Ascendant (The Shift Chronicles Book 4)

by Eva Truesdale

  “You never used to think it was adorable when I worried about you like this,” he says, yawning as he leans back, crossing his hands behind his head and resting on them.

  “That’s because I wasn’t a three-and-a-half-year-old at any point during our relationship.”

  “Touché,” he laughs, and I do too.

  “And for what it’s worth, I was glad you did all of that worrying, in the end.” I draw my knees up against my chest and rest my chin on them. “I might not still be here, otherwise.”

  I can feel him staring at me, and even after all these years together, it still makes my cheeks feel warm. “I have a feeling you would have made it, with or without me,” he says. “Because you’re stubborn like that.”

  I glance back and give him a small smile. “You know you love me for it.”

  “It’s one reason, maybe.” He’s quiet for a moment. “It’s not the only reason.”

  “Feel free to start listing reasons. I’m listening.”

  “What makes you think there’s an entire list?” he teases. “I think all of that Mother Alpha stuff has finally gotten to your head.”

  I lay back beside him, propping myself up on one elbow and turning my body toward his. “Or maybe it’s just your arrogance rubbing off on me after all of this time?”

  He pretends to think about it for a moment, and I pretend I really care about his answer, when really all I’m doing is getting lost in the way the sky is reflecting in his eyes.

  “You might be right,” he says after a moment, still staring at that sky. “I think I’ve ruined you.”

  “I think so, too,” I say, still staring at him. “And I doubt I’ll ever recover.”

  He smiles, his eyes closing as a few brighter rays of sun peak through the clouds and flood over the beach. “I’ll spend the rest of our lives trying to make it up to you, if you want,” he replies after a minute.

  “The rest of our lives, huh?”

  “Why not?”

  “Why not…” I laugh. “That’s an incredible line. Vanessa would be so proud—all of her romantic coaching is finally paying off after all these years.”

  He rocks himself back into a sitting position and then turns to me, squinting in the sunlight. His smile quirks in a way that’s almost mischievous.

  I arch an eyebrow, and my voice is playfully suspicious when I say, “You look like you’re scheming something.”

  “I was just thinking.”

  “Thinking?”

  “Something’s missing,” he says. “You have the ring, but...”

  “But…?” My hand reaches for said ring, still hanging in its place around my neck.

  “But there’s something else you’re still waiting for, right?”

  “What are you talking about, you crazy man?”

  Instead of answering me, he hops to his feet and walks down toward the water, searching the sand for something as he goes. I watch him in an amused, dubious kind of way, until he finds what he was apparently looking for—a small, narrow strip of driftwood which, after rigorous testing, appears to hold up well when he uses it to draw in the pebbly sand. He works at that drawing for a minute or two before stepping back to observe it.

  With that dubious smile still on my face, I slowly get up and walk down to observe it myself. He’s written one big word in the sand:

  FOREVER

  Below it are two boxes, one for ‘yes’, and one for ‘no’.

  “There,” he says, tossing the wood aside and brushing the sand from his hands. “There’s that note you wanted a few years ago. Now you finally get to check a box.”

  I stare at it for a moment, unsure whether to laugh again or to cry happy, silly tears.

  “You are the world’s biggest dork,” I say.

  “Ahem,” he replies, clearing his throat and pointing at the boxes. And suddenly I’m both laughing and crying as I kneel down to the boxes—laughing so hard that my check mark for ‘yes’ ends up a bit messy.

  “Terribly messy,” Kael informs me.

  “It still counts. Messy or not.”

  He nods in an official sort of way. “It’s settled, then,” he says.

  Then he pulls me to my feet and he kisses me, and there’s nothing on my heart except us and our yes and the sunny sky and cool breeze.

  And in this moment, it all feels perfect.

  The End

  Afterword

  Thank you, thank you, thank you readers! If you’re here, it means you followed Alex’s story all the way to the end (I’m assuming), and I couldn’t be more grateful that you took the time to read my stories. I hope you had fun. You’re awesome. If you want to be even MORE awesome (if that’s possible), you could click here to go back to book one and leave a quick review to help new readers find and pick up this series. It doesn’t have to be super long! And I’d really appreciate it.

  So, what’s next for me? Writing more books, of course! I also write epic fantasy under the name S.M. Gaither, and I’ll be releasing a few books under that name in Fall of 2017 and beyond. Look me up if that’s what you’re into.

  BUT more importantly for Shift Chronicles fans, I think, is the other series I’ll be releasing this fall (under this pen name)! Want to know more? You can start by clicking here and catching up with Kael and Alex in this free short story—a story which also serves as an introduction to the new series! Yay!

  That’s all for now—thanks again for reading!