by Amanda Carol
“I know, and I promise. But you have a while.” I sit up, bringing her with me. We both spot Zayne at the same time, talking with Hunter and our friends. “Why don’t you start making the most of it now?”
She smiles. “You know, I think I will. I love you, tootz!”
She hugs me tightly, then gets up, skipping over to Zayne. I watch my best friend run to the love of her life and I watch the love of my life interact with our friends. He spots me, and I’m about to get up from the ground, but Bennett plops down next to me. I look back over at Hunter, and he just smiles and signals for me that it’s okay to stay.
“Hey, Blondie,” Bennett says, nudging me with his shoulder.
“Hi, Benny.” I loop my arm in his and rest my head on his shoulder.
He rests his head on mine, and we sit there for a few minutes together in silence. That’s just the type of friendship we have, and after almost losing him, I’ll cherish every moment that I get with him.
“I heard you, you know,” he finally says.
I pick my head up and turn to look at him. “I’m sorry I never said it sooner.”
Bennett chuckles. “Don’t be sorry.” He pauses for a moment. “We don’t get to choose who our blood relations are. But I do believe friends can be family, and I consider you and Hunter to be mine.”
“When do you leave?” I ask him.
Hunter told me of his plans to take Clyde’s body back to Russia. But we had to make sure Clyde was in a casket before being transported.
He inhales sharply. “I leave on the first flight out in the morning.”
“Are you sure you don’t want company?”
He laughs softly, “Yes, Blondie, I’m sure. You’ve been apart from your mom for too long, and I’m sure you have a lot of catching up to do. Besides, this is just something that I want to do alone.”
I smile at him. “Love you, Benny.”
He scoffs. “Okay, enough of that.”
We both laugh as we see Declan approaching us.
I steal another glance at Hunter and open the link. Will we ever not be interrupted?
Probably not, Hunter replies, and I can see him shaking his head from here.
“I consider Dec and Ciera family too,” Bennett admits softly. “Even Maggie, but don’t tell her I told you that. I have a reputation to uphold.”
He winks as Declan sits down next to me.
“Laters!” Bennett throws up the peace sign, getting up and jogging over to the fire pit.
“Hey, little sister,” Declan says, throwing his arm around me.
“Hey, big brother,” I reply, leaning into him.
“So, I wanted you to be the first to know that Ciera and I are adopting Maggie. I mean, there’s a lot that goes into it, but we will fight like hell to make sure she stays with us since she doesn’t have any other family around. Ciera will be talking to Abby soon to get her advice, since she studied social work.”
I gape at him.
“Yeah. I know. But I really do love that little girl, and I also really love Ciera, so…” He trails off and pulls a tiny box out of his pocket. “What do you think of this?”
He opens it, and inside sits a beautiful diamond ring.
“Holy shit. Are you serious?” I look up at him. “You, the man-whore, are finally settling down?”
He quickly takes the ring back and shoves it back in his pocket. “I know. Crazy, right?”
I look at him for a moment. “Actually, no. I’m proud of us, Declan. Look at everything we’ve been through and how much we’ve grown because of it. We met this incredible group of people who accepted us with open arms. We made new friends, reunited with old ones, and we fell in love. We’ve lost a lot, but we’ve gained so much more.”
I finish that statement just in time to see Maggie running straight for Declan. She wraps her tiny arms around his neck and they both laugh as they fall back on the ground.
“Mags!” Ciera shouts running after her, but she decides to join in on the fun. She plops down next to Declan, and they both tickle Maggie.
“Oh, gosh! Stop! Please stop!” Maggie squeals. “Can we go home now? I’m not tired, but I want to watch cartoons!”
“Sure, Mags,” Declan says as we all get to our feet, then he turns to me, nodding in Hunter’s direction. “I have my happy ending. Now go and get yours, little sister.”
I glance down at Hunter and he’s watching me, his blue eyes piercing my soul. He smiles, revealing the dimples that I love so much.
“You know what? I think I will. Goodnight, little miss!” I touch Maggie’s nose.
“Goodnight, Ar-we-a!” Maggie says.
I watch Declan shift Maggie in his arms, wrapping his free one around Ciera’s shoulders, and smile when he kisses her temple and starts to walk back to their cabin.
I notice that Hunter is finally alone, and I run down to the fire pit, straight into his arms.
“What are you up to?” he asks, his hands dropping low on my waist.
I stare into his blue eyes, weave my fingers through his hair – which is now shaggy again, just how I like it—and I beam up at him.
“Oh, you know, just getting my happily ever after.”
As soon as those words leave my mouth, he crashes his lips against mine, kissing me with a hunger that matches my own. When he pulls back, he rests his forehead against mine.
I feel the tug and open the link.
Come home with me? he asks.
I brush my lips against his. Always.
Six Months Later
I have been in New Orleans for a little over a year now. To say that Hunter and I’s first year together was crazy would be an understatement. It’s also crazy that it’s only been a year.
At eighteen, I lost my heroes. At twenty-one, I met the love of my life, fought a battle to last a lifetime, and watched my brother adopt a beautiful little girl named Maggie and get engaged to the girl of his dreams. But the best gift of all was getting my mother back.
My mom, Declan, and I all went back to Maryland to visit my dad and say one last goodbye to our old lives. The house was packed up, and we moved our mom to Louisiana. It’s been amazing having her back in our lives, catching up on lost time, and just being a family again. My mom loves Maggie to pieces, but that’s not hard to do. She is a princess, after all.
Lydia and my mom have also grown closer, which is really nice. I think it makes it easier for them, since they both lost their husbands. Haku has moved in with Lydia permanently. I know that it won’t be the same for them, but they seem very fond of each other, and Hunter is perfectly fine with it. So needless to say, our little family has grown quite a bit.
Gunner went back to New York City, and to my surprise, Kat went with him. She said she was ready to travel out of the bayou and loved the idea of being in a big city. Although she did live in the Big Easy her whole life. But I think that’s easier for me to say since I’ve been to New York more times than I can count, and in my opinion, it has nothing on New Orleans. Before she left, she told Maggie that Sparkles belongs to her now, though Declan begs to differ, because he’s the one who has to take care of the unicorn.
Since the Alphas stepped down to a Beta role, my ability to communicate with the wolves has expanded. I can now communicate with all wolf shifters. However, I leave all that to Hunter. I only communicate with the whole pack when I need to, but sometimes I’ll check in with the “new” Betas, just to see how they’re doing. I do miss them, and I hope that one day I’ll get to see them again. Hunter and I have been talking about maybe taking a few weeks to travel to visit with each one of them.
Zach, Haylee, Dani, and Kyler left a few days after the Moon Run. It was so nice having them here, but I think they missed home. Haylee and Zach gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Emme Danielle Jacobs. They named her after Haylee’s brother and Zach’s best friend, Emmett Hanks. Emmett was also important in Dani’s story, but fate spoke, and she was meant to be with Kyler.
It’s funny how
fate works, right?
Grace and Knox announced that they’re expecting. Since Knox is a wolf shifter, they already know that it will be a boy. I think that takes away from the joy of finding that out for yourself. But what the hell do I know? The topic of little wolf shifter demigod babies is not happening in the Matthews and St. James household. At least not anytime soon. But, in roughly six months from now, we will have a new shifter baby by the name of Charlie Blaine Carter.
Even though I still get to see Abby, I miss her like crazy. She had her first month in the Underworld, and let me just say, I hated that I couldn’t see or talk to her. She’s here now, but she goes back down there soon, and I’m just not ready for her to leave again. I also hate having to share the time we do have together with Zayne, but I’ll allow it. He makes her over the moon happy, and I’ll gladly give up a night of really trashy TV to let him have time with her. Although, most of the time, she drags him over to our cabin and we all watch the trashy TV together. I don’t think Zayne really cares. He’s just happy to have her in his arms.
But me? I’m twenty-two now. I celebrated my birthday with my family, and I’m not talking about just Declan and my mom. Everyone that I love and care deeply about was there. It felt weird to celebrate so soon after such a tragic event, but like Abby said, “You only die once, but you get to live every day. Celebrate your life and cherish every single moment, because you never know when it’ll be your last.”
So that was what we did.
Ever since then, Hunter and I have been living our lives like a normal couple. Well, normal for us, anyway. We went to the beach, made a fire in the sand, and watched the stars until the sun came up while we listened to the waves crashing on the shore.
We patrol together, protecting our city, and before we come home, we always take a walk on Bourbon Street. He knows I love the music, the lights, the air, and just the feel of the city. I loved Maryland, but New Orleans clawed its way through my heart and latched itself onto my bones. To me, it’s the greatest city in the world.
It’s home.
Speaking of a normal life, Hunter and I have a date tonight. Of course, he said he wanted it to be a surprise, and while I typically hate surprises, when it’s with him, I really don’t care. I check myself out in the mirror, smiling at the woman that I’ve become. She’s happier now, no longer this sad little girl who felt lost.
Wearing a green skater dress with a ruffled sleeve on one arm, I match it with my white Converse. I’m letting my hair fall in soft waves down my back. I told Hunter a couple of weeks ago I should probably cut it, and he got really angry with me. It was kind of cute, actually. His eyes glowed so brightly that I thought for sure NASA would have seen it if we weren’t stuck inside.
I feel the tug and open the link.
Blondie! Come quick! It’s Hunter! Bennett’s panicked voice rings in my head.
I shut the link off and run down the steps so fast that I think I actually might have levitated off the ground for a second.
I open the door and stop dead in my tracks. Bennett is standing there with a single daisy in his hand.
He bows, holding the flower out. “For you, milady.”
I glance up at him, then behind him as he steps aside.
My mouth drops open and tears fill my eyes.
Oh, my God!
Shit, man. I made her cry. Why did I have to be first? Bennett asks.
Because you’re her second-best friend. And because her brother, her mom, and my mom are down here with me, I tell him, then turn off the link.
This is it.
This is the moment that I’ve been secretly planning for about a month. I always knew I was going to marry Aria, but I also knew that I wanted it to be special. I want everything to be special when it comes to my girl, because that’s what she deserves.
She’s the type of girl that loves the simplicity of life. When she loves, she loves fiercely, with all of her heart. I feel incredibly lucky to be on the receiving end of that love. I feel more than lucky, if I’m being honest. She quite literally ran into my life when I needed her the most.
Before I met her, I never really understood the meaning of love. But now I know that love is more than just saying “I love you.” It’s action. It’s the way you kiss, the way you make love, the way you hold the other person’s hand or caress their cheek. It’s when you dry their tears with a kiss and heal their heart with all of the above. It’s going to hell and back to save each other. Aria did that. She saved my life, and I…I saved her from herself.
She held in so much sadness and pain when I first met her, but it never hid her heart, and that’s what I fell in love with. Underneath all that sadness was a girl who needed to grieve, and when she did, she broke free of herself and became the woman I always knew she could be. With each new day, I fall in love with her all over again.
With Aria, everything comes naturally, like breathing. And I want to breathe her in for the rest of my life.
“I’m so happy for you, sweetheart,” my mom leans over and whispers in my ear.
I turn to her and smile. “Happy doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling right now.”
With Haku around, my mom seems less heartbroken. While he will never replace my dad, I know she has a special bond with him. It’s good to see her smile again, and that’s mostly thanks to him and Aria’s mom, Debora.
“Preston would have approved of you very much, Hunter. I can feel it in my heart; he’s proud of her. You are exactly the kind of man he wanted for our little girl.” Debora wipes a tear from her eye as Declan leans over to give her a hug.
“Thank you, Mrs. Matthews. I would have loved to have known him. He sounds like a remarkable man,” I tell her. I know that Aria misses her dad, but he lives on in her and Declan’s memories, and to her, that’s enough.
“Hunter, now that you’re about to be my son-in-law, please call me Debora.” She gives me the “mom” look, the kind that Aria tells me about, but I’ve never seen it…until now.
“Yes, ma’am.” I smile.
I can see where Aria gets her charm from, not to mention her incredible strength and bravery. This woman was tortured, but still, here she stands on the other side of me, with her son, soon-to-be daughter-in-law, and her adopted granddaughter. I think that seeing both of her children so grown up has helped her remember who she was.
“Where is she?” Maggie leans forward and jumps to get a better look.
“She’s coming. Don’t you worry that pretty little head of yours, Mags.” Declan laughs, then picks her up and puts her on his shoulders.
“Oh, I can see her!” Maggie squeals. “She’s so pretty. She’s getting another daisy from Katey and Joey! Oh, she’s got so many. I’m so excited!”
I can’t help but laugh. When Declan was about to propose, Maggie was so excited that she almost gave the surprise away, but in the end, he and the kids pulled it off, and according to Ciera, it was perfect.
But this is my proposal.
I look out in front of me. From our cabin to our spot, the entire Compound is lined up in two single lines leading down to me. Each person has her favorite flower and hands it to her as she walks toward me. Abby and Declan made the twinkling lights together, and Kat—who flew in late last night with Gunner—helped with all the baby’s breath flowers and intricate vines.
They aren’t the only other surprise either. I had our friends from Maryland come in as well. I set them up in a hotel in the Quarter, and sent Bennett along to keep an eye on them. Haylee is holding Emme in her arms as Zach makes funny faces at her, and Kyler has his arm around Dani while they wait.
Caleb, Khari, and Oliver are all here as well. They said that they wouldn’t miss it for the world. Aria and I are their family now. Which is why I wanted to have our moment like this, with our family, even the kind that isn’t blood.
My breath hitches in my lungs.
There she is. My love. My goddess. My Aria.
She’s a true beauty to beh
old, and I’m going to marry her.
She accepts two more daisies from Grace and Knox, giving them each a hug. She hasn’t looked forward yet, but that’s okay. I’ve waited this long; I can wait a few more minutes. She stops in her tracks and starts crying when she spots Haylee with Emme and Zach. It takes everything in me not to go to her, but I wait. I watch her gracefully keep moving down the line, her bouquet of daisies getting bigger with every person she greets. She looks down at Emme and smiles, then gives Zach and Haylee a hug and moves on to Dani and Kyler. Dani wipes a tear from her cheek and says something that makes her laugh.
I just want her in my arms, but I’m letting her savor this moment and feel the love that she gives so freely coming back to her. She spots Kat and Gunner next, completely surprised to see them too. Kat hugs her tightly, then Gunner. Next is Oliver, who lifts her up and spins her around in a circle. He kisses her cheek, then sets her back down. If I wasn’t about to propose, I probably would have marched my ass over there and clocked him, but I know better. She’s mine. Always has been and always will be. Khari bows, and places his forehead against hers, probably using the link to tell her something. She smiles brightly at him and nods. I vaguely wonder what he said, but it was for her, and she can tell me if she wants to.
“Hunter!” Maggie whisper-shouts. “You gotta go to the bridge!”
I snap out of my thoughts and realize that she’s about to cross the bridge in a few moments.
I feel an arm on my shoulder and turn to see Abby.
“Do you have the ring?” she asks.
I pat my pockets. “Of course I do…”
My eyes widen and my heart starts racing when I can’t feel the tiny black box. I know I put it in my pocket when I came down here.
Abby starts to giggle, and I narrow my eyes at her.
“This isn’t funny!” I whisper loudly.
She holds up the black box, and I shoot her a look, but I feel relief wash over me.
I lift a brow. “Did you pick my pocket?”
She winks and laughs. “I totally picked your pocket.”
