“I’m so sorry,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I didn’t know.”
“Shhh,” her mother said. “It’s okay. Your father and I are together and happy. We all made mistakes. We should have let you live your own life. We should have seen that you were a grown woman.”
“What am I going to do without you?” she cried out, reaching for her mother.
“I’ll always be with you, Lynette; your father and I will look after you,” she said. “You should leave Serendipity; let it heal. Use that last spell I taught you and then go out and see the world. Serendipity will always be here waiting for you and my grandchild to come back; its magic will always belong to you, and those that come after you.”
Her mother began to fade away, and she wanted to beg her to stay. “I’ll always be with you, Lynette, watching over you and loving you,” she said before she disappeared completely.
Lynette waited for the pain to come, but it didn’t. Instead, she felt warm all over, like her mother was hugging her, and the room filled with the scent of her father’s pipe smoke. She looked over at the bed, surprised to find Derek awake and watching her, so she crawled back into bed.
“Was it your mother or your father?” he asked.
“My mom,” she said, snuggling down into his arms. “I’ll tell you about it in the morning.”
Epilogue
Lynette stood on the bluff above Serendipity, Derek on one side, Tim on the other. It looked so empty and forlorn, not a soul moving about, no campers scurrying to and from activities. It made her heart hurt to see it that way, but she knew that her mother was right.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Tim asked, his face full of sadness. “It won’t be the same without it.”
“It’s the way it has to be for now,” she said, taking Tim’s hand, then Derek’s. “Serendipity’s stained with my parent’s blood, and only time will cleanse it away.”
She looked over at Derek, who nodded, then closed her eyes and began to recite the spell her mother had taught her. Pulling on all the magic inside her, she felt her connection to the valley beginning to weaken and heard Tim gasp. The spell complete, she opened her eyes to see the buildings scattered around the valley begin to fade, then completely disappear from sight.
The lodge was the last to go, and she felt its loss the most profoundly, knowing that she might never again see the pictures of her great-grandparents or hear their voices whispering in her head. But then she noticed that the firepit in front of the lodge was still there: one small piece of Serendipity remained, a reminder that someday it would return.
She turned to Tim. “Take good care of Serendipity. I hope we’ll see each other again one day.”
Tim enveloped her in a huge hug, then broke away when Derek cleared his throat. “I’ll always love you, Lynette,” he said. “But I do hope that you’ll be happy.”
They watched him walk off, his head held high, then turned to each other. “Well, you’re a free woman, Lynette. Where would you like to go first?”
“I think I’d like to go see my soon-to-be step-son and tell him that he’s going to have a little brother or sister soon,” she said, grinning up at Derek, then bursting into laughter when his face went blank.
“A baby?” he asked.
She nodded. “A girl.”
He grabbed her and swung her around, then set her on her feet. “Have I told you how much I love you?” he asked.
“If it’s half as much as I love you, then it’s a lot,” Lynette said, grinning up at him.
As they walked away, Lynette turned and looked back at the valley, which looked like any other now. “I’ll just picture it sleeping,” she said, smiling up at Derek. “Slumbering away until the day it’s time for it to awaken again. Sleep well, Serendipity.”
Want to read more ?
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WHAT’S NEXT IN THIS SERIES
A shifter betrayed by family…
A girl caught in a web of lies…
They can run from the truth, but it will find them.
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Also By Serena Meadows
Daddy Wolves of the Wild Series
Mountain Wolf’s Nanny (Book1)
Mountain Wolf’s Curse (Book2)
Mountain Wolf Playboy (Book3)
Mountain Wolf’s Courage (Book4)
Dragons Secret Society Series
A sinister mastermind and his coven of witches are determined to annihilate the world’s shifters, once and for all. Facing impossible opposition, courageous alphas and their clans fight claw and fang to protect their innocent kin. But the only antidote to death is new life, and the only force greater than evil, is love. In this heart-stopping series, virile alphas and their men must learn to seduce instead of slaughter and bare their hearts along with their weapons.
Dragon’s First Shift (Book1)
Dragon’s Forbidden Mate (Book2)
Dragon’s Flame (Book3)
Dragon’s Prophecy (Book4)
Dragons Secret Society Box Set
Wolves of Gypsum Creek Series
The tiny town of Gypsum Creek is home to a high number of brooding, sexy-as-sin men that disappear with each full moon. The heroes in this boxset of steamy, standalone stories will get your heart racing…and tongue wagging. But you’d better watch out. The howling has started, and no lady is safe when the wolves of Gypsum Creek go on the hunt.
Third Time a Charm (Book1)
Triumph (Book2)
Young Love (Book3)
Restoration (Book4)
Her White Wolf (Book5)
Wolves of Gypsum Creek Box Set
Fairplay Shifters Series
Sexy shifters who desire more than power… Bold, sassy witches who want to take control of their own lives… What is stronger: love, or the forces of darkness that threaten to destroy everything they hold dear?
Justin (Book1)
Jake (Book2)
Quinten (Book3)
Steven (Book4)
Dalton (Book5)
Daniel (Book6)
FairPlay Shifters Box Set (Books 1-6)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Serena Meadows has always been obsessed with writing short stories since she was in junior high school. She writes paranormal romance stories of all types but writing about sexy steamy alpha shifters is her passion. She lives in Denver with her two dogs. On her downtime (which is rare), she enjoys hiking and camping in the mountains or riding her bike with her own alpha male to keep her safe and warm. Typically she enjoys an evening curled up buried in a good book or watching Netflix. She also enjoys time with good friends.
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Serena Meadows
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