Epilogue #6
Brawler leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching them banter as Beast trotted around their legs like the damn dog understood. He’d never seen his brother so alive, never thought he’d feel this kind of light in his house again. Emily had done that.
Later, when the dishes were stacked and Toby had vanished into his books, Brawler stood out on the porch with Emily tucked under his arm, her ring catching the sunlight.
His chest ached, full in a way it had never been before. He thought of the coming mission, the danger pressing closer, the war waiting to swallow them. But for the first time, he wasn’t bracing for it alone.
He bent his head to kiss her hair, breathing her in. He had so much to fight for.
Whatever’s coming, let it come. She’s mine. I’ve already won.
Sleep dragged Killa Saqra Rumi down into currents thick with smoke and whispers. At first it was him. Jae . Her Flash. His laughter brushed against her skin like sunlight through leaves, his grin wicked, irresistible, alive. She reached for him, and when her fingers met his, the world split open.
Visions consumed her. Trenches slick with blood.
Cities burning beneath bombers’ wings. A griffin bleeding but unbroken, a moose crowned with frost, a kangaroo lashing out against the dust. A lion roaring from battered isles, a bear striking from frozen shadow.
Above them all, her eagle. Star-spangled.
Wings blazing with fire and starlight. His cry cleaved the darkness, and it was his voice she heard.
Her name whispered in defiance of death itself.
Her body ached for him, deeper than lust, older than choice.
Primal. Ordained. She could feel his mouth at her throat, his hands rough on her waist, the press of him hard and hungry against her.
The need clawed through her with such violence that she gasped in her sleep.
This torture was inhuman. To be bound to him yet denied him, nothing but soul-deep agony.
But the vision shifted. Light fractured into shadow.
Something monstrous slipped through, faceless, vast, gnashing.
These disturbing visions seemed so real.
But they couldn’t be. Could they? If not for Flash, she would have turned from them, dismissed them as phantoms. The air turned bitter, the sky smeared black.
She screamed for him, but the eagle was gone.
In its place was ruin, and the taste of ash.
Lechuza bolted upright, sweat streaking her skin, heart a drumbeat against her ribs.
Every cell of her body burned. Her nipples ached for his mouth, her skin craved his touch, her core throbbed for his hard cock, a sensual, agonizing need.
She writhed on the bed, caught in an erotic hell.
Reaching for herself, for relief, she cried out when she brushed her slick clit but ripped her hand away.
No. Only him, his hands, his mouth, all of him, would sate this madness.
For one breath she almost convinced herself it was only a dream.
She had too much to worry about to chase ghosts, her career, her cover, her enemies.
Someone was assassinating—no, not sanctioned— murdering important figures in her name.
Soiling her reputation. Breaking her oath by proxy.
Besmirching her with lies whispered in dark corners.
The Shadowreavers were hunting her, and they were close.
She would find who dared twist her service and end them.
But then she crossed to the window, the night air cool against her overheated skin. The jungle lay still, dark and hushed. Only the sky moved.
Her breath caught.
An eagle wheeled across the heavens, vast and bright, wings striped with fire and starlight. The star-spangled eagle. His cry split the night, fierce and triumphant, echoing in her blood, in her flesh, in her soul.
“Jae,” she whispered.
The great bird banked once, and for a heartbeat she swore she saw him, impossibly beautiful, that boyish grin transfigured into something vast, eternal, blazing with destiny.
Her hand pressed to the glass, trembling.
Suddenly, he was there behind her, heat rolling off him, his breath hot against her ear, his body pressed against her. Guardians are waking. The war isn’t over. The world needs you, Killa. But I need you more.
She cried out at the cruelty, dropped her head into her hands and wept. Her heart reached for him wherever he was.
“I need you too,” she whispered. “But it’s not meant to be.” The words tore out of her like glass, each one cutting her raw. Her shoulders shook, grief and desire tangled so tightly she could hardly breathe.
“I’ll die before I let my soul be destroyed.” Her voice cracked, fierce and trembling, her fist pressing hard against her chest as if to hold herself together. Then, softer, aching, the truth she had never spoken aloud. “ You are my soul.”
Her tears blurred the night sky, but in the silence that followed, something stirred. A whisper, low, ragged, undeniable, brushed the edges of her mind, of her heart.
You are mine.
The words shuddered through her, as real as the breath she dragged into her lungs, as impossible to deny as the bond that chained them. She pressed her hand harder to the glass, trembling, as if she could hold him there, hold him forever.
Then another echo came, fierce and certain, threaded with fire.
And, sweet owl, I’m coming for you.
Thank you for reading Brawler , SEAL Team EAST, Book #7.
This story was always going to be about a man who carries everyone else’s weight and the firecracker who refuses to let him carry it alone.
Watching Christian Beckett fall for Emily Shade, fierce, stubborn, and wholly his match, was the kind of hard-won love story I hope lingers with you long after the last page.
If their journey moved you, please consider leaving a review.
It helps other readers discover the series and supports my work more than you know.
I’m nearing the end of three incredible SEAL Team series. To start off, here’s the first finale, Bear , Book #24, closing out the SEAL Team Alpha chapter.
Dakota “Bear” Locklear has always listened to the silence, his strength rooted in his Lakota bloodline.
But when a rescue op on sacred ground intersects with a string of Indigenous disappearances, that silence fractures.
At his side is CIA liaison Bailee Thunderhawk, relentless, sharp, and far too close to the fire he’s tried to bury.
Together, they’re pulled into a web of human trafficking, buried truths, and forces that refuse to rest. In the heart of danger, Bear and Bailee must confront the history between them, the voices of the past, and the fierce love that refuses to be silenced.