Epilogue

We ride through the Montana hills to Kade's hometown of Fortune Falls near the Canadian border. Tonight we're having a big family dinner and I'm going to meet four of his five brothers, his father, and his only sister.

Karter is the oldest Barrington male here and the de facto Alpha of the family, even though their father is still alive. This means it's up to him to make sure their younger brothers and sister are cared for until they leave the pack.

If we moved to Fortune Falls, Kade would take over the role for the family, freeing Karter to live life as he sees fit.

Kade explained it like this. If they lived in a purely bear shifter community, the Alpha would be based upon who was the strongest, oldest, and most virile male. In a community with shifters of different species, virility doesn't apply, but strongest and oldest does.

Plus, with fated mates, jockeying for female attention doesn't make sense.

The Alpha command also works differently between species, and so there is a lot more cooperation than there is blind obedience in these blended communities.

In the MC, Jude is President, and so he carries an element of Alpha command over the club, but not outside of it. Since Kade was Erick's subordinate in the military, he defers to Erick's Alpha from time to time. But Kade's bear is significantly bigger and stronger than Erick's, so if he wanted to challenge him, he could.

Not that he ever plans to.

The dynamics are quite interesting, but Kade says they come naturally, and they won't affect us until our kids become adults.

We pull off the road and drive up a dirt road to a giant white farmhouse weathered by time. I pull off my helmet and hop off the back like the skilled passenger I've become. Kade cuts the engine at the same time a tall, beautiful woman with long curly brown hair comes running out of the house.

Kade dismounts the bike in time to catch her as she flings herself into his arms. I know this is Kylian, his only sister. She's twenty-two—my age—but she's never shifted. She's the only one who hasn't, and they don't know why.

"I missed you so much!" She squeals as he swings her round.

"I missed you too, squirt." He sets her down and turns to face me. "This is my mate, Dinah."

"Oh Dinah!" She flings herself against me, picking me up and swinging me around almost like Kade did to her. "I've been waiting forever for these clowns to bring me a sister."

I giggle when she sets me down. "I'm thrilled to be her."

"Sweet Fates. You are beautiful. The boys are going to lose their tongues." She reaches out and touches my braid.

"They better not," Kade grumbles. "They might be my brothers, but I will still skin their asses for flirting with my mate."

"Grumpy ass bear." Kylian rolls her eyes and loops her arm through mine. "Come inside and meet everyone."

I glance at Kade who grins and nods as he grabs our bag off the back of the motorcycle. "Go ahead."

Kylian marches us up the stairs and through the front door. The house is loud with males laughing and shouting at each other—the cacophony overwhelming. We were never allowed to be loud or boisterous, but this noise has a loving, homey vibe to it. Kind of like when Erick, Kade, Cricket, Sly, and Wiley bicker with each other. "Would you brats shut that off and meet your soon-to-be sister-in-law?"

Three identical heads swivel away from a giant TV where they play some sort of video game. Jimmy was recently introduced to first-person-shooter games by Sly and Wiley, and he's in love with them. He gets to be the boy he never got to be with them, and I'm thrilled for him.

"Holy shit!" One of them jumps up, dropping his controller and leaping over the back of the couch. "You're hot!"

"I will kill you!" Kade bellows from the front door.

"Better chill out, Kason. Unlike Karter, Kade is fast enough to catch us." A second male stands up, vaults over the back of the sofa with a bit more grace, and offers me his hand. "I'm Kit. The guy with the death wish is Kason. And this is our other brother, Darryl."

Kade walks in shaking his head. "She's not going to get that reference, you idiot."

"What? You've never watched Newhart? Oh man, you're missing out."

The third triplet walks around the sofa with his hands clasped in front of him, a bit shyer than his two brothers. "Hey. I'm Koran."

"Dinah."

Kade stands behind me, pulling my back to his chest. "You three behave. I'd hate for my visit home to turn into a bloodbath."

"No promises." Kason bats his lashes at me and then takes off running when Kade jumps forward to tackle him.

"Is it always like this?" Giggling, I watch as three of them, minus Koran, wrestle on the ground.

Kylian rolls her eyes and nods. "Yes. They're obnoxious, times three."

"I'm not that bad." Koran stands beside us, watching the destruction. He frowns. "Shit. If I don't get in there, Kit and Kason will torment me for a week. Excuse me."

Now there's four of them rolling around on the ground. The coffee table gets kicked, knocking off the snacks and sodas.

"Dammit!" Kylian yells. "I just thrifted that table and rug."

The men stop rolling around and look up at her. Kade is the only one to look slightly remorseful. Despite the destruction, my heart swells with the vision before me. I can imagine what it will be like when we have kids. He's going to be an amazing father.

Kade shoves one of the triplets heads down—I think it's Kason—and stands up, yanking each boy to their feet. Only they aren't boys. Not really. They'll be eighteen in a few months, and at their age I was "married" and sharing a bed with my "husband". My "sisters" were also married and having children for the Family.

"Where's Karter and Pop?" Kade grabs our bag off the floor and holds his hand out to me.

"Garage." Kylian sighs. "I'll text them and let them know you're home."

"Wait. Why aren't you boys at the garage?"

"It's Saturday," Kit, in the green shirt, protests. I think I can figure out which one is which as long as they wear different color shirts. I'm sure if I took the time to really study their faces, I could decipher the subtle differences in their features. Maybe their voices, and certainly their mannerisms.

"So? If Pop and Karter are working, don't you think you should be too?"

"But it's summer," Kason, in the blue shirt, adds.

"Boy, you are about to be eighteen years old. The luxury of summer vacation is over." Kade shakes his head. "Looks like I need to have a talk with Karter about your lack of discipline. Maybe you need to go into the military next fall."

Both Kit and Kason shake their heads while Koran shrugs. "I was thinking about it anyway."

"What? And break up the band?" Kit turns on his brother.

Koran shrugs again.

I watch this interaction with rapt fascination. First, it's interesting to watch the family dynamics, and seeing Kade in this role is enlightening. I feel like I'm getting a glimpse of what he will be like as a father when we have our own children.

"Come on, Honeysuckle. Let's unpack."

"Don't be getting freaky up there," Kason grumbles. "That's my room when you're not here."

"Yeah? Well, it's my room when I am here. So, bite me."

Or maybe not so much like a father, but more of a tormenting big brother.

"I thought having a mate would make you nicer?" Kit grins and throws a handful of popcorn at Kason while looking at us.

"I am nice—" Kade flashes his fangs and lifts my hand to cover his heart before turning his back on his brothers "—to her."

"You guys are funny," I say when we hit the top of the stairs.

"I've got to give them shit when I'm home, otherwise they'd want me to move back here."

"Would you ever move back here?"

"Only if you wanted to."

"I think I'd miss Jimmy, Erick, Sly, Cricket, Wiley, and Nan too much." I sit on the edge of the bed and search the room for any hints of Kade as a child. There's nothing from what I can tell, unless Kason morphed Kade's style into his own.

"Broken Arrow is only an hour away." Kade sits down and uses his arm to sweep me onto his lap. As the days and weeks have gone by, he's gotten handsier, as if he was afraid he'd hurt me in the beginning. Now he knows I can take it, and I've learned I like it a little rough—especially when he pins me against a wall and drives into me.

He says I'm the best student a man could ask the Fates for, but I think he's the best teacher. Together, we're near perfect.

"But you're right. I'd miss the meatheads."

"I like your family."

"They're nuts, but yeah, I like them too."

"Is it normal to have twins and triplets in your family?"

"In bear shifters, yes. Most families have at least a set of twins."

I press my hand to my belly, the idea of carrying twins causing my anxiety to spike.

"Hey." He turns my face and presses his lips to mine. "I'm not interested in sharing you anytime soon, and when the time comes, Nan will take excellent care of you."

"It's nice to be part of a family." I kiss him back.

"Yo!" a male voice yells from the first floor, intruding on our moment.

"That would be Karter." Kade grins. "Up here!"

Heavy footsteps climb the stairs and he stops in the threshold of the doorway. "Holy shit, you are beautiful. Kason was right for once."

Kade shakes his head and narrows his eyes. "I know you want to be part of a big family, Dinah, but I'm going to have to kill my brothers."

I giggle, scrambling off his lap so he can stand and wrap his brother—who is almost as tall and wide as him—in a giant bear hug.

"Man, I missed you." Karter exhales a big breath.

"Why? What's going on?"

"Same shit, same wolves, different season." Karter turns to me and offers his hand. "I'm Karter."

"Dinah."

"Welcome to our family, Dinah. We're nuts, but it's too late to back out now. You should have made him introduce you to us before you mated him." He winks, using the same charm Kade uses on me.

"Are you kidding me? She never would have mated me if she'd met you first." Kade playfully pushes Karter back with one hand.

"Yes, I would have." I teasingly smack Kade in the belly.

Kade smiles down at me, his eyes full of love. He's normally a pretty happy man—at least he has been since we were mated—but this is different. It's more. I think we need to come home for visits more often.

"What's going on with the wolves?"

"They want to be in charge." Karter scrubs his hand down his face.

"They? Or he?" Kade arches his brow.

"He. Lucian." Karter shrugs.

Kade exchanges a glance with me and I nod, telling him I'll be fine at home with Pop and Kylian. We'd talked about the possibility of this happening before we left Broken Arrow this morning. "I'll attend the full moon tonight, and see if I can sus out what his problem is."

"Thanks bro, but I have a bigger problem for you to deal with."

"What's that?"

"Where's Kash?"

Kash is their other brother—younger than Kade, but older than Karter—and serving in the military overseas. I glance between Kade and Karter. "I thought he was deployed?"

Kade and Karter stare at each other, and I guess they're doing that telepathic thing shifters do. I stare up at my mate until he turns his eyes to me. "Sorry about that."

He faces his brother. "It's not uncommon to be out of communication for weeks to months at a time while deployed on a mission, but if you haven't heard from him in six months, I'll make a couple of phone calls."

"Thank you." Karter offers me his hand. "Come on, Dinah. Time to introduce you to Pop."

Expect to see plenty of Kade and Dinah in both series, with a few cross-over surprises snuck in!!! I'm so excited!!!