Epilogue
Demi
Six months had passed since Halloween night. Since the gunshot that ended everything and started something new.
Now, mornings came slow with no roaring engines and no clubhouse walls humming with secrets. Just the rhythm of waves against the shore and the low hum of the old refrigerator in our rented beach house.
I sat on the porch wrapped in one of Werewolf’s hoodies, with my phone pressed between my shoulder and ear. My coffee had gone lukewarm, but I didn’t care. The salt air made everything taste a little better even when it was cold.
Mom’s voice crackled through the line. “So… you’re still there? By the water?”
“Still here,” I said and smiled. “It’s quiet. Peaceful.”
“Peaceful sounds foreign coming out of your mouth, Demetria Cross. You’re shacked up with a tattooed biker. Wolf?” she teased.
I laughed softly. “He wants to go by Jake now, Mom.” I had told her that more times than I could count.
She huffed. “I know, but I like ‘Wolf’ better. Sounds mysterious.”
“Mysterious isn’t exactly what we’re going for these days.” Even though I still called him Wolf, too.
“Well, mysterious or not, I’m just glad you’re both alive and not living out of a motel room anymore.”
I smiled and glanced toward the beach. Wolf was out there barefoot in the sand, with his jeans rolled to his knees, helping a kid from the neighboring rental untangle a kite. The kid laughed when it caught the wind again, and Wolf lifted a hand in triumph like he’d just won a race.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “Alive’s pretty damn good.”
Mom went quiet for a second. “I heard some talk around town,” she said finally. “About the club.”
My chest tightened a little. “What kind of talk?”
“That they’re changing things. Cleaning house. Someone said there’s new leadership. That it’s… calmer now.”
Calmer. That was a word no one had ever used for the Broken Sons.
She continued, “People are saying it’s not what it used to be. That maybe the old days are finally over.”
I didn’t answer right away. It was crazy to watch Wolf with the kite, with the sunlight shining, and think about all the ghosts we’d left behind.
“Maybe they are,” I said quietly. They certainly were for us.
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” she asked, her voice just shy of suspicious.
I smiled. “Me? I’m just a beach girl now, remember? I happened to fall in love with a sexy biker, and we ran off to the ocean together.”
She laughed softly. “Just teasing. I’m just glad to hear your voice without sadness hanging in it.”
“Me too, Mom.”
We talked for another twenty minutes about the neighbor’s new dog, about my cousin’s engagement, and about her latest attempt to quit caffeine again.
When she asked if Wolf and I had set a date yet, I groaned. “Mom.”
“What? You think I can’t ask? You’re not getting any younger, and neither is he,” she lectured.
I laughed. “We’re not there yet.” Wolf and I were just enjoying life. We both knew it would happen… someday.
“Well, maybe get a hop on it because I’d like to be able to dance at your wedding without a walker. That’s all I’m saying.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “I will let Wolf know.”
“Do that.” She sighed contentedly. “Alright, I’ll let you go. Love you, baby.”
“Love you too.”
Werewolf trudged up the sand toward the porch with his bare feet dusty and wet. “Your mom asking when the wedding is again?” he asked with a grin.
“Of course. I think she’s got a Pinterest board for it already. And I had to remind her again you want to go by Jake.”
He dropped into the chair beside me and stole my mug. “She’s persistent. I’ll give her that. And you know I only like you to call me Wolf.”
“I know, and you have no idea how persistent she is. You always seem to disappear when she calls.”
He took a sip, grimaced. “Cold.”
“You could’ve come back sooner, and it would have been warm.”
“I was helping out there,” he said, and gestured toward the beach. “Kid almost lost his kite to the sea.”
“Tragic,” I muttered.
He laughed and set the mug down. “Your mom have anything exciting to say?”
“She mentioned the Sons,” I said. “She’s heard rumors. New leadership. Less chaos.”
“Yeah. Coup called last week. Prez stepped down for good. Mac’s taking over with a smaller crew. He said it’s not the same.”
“Good.”
He nodded. “They asked if I’d ever come back.”
I turned toward him sharply. “And?”
He looked at me with his hair windblown and his eyes calm. “And I told them no.”
Relief loosened something in my chest I hadn’t realized was still tight. “You mean that?”
He reached over, tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “You and me, we buried that life, Demi. Not going back.”
I smiled. “Good. Because I’m not trading sunsets and bad coffee for bullet holes and bar fights.”
“Hey, the coffee’s not that bad.”
“Liar.”
He laughed softly. The kind of laugh that still surprised me sometimes, like I hadn’t believed he was capable of it before.
We sat like that for a long time, just watching the water. The tide crept closer, and the waves stretched up the sand until they almost touched the porch steps.
“I think of him when I look at the water,” I said quietly.
“Tyler?”
“Yeah.”
“Every day.” I looked out at the lapping water. “But it’s not the same anymore. Used to be so sad. Now it feels like… memory. Like I can breathe when I think about him. You helped me get that, Wolf.”
He nodded. “I get that, babe. I’m glad you could find some peace.”
“I love you, Wolf,” I whispered.
He didn’t whisper it back. He said it loudly. Proudly. “I love you too, Demi. Forever.”
As the sun started to drop, the sky turned pink and gold. His hand found mine, and our fingers threaded together.
And then it hit me.
I’d never been trapped by being claimed.
I’d been saved by it.