Epilogue
I watched her expression transform from confusion to complete delight, and that’s all it took for my heart to trip faster. I wasn’t sure how long it would take for my body to calm down in her presence or to stop reacting when she entered a room, but I hoped it never did.
“It’s the same flower on my teacup, isn’t it?” she guessed correctly as she leaned over to sniff the blooming pink flowers.
“Yes. It’s called the desert rose.” I watched her, sitting on our new sofa in our new house on Camp Street, admiring the potted plant I’d given her. “It grows in Amarillo where I lived and in the cemetery where my mom is buried.”
She looked up with those wide, enchanting eyes.
“And the scent has always reminded me of you,” I added. She blinked away the glassiness of tears before they fell.
“Well, I’m not like my Aunt Isadora. I don’t have a green thumb, but I will take precious care of this one.”
She picked it up and set it in the window, then walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Thank you for such a sweet gift.”
I kissed her, soft at first, but then she touched her tongue to my lips, and that was all it took for me to bury my fingers in her hair and kiss her hard, delving deep.
Knock, knock, knock. We both jumped.
“My parents,” she said. “Your parents?”
“They wanted to wish us well on our first night in our new house.” But when I opened the door, it wasn’t just her parents. Diego,
Joaquin, Zack, Bowie, and Samara stepped in before them.
“Hey, man.” Diego clapped me on the shoulder, a twelve-pack of bottled Abita Amber in the other hand.
“Damn, Ronan! This place is nice ,” said Zack with a grin, also carrying beer.
“Sweet,” said Bowie behind him. “Nice place for parties.”
“There will be no parties,” said Celine in her matter-of-fact tone that made me want to shoo them all out of our house so I could get her naked in our bedroom. I’d been planning to tonight, but now we had all these people here.
Samara squealed and hugged Celine, whispering to her, “Have you two christened every room yet?”
“ Samara. ” Celine swatted her away.
She giggled as she walked off with some kind of chocolate dessert.
Joaquin carried a platter of what looked like his famous brisket sandwiches. He simply nodded and said, “I’ll put these in the kitchen. ”
“I thought we were keeping it just us for the housewarming,” I whispered down to Celine, who curled an arm around my waist.
She shrugged. “You’re a part of a much larger family now, babe. This is what they do. Invade your space. With food and love.”
She smiled brightly, and I wasn’t sure if it was that or the words she’d said that made my heart flutter.
“ Babe? Awww. Y’all are so cute,” said her mom, Evie, as she gave me a kiss on the cheek, carrying in another covered dish. “Aunt Jules sent over her crawfish macaroni and cheese.” Then she gasped. “Oh, Celine! It’s gorgeous. Come and give me the tour.”
I closed the door behind Mateo, who was last to enter. “Hello, Ronan.”
He’d become much more accepting of my presence, especially after what had happened with Baron and his teammates. I was afraid he would blame me for getting her into that mess, like I did myself for a while until Dr. Theriot set me straight, informing me over and over that I wasn’t responsible for other people’s actions. That had taken several months, but I was finally starting to believe it.
“Hi, Mateo.” I shook his hand. “Want the tour?”
“Might as well.”
We followed Celine as she went from room to room, showing off the house we’d bought together. My winnings in the final fight for the regional championship with NOWFC, along with the state championship we’d won last month, had given me a sizable amount to invest. Celine and I didn’t want to wait until we were married, and Uncle Shane was sick of our sleepovers. He said he couldn’t handle one more night bunking somewhere else since he always left when she came over .
Celine and I had talked about marriage many times now, but we decided to wait until after the nationals. Besides, I was still looking for the perfect ring. Celine was so unique and precious that I wanted the ring to be the same.
When Celine led her mother and Samara upstairs, Mateo motioned for me to stay behind. All the guys stayed as well. We’d been waiting on final news about Baron and his teammates.
That night of the incident with Celine, they’d been turned over to the supernatural authorities, who’d kept them jailed to await trial. Baron and Carter had needed extensive time and numerous healing sessions from Conduit witches before that could happen. If anyone thought I was sorry about that, they’d be wrong.
The other two, Adam and Nate, had been roughed up as well, but no one on the Supernatural Police Force had batted an eye. What the four of them had done was unforgivable, and what they might have done if we hadn’t arrived in time would’ve put them away for life, if not given the death penalty.
As it was, they’d had their trial in Baton Rouge since it was decided Celine’s aunt couldn’t be impartial here in New Orleans—a closed trial as all SPF court hearings were—and we’d been awaiting sentencing.
“Fifteen years,” said Celine’s father, “for Hammond’s teammates and twenty for Hammond since he was apparently the one proven to be in possession of the drugs that were used.”
“Where will they serve the sentence?” I asked, somehow managing to keep my voice civil.
“At the SPF prison in Texas.”
I smiled, somehow finding that appropriate. I’d never done real time in prison when I lived in Texas—only overnight stays in the local human jails—but I knew the SPF prison there was a rough, scary place. It somehow felt like justice that they’d serve their sentences in my home state where life was about to get very unpleasant for the lot of them. They’d need their fighting skills, that’s for damn sure.
“I’ll tell Celine,” I said, “later. Not tonight.”
He nodded. “I don’t know if I officially thanked you for that night.”
“Thanked me?”
“For saving her. Diego told me that you managed to get to her first. That you were the fastest. In those situations, every second counts.”
“Not just the fastest,” added Diego with a sly smile. “He’s the biggest werewolf I’ve ever seen. Bigger than you, Dad.”
Mateo frowned, his eyes flashing gold. “I doubt that.”
“It’s true,” said Zack, nudging me with his elbow. “I’ve never seen a fucker that big.”
I tried not to grin too wide.
Mateo’s voice dropped rough and deep with his wolf. “I can still kick your ass if you hurt my daughter.”
I laughed at that before adding sincerely, “You know that won’t happen.”
He eyed me with admiration and gave me an approving nod as the women came back down the stairs, chatting animatedly about color schemes for the bedroom.
Speaking of the bedroom, when were all of these people going to leave? I wanted her to myself.
But that wasn’t to be for several more hours. As we ate and drank in our new dining area, Celine’s smile brightened the room and my heart. It wasn’t simply her joy that filled me that night as everyone laughed and talked around our dining room table. It was my own at finally finding somewhere I belonged.
Little did I know when I left Texas that my fresh start in a new place would lead to finding this—my mate, a family, and my home.
When the meal was over, Evie said, “Well, I think we all best be leaving so these two can have some peace and quiet in their new home.”
Uncle Shane quirked a brow at me. I bit my lip as I stifled a laugh. He knew damn well that we weren’t about to be peaceful or quiet.
We walked them all to the door and stood on the porch as they left through the wrought iron gate to their cars parked on the street in front of our house. I hugged Celine to my side with a hand around her waist. She had both of her arms around mine.
“That was nice,” she said softly.
“It was,” I agreed as the last sliver of light dimmed beyond the houses across the street.
“Oh, look,” she said, pointing to our single elm tree in the front yard. “I’ve never seen cardinals this late at night.”
When I looked, there was a red cardinal sitting on a branch, seeming to watch us. My heart expanded at the sight. The little bird hopped on another branch, chirped, then flew away, and I knew Mom had come to wish us well.
“You know,” she said, “my cousin, who’s a grim, often says that cardinals carry the souls of past loved ones when they want to say hello.”
I hugged her closer and looked down at her. “I’ve heard that too. ”
We stared at each other for a moment, both of us feeling the presence of a visitor from the afterworld, but neither of us saying any more.
She smiled. “Let’s go into the house. I’ve got dessert for you.”
“As long as that dessert is being served on those fancy, expensive sheets in our bed, I’m fine with that.”
She laughed as she took my hand and tugged me into our new home.