Epilogue
Levi
“We’re almost home.”
Calvin’s voice drifted through the truck cab, low and rough with exhaustion.
Levi grunted in acknowledgment, his hands tight on the steering wheel as he navigated the final turn onto the dirt road leading to the Alley.
The headlights cut through the darkness, illuminating familiar trees and the weathered wooden sign he and Calvin had carved together.
Welcome to Assassin’s Alley.
Two in the morning. They’d been on the road for eighteen hours straight after a three-day job in Nevada that should’ve taken one.
The mark had been paranoid, well-protected, and constantly moving.
Calvin had finally gotten close enough to break the bastard’s neck in a parking garage while Levi kept watch, but the whole thing had left them both wrung out.
Levi pulled into the driveway of the house he and Calvin shared, killed the engine, and sat there for a moment. The silence pressed in, broken only by the ticking of cooling metal and Calvin’s steady breathing beside him.
“You okay?” Calvin asked.
“Just tired.”
“Yeah.” Calvin shifted in his seat. “Let’s get inside.”
They hauled their gear into the house in silence, moving around each other the way they always did - locking weapons in their safe, duffle bags dropped off in the laundry room, and their boots lined up by the door.
Levi stripped off his jacket and tossed it over a chair, then headed straight for the kitchen. He needed water. Maybe food, though his stomach felt too tight for eating.
Calvin’s hands settled on his shoulders before he reached the sink.
“Hey.” Calvin’s thumbs dug into the knotted muscles at the base of Levi’s neck. “You’re wound tighter than a spring.”
“M’fine.”
“Bullshit.” Calvin applied pressure, working methodically on the tension. “Talk to me.”
Levi braced his hands on the counter and let his head drop forward, giving Calvin better access. The touch helped - it always did. Calvin knew exactly where he carried stress, exactly how much pressure to use.
They’d been together since they were calves.
Born in the same herd down in Texas, though they weren’t related by blood.
Just two young bulls who’d recognized something in each other from the start.
When Levi’s family moved north, Calvin had followed.
When Calvin decided to try his hand at ranch work, Levi went along.
When they’d both discovered they had a talent for killing and the agency came calling, they’d signed up together.
Three decades together, and they’d never spent a day apart.
“I’m tired,” Levi said finally, his voice coming out rougher than he intended. “Not just from the job. I mean…I’m tired of this. All of it.”
Calvin’s hands stilled. “You want out of the agency?”
“No.” Levi straightened and turned to face his partner. Calvin looked as exhausted as Levi felt - dark circles under his eyes, tension in his jaw, a healing cut on his cheekbone from where the mark had gotten in a lucky punch. “I want what the others have.”
Understanding flickered across Calvin’s face, followed immediately by something that looked like fear.
“Lee…”
“I know what you’re thinking.” Levi reached up and covered one of Calvin’s hands with his own. “You’re worried that if we find our mate, it won’t be the same person. That one of us will get claimed and the other will be left behind.”
Calvin’s jaw tightened. He didn’t deny it.
“We’ve talked about this,” Calvin said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“What if you find someone and they don’t want me?
What if I find someone and they expect me to leave you?
I can’t…Lee, I can’t lose you. I’d rather spend the rest of my life unclaimed than risk that. ”
The fear in Calvin’s voice made Levi’s bull bellow inside his chest. They’d had the same conversation before - late at night after watching Python claim Cyrus, after Storm brought Pax home, after Devon and Wren completed their bond.
Every time, Calvin circled back to the same fear - that finding their fated mate would mean losing each other.
“Cal.” Levi cupped Calvin’s face, forcing eye contact. “We already know we’re mates.”
Calvin blinked. “What?”
“You and me.” Levi held his gaze. “We’re mates. We’ve been mates since we were kids, even if we’ve never done the claiming bite. We live together, we work together, we share a bed. Hell, we share everything. You think that’s just friendship?”
“I…” Calvin’s expression shifted, confusion giving way to something softer. “I never thought about it that way.”
“Well, think about it now.” Levi ran his thumbs along Calvin’s cheekbones. “We’re bonded, Cal. Maybe not in the traditional way, but we’re bonded. Our bulls recognized each other before we even understood what that meant.”
“Then what’s missing?” Calvin’s hands came up to grip Levi’s wrists. “Why do we both feel this pull? This…emptiness?”
“Because there’s supposed to be three of us.”
The words hung in the air between them. Levi had known it for years. He’d felt it in his bones every time he watched the other mated pairs at the Alley. Storm and Pax fit together perfectly. Devon and Wren completed each other. Python and Cyrus moved like two halves of a whole.
But Levi and Calvin…they were two-thirds of something, like a triangle missing its final point.
“You really believe that?” Calvin asked.
“Don’t you?”
Calvin was quiet for a long moment, his eyes searching Levi’s face. Then he nodded slowly.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “I do. I’ve felt it for a while now, like there’s someone out there waiting for us. Someone who belongs with us the way we belong with each other.”
Relief flooded through Levi, so intense it made his knees weak. He’d been carrying the certainty alone for months, afraid to voice it because he didn’t want to scare Calvin. But Calvin felt it too. They were on the same page.
“So what do we do?” Calvin asked.
“We go looking,” Levi said firmly, no room for doubt. “We take a month off. Tell Cyrus we need personal time. Get in the truck and drive until we find them.”
“A whole month?” Calvin’s eyebrows rose. “Lee, we’ve never taken more than a week.”
“I know. But this is important.” Levi stepped closer, until their chests nearly touched. “We’ve spent more than thirty years building this life together. Working together, fighting together, and surviving together. Don’t you think we deserve to find the person who’s supposed to complete us?”
Calvin’s expression softened. “When did you get so romantic?”
“I’m not romantic, I’m practical.” Levi allowed himself a small smile. “And practically speaking, we’re both miserable. I can feel it in you, Cal. Every time we come back from a job and watch Flint curl up with Arrow, or Devon carry Wren to bed, or Storm feed Pax donuts…You feel it too.”
“Yeah.” Calvin’s voice cracked slightly. “I do. I want that. I want someone to look at us the way Wren looks at Devon. Someone who chooses us, both of us, and makes us feel complete.”
“Then we go find them.”
“You really think they’re out there? Our third?”
“I know they are.” Levi pressed his forehead against Calvin’s. “You feel it too, don’t you?”
Calvin closed his eyes. Through their decades-long bond - unofficial and unclaimed but no less real - Levi felt his partner’s emotions. Fear, yes, but also hope and longing. A bone-deep certainty that matched Levi’s own.
“Yeah,” Calvin whispered. “I feel it. It’s like a compass pointing somewhere I can’t see yet. It’s been getting stronger.”
“For me too.” Levi pulled back enough to meet Calvin’s eyes again. “Especially the last few months. It’s like…like they’re calling to us. Or maybe we’re calling to them. Either way, I don’t think we can ignore it anymore.”
Calvin nodded slowly. His hands slid from Levi’s wrists to his shoulders, gripping tight.
“What if we can’t find them?” he asked. “What if we search for a month and come back empty-handed?”
“Then we search for another month. And another. However long it takes.” Levi’s voice was steady, certain. “But we won’t come back empty-handed. I can feel them out there, Cal. Can’t you?”
“Yeah.” Calvin’s grip tightened. “I can. It’s like…like there’s a thread pulling me somewhere. North, I think. Or maybe east. I can’t pin it down exactly, but it’s there.”
“Same.” Levi felt it too - a gentle but persistent tug in his chest, directing him away from the Alley, away from Montana. Pulling him toward something he couldn’t name but desperately needed. “We’ll follow it, both of us, together.”
“Together,” Calvin echoed. Then, softer, “Always together.”
“Always.” Levi meant it with everything in him. “That’s not going to change, Cal. Our third, whoever they are, they’re going to be ours. Yours and mine. Not one or the other. Both.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because that’s how it works for us.” Levi tapped Calvin’s chest, right over his heart. “We’re a matched pair. We always have been. Whoever’s out there waiting, they’re meant to complete the set, not break us apart.”
Calvin searched his face for a long moment, then finally nodded.
“Okay,” he said. “Okay. We’ll talk to Cyrus tomorrow. Ask for a month off. Pack the truck and just…drive.”
“You mean it?”
“Yeah.” Calvin pulled Levi into a tight embrace, his arms banding around Levi’s back. “I’m scared as hell, but yeah. I mean it. We’re doing this.”
Levi wrapped his arms around Calvin and held on, relief and anticipation warring in his chest. It was the right thing to do. He knew it the same way he knew the sun would rise tomorrow, the same way he’d known Calvin was his person all those years ago in Texas.
They stood there for a while, just holding each other in the quiet kitchen. Outside, the Alley was dark and peaceful. Their friends were all safely tucked into their homes with their mates. Python with Cyrus. Storm with Pax. Devon with Wren. Flint with Arrow.
And soon - Fates willing - Levi and Calvin would have that too. They’d find their third, their missing piece. The person who would look at both of them and see home.
“Come on,” Calvin said finally, pulling back. “Let’s get some sleep. We can talk to Cyrus in the morning.”
“Yeah.” Levi followed Calvin toward the bedroom they’d shared for over two decades. “Sleep sounds good.”
They stripped down to their boxers and climbed into bed, settling into their familiar positions. Calvin on the left, Levi on the right, their legs tangling together in the middle.
“Lee?” Calvin’s voice drifted through the darkness.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for pushing this. For being brave enough to say what we were both thinking out loud.”
“We’re doing this together, remember?” Levi reached over and found Calvin’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “Both of us.”
“Both of us,” Calvin agreed. He squeezed Levi’s hand. “And soon, all three of us.”
Levi closed his eyes, feeling the tug in his chest - stronger now, more insistent.
Their mate was out there somewhere, waiting.
Maybe they were sleeping right now, dreaming of two bulls who would turn their world upside down.
Maybe they were awake, feeling the same pull, the same certainty, and wondering why they were feeling that way.
Either way, Levi and Calvin would find them. They were good at doing things like that. It was only a matter of time.
To be continued…