Epilogue

Gracie

Ryan had been displaced for three weeks exactly.

When we got to Ryan"s apartment complex and checked things out, we hadn"t expected to find anything. We"d been very wrong. Carson had laid out an intricate system of explosives throughout the electrical panel and Chief was not taking any chances with it. Not that I blamed him when his daughter and her mate lived there too.

A team from Westin Force highly skilled in explosives was brought in to comb every inch of the building before he and Ryan were convinced it was safe to return.

In those three weeks, Ryan and I did a bit of talking, negotiating, arguing, and conceding that resulted in lots and lots of fabulous makeup sex. Who knew that makeup sex would be so much fun?

Since the moment Carson was taken into custody, Ryan and I had practically been inseparable. I had to admit that a few of the guys had gotten into my head with concerns about his job and wanting me to be this perfect image of a mayor"s wife. Luckily for me, that wasn"t the case at all.

After I"d yelled at him and flown away that day at the evacuation shelter, he"d been approached by six Grimes women. And while he"d confessed to believing they wanted him because I"d made him seem more approachable, he also humbly conceded to how very wrong he"d been. They weren"t after him, they wanted to be like me.

I supposed the coolest part about that was that he"d been able to see me in a different light and recognize my gift as valuable and heroic instead of terrifyingly reckless as he"d once thought.

We still had our shit to deal with and life with Ryan was never going to be easy all the time. While he prided himself on order, I struggled to keep to his standards. But both of us were learning to be flexible enough to handle it and overcome those type of obstacles.

I had learned that his job was far more demanding of his time and attention than I even imagined, but when I was on call, I was tied to my phone even more than him. He was learning to set boundaries with people and keeping work confined to work hours unless there was a true emergency. And I was learning to also let go of work and focus on us when I was off the clock.

There may be a lot of things we seemed to be complete opposites about, but our work ethic was not one of them. It had given us a firm foundation to start, and as we got to really know one another more and more each day, we were finding all sorts of new areas we were alike.

"Babe, are you home?" Ryan yelled when he walked into the house.

At first, he had been so quiet around the house, almost like a mouse at times, but I"d definitely rubbed off on him in that department.

I walked out of the bathroom and went to greet him with open arms.

"I missed you."

This was the longest we"d been apart since he moved in with me—temporarily, of course. But he"d had meetings all day and I"d had the day to myself. Well, almost. I"d gone to The Diner for a late lunch with Gia and Kim after their rush hour passed.

They were the best, and Gia was working on a new plan: Project Get Him to Mark Me.

I wasn"t really in any hurry though. Ryan Davenport was mine. He knew it. I knew it. Hell, the whole town knew it. The rest would work itself out in time.

As I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my lips to his, my soon-to-be sisters were long forgotten.

"I"m sorry my meeting ran late. We can cancel on Aunt Ginny"s garden party tonight."

"No, not again. Andrew gave me shit at the firehouse all week for cancelling on game night last week. If he hears that we skipped out on this too . . . well, I don"t want to deal with that again."

Ryan looked almost pained as he scowled at me and then looked at his watch and then back at me.

"Screw it. We"re going to be late though."

"Ryan," I started to protest, but he cut me off by slipping his tongue into my mouth and kissing me deeply.

How was a girl to say no to that?

I sighed in resolution as he pushed my dress up to my waist and discovered I was almost bare, hot and ready for him. My intention had been to tell him later and drive him nuts during the event to ensure we would be home early.

He cursed against my lips as I set to work removing his tie. His shirt, tie, and undershirt were thrown around the room, but he barely managed to get his pants pulled down before he was taking me fast and furiously up against the wall.

Hot damn! I hoped this passion between us never died down. I couldn"t get enough of my handsome man, and I secretly loved that the picture-perfect poster boy of a mayor only ever lost his composure with me.

"Tell me you want this."

"Of course I want this. Faster," I managed to say, feeling my body tensing as I neared orgasm.

"No, all of this. Me, you, this, everything, for the rest of our lives. Tell me you want it all with me."

Tears pricked my eyes. "There"s nothing I want more than that."

I didn"t think he could possibly understand how much I wanted that, no, needed it. I craved a family again. Mine had been ripped from me at such a young age, but I was old enough to remember how happy we"d been and all the good times we'd had.

"I want a life and a family with you. Someday," I confessed. "I"m happy to just keep practicing for now."

He kissed me again and grinned.

"We still have some things to work out."

He hit just the right spot and I cried out in pleasure. Why the hell were we talking right now? What had we been talking about? Oh yeah, I vaguely remembered.

"I"ll never be perfect. Therefore, we"ll never be perfect, so there will always be something to work out."

My words were coming out breathier by the second.

"I don"t need perfect, Gracie. I just need you. Will you have me?"

"Pretty sure I"m giving myself to you right now," I muttered.

He laughed. I was on my way to seeing stars and he was laughing?

"I love you, Gracie Montgomery Davenport."

I gasped as he added his last name to mine, and then I felt the bite as he sank his beak into my neck.

"Yes!" I cried out, calling on my raven to bite him back before he could change his mind.

In that moment, my whole world shattered around me as I came in an Earth-shaking orgasm and felt him let go too.

I clung to him with tears streaming down my face.

Mine!my raven cawed.

For one perfect moment I was entirely at peace, a level of perfection I never dreamed I"d achieve. It felt oddly like resurrecting. I was shedding Gracie Montgomery and being reborn as Gracie Davenport. And it made me feel whole in a way I couldn"t even put into words.

As my beak receded and he broke his grasp on me, allowing me to slide down the wall until my feet hit the floor, I just stared at him in complete awe.

"You're stuck with me now."

"Always and forever."

"I love you, Ryan."

"I love you too, Gracie."

He picked me up and gently carried us back to my bedroom.

Our bedroom, I thought.

"Wait," I said. "You can"t do this to me again. We have forever to be together. We are going to that party tonight."

He chuckled. "I know. I just need to get dressed first and you might want to fix your hair and touch up your makeup."

"What, you don't want everyone knowing you came home and ravished me tonight?"

"Oh, I want the whole world to know that. I"m ready to fly around and scream it from the sky so all of Ravenden knows that you are mine."

I sighed. "I am, aren"t I?"

"Yes Mrs. Davenport. Now, final call, go or no go."

Huffing, I rolled my eyes. "Go."

He dressed in a dashing black tux complete with a bow tie. He was so handsome that I nearly retracted my insistence to go to this thing at all.

On the drive over, I reached for his hand. "Maybe we only need to stay a few minutes."

He chuckled. "Yes, ma"am."

Arriving, he parked, and then jumped out and ran around to open the door for me and offer his hand before the valet could do it.

"Ready?" he asked.

I"d never attended one of Ginny Davenport"s notorious garden parties, but I"d certainly heard enough about them. I had this unfounded fear that I wouldn"t know anyone there. That was dumb because I knew just about everyone in Ravenden.

Tonight, I would stand there and smile and play the part of Ryan"s new arm candy. Though I supposed new wasn"t the right word as he"d never been one to escort women around in public before.

And now there would never be another,I thought to myself, unable to hide the smile from my face.

Helena and Edward came to greet us almost immediately. His parents were warm and welcoming to me, and I hated knowing they hadn"t initially been so kind to Kim. It made me understand just a bit of why Carson had done what he"d done. But then again, life wasn"t always fair, and we could learn to live with that fact, or we could spend life jaded and angry.

I knew better than most how hard life could be. There was nothing fair about a young girl losing her parents so suddenly. But instead of wallowing in self-pity, I chose to move forward. It wasn"t always easy, but now that I had Ryan in my life things were certainly looking up.

Ryan excused himself for a moment, leaving me with a quick kiss. Gia was quick to swoop in and rescue me. Kim and Dean soon followed.

"What are you grinning at?" Gia asked him.

"Nothing really. It"s just nice to see Ryan so happy."

"Nothing, huh. Well just think about this. I"m mated, Elias is mated, and now Ryan"s mated. Guess that just leaves you. Looks like your turn at happiness is coming next, little brother."

His jaw dropped, and then he scowled before walking away in a huff.

The three of us cracked up laughing.

"You guys aren"t going to miss game night this week, right?" Kim asked.

I rolled my eyes. "We"ll be there. Andrew will never let me live it down otherwise."

As the girls started to talk and make plans, I looked at them both and bit my lip to keep from crying. I didn"t just have Ryan in my life, but sisters and brothers too. It was more than I"d ever hoped for. I had a true family once more.

*****