Epilogue
EPILOGUE
EMMA
I stand outside the Flour you better not chicken out now.”
She’s been planning this visit for weeks, timing it perfectly with my book launch.
Having her here feels like bridging two worlds, my old life and my new one, perfectly balanced.
“Besides,” she continues with a wicked grin.
“I’m dying to finally meet these Alphas of yours in person. The FaceTime calls are great and all, but I want to see if they’re as stupidly attractive in real life as they are on camera.”
“They’re going to love you,” I tell her, though part of me is terrified they’ll team up and share embarrassing stories about me.
“They already do, actually. River keeps asking when you’re going to move out here permanently.”
“Smart man. I like him already.” She strikes a dramatic pose that makes me snort with laughter.
“Now, come on, before I have to physically drag you inside. Your boys told you to arrive with me so they could help set up, remember? They’re probably wondering where the hell we are.”
Right.
The plan. Something about wanting to surprise me, though knowing them, they probably just wanted to make sure everything was perfect.
The moment we push through the door, I’m immediately overwhelmed by warmth, laughter, and the most incredible smells.
The bakery has been completely transformed.
Lily and Hannah have outdone themselves.
No, they’ve basically created magic.
The usual bakery display cases have been moved to create an open space with a small stage area, complete with a podium and microphone.
Tables are scattered throughout with the most beautiful spread of food I’ve ever seen in my life.
There are Lily’s famous croissants, delicate petit fours decorated with tiny edible flowers that seem too pretty to eat, chocolate-dipped strawberries arranged like actual bouquets, and what appears to be an entire architectural marvel made of macaroons in every color of the rainbow.
Ruby’s contribution is obvious from the professional tap system she’s installed along one wall, flowing with what I know is her award-winning craft beer alongside pitchers of cocktails.
But what actually makes me want to cry are the decorations.
My book cover, a stunning fantasy landscape with a badass female warrior silhouetted against a magical sunset, is blown up and displayed behind the stage as though I’m some kind of real author or something.
Smaller versions are scattered throughout the space, along with fairy lights that make everything feel like we’re inside one of my fantasy novels.
And there, in the center of it all, is a table set up with stacks of my books and a sign that reads Meet the Author - Emma Collins.
“Holy shit,” I breathe, my eyes filling with tears.
“This is...”
“Fucking incredible?” River appears at my elbow like he’s been summoned, sliding his arm around my waist and pulling me against his side.
“You deserve incredible, beautiful.”
“More than incredible,” Atlas adds, materializing on my other side with that satisfied smile that means he’s particularly pleased with himself.
“Thank you. I’m nervous as hell. So, where’s Levi?” I ask, craning my neck to look around while trying not to cry and ruin my makeup.
“Arguing with Archer about optimal book positioning,” River says with a grin.
“Apparently, there’s a whole science to author signing table arrangements, and they both have very strong opinions.”
“Of course, there is,” I laugh, some of my nervousness melting away just from having them close.
Archer is one of Lily’s Alphas and possibly the biggest book nerd on the planet, so of course, he and Levi would bond over proper literary presentation.
“The infamous Jess,” Atlas states, turning to my best friend with that charming smile.
“It’s amazing to finally meet you in person.”
“The one and only,” Jess replies, grinning as she hugs him.
“And you’re even more ridiculously handsome in person, which I didn’t think was possible. The camera really doesn’t do you justice.”
River snorts with laughter.
“She’s exactly as advertised,” he tells me, dragging Jess into a hug.
“Oh, you sweet talker,” Jess says, but she’s blushing slightly.
“I can see why Emma keeps you around.”
“We keep her around, actually,” River corrects with a wink.
“She’s the one doing us the favor.”
“Damn right, I am,” I interject, making them all laugh.
Before the mutual admiration society can continue, I’m swept away by a whirlwind of enthusiastic hugging.
“Emma!” Lily practically bounces as she wraps me in her arms. “You’re here! How does it look? Is it too much? I worried it might be too much, but Hannah said?—”
“Lily,” I interrupt, hugging her back just as tightly.
“It’s perfect. It’s beyond perfect. I can’t believe you did all of this.”
“We did all this,” Hannah corrects, appearing with her own hug.
She has the same warm smile and curly hair as her sister, but where Lily is all chaotic energy, Hannah has a calm confidence that probably keeps the bakery from burning down on a daily basis.
“When we have a bestselling author in town, we pull out all the stops.”
“I’m not a bestselling?—”
“You’re number two on the fantasy romance list and sitting at fifty in the entire Amazon store!” Hannah interrupts with a grin.
“I checked this morning. That’s huge.”
“Holy shit, really?” Jess squeaks.
“Emma! You didn’t tell me!”
“I didn’t want to jinx it,” I mumble, feeling my cheeks heat up, but I’ve been crazily refreshing the page all day to watch my rank improve.
“Well, after tonight, you’ll probably climb even higher,” comes a familiar voice, and I turn to see Detective Morrison holding a beer and appearing surprisingly relaxed in civilian clothes.
“Zak!” I say, genuinely surprised to see him here.
“You came!”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” he says with a smile.
“Plus, I wanted to see how the story ended. You know, metaphorically speaking.”
“Much better than the beginning,” I assure him.
“Speaking of stories,” Ruby says, appearing with a cocktail that’s the most beautiful shade of purple I’ve ever seen.
“We should probably start thinking about the reading. People are getting settled.”
“Right.” My stomach immediately ties itself in knots.
“The reading. In front of all these people who probably have better things to do on a Tuesday night.”
“Hey.” Levi appears at my side as if summoned by my anxiety, his calm presence immediately soothing my frazzled nerves.
“You’ve got this, sweet thing. These people are here because they love your work.”
“And because they love you,” Atlas adds, his hand settling on the small of my back in that protective way that always makes me feel grounded.
“Plus, if anyone gives you trouble, we’ll kick them out,” River adds helpfully, making Jess snort with laughter.
“That’s actually not helping,” I tell him, but I smile despite my nerves.
“You know what? I think I need a drink before I do this,” I decide.
“Something strong enough to make me forget that I’m about to make a fool of myself in front of half the town.”
“Ruby’s got you covered,” Lily says, leading me toward the bar setup.
“She made a special cocktail just for tonight and calls it Liquid Courage .”
“I love her already,” Jess says, following us.
“What’s in it?”
“Gin, elderflower, champagne, and a dash of magic,” Ruby says mysteriously, handing me the purple cocktail.
“The magic is lavender simple syrup,” Hannah stage-whispers, making Ruby roll her eyes.
“Spoilsport,” Ruby mutters, but she’s grinning.
I take a sip and immediately feel some of the tension leave my shoulders.
It’s floral and bright, with just enough alcohol to take the edge off without making me tipsy enough to accidentally read the sex scenes out loud.
“This is incredible,” I tell Ruby.
“You’re seriously gifted.”
“Says the woman who creates entire worlds for a living,” Ruby replies with a grin.
“Worlds where everyone is ridiculously attractive, and the sex is always amazing,” Jess adds helpfully, making me choke on my drink.
“Jesus, Jess!”
“What? It’s true! Your love scenes could melt paint off walls.”
I look around the room, taking in all the faces.
Some I recognize—people from town I’ve gotten to know over the past months, firefighters from the station, regulars from the bakery.
Others are strangers, but they’re all here for the same reason—to celebrate something I created with my own hands and stubbornness.
“You know what the crazy part is?” I say, mostly to myself.
“Three months ago, I thought coming here was the end of everything. Turns out it was just the beginning.”
“The best kind of plot twist,” Jess says, and when I meet her green eyes, they’re suspiciously bright.
“And it’s definitely going in my maid of honor speech, so remember you said it.”
“Maid of honor speech?” Atlas perks up immediately.
“Are we talking about weddings? Because I have very strong opinions about weddings. ”
“Down, boy,” I laugh.
“Nobody’s getting married. Yet.”
“Yet,” River repeats with a satisfied grin that makes my stomach flip.
“Yet,” Levi agrees, pressing a kiss to my temple that makes me shiver.
Before I can process that particular revelation, Lily is clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention.
“If we could gather around and take a seat,” she calls out, “Emma’s going to read from her work!”
The butterflies in my stomach immediately multiply by about a thousand, but as people start moving toward the stage area, I see nothing but smiling, supportive faces.
Mrs. Chen from the flower shop gives me an encouraging thumbs up.
Jake from the hardware store raises his beer in a toast.
This is my community.
These people have watched me settle in over the past three months.
“You ready for this?” Jess asks, squeezing my hand and handing me the notebook I asked her to bring for me to read from.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I reply, my voice steadier than I expected.
My three Alphas position themselves where I can see them easily as I make my way to the small stage.
Atlas gives me an encouraging nod, River flashes me a thumbs up and a wink that makes me grin, and Levi just smiles that quiet, proud smile that never fails to make my heart skip.
“Hi, everyone,” I say into the microphone, and my voice only shakes a little.
“I can’t believe you’re all here. When Lily first suggested doing this, I thought she’d lost her mind. I mean, who wants to listen to some random woman read made-up stories about people who don’t exist?”
There’s gentle laughter from the crowd, and I feel some of my nerves settle.
“But staring around this room, seeing all your faces, I realize how incredibly lucky I am. Not just to have readers but to have a community. To have friends.” My eyes find Jess in the crowd.
“To have my best friend, who flew across the country just to embarrass me in public.”
“That’s what I’m here for!” Jess calls out, making everyone laugh.
“And to have the most amazing, supportive, absolutely ridiculous Alphas a woman could ask for.” I stare at Atlas, River, and Levi, feeling my chest tight with emotion.
“I honestly couldn’t be here without them. They believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.”
“We love you too, sweetheart,” River calls out, making me blush and the crowd aww in unison.
“So, tonight,” I continue, “instead of reading from Moonfire’s Daughter, I’m going to share something new. Something I’ve been working on—a never-before-seen story from a series I’m just starting. I want you to be the first to hear it. And it’s dedicated to the three men who turned my world upside down in the best possible way.” I grin at them.
“This is for you. ”
I open the notebook in my hands, finding the pages I’ve been working on in secret.
“This is from Wild Hearts Ranch,” I announce.
“Chapter One.”
I take a deep breath and begin:
I should have known the GPS was lying when it told me to turn down a dirt road that looked like it hadn’t seen maintenance since the last ice age.
But after twelve hours of driving through the Texas heat with a broken air conditioner and a car that made more noise than a dying whale, I was desperate enough to follow Siri into the gates of hell if it meant finding civilization.
What I found instead was a massive bull standing in the middle of the road, staring at my rental car as if I’d personally offended his ancestors.
“Okay, big guy,” I said through the windshield, as if reasonable conversation would work on a two-thousand-pound animal with an attitude.
“I’m just trying to get to Wild Hearts Ranch. You know, the place that’s supposed to help city girls like me find their inner cowgirl?”
The bull snorted and pawed the ground.
That’s when I made my huge mistake: I honked the horn.
The bull’s head shot up, and for one terrifying moment, we stared at each other through the windshield.
Then he lowered his massive head and charged.
“Oh shit!” I floored the gas pedal, hoping to speed past him, but the rental car’s tires hit the loose dirt and immediately lost traction.
The wheel spun in my hands as the car fishtailed wildly across the road.
I was going too fast on ground that was basically powdered dust. The car skidded sideways, completely out of control, and I had just enough time to think, “This is how I die,” before the passenger side slammed into a massive oak tree.
The impact threw me against the driver’s side door, and the engine died with a pathetic wheeze.
“No, no, no!” I turned the key frantically, but all I got was a horrible clicking sound.
Through the rear window, I could see the bull had found my car’s new location and was expressing his displeasure by ramming his horns into my trunk.
The entire car shook with each impact.
BANG. The rear window spider-webbed.
BANG. Something that sounded expensive fell off the undercarriage.
Shit!
I had two choices—stay and become the filling in a car-bull sandwich or make a run for it.
Glancing around the area, I spotted an enormous, fancy ranch house which looked exactly like the one in the photo that I'd been searching for. That had to be my destination. It sat about fifty yards away, a sprawling wooden structure that screamed salvation. I grabbed my purse, said a quick prayer to whatever deity protected idiotic city girls, and bolted from the car.
The bull noticed immediately.
“Shit, shit, shit!” I sprinted across the dirt yard, my designer flats slipping on loose gravel. Behind me, I could hear hoofbeats gaining ground.
I hit the wooden steps at full speed, taking them two at a time, and threw myself against the front door. It swung open, and I tumbled inside, slamming it shut behind me just as something heavy crashed against it from the outside.
The door shuddered.
“Um, excuse me?” a woman asked behind me.
I turned around, still breathing hard, and found myself staring at the most confusing scene of my entire life.
Three men were positioned around a rustic living room, each one holding a tiny, fluffy kitten and wearing no shirts. Not just holding—posing. One man sat in a leather armchair with an orange tabby kitten perched on his broad shoulder. Another leaned against the fireplace mantel, cradling a black and white kitten like it was made of spun glass. The third knelt on the floor with a gray kitten tucked against his chest, his expression serious as death.
A woman with purple hair and enough camera equipment to shoot a movie stood in the center of it all, looking like I’d just ruined her masterpiece.
“Who are you, and why are you interrupting my shoot?” she demanded.
The door shuddered again behind me, and I pressed my back against it. “There’s a bull outside trying to murder me, and your models are holding kittens.”
“They’re not models,” the woman said with exaggerated patience. “They’re cowboys. And this is a calendar shoot for the local animal shelter. ‘Cowboys and Kittens—Adopt Love’.”
The cowboy with the gray kitten, who had dark hair and shoulders that belonged in a lumberjack competition, stood up slowly. “Ma’am? Are you hurt? ”
“Only my dignity,” I managed. “And possibly my rental car. Brutus wasn’t interested in negotiations.”
“Brutus?” The man by the fireplace had sandy brown hair and laugh lines that suggested he found most of life amusing.
The third cowboy, still seated with his orange kitten, had the kind of steady presence that made you think he could handle anything. “We should probably go wrangle him before he decides to redecorate the truck.”
“But we’re not finished!” the photographer protested. “I need at least twelve more shots for the calendar, and the lighting is perfect right now!”
The door behind me gave another ominous thud.
“I think Brutus might have other plans,” I said weakly.
The three men looked at each other, then at their kittens, then at me.
“Then,” said the one with the gray kitten, gently transferring the tiny ball of fluff to my arms, “looks like you’re our emergency kitten-sitter.”
Before I could protest, I was holding three kittens while watching three honest-to-God cowboys grab lassos from hooks by the door like this was just another Tuesday at the ranch.
The photographer threw up her hands. “This is exactly why I don’t work with animals or children!”
I was wrangling the kittens as the orange kitten kept trying to climb up my shirt.
Through the front window, I watched the three men approach the bull with the kind of calm competence that suggested they’d done this before. A lot .
“So, does this happen often?” I asked.
“Which part? The bull attacks, the ruined photo shoots, or random women falling through the door holding kittens?”
I glanced down at the three tiny faces staring up at me with complete trust. “All of the above?”
“Welcome to Wild Hearts Ranch,” she said dryly. “Where chaos is just another word for Tuesday.”
Outside, one of the cowboys had gotten a rope around Brutus’s neck and was having what appeared to be a very serious conversation with him about appropriate social behavior. The bull looked thoroughly unimpressed.
“I’m Sophia, by the way,” I said with my armful of kittens. “And I’m not supposed to be here for a relaxing vacation. I inherited this place from my grandmother.”
The photographer’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re Rose Martinez’s granddaughter?”
“That’s me,” I said. “Though I’m starting to think Grandma Rose left out some important details about ranch life. Like the homicidal livestock.”
The photographer let out a bark of laughter. “Sweetie, Brutus is the least of your problems. Good luck telling those three men out there that this place actually belongs to you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, though something cold was settling in my stomach.
“Those boys have been running Wild Hearts Ranch for the past five years, ever since your grandmother got too sick to manage it herself. They’ve been paying all the bills, maintaining the property, handling the livestock.” She gestured toward the window where the cowboys were still dealing with the bull. “Far as they know, Rose left them the ranch in her will.”
I stared at her. “But she didn’t. She left it to me. I have the paperwork.”
“Well then, you’re about to have a very interesting conversation. Because those three are convinced this place is theirs, and they’ve got five years of sweat equity to back up their claim.”
Looking out at the three cowboys, who were now successfully leading a very grumpy bull away from the remains of my rental car, I felt my stomach drop. This wasn’t going to be the simple matter of claiming my inheritance that I’d imagined.
But as the gray kitten purred against my chest and I watched the man who’d handed him to me tip his hat in my direction through the window, I realized that maybe complicated was exactly what my life needed.
Even if it meant fighting three gorgeous cowboys for my own ranch.
I look up from my notebook to find the entire room completely silent, hanging on every word. There’s something magical about sharing a story like this, about watching people get lost in the world you’ve created.
Before I can say anything else, my three Alphas are suddenly on the stage with me, wrapping me in a group hug that makes the audience burst into applause.
“Please tell me those three cowboys are us. I love it,” Atlas murmurs against my ear .
I am nodding crazily. “Of course.”
“Please tell me there are going to be hot sex scenes in this one,” River whispers, loud enough that several people in the front row start laughing.
“River!” I gasp, mortified.
“Everyone can hear you,” Levi points out dryly, gesturing to the microphone that’s still picking up every word.
The laughter that erupts from the crowd is immediate and delighted, and River has the grace to look sheepish for about half a second before grinning unrepentantly.
“Well?” he asks, still loud enough for everyone to hear. “Are there?”
“Oh my God,” I bury my face in my hands while the entire room dissolves into laughter and cheers.
“That’s a yes!” Jess shouts from the crowd. “I’ve read her rough drafts!”
I’m laughing too hard to be genuinely mortified.
As the laughter dies down and we move to the signing table, I’m struck by how natural this feels. How right. I’m surrounded by love, laughter, and the kind of community I never knew existed.
“You know,” I tell my Alphas as they hover protectively while I sign books, “I never thought I could ever be this happy.”
“Could be?” Levi raises an eyebrow.
“Okay, fine. I’m ridiculously, stupidly, completely happy.”
“Good,” Atlas says, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
“And we’re just getting started,” River adds.
As the real party is just beginning, I find myself standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by the warmth of laughter and conversation that shows no signs of slowing down.
Three months ago, I thought I was running away from my life.
Turns out, I was running straight toward it.
And the best part? This is just the beginning of our story.
Click here to read the next Whispering Grove story - Pumpkin Spice, Knotty Nights