Epilogue #2
“Then it’s my mistake. The bounty on my head will be my fault. You have to let me go. If you don’t, you and Misty’s life will look different. It will be smaller. I can’t be a burden anymore.” Stellan’s eyes were so full as he stared right into Dame. “Do you understand?” he whispered.
Dame ran his hand down his beard and slid his hand back to Misty’s thigh. He blinked hard and nodded slightly. “When will you leave?”
“My truck is packed. I’ve spent the last three days tying up loose ends. Quit my job, I broke the lease to my apartment, I sold most of my shit and packed the rest to go with me. I want a full start-over.”
“That’s what you’ve been doing when you weren’t here?” Dame asked.
Stellan nodded.
“When did you know you wanted to leave?”
Stellan pointed to the gravel path that led to the barn. “The second Misty asked to save me.”
Misty’s face crumpled and she dropped her chin to her chest as two tears streamed down her cheeks. She’d wanted Dame to keep it all.
“I knew if she was able to save me, I was going to give you space. I was going to give me space. I don’t even know who I am, Dame.
I’ve been the tiger for so long, and my memories of who I was before the Turn are so blurry.
I think I died and now I have to figure out how to be…
this. I think we will both make each other’s lives smaller if I don’t go out and figure out who I am. ”
“Are you going with Mars?” Dame asked.
“No.”
Mars shook his head to reiterate.
“But you knew?” Dame asked Mars.
Mars nodded. “Yeah.”
Dame chewed the corner of his lip and looked over at Misty. His heart was in his eyes. “Are we okay with this?”
She lifted the hand he’d placed on her thigh to her lips and nodded. “Can we plan the next visit now?” she asked the boys. It would help Dame to not feel the total loss of his brothers if there was a countdown.
“Sure,” Mars rumbled.
“One year from today,” Stellan said.
“A year?” Dame asked softly.
Stellan nodded. “I need a year to make both of you proud. I swear I will be back here in one year.”
Mars was watching Stellan’s face, and with that, he crossed his arms over his chest. “One year then. We will come back right around the anniversary of Mom’s death.
Right around the anniversary of Stellan getting himself back.
A year out of the cage. A year with Misty in our Ambush.
” He lifted his beer up and settled it in the air between them.
“The first oath as an Ambush is that we meet back here every year. No matter what.”
Stellan lifted his beer and rested the lip of it against the glass bottle neck of Marsden’s.
Misty was having trouble dragging her eyes away from Dame. God, she loved him, and she could feel his hesitation.
She understood though, and she would get him through this. She would be here. She would build the life and the bond with him and make sure he was in a good spot when his Ambush returned to him.
She lifted her beer and touched the lip against Mars’s.
Dame inhaled deeply and lifted his beer, then clinked it softly, and then they all drank.
“We’re still an Ambush,” Stellan said.
Dame nodded. “Yeah.”
“We are,” Mars said sternly. “You can hear the truth in our voices.”
Stellan stood and started clearing their plates. Mars helped, but Dame sat there lost in thought, and Misty stayed right with him.
She scooted her chair closer to him and slid her hand to the crook of his elbow, rubbing him comfortingly there.
He forced a smile and leaned in, kissed her. When he eased back, he rested his forehead on hers. “They’re right, aren’t they?”
She kissed him and then rested her cheek against his shoulder, staring at the two trucks that would be pulling away from them all too soon.
“Does it feel like they’re right?” she asked.
He waited three seconds before he said, “Yeah.”
“You and I are going to fill this whole year with good,” she promised him. “We will have so many stories to tell them. They will also be proud of you.”
“That feels right too.”
Mars and Stellan returned and began their goodbyes. They gave Dame rough hugs with hearty claps on the back, and then Mars turned for Misty. He hugged her much more gently. “Take care of him, okay?”
“Wouldn’t dream of doing anything different,” she promised.
Mars ruffled her hair and made his way to his truck, then turned on the roaring engine.
Stellan stepped up to her next. “You’re a pretty cool Rabbit.”
She huffed a laugh. “I’m probably the only surviving Rabbit. You Cats are intense with your hunts.”
The smile faded slightly on Stellan’s face. “The best thing I ever did with my life was fail.” His eyes were full as he glanced at Dame and back to her. Low, he uttered, “He deserves something good like you.”
And now her eyes were burning, and her vision was blurred, and she couldn’t hold Stellan’s gaze. He pulled her in and hugged her, then did what Mars had done and ruffled her hair.
As he walked away, he said, “One year. I’ll be back here annoying you with my problems in no time.”
Beside her, Dame chuckled. “Maybe this year I’ll actually have some fun.”
“You will,” Mars called from the open window of his truck. He twitched his head toward where Stellan was climbing up in his truck. “Especially with that dipshit not around.”
Misty giggled and waved as they started pulling away.
Dame slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her in closer and waved them off with her.
“In one year,” he said, “I’ll be asking them to stand beside me at our wedding.”
“What?” she asked, jerking her attention to him.
“You heard me,” he said low, and now the faint smile that painted his lips was the crooked one she liked best.
She hugged him tighter and rested her chin on his chest. “You would have to ask me first. I might say no,” she teased.
“You won’t. I’ve got plans. You’ll be too happy to say no.” His tone dripped with confidence, and on the long gravel driveway, the two trucks disappeared completely into the trees.
Dame slid his golden eyed gaze down to her and dragged her against his chest completely, hugging her up. “Step one, I want to take you on a date.”
“Gasp,” she teased. “A real date? When?”
“Tonight,” he murmured.
“But we just ate.”
“Mmm, I’m going to take you upstairs and take care of your body, and when you are nice and high off of that, I’m going to drive us to town and we can get dessert. And probably second dinner for me.”
She belted out a laugh and was flooded with relief at how he was handling his brothers leaving.
“Tell me you’re okay,” she said suddenly, needing to hear the words from him.
Dame looked at the empty road and then back to her, then leaned down and kissed her. When he eased back, he searched her eyes and told her, “I will be. You’re here now.”
Her heart was full as she melted into the man she loved.
Whatever happened next, they were in it together.
They were a team.
They had twelve months to make a run at building the best life they could together, so they could sit around this table and tell his brothers what had become of them.
After everything they had all been through, she was excited about the goal they had each set to become the best version of themselves.
It was inspiring.
She would chase the best version of herself right alongside Dame.
That was what this Ambush would do.
This would be the start of their legacy.
Misty smiled.
She couldn’t wait to be a part of it beside the Cat she loved, and the Ambush she had stumbled into, and the life that had surprised her, and the destiny she couldn’t have even dreamed of.
This wasn’t the end of the story of the Ledger Brothers, or the Ambush that had made it against all the odds.
This was the beginning.