The crowd cheers: “CARRIE! CARRIE! CARRIE!”
“To Grayling’s new alpha!” Jason shouts above the fray. “To my mate!”
Epilogue: Jason
“That’s a good haul, huh?” I squint at the net full of salmon and Jack nods, grinning.
“Damn good haul,” Jack says.
We’ve been out on the boat all day. It’s only the third time I’ve been out fishing. I usually haul cargo at the docks. But Jack said he’d give me a shot.
Never in a million years did I picture myself, a Hardwidge wolf, out on a boat.
It’s not so bad though. It feels really satisfying when a good haul comes in and I like the taste of the water in the air.
The winter was harsh and yet with Carrie as the new alpha, I think everybody felt a little warmer. It’s been a few months and now Remmy seems like a far away nightmare. She’s really settled in to her place and the town feels so much lighter now.
Now spring is bringing a little more sunshine.
The boat’s coming in at the dock and as the fog begins to clear, I see Lorna waiting ashore, swinging around a wooden post, her little pink backpack on her shoulders. She sees me and waves wildly and I laugh and wave back. I didn’t expect to see her at the end of the day.
Lorna waits patiently as the boat docks and I greet the guys at the dock. It’s usually me there bringing the hauls in. I feel like I could go either way. But it’s been nice learning new things and making money that doesn’t come from brutal fights.
I take off my work gloves and stick them in my back pocket as I swagger up to Lorna. “Hey, girl.” I tousle her hair and she laughs and makes a face at me. “You smell like fish!”
“How rude!” I laugh and pick her up and she squeals and climbs around me so I have to give her a piggyback ride. “Whattaya doin’ here?” I carry her back over to Jack who nods hello at Lorna and hands me a small wad of cash for the day.
“I’m coming from school!”
“Oh yeah. Of course.”
“Are we going to the diner?” Lorna says over my shoulder.
“Yep.” She rides on my back as we make our way down the street, passing everyone else going about their day which means I have to say hello to seemingly dozens of people because I’m the alpha’s mate and anyone who didn’t know me before, now definitely knows me.
I’ve never been so genuinely liked in my life. It’s been a shock.
It takes us forty-five minutes for a ten-minute walk because I keep getting pulled aside for chit chat and questions and compliments to give to Carrie. And then everyone has to say hello to Lorna who wants to talk to everybody herself.
My back is aching when we finally get to the diner and I grumble and stretch when I let her down to the ground before we go in.
Carrie still works part-time at the diner and I still work part-time at Casey’s because I like it there. Once Remmy was gone, the economy of The Ring went with him. That means a whole lot of erased debt. It also meant that Remmy’s money was up for grabs. Some was split between his men, many of whom left for other packs, the others agreeing not to put up a fight against Carrie. The rest of the money, and there was a lot of it was put in a fund. Most of it goes to help out the shifters of Grayling if they need it for something dire. Some is going to fight the hunters in the woods. Some is going into the town itself. I don’t have much to do with that. Carrie’s the one with the big ideas. She asks me what I think and I tell her but, and this is shocking considering where I started from, I’m happy to be the man that supports this woman. It doesn’t hurt that when it’s just the two of us, she looks at me like I hung the moon and stars.
Right now, Carrie isn’t working. Or rather, she isn’t working for money. She’s holding court in the diner. It’s her spot for handling alpha business. She’s in her usual round booth in the corner with a coffee and a piece of pie and a notebook in front of her. Everyone knows if you need to come to Carrie about anything, you go to the diner on Tuesday or Thursday between four and eight.
“Hey look, it’s my favorite little wolfies,” Carrie says as we climb into the booth.
“Pie!” Lorna grabs for the plate of apple pie and starts eating it with her hands which makes me laugh rather than correct her but Carrie bats her hands and gives her a fork, clucking her tongue.
“How’s business?” I say, before leaning into kiss Carrie hello.
Carrie hums against my mouth and holds me close for a beat so that I wish we were alone, but too soon she pulls away again. She leans up against me and I steal a sip of her coffee.
“Not bad,” she says. “No hunting incidents in what?”
“About two months,” I tell her.
“There ya go.” I kiss her hair. “Good job, alpha.”
“Some people are still grumbling about wanting to bring The Ring back,” she says, rolling her eyes.
“Well, you couldn’t assume everyone will fall in love,” I say, throwing an arm around her shoulders. “I wouldn’t worry. They’ll get used to the new ways. Hell, maybe you should do something new with that space. Turn it into a comedy club or something or something.”
“A comedy club!” Carrie about shrieks, snorting a laugh. “What?”
“Well, I don’t know,” I say, blushing a little. “I’ve been watching a lot of stand-up comedy on TV lately. Maybe like a venue though. Music or...something. Shifter bands.”
“Are there shifter bands around here?” Carrie says wryly.
“I guess you don’t know until you ask,” I say, shrugging. “Hey, you know who does play guitar is Ray?”
“Oh, how is Ray?” Carrie says.
I would know better than anyone. He’s been working part-time at the docks, and I’ve been showing him the ropes. Meanwhile he takes classes too, working his way through school. The pack community fund paid his mother’s medical bills and he’s long since recovered from his imprisonment under Remmy. On top of that, he plays guitar. If I’m honest, I kind of look up to Ray.
“Ray’s good,” I say casually. “He’s always horrified that I don’t know anything about music. Keeps making me listen to all these bands with weird names like The Rolling Stones.”
“You are adorable.” Carrie laughs at that and kisses me again. The server comes back to say hello and take orders. I get us fries and shakes which Carrie says will spoil our dinner. But I’m planning on taking her on a run and a hunt later. I don’t think anything could spoil that.
“Oh!” Carrie bites her lip and gives me a funny look that I can’t read. “I have something for you. Came this morning.”
She reaches into her purse and pulls out an envelope. I can’t imagine who’s sending me mail.
But then I see the name on the return address.
Alice Tremblay.
“Oh…”
Lorna is busy drawing on the placemat and Carrie sees that I want to read this now and fixates on her phone. I swallow and rip open the letter.
The letter is type written which seems fancy to me somehow though I’m guessing most people type letters and that I’m weird and old fashioned. She tells me right away that she’s glad I wrote her. I don’t take that to mean anything good or bad. She could be glad so that she has a chance to tell me off which would be fair. She does tell me off in the letter. Or rather she tells me all the things she’s thought about me and it’s nothing much worse than what I thought about myself when I was sitting in that cell in the Mulligan. But she also tells me, she thinks I mean what I say and she’s glad for it. She doesn’t know if she forgives me but she’d like to. She thinks I’m on a good path to being a good man. She accepts my apology and maybe someday in the future we can talk more. I don’t get the sense she means anytime soon. But it’s better than anything I expected. After a few weeks, I didn’t think that she’d write back at all.
But she accepted my apology. That’s good. I’ll take that.
“Good letter?” Carrie says, trying so hard to sound casual.
I nod at her. “Yeah. Goo
d letter.”
She looks at me a long time, so long I almost feel uncomfortable but then she turns her head and kisses me long and slow. “What?” I whisper.
“Nothing,” she says, as I pull her closer. “You look happy.”
“I am happy,” I say, sitting back holding my girl, my alpha, my mate. “I’m home.”
Afterword
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Check out Aaron’s Mate, the first book of the Quinton Shifters Series.
Aaron always followed pack rules…until he didn’t.
Rule#1: Fealty to pack
Rule #2: Loyalty to clan
Rule#3: Avoid humans
Aaron spent years resisting the charms of the human woman, Michelle.
Then, resisting her became impossible.
But…
Shifters don’t fall in love with humans.
And…
Shifters can’t get humans pregnant.
When a night of shared passion proves both these to be fallacies,
Aaron has a new problem on his hands.
To keep her, he must challenge his pack, his clan, his alpha and centuries of tradition.
He'll fight to the death to protect both his child and his woman,
But can their love survive with all odds stacked against them?
Warning: Intended for mature adults 18 and over!
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About the Author
Abigail is a very romantic and open minded lady. She writes mainly Paranormal Shifter Romance and Contemporary Romance. She loves spending time with her 2 finicky cats, her 2 shy dogs (they are twin sisters) and her husband. She lives in Lewisville, Texas and LOVES it there!
Check out other books in the series by clicking on the covers.
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Copyright © 2018 by Abigail Raines
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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