Epilogue
Six months later
The clubhouse smells like summer—sun-warmed leather, spilled beer, and barbecue smoke drifting from the back yard. Music hums low from someone’s speaker, and laughter carries over the sound of engines idling.
It’s loud, messy, familiar.
I’m sitting at one of the picnic tables with Luna, Lexi, and Xanthe. There’s ketchup on my jeans, a ring of lemonade on the table, and the kind of easy comfort that still surprises me sometimes.
Lexi’s painting Xanthe’s nails black. Luna’s pretending not to cry-laugh as she tells a story about Grizz trying to change a tyre and nearly setting the garage on fire. I laugh too, real and unguarded, the sound of it still strange in my own ears.
I’m not the ghost who walked through the clubhouse doors months ago. My bruises have faded, and my eyes are brighter.
And the ink on my hip, Property of Shadow, has healed smooth and perfect, the words dark against my skin. Words that Shadow kisses every single night before we sleep.
The patch on Shadow’s kutte, glints under the sun as he walks towards us, shirtless underneath, grease on his hands and a grin tugging at his mouth.
The girls all smirk in unison. Luna mutters, “Here comes trouble.”
He stops beside me, his shadow falling long across the table. “You gonna spend lunch with me today?”
I roll my eyes, smiling despite myself. “I’m having girl time.”
He leans down, his voice rough but warm. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
Luna groans. “Get a room, you two.”
He laughs, presses a kiss to the top of my head, and strolls off towards the garage, where Ripper’s already yelling for him to pass a wrench.
Lexi bumps my shoulder. “You love that man.”
I stare after him, watching the way his backside fits his jeans. He glances back, catching me checking him out, and gives a knowing grin.
“Yeah,” I say quietly, “I really do.”
Xanthe sighs dramatically. “You two give me love envy.”
I laugh again, leaning back in my chair and closing my eyes as the breeze brushes my skin. “You have Fury,” I remind her.
“But he doesn’t look at me like that, and he doesn’t whisk me off for lunchtime sex.”
I laugh harder, rolling my eyes.
I used to think peace was silence, the absence of chaos.
But it’s not.
It’s laughter.
It’s grease and music and people who show up when you fall apart.
It’s belonging somewhere you never thought you could.
It’s this.
When I open my eyes, Shadow’s watching me from across the yard. He doesn’t smile this time, just nods, slow, steady. A silent look that’s asking me if I’m good, if I’m okay.
I smile back, and his shoulders relax. He winks before going back to the bike he’s working on.
I watch him for a long moment, this rough, impossible man who became my safe place.
And for the first time in my life, the future doesn’t scare me.
It feels wide open. Ours.
I breathe in the warmth, the noise, the love circling this broken little yard.
We didn’t just survive.
We found home.