Epilogue
GISELLE
A lot could happen in two years.
In just twenty-four months, I’d met a wonderful man, helped him through a lot of trauma, faced a lot of my own issues, gotten into a relationship, made said relationship official, became mates, and had finished my fifth year of teaching.
Oh, and I’d become a mentee of a fairy who was teaching me more things about the magical world to assist her with her wayfaring gig in a pinch.
All in all, nothing to sneeze at, but then I’d had to go ahead and ask Ben if he wanted to move in together.
I’d been half surprised when he agreed, but then he’d started talking about how his house was too small for all of us, and we could use a bit more privacy as Benny grew closer to shifting age. The last thing I’d expected was for him to go out and buy a modest acreage just outside of the city.
Thankfully, we would still be close enough that I could drive Benny to school each day and Ben could pick him up, so I had agreed—on the condition that we had accommodations for my own family.
Especially since the home I had grown up in was becoming more and more expensive to maintain, what with property taxes increasing exponentially.
Sure, I was about to hit thirty and I wanted to live on my own, but losing my income would be a pretty big devastation to my family.
The tricky part was asking them if they were willing to move out of the house where we’d built our lives.
It was bittersweet in a way. There was so much of my mother baked into that place.
She was in the walls, in the paintings and pictures that we hung, in the plants that I still grew, and the tree that she’d begged my father not to cut.
But those were all just things. Because where she truly was, was in our hearts.
Or at least that was the consensus my family came to, which was how I ended up with both of my siblings and my father standing on the patch of grass beside where our driveway connected with the main road, looking over the impressive expanse of land.
“So, this is really all yours, huh?” my father asked, sounding just about as shocked as I was. Because although I had been a part of the process, I guess I hadn’t really visualized exactly what the entire thing would look like once we were here.
Because it wasn’t just a large main house with room for Ben, his children, and me with space to grow, but there was an in-law suite in the back that really could be its own apartment that was just for my father.
It was spacious—almost the size of our entire first floor—and he would only have to come into the main house if he wanted to visit.
Otherwise, he would have complete privacy and space to host his own friends and events.
Then, about a five-minute walk away was another, smaller three-bedroom house for my brother and Nox. There was enough room for them to grow as well, and they were both welcome to stay however long they liked.
Of course, there was still one more person who was part of our informal little pack. Natalie. She had a matching three-bedroom in the opposite direction, about ten minutes away, with a solid tree-line to give her space, and then her own wide open pasture to run in.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked, turning to face her, but she was already sprinting forward into her shift, her horse form practically exploding out of her.
I had learned about shifters enough to know that it had to hurt, but you couldn’t tell by the way she whinnied and kicked her feet as she sprinted off into the distance.
“Don’t know if I’m ever gonna get used to that,” Simon said calmly.
Oh yeah, one other thing.
We’d told my family about shifters.
That had happened about six months earlier, when I had first proposed Ben and me moving in together.
Because I wanted to stay close-knit as a family, just like a wolf pack, it wouldn’t have been possible if we left them in the dark.
Well, maybe it would have been possible, but it certainly would have been stressful as hell.
The whole point of us all moving to the country was so everyone could be themselves.
Seemed a bit counterintuitive to then have to hide what they were from half of the people who meant the world to me.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so excited,” Benny said from beside me, shaking his head.
In the two years that had passed, he had already gone through one growth spurt, and I had no doubt that he was going to be a lot taller than me.
Although I wasn’t directly in charge of his medical care, Ben would often brief me on what his doctor said, and it did seem that the intense trauma had triggered a shifter survival tactic that had him aging a bit more rapidly than a shifter child normally would.
It wasn’t anything to be scared of, but it did mean he would get a beard earlier than most, and acne too. And, of course, his first shift.
I was looking forward to it, even though I was a little terrified, which felt like the right mixture for a stepparent to be. Because that was what I was now, undeniably. Despite all the odds, Ben and I had come together to make a true family. A pack.
“I wanna go inside!” Veronica said, taking off on a run down the lengthy driveway to the main house.
Despite having the seemingly endless energy of a four-year-old, she’d tire herself out before she got there.
Although Veronica absolutely was a wolf, it was pretty clear to all of us that she was built more for strength and protection and less for speed.
While her brother could sprint for hours, we’d had to upgrade Veronica to metal glasses because she kept accidentally shattering all the plastic ones appropriate for children her age.
“Wait for the rest of us, kiddo!” Ben said, laughing at our daughter’s antics. Although he was a little indulgent with his youngest, he generally knew when to rein her in.
“Last one there is a rotten egg!” she called without slowing down, knowing that she had her daddy wrapped around her little finger.
And you know what? I was fine with it. She wasn’t hurting anyone by racing forward, so why not let her have a little fun?
Besides, it wasn’t every day that someone moved to a paradise and regained what had been so violently taken from them.
“Wow, they’re still saying that? That’s been around since I was a kid.”
“Some things are just eternal, I guess,” I said, reaching for Ben’s hand. He took it, sending me that wonderful smile that still made my heart thump and my feet stick to the ground. “Everyone want to look at the main house first before we explore the peripherals?”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Simon said, grinning from ear to ear. “Side note, if I’m dreaming, nobody is allowed to pinch me. Leave me in a coma forever.”
“It does feel a bit like that, doesn’t it?”
He nodded to me, and the six of us followed Veronica down the drive.
To her credit, the soon-to-be kindergartener actually made it two-thirds of the way, standing there and panting slightly until we caught up with her. United, we made it to the porch, where I was surprised to find Natalie waiting for us.
“I thought you’d be frolicking in your pasture for the next ten business days.”
Natalie and I had grown a lot closer, and while I wouldn’t say we were besties for life, there was a connection between us that went beyond that.
“Was going to,” she said matter-of-factly before her eyes flicked strangely to Ben. It was just a split-second thing, but I noticed it just enough to be confused. “But then I figured there is only one first time your alpha leads you into your new pack lands.”
Ah, I probably should have thought of that. But even after all my time with shifters, there was still so much to learn.
Ben cleared his throat, almost as if he was embarrassed at the statement, before striding forward and pulling out our brand-new keys to unlock the brand-new door to our brand-new house. “Welcome to our new home,” he said, beaming brightly.
And God, I was so incredibly proud of him.
We all headed inside, and somehow, the house was even more beautiful than the pictures had shown.
I had had a couple of chances to visit in person before things were finalized, but with the school year being so busy and everything else, I couldn’t find the time to be as involved as I would have liked.
Besides, I really wasn’t all that picky.
As long as I was with my family, both new and old, and we had all the room we needed, there really wasn’t anything else I could want.
But as I walked through the place with its high ceilings, tons of windows for natural light, built-in shelving, and even a working fireplace, I felt like we’d stumbled into something truly perfect. I could envision an entire future ahead of us, no matter what that might bring.
And that feeling of joy, of contentedness, only increased as we went upstairs through the multiple rooms and the two full bathrooms, as well as the balcony that overlooked the massive backyard and the rest of the acreage.
Never in my life had I ever thought my family would be able to live on such a large plot of land, with no more mortgages, or taxes, or anything else unless we managed to bully Ben into letting us pay it.
I’d gotten a bit more of a solid idea of his finances in the time we’d been together and knew we could all live fairly comfortably for the rest of our lives even if we all went down to part-time work—not that any of us wanted to.
I’d worked quite hard for my career, and I truly loved my students, so I was content to put my money away for emergencies and for my stepchildren’s futures and any new surprises that came along.
While I had no plans to ever biologically have a baby, if there was anything that the last two years had showed me, it was that family could come in all sorts of packages.
If we did happen to run into someone who was meant to join us, I wanted them to be just as supported and financially free as the rest of us were.
Goodness, the thought of it, and the ease that had suddenly entered all of our lives, made me want to cry. Naturally, that made me a bit quiet, but no one commented on it as we descended down the stairs and returned to the kitchen.
That was one of the things that Ben had actually been the most insistent on.
When he’d first been in talks to buy the house, apparently it wasn’t up to snuff for him, but once he closed, he’d hired contractors who did it up the way he liked.
There was an expensive oven that had two doors, while everything else was a glossy chrome.
It was like his last kitchen, but dialed up to the nines.
It seemed you could take the wolf out of the city, but you couldn’t necessarily take the city out of the wolf’s kitchen.
I was so caught up in my thoughts, I didn’t realize that everyone else had gone quiet too. Wondering if they were as swept up in the beauty and possibility of it like I was, I glanced around only to see that they were all staring behind me.
“Ummm…?” I murmured, wondering if somehow my skirt had gotten tucked up into my underwear. But Nox cleared their throat and made a gesture for me to follow their gaze.
I turned around, only to realize that Ben was kneeling there, a box in his raised hand.
Oh my god!
“Giselle,” he said, opening the box and revealing a beautiful, teardrop-shaped ring with four gems on it.
The two in the center, which were mounted in platinum filigree to appear as united halves of a bigger stone, were Ben and my birthstones, while the smaller ones set into the ring were Benny’s and Veronica’s.
Was this really happening?
“You have brought more to my life than I ever thought could be possible. Every night my head hits the pillow, I thank whatever deity brought us together, and every morning I wake up thrilled to have another day in your presence. You have helped me heal, strengthened me, and made me a better man.
“I know we’re already mated, bound together for our whole lives, but I want to be united with you in every way possible. Giselle, will you marry me?”
“Yes!” I cried, voice cracking and hand shaking as I held it out.
Cheers erupted all around us, and I lost it, letting out all the happy tears that I had been holding in since we walked into our new home.
I had been so content with the life we had ahead of us, I hadn’t imagined it could get any better.
But as I threw myself into Ben’s arms, I realized it was always going to get better.
Every milestone we hit, every time I felt we were at our best, there would always be more.
Because I had family, I had a pack, and I had love.
Perfect, unadulterated love.
There would be bruises in the future, I knew that.
And there would be ebbs and flows. But no matter what happened, I knew we truly had found our happily ever after.
After so much pain, so much tribulation, and many of us wandering around lost, we were finally home.
All of us, not just the living, but the memories and love of Millia, of Veronica’s mother, Nancy, of everyone in Ben’s previous pack.
We were a beautiful and stained tapestry of everything that life could be.
The past, the present, the future, all blended together to tell a truly beautiful story.
But now it was time for the rest of our story to begin.
The End.