Epilogue

EPILOGUE

MATT

I thought I'd never get over the grief of my brother's betrayal. The one person after Ranger who had my back, or so I believed. We were a team, but it turned out to be a team of one. Me.

But Ranger and Storm got me through it. And a lot of therapy with a shifter counsellor because no human would understand what I'd been through. Ironically, Treyton, our would-be midwife, recommended someone who'd graduated a couple of years ago.

Ranger always said he would have found me if we hadn't met at speed dating because he'd already scented my presence, and I held onto that, knowing that we were destined to be together.

Our son toddled toward me as I sat on the floor, arms open wide. He fell into them, and I held him close, his heart thudding against my chest.

"Da Da." He kissed my nose, and we both giggled. He'd watched me do that to his Papa, and he squealed when I did, waving his hands until I repeated the kiss. In return, I placed my lips on his nose, and he dissolved into giggles, getting progressively louder the more I kissed him.

A baby's laugh could banish the gray and chase away any sadness.

Storm plonked himself on the floor and took my hand in his chubby ones. He kissed my mating mark because he'd witnessed Ranger doing the same.

"My turn."

Storm offered me his palm, and I peppered it with kisses. When I was done, I took him in my arms, inhaling his unique baby scent.

"Hungry?"

His head jerked forward and back, reminding me of that bobbing bird toy "drinking" water. "Num, num," he said.

After putting him in his highchair, I grabbed his food I'd prepared earlier from the fridge.

The phone dinged. That was Ranger's ding. He'd put an app on my phone so the tone of his messages was recognizable.

"What does Papa want?" I asked Storm, and he glanced around as if looking for Ranger before playing with the toys on the tray.

I'm coming home for lunch .

It was super convenient us living so close to the La Luna Noir headquarters, allowing my mate to pop in during the day, though Flint sometimes complained Ranger wasn't to be found when he needed him. Balancing his work and family didn't come easily to my mate.

Thank gods for Uncle Arnie and microwaves. We'd left Rudy's weekly Sunday lunch yesterday, armed with leftovers that would see us through to Wednesday. I was heating up our food when my mate arrived.

Storm banged his feet on the highchair and held out his arms to his Papa. Ranger kissed around our son's face, ending with one on his nose.

My mate reached out and took my hand, tracing his finger over the scar. This was routine. Whenever we were apart, whether for minutes or hours, he reminded me of our mating moment.

"Treyton is thinking of coming to live in the city after he finishes his degree."

The more the merrier. The Durand family was expanding.

"Maybe he'll be the family midwife." Tony and Flint were talking about having another baby, and we'd been getting questions about a possible second. I told everyone Storm would be at least three before I considered getting pregnant again.

I'd never considered not working. In the past if anyone had suggested I'd take indefinite leave after having a child, I'd have said that wouldn't happen. But the past couple of years had taken a lot out of me, and I was in no hurry to find work. Sure, I'd dabbled in writing a book about my experiences, but that was on the back burner for now.

My focus in the immediate future was my family. And I was so fortunate I had a mate who provided for us. Having to work to buy food, pay the rent, along with childcare, was what many families were faced with.

I wanted to watch Storm grow and be with him for his milestones, and I enjoyed being part of a large extended family.

Ranger left for the office but not before entwining his fingers in mine on my mating hand. We both needed that constant connection.

Storm took a nap. His nap time was also mine. But when my son woke, I took him to the park. The blue of the sky was the bluest blue I'd ever seen. The spring flowers were jostled by the wind, and buds had formed on the trees.

Since Dane's death, Storm's birth, and Josh's arrest, I made a point of never taking for granted the simple aspects of life and our world.

"Can we see Papa?" I picked up Storm and faced the La Luna Noir building a block away. Picking up Storm's hand, I waved. Though I couldn't see my mate, if he was in his office, he could see us.

Maybe by human standards we were in each other's business too much. Not that we saw it that way. Being true mates, fated mates, I imagined us as two halves of a battery. When we were apart for too long, we needed recharging. Ranger's touch did that for me.

Rudy invited himself for dinner that night but brought the food, so neither of us bothered to heat up leftovers. My father-in-law and I bathed Storm and were both soaking after my son smashed his toys into the water and giggled when it drenched us.

Rudy spoke of Hunter being his only unmated son and suggested he try and find him a mate. Both Ranger and I put a stop to that talk, saying Hunter would find his one and only if and when he was ready.

"And unlike Flint, he hopefully won't want to kill his mate," Ranger said.

"Or rescue him from certain death," I added.

"If his mate is human, he will fit in well with our family," Rudy noted. "But yes, I hope he can meet and mate and there's no kidnapping. And in their family, there are no killers or potential killers."

An easy life would be nice.

With Storm asleep, my mate and I showered and got into bed.

"We're happy, right?"

Ranger's face registered shock. His brows shot up, shaped like right-angle triangles. "I don't like where this is going."

"Sorry. I should have phrased it differently." Placing my right hand in his lap, palm upward, I studied the silver scar that mimicked my lifeline.

"Maybe it's time to cement the deal."

"What deal? We have a deal?" Ranger sounded like me in those early days after we met where I questioned everything.

"You mated me, sealing us as mates, but I never marked you."

It would never have happened at the cabin with the frisson of danger around us. After Dane tried to do fake swapsies and maybe kill both Josh and me, marking Ranger wasn't an option. Getting pregnant, agreeing to be together wasn't the right time. Becoming fathers was a joyous but exhausting experience and I put off the decision.

And finding out the truth about Josh put me in a funk for a good while.

"You want to mark me?" he asked. Ranger smothered my face with kisses. "I love you."

"Back at ya."

A human marking a shifter mate wasn't a requirement for the human. And while Ranger and I were mated in every possible way, I wanted to do this. Human couples might exchange eternity rings, but I wanted the shifter world to know Ranger was mine.

Rudy, Arnie, and other pack shifters I'd observed at the full moon runs were marked on their chests or shoulders, but I wanted Ranger's hand to bear a scar as mine did. It might be puny compared to my own, my human teeth nowhere near as sharp as his wolf's.

But I planned to sink my teeth into his flesh so every time he looked at his hand, he was reminded of me.

"Like me, I want you to have a mating hand."

"Does it matter which?" He extended both hands, palms upward.

"Are there rules?" I figured we were past that and could make our own.

"No."

I took the one with the longest life line. "Ready?"

My mate screwed up his face and almost derailed what I was about to do because I was tempted to kiss him and tear off his PJs.

"Will it hurt?"

He was messing with me. "Maybe. Are you going to cry?"

Ranger leaned in close and nibbled my bottom lip. "Will you make it better if I do?"

"Always." I sank my teeth into his palm until I drew blood and mopped it up with my PJ jacket.

"Oh noes. I'll have to take this off." I tossed the jacket on the floor.

"I like the way you think." Ranger kissed over my jaw. "Mate."

"Mate."