Epilogue

Spring

Our home is filled with our family. Thoren’s brothers and sisters have all come in for the weekend under the pretense of celebrating my birthday. Little do they know, we have something else we’ve been wanting to announce, and we figured there was no better way to do it than at a huge family event.

There are nieces and nephews of all ages running around, in and out of the house. We have the doors and windows open since we’ve finally broken free from winter. Spring is here, and the warmth it brings is very welcome. Especially now that I’ve started teaching the children in Stone Valley. Once Thoren learned that I was a teacher in my previous world, he told some people in the town, and next thing I knew, I was being invited to teach at the local schoolhouse. It’s been a dream.

“How are you feeling, my love?” Thoren asks, wrapping me up in his strong arms. He kisses me softly on the forehead and then my lips. “Any aches and pains? Nausea?”

“Nothing yet,” I tell him, resisting the urge to rub my stomach. “We’ll see how I feel once the food is in front of me.”

He nods, worry etched on his handsome face. Thoren has barely left my side since I told him a couple of months ago. I’ve missed three periods, my boobs are killing me, and most smells can set off my nausea in a heartbeat. But I knew I was pregnant when that first missed period came. I had always been a regular girl, starting and stopping like clockwork, and with all the sex we were having, it was only a matter of time.

“Should we tell them now?” I ask, looking around to make sure everyone is here. The house is bursting at the seams, filled with laughter and little kids screaming. I’ve never experienced anything like this, but his family has been nothing but kind and welcoming since meeting me. We’ve traveled to them, they’ve traveled to us. We see them all the time, and I’ve grown to love each and every one of them, especially the chubby little gray toddlers who are nothing if not mischievous.

Toddlers with wings are not to be messed with.

And thank all the Gods that gargoyles aren’t born with their wings. That was something that had terrified me in the beginning. I was dick drunk, having so much sex that my brain couldn’t think these things through. But when I met Thoren’s youngest niece, still just a few months old, I was relieved to see her wings were just little nubs on her back. Thoren tells me they develop slowly with the rest of their little bodies, same with their horns and tail.

“I am ready to tell them whenever you are, my sweet mate. I have been holding this secret for far too long.”

Thoren wanted to tell them the second we knew, but I wanted to be sure. I wanted to make sure our little lemon was thriving before we told the world. But now I’m starting to show, and the midwife says everything seems to be moving along nicely. I was worried about giving birth in a new world that didn’t seem to have hospitals or pain medication, but they don’t need that. They have midwives with expert knowledge in pain relief herbs and spells. Natalie has also offered to rush this way when it happens to help me through it. She’s survived one of the worst experiences imaginable, so I will feel better with her by my side.

“Let’s do it.” I grin up at him, my excitement barely contained. He breaks out into a smile as well, his blue eyes shining.

“Family!” he shouts, his hands cupped around his mouth. It takes a few moments for everyone to look our way. When you have over thirty people in one house, it’s a lot of mouths to stop talking. “We wanted to invite you all here to celebrate my mate’s birthday. They’re important in her human world, and so I wanted to make it as special as possible for her.”

“Happy birthday!” Nat shouts, leading to everyone else joining in. My cheeks hurt with how much I’m smiling. I didn’t know someone could be loved this much by so many people. I’m thankful every day that I made the choice to stay.

“Thank you,” I say to everyone once they’ve settled again. “But that’s not the only reason we’ve asked you to come.” Selah’s eyes lock with mine, and I know she knows. Thoren and I have both known that she probably knew before us, but if she has, she hasn’t said a thing. Instead, she’s letting us announce it when we were ready instead.

“ My mate is with child !” Thoren shouts, his voice booming through the entire house. As cheers and shouts rise through the living room and out into the yard as the children get excited, Thoren drops to his knees in front of me and holds my stomach with his large, protective hands. Leaning forward, he kisses it, murmuring something to the baby. It’s too loud in the room for me to hear, but I feel his mouth move against my little bump.

A horde of people surround me in an instant, congratulating me and hugging me. All of his sisters take turns squealing as they pull me into their arms. Tears roll down my cheeks at the love pouring out of them, and when Selah finally makes it through the crowd, I pull her against me tightly.

“I just knew it,” she whispers in my ear. “I am so incredibly happy for you both. A baby!” And then we’re jumping up and down, laughing and holding hands, unable to contain the excitement any longer.

“Wait!” I pause, holding an arm out to stop her as well. Thoren is still behind me, talking to his brothers. “Does that mean you know the sex?”

Selah shrugs, a telling grin breaking out across her face.

“You do!” Thoren turns at my voice, resting a hand on my shoulder.

“I do,” she says. “But I won’t tell you, not unless you want to know.”

“She knows if it’s a boy or a girl!” I tell Thoren, turning around to see if he might want to know.

“She always seems to know,” he says. “It’s up to you, my love. I will follow your lead, as always.” As he smiles down at me, I’m reminded just why I fell in love with him. He is always putting me first, always making sure my thoughts and feelings are heard.

I take his hand in mine and squeeze, our bond singing between us. “Let’s wait,” I finally decide. Not because I necessarily want to, but because I think he wants it to be a surprise, and this pregnancy isn’t just about me. It’s his baby, too. “I’m happy for it to be a surprise.”

“Then it shall be a surprise,” Selah agrees. “I won’t tell a soul. Trust me, Oaklan begged me to tell him when his mate was pregnant.”

“He did,” Jessa, Oaklan’s mate, says. Jessa is Thoren’s sister, and Oaklan is her warlock mate. They live by the ocean, a couple of days’ ride from Stone Valley. We haven’t been yet, but I’m hoping to make it out there once the baby is born.

“But I didn’t say a word!” Selah announces, her hands on her hips.

“She didn’t,” Nat agrees, joining our conversation. “She’s a great secret keeper for someone with visions. I begged her to tell me, as well. I had no luck cracking that resolve of hers.”

Seeing Nat reminds me of Feryn. I invited her today, hoping she would finally accept an invitation from us to come visit. But she’s never responded. “Hey, by the way. Have you seen or heard from Feryn? I’ve sent a lot of letters, inviting her over, but I’ve never heard back.”

“We haven’t seen her,” Nat says. “We used to see her in the markets sometimes, early in the mornings. She’d even come over and grab dinner once in a while from the inn. But I don’t think we’ve seen her for months now.” She grabs Erik’s arm to get his attention and asks if he’s seen her.

“I went to check on her the other day, actually,” he says. “But no one was there. It looked like she had just up and left. Nothing was left behind.”

I chew on my lip, worried that something may have happened to her. She was living on her own, without any friends or family, on the edge of the creepy woods. When that was me, I fell through a portal and ended up in the arms of a gargoyle.

“I’m sure she’s okay, sweet Kaia.” Thoren massages away the tension from my shoulders. Everyone has gone back to their own conversations, breaking off into little groups as a few of the sisters finish cooking in the kitchen. I’ve given up on trying to help them. They wouldn’t let me touch a thing because it’s my birthday, and I have a feeling that now that they know I’m pregnant, I’ll be allowed to do even less. Thoren barely even lets me out of his sight, let alone cook him a meal.

“I just worry about her. I was lonely before I met you — depressed, even. I don’t want her to go through that same suffering.”

“One of the things I love most about you is your heart.” He runs his fingers through my hair, sending those relaxing little tingles across my scalp. “And if it will ease your mind, I will look into what happened with Feryn.”

“You would do that for me?”

“I would do anything for you,” he promises, his face scrunching up in confusion. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Kaia. And if this small favor will help you relax, I will happily try to figure it out.”

“You are too good for me,” I tell him, leaning into the comforting heat of his body. His tail whips over his body and twines itself around my forearm. “I was so lucky to fall into your arms that day.”

“You were,” he tells me, a cocky smile breaking out across his handsome face. “Just as I am lucky that I was the one standing in that lake.”

I smack his ass. “Damn right.”

“I love you, Goldilocks.”

I pinch his side and stretch up on my tiptoes to kiss the rough line of his jaw. “I love you, too, God of Lightning.”

Spinning in his grip, I turn to look around our happy home. Coming from a quiet, empty apartment without any friends or family to speak of to this feels like a miracle. The love and happiness is flowing, the smell of food fills the room, and children laugh and play. Soon, we’ll have our own child to love, teach, and grow with.

There was never really a choice to make. From the moment I went beneath the water and met the sexy, naked gargoyle, this became my new life.

And I couldn’t be any fucking happier about it.