Epilogue

Bessi

One Year Later...

Watching the campers frolic and swim on the shores of Camp Midnight Storm is the best way to spend a hot, sticky afternoon. Lying on the sand, I laugh as I watch Skunk chasing a cute new bear shifter he has had his eye on since the start of camp. I think they're mates, but he has been shy about it whenever I mention her.

Seeing him grow into the confident, strong, proud bear shifter he has become has been so rewarding. He was a no brainer to be the first member of our pack. He is a great enforcer, and he loves it here in Moon Haven with us. We all live on the Whispering Pines, in cabins spread over several hundred acres of pack owned land.

We started building this dream place before camp even ended last summer. Skunk was thrilled to be asked to stay with us and single handedly finished two of the cabins we've built on the land. Since we began the pack, we've added just two members. Twin brothers Jacob and Jeremih, two wolf shifters.

Laughing as I watch them dunking each other in the water, I welcome the warm, motherly glow that burns inside my chest. These boys, they're my family. I love them as a mother would. The twins came to town lost last winter, seeking refuge from rogue wolves who had been chasing them for months. They have more than shifter abilities, something that was new to us.

My brother-in-law--the warlock--Gareth, explained that some of the supernatural's of this world have multiple abilities. They're considered special or strange, and often get cast out due to these powers. The twins can both read minds which made them outcasts from the pack they were born into.

"Other packs seek them out. To use them for these abilities. They often spend their lives as nomads. It is good they came here, to you. Your pack is a perfect fit for them, I think."

My husband agreed with the warlock, and we held a ceremony just after the holidays for them to join the pack. It was one of several ceremonies we held with our new pack. The first was, of course, our wedding. We went back to the clearing where we first met to exchange our vows.

Both of my sisters were there of course, as well as Gareth, Skunk, and a few campers. Just the people who mattered to us. Beneath a full moon, we said the vows we had written to express our love to each other. We then spoke some Gaelic words, ones other shifters often use in their wedding ceremonies.

It was beautiful. We all danced and ate and drank beneath the moon until the sun came up. We shifted as a pack for the first time, Luci and Cari watching in awe. To join us on a run through the woods, Luci's husband wove his own magic, making them wolves for the night just so we could celebrate together.

"Think it is time for a visit from your sisters, sunshine."

Blinking in the sunshine, I hold my hand up to block out the sun as a shadow looms over me. My heart double times in my chest as it always does. My mate. My husband. My lover. Edon stares down at me with love shining in his gray eyes, a smile at his face.

"I am sorry. I just miss them sometimes."

"Do not be sorry. I know when you miss them, love. I feel all that you do. They should be here with you now," he adds as he sits down beside me, moving his big hand to my very round belly.

We're due for two pups in just a few weeks. I thought we might wait a while to have our own, since we kind of have a handful with our new little pack. Guess mother nature had other ideas. I was thrilled when I found out we were pregnant. Even more excited to find out it was twins. They will get to experience this magical world together and have their first shifts with each other.

"It will be soon, yes," I murmur as I lay back on the warm sand, sighing as he rubs my distended belly.

"I will call Gareth to bring Luci."

Smiling, I nod as I snuggle into his side under the warm sun. We're not far from the little cottage I used to share with Luci and Cari. But it's not the same as before, of course. Luci is with Gareth up on the mountain the same as I am with Edon. I often have Cari come to stay at the cabins on our compound because I hate her being alone. Gareth promised she won't be alone for long, even though he refuses to tell me or Luci anything more than that.

Our life sure got weird fast. Luci is married to a powerful warlock who adores her with his every breath. They have a little baby boy who is as charming and magical as his father. I fell in love with a shifter who turned me into a wolf. Now I am about to have his pups even as I act as Luna to our pack members. There is a lot of magic in our lives, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

"Cari is here now," Edon tells me, nuzzling my neck where his mark shines on my skin. "Showed up to her favorite cabin a few hours ago. It was meant to be a surprise, but I figure you could read it all over me. Surprise." He hums the word teasingly, kissing the branding mark on my skin.

Smiling, I nod. Yes, I suspected they were up to something. With me so close to giving birth, he has been in constant contact with both of my sisters. How he takes care of me, acts as a strong, wise Alpha to our pack, and makes time for his campers, I have no idea. My husband can do it all and he does it proudly, with a smile on his face and joy in his eyes.

Glancing down at him in the buttery sunlight, I sigh. The mark at his neck, the one I put there the first night I shifted, shimmers back at me. It is proof to anyone who looks that he is taken. That he is mine. I am still learning about this world, but this is one thing I understand and one thing I adore. That mark reminds me that I am not alone, that I never have to be alone again.

Just as I start to suggest we go for a run, I feel a kick in my stomach. Then another. Oh boy. It's time, I think.

"No shifting now, my love. Time to bring our pups home."

"Yes, it is. I love you, Edon," I whisper as he bends to nuzzle his nose against mine.

"And I adore you, my love. My mate. My Luna. My entire world. You changed my whole life the day you came snooping around the camp, sweetheart. I love you so much. You made me a man. You made me a husband. An Alpha to a pack I am so proud to call mine. And now…now I will get to be a father. I might be the Alpha, but sunshine, you're the world. The sun, the moon. You're the entire world to us."

I would wax poetic and tell him how he helped me find myself once I let myself listen to that little voice in my head. The wild creature inside of me wanted to get out. The wolf who I adore, who adores his wolf and even now, vibrates with love for him. I would say all of this and tell him how proud he has made me as he took the lead of our pack and became what he was meant to.

Yeah I could say all of that--but instead, I say nothing. Because he hears it. He feels it. Which means he feels our pups coming. Scooping me up, he shouts at the others and races towards our cabin. I know when I get there my sisters will be there. Gareth will see to it. Skunk and the Twins will be there, and I will be surrounded by love as I bring our children into the world.

I hate to cut the campers' day short, but they don't seem to mind. They're excited about the pups coming. Some of them have never been around newborns. They rush back to camp to update the others, with promises to be back once the babies are born. I can just smile.

Camp Midnight Storm is a special place for very special people. It is the place these magical creatures get to be free. Where they get to find out how to welcome their wild, how to run free, and how to be part of a family. This camp gives the campers so much.

It gave me my husband, it gave me Skunk and the twins. It gave me a part of me I might never have found. My wild. It gave me this new family and I am so blessed. I look forward to many more summers at the camp with all sorts of shifters and young creatures searching for something.

I was not searching for anything when I found this place. But still, Camp Midnight Storm gave me everything.