe that for a second," Zander cooed over the baby, taking him from his mother's arms and holding him aloft. "You would never do such a thing, would you, Jacky boy?"

Jack Junior giggled and batted out with one tiny pink hand, squeezing Zander's nose until it almost hurt.

"That's quite a grip you've got there, JJ!" Zander said, gently pulling on the infant"s hand to remove it.

"Tell me about it," Layla grumbled. "You should see what he's doing with my damn nipples now he's started teething!"

Zander cringed. He was certainly glad he wasn't the she-wolf. Human babies were likely bad enough, but werewolf babies, though unable to shift before coming of age, always had a beastly side about them.

"I think I have the perfect medicine for that," Zander told her, holding their son in one arm and hooking his other around her waist, pulling her close.

"Ugh, get a room!" Kane groaned when the two of them kissed.

"We've got an entire house down the hill," Zander pointed out, and he felt Layla stiffen.

"What's the matter?" Zander asked, raising his brow at her and pulling back to look her in the eye.

"I was kind of hoping you might have JJ for a couple of hours," she admitted with a shrug. "I've got some harvesting I need to do up here."

The look on her face suggested she expected him to object. He couldn't say he blamed her. After learning the true extent of the games her last asshole partner had played, he would be surprised if she didn't look that way.

But Zander was all too happy to be the one to help her heal from such trauma as he leaned in to kiss her and said, "I've got a better idea. We'll help you."

Layla blushed at that and shook her head. "You don't have to. Bonnie and Marie have offered to help."

"The more the merrier," Zander said, brushing her hair away from her face.

He saw the way she gulped, how relieved she looked.

"I thought you'd want to head straight home once you reported to Jack," she said, taking JJ from him once more so that he could do just that.

"Not if you're not coming with me," Zander said. "While I'm in town I'm going wherever you are, beautiful."

He stroked her cheek and gave her one last kiss on the forehead before he took the porch steps two at a time.

"I'll meet you in the garden once I've reported in," he called over his shoulder, slipping past Kane, who followed him through the manor to Jack's study.

"So, how was it?" the tatted-up werewolf asked once the manor door shut behind them.

Zander sighed and shrugged. "The usual. I'm glad to be home."

Kane scoffed at that. "I remember a time when you loved all the action."

"We all did," Zander pointed out. "But that was before I settled down, before I had a proper family to come home to."

"Hey! You had us!"

Zander almost jumped out of his skin as Will appeared around the corner and shoved him hard in the shoulder. "Or were we not pretty enough to come home to?"

The golden-haired wolf battered his lashes playfully, and Zander couldn't help but laugh. Before he could say a word to defend himself, Will hooked him into a brotherly hug. "It's good to have you back, bud."

"It's good to be back," Zander admitted. "And for the record, you might be pretty, Will, but you'll never be my kinda pretty."

He clapped his friend playfully on the cheek. The three packmates laughed until Jack's study door opened and the alpha stepped out.

"I thought I told you to report directly to me when you got back from mission?" Jack grumbled, scowling at him with his hands shoved into his jeans pockets.

"You try getting past this lot!" Zander gestured at Kane and Will. "And do you honestly think Bonnie would let me be the first to welcome you home if the roles were reversed?"

Jack's face broadened into a smile at the mention of his mate, and he threw his arms around Zander. "I'm just playing with you."

Zander hugged Jack in return, breathing a sigh of relief. Being back home with the men he'd come to see as his brothers was always a relief.

"Where's Ed?" he asked when they parted, half expecting his final brother-in-arms to hop out from behind a corner at the mention of his name.

"He's off at the border with Hanson and Dean," Jack explained, and all the men sighed. Zander glanced around at them, brow furrowed.

"Something I need to know?" he asked.

Jack shook his head. "Nothing serious. Just the usual."

Zander cringed. It had been a year and still they were waiting. Christian's pack had promised retribution for his death, and so far it hadn't come, but they were no fools. They knew it would come eventually. Werewolves were unrivaled when it came to holding grudges. It was just a matter of time.

"Maybe I should stay in town for a while?" Zander suggested. "If things are picking up, that is?"

Jack looked thoughtful, and it told Zander all he needed to know.

The scents they'd been smelling at the border for months were multiplying, pushing against the border, warning of what was to come.

And Zander hated the idea of not being in Nightstar when it did come. There was no way in hell he would be caught halfway across the world when his family was under attack.

"Come on in," Jack instructed, gesturing into his study. "I can see you're itching to get back to your wife and son."

"I'm not the only one," Zander laughed when he saw Jack glance at the picture of his own family sitting on his desk.

Jack shrugged. "We're both family men now."

Zander shivered at that. His friend was right, and yet he still couldn't believe it.

"If I'd said we'd be here now all those years ago in Blackwell Falls, what would you have said?" Zander asked as he dropped down into an armchair, Kane and Will filing in behind them to hear his report.

"I wouldn't have said anything," Jack said, shaking his head as he sat down at his desk. "I'd have just laughed in your face."

"None of us could have imagined having any of this," Kane said. "Me, least of all. I was totally alone before you guys came along."

"Maybe you should have stayed that way," Will laughed, poking Kane playfully.

"It'd certainly be a simpler life," Kane agreed with amusement. "But then I wouldn't have you guys."

"Aww, who'd have believed under that tough guy exterior there was a soft underbelly?" Will teased. Zander and Jack laughed along with him while Kane growled, baring his teeth.

"I'll show you soft underbelly!"

"Oh, careful now, Kane," Will winked, "I might start to think you wanna show me a good time."

Everyone roared with laughter then, knowing the two werewolves were straighter than metal poles. Both of their conquest counts rivaled even Zander's. That was, before he'd mated with Layla.

"Alright, alright, that's enough you two," Jack barked, waving the two of them down before he turned to Zander and asked, "What do you have to report?"

Zander shrugged and said, "Not much. The usual. The bad guys were neutralized, and I've handed off all the information to the major."

"How is John?" Jack asked, looking curious.

"Missing us and all our antics terribly," Zander scoffed. And all the men laughed.

Damn, it was good to be home.

If Zander had thought that his new life was unbelievable, what was even more astonishing was the garden when he stepped out onto the terrace at the back of the house.

Having taken to her gardening and trade business like a duck to water, Layla's small garden back at their house hadn't been nearly big enough to keep up with demand.

Seeing the potential and financial gain for the rest of the pack, Jack had offered up a portion of the garden for rent, and it seemed that since Zander had left Nightstar two weeks ago that portion of land had grown.

With JJ lying on a blanket in the center of the lawn, cooing away with a rattle in hand, Layla, Bonnie and Marie were hard at work tending the plants that Layla cared for as if they were her children.

And it was easy to see why. The place was an oasis of beauty and color, somewhere one could get lost for hours without a care in the world.

He couldn't help himself. Crossing the lawn to where his wife knelt at the herb bed, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "You had better stand up before I take you right here."

He heard Layla's breath catch in her throat and held out his hand to help her up.

"You wouldn't dare," she growled, stepping close to him and rising up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss. Zander returned her challenge with a deep growl and gripped her hips, pulling her close. She only stopped him when she asked, "How did reporting go?"

Zander nuzzled his nose against hers. The last thing he wanted to do right now was talk about work. "Fine."

Layla pulled back and examined his eyes closely. "Is there anything I should be worried about?"

Zander sighed and cupped her face in both his hands. Looking her deep in the eye without blinking, he said firmly, "You never need to worry ever again."

Layla gulped again. This time it was not desire, but fear. "I'll always worry. Especially now that we have JJ."

She glanced across the lawn as if to check that their son hadn't magically learned to roll off down the hill. Then she looked back at Zander and played with the facial hair upon his chin. "You need a trim."

Zander leaned forward and rubbed his chin against her face until she squealed.

"What's the matter? Don't you like hairy men?" he growled playfully.

Layla laughed hard and demanded, "If I didn't like hairy men, would I have married a werewolf?"

"I don't know, maybe you liked it then but regret it now?" Zander joked as he tickled Layla to within an inch of her life.

She stopped laughing then and slapped him hands away. Her serious expression caught his attention and he stopped, taking a step away. "What's the matter?"

"Don't say that," Layla growled at him, her gaze darkening almost as if she wanted to smack him. "Don't ever say that. I don't regret anything—not anything between us, at least."

Zander stepped forward, hooked his finger under her chin and kissed her softly before he responded, "Nor do I."

They kissed again before Layla nuzzled into his chest and whispered, "Do you know what I do regret though?"

She wrapped her arms tightly around him and squeezed. Zander held her back and asked, "What?"

"I regret not meeting you at home," she whispered, and Zander's cock throbbed at the desire-filled inflection in her voice.

He lowered his hands to her buttocks and squeezed. "You'd better get your harvesting done, then, unless you want me to take you in the shed?"

Layla shivered in his arms and growled, "Don't tempt me."

Laughing, Zander slapped her hard on the backside. "You naughty, naughty girl. If we keep this up, we'll have a whole brood in no time."

Layla turned her face up to him then, her eyes twinkling as she said, "Isn't that the plan?"

Zander glanced over at JJ and shrugged. "I guess. He is cute."

"He gets that from his father," Layla said, knocking his chin teasingly. Zander scoffed. He had never been called cute before.

That was just it. There were so many things he had never done before, so many things he had never experienced or imagined for himself, and yet now he could see an entirely new world opening up before him.

Layla had done that. She had changed him.

"Thank you," he whispered, kissing his mate's forehead.

"For calling you cute?" Layla chuckled, pulling back to look at him. Zander shook his head.

"For seeing past the asshole," he said. Layla laughed harder at that and squeezed him around the waist again.

"You didn't exactly make it easy," she said, smirking, "But luckily for you, I'm stubborn."

"You can say that again!"

"Take that back!" Layla protested, and this time it was she who tickled him.

Zander jumped at the shock of it. It had been years since anyone had tickled him like that, and he shivered, playfulness and desire pumping through his veins.

Picking Layla up into his arms and pinning her own against her sides, he carried her over to the blanket in the center of the lawn.

Luckily for them, Bonnie and Marie were lost in the jungle of Layla's newly planted garden. He might be able to get a quickie in before anyone came looking.

He laid Layla down on the blanket and came down on top of her, kissing her hard, hoping she could sense just how much he had missed her and how much he needed her now.

She responded as she always did, with tenderness and affection, and she was just reaching for his belt buckle when JJ let out the loudest screeching laugh he ever had, making them both jump.

Together, they laughed, and JJ laughed along with them.

"I think that's his way of saying it's play time, Daddy," Layla said, slipping out from beneath him. She kissed him as if to take out the sting of not getting any.

He growled against her lips, "I need you."

Gripping his face in both her hands, she kissed him hard until his cock pressed painfully against the zipper of his jeans.

"And you can show me just how much when we get home," she promised him. "But for now, I had better get back to work. Bonnie and Marie won't help me next time if they see me slacking."

"Fine," Zander grumbled. "Poor JJ and I will find some way to keep ourselves occupied while Mommy plays boss."

"Oh, honey, I'm not playing," Layla growled and kissed him one final time before she bounced up onto her feet and hopped away.

The happiness and confidence coming off her in waves was enough to thrill Zander, and he knew he'd wait as long as it took to have her again, because at the end of the day, she was his, now and always.

Picking up JJ, he held the infant so that he could follow his mother with his bright blue eyes. "We are lucky, aren't we, JJ?"

The baby babbled in total agreement and Zander laughed, admiring his wife all over again for the beautiful little boy she had brought into the world.

Whatever happens with Christian's pack, Zander realized as he watched her, it'll all be worth it.

He'd kill that bastard over and over again for her if he had to. No, he had no regrets at all. And it overjoyed him more than he dared to admit that she didn't, either.

He was home. His family was here. Nothing could be more perfect.

*****

THE END