Epilogue
Jeremy
One year later
It was honestly fun watching Dad trying to be sneaky.
Darius and I had found his scent while running yesterday and interesting enough, he hadn’t been alone.
A female wolf shifter who joined our pack last year, was with him, both in their shifted forms. I hadn’t seen Dad like that, ever, and it had made me so unbelievably happy.
This morning, after a good claiming session with Cass, I’d done my usual morning run. To my surprise, I found Dad doing the walk of shame, or walk of pride, as he seemed to skip happily in his wolf form. In fact, he was so in his own head that he didn’t even notice I’d followed him home.
“What?” he exclaimed, jumping in place in front of his back door. I’d bumped into him playfully, startling him into shifting back.
“Morning!” I greeted cheerfully.
“Jer? Has something happened?” He seemed more alarmed seeing me this early on my weekday off, but I simply sniffed the air.
“You tell me,” I grinned. “Seems like someone, met a certain lady friend last night.”
He groaned.
“I’ll make you some coffee. Get all freshed up and ready to talk.” I patted his shoulder and went inside.
It turned out they’d been seeing each other for around three months and Dad was happy.
Her name was Vivian and from what I’d seen of her, she was a nice woman.
It felt right that Dad found love, too, especially now that he could spend more time with whoever held his heart.
Milo and I had both found our fated, and even though Dad had lost his, our mother, he still deserved to have love in his life.
Vivian had lost her fated too, a female wolf shifter called Bella.
It seemed Dad and Vivian could offer each other just what they both needed.
Before I could ask further questions, Dad’s phone rang from his bedroom. We weren’t always good at keeping our phones on us. Shifting made it hard to carry them, so I figured it might be Cass asking for me.
It was. And it wasn’t good.
Cass’ father was at the animal shelter with a woman Greg thought to be the woman Cass’ father wanted to force him to marry.
I’d shifted and run home to grab Cass and confront his father once and for all.
“I can’t believe he showed up again,” Cass muttered from the passenger seat. He was too riled up to drive and had muttered many things in the short time it took us to drive to the shelter. Silas was on his way there too, so we wouldn’t face Cass’ father alone with Greg.
I grabbed Cass’ hand in mine. “Am I allowed to hit him?”
Please, pretty please, let me hit him.
Cass laughed at that. “Please do. I don’t want him here again.” He let out a groan after that. “I truly mean those words. I have all the family I need here.”
He’d told me that once upon a time, he’d wanted to get to know his father, but his father was only interested in business talk and didn’t seem to care much for Cass.
It had been hard for Cass to realize his father would never want a real relationship with him, so him not needing his father in his life at all anymore was a huge step.
Before, we’d figured his father would stay away and that was that.
This time, it was Cass who actively wanted nothing to do with his father ever again.
“I’m taking you to the diner after this,” I promised. “We need some greasy burgers for lunch and maybe a milkshake we can share?”
“I would love that.”
Cass’ father was pacing in front of a pissed off Greg. The woman standing near the door looked unamused and angry as they waited for us to arrive. Cass, in all of his pissed off glory, marched right in there, ready to face his father.
“Why are you here, father?” Cass demanded, his tone annoyed. There wasn’t any emotion in his tone, a clear indication that he truly was done with his father this time.
“Meet Vanessa.” Was all his father said, gesturing to the woman who now smiled widely at Cass.
“A pleasure to finally meet you, Cass,” she said, holding out her hand like she wanted him to kiss it.
“It’s Cassian,” Cass replied, not accepting her hand and giving her a confused look.
“Oh,” she said, surprised by his reaction. She eyed Cass’ father with worry and stepped further back from Cass.
Cass’ father stared angrily at my Cass. “Is that really a way to greet your future wife?”
“You do realize I’m already married, right?” Cass asked, pointing to me. “That handsome man over there is mine.”
I couldn’t help a grin from forming at those words. We weren’t married, yet, but my claiming mark on his neck was way more permanent than a piece of paper. It had been Cass’ wish to get married too, so that was happening, in exactly eight months.
Vanessa pushed forward, glaring at Cass’ father. “He’s gay!? And married?!”
Cass’ father waved that off. “He’s just going through a phase.” He turned his icy glare at my man and I stepped closer to Cass’ side. “Cassian, you need to stop this charade and come back home. The wedding is all planned and everything. A spring wedding, like me and your mother had.”
That seemed to break something in my innocent mate.
His eyes held an anger I’d never seen before.
“Do not ever mention mother like that,” he stated, his tone cold and detached.
“I won’t say this again, father. I am done with you and your business.
I’ve tried to get to know you as my father.
I’ve tried working for you. For years I’ve pushed aside my own happiness, for you.
I will never do that again. I am happy now. Happily married to a wonderful man.”
His father tsked, but Cass continued. “Why are you even so desperate to get me back? You never paid this much attention to me before, only replying to my emails when it suited you. So why do you even need me?”
Vanessa was surprisingly the one to answer that.
“Oh, he didn’t tell you?” She shot Cass’ father a glare.
“His company is dying because of my father’s genius.
Your father has customers my father needs, so they agreed to unite the companies, in marriage and contract.
With me and you. And, I was promised you were waiting eagerly to marry me. ”
That had Greg, Silas, Cass, and I frowning in confusion. It was Greg who eventually asked the question we all had. “Why was it so important to you and your father that you marry Cass?”
“Because,” Cass’ father hissed. “Vanessa’s and Cassian’s mothers were best friends.”
“My mother wanted Cassian to be a part of our family and since it seemed that was what you wanted, too, Cassian, I agreed to it.” She turned to face Cass’ father.
“I do not agree to marrying a man who’s already spoken for.
You can take your contract and shove it for all I care.
Let’s see how long your customers remain loyal to a man who’s set in his old ways and can’t see the future for what it is. ”
And with that, she turned around.
Silas had stayed near the doors, not saying anything, until now.
“I’ve looked into things, Cass. It seems your father lost a lot of partners when you resigned.
It seemed your positive attitude helped them get through the harsh work days.
Without you there many ended up on extended leave and many couldn’t bear a normal work week anymore. ”
“But…” Cass’ expression was full of shock. “I only talked to them. I didn’t do anything special.”
Silas shrugged. “Seems that without you there they lost the willpower to continue working for your father. I’ve also noticed a steep decline in employees, many new recruits not even lasting their first month there.”
Cass’ father seemed done with us, grabbing Cass like he would try to force him to go with him. But I was allowed to hit, so, hit him, I did.
My fist connected to his left eye. Silas had broken his nose last time, so I really wanted to put my mark on his face someplace else. He went down hard and this time, I was glad to be the reason for it.
“Stay away from me,” Cass spat at his father, then stomped out of the shelter, leaving his father on the floor with a black eye.
“I trust you two can deal with him?” I asked Silas and Greg. “Make sure he stays away for good this time?”
Silas’ smile was filled with malice as he eyed Cass’ father on the floor. “It will be our pleasure.”
Cassian
I loved getting kidnapped. Especially if there were muffins involved. Jeremy, however, did not agree on that.
“You need to start telling me when you have sleepovers!” Jeremy demanded, glaring at Greg.
“But then it’s not a surprise!” Greg argued.
It was honestly fun seeing them argue when Greg was dressed in his Christmas onesie. I had my matching one on, a Christmas gift from Greg last year. I really hoped I would get a new one this year.
“I don’t care!” Jeremy argued. “If it hadn’t been for the lingering scent of muffins, I never would’ve known where my mate was!”
I waved that off and shared a knowing look with Greg, then we both sighed. Jeremy could be so dramatic sometimes.
“I was kidnapped once,” I muttered.
“You’d think it had happened more often,” Greg agreed, both of us giving Jeremy the look disappointed parents gave their disobedient child.
He threw his hands up.
I wasn’t about to tell him this had been a kidnapping, too. It had been fun though!
“They were out of ice cream!” Rowan called from the front door, stopping just inside the living room door when he spotted Jeremy. He groaned. “Noooo, we just got him here!”
“I’m not leaving,” I assured Rowan. “Jeremy is.”
Jeremy’s gaze shot to mine. “Really?”
Nodding, I informed him casually. “Darius has plans for you today. Wouldn’t want to disappoint your bestie, right?”
“Really?” he asked, noticeably perking up. Darius had less time for hanging out these days ever since Milo and him had fully mated. Milo was a needy man but it looked like Darius didn’t mind it one bit.
“See ya’!” Jeremy called out and left us to our fun.
“Finally,” Greg groaned, then started the TV again and soon the three of us were singing along to the movie songs and having a blast.
“Good morning,” Jeremy greeted, his voice raspy with sleep.
Smiling, I stepped closer to our bed and pecked a kiss to his lips. I’d had fun with the boys but had missed my mate, so here I was, home early enough to wake Jeremy. It seemed like he’d had fun with Darius too, considering he was still in bed at nine A.M.
Daisy slept on my pillow, looking all too pleased to have as much room as she wanted. I gave her a few scratches under her chin, making her purr awake.
“What did you and Darius do?” I asked, too intrigued not to.
“We went running,” he rasped, sitting up to grab his glass of water.
“Running?” I could feel the frown of disappointment on my face. Who the fuck would choose to run? And for fun?!
He rolled his eyes. “As wolves. It’s the best kind of bonding experience. We run and talk. It was pretty great.”
“Well,” I said, moving away from the bed. “Then I’m happy you ran around together.”
“Har har, so funny,” he drawled, still sitting in bed.
“I thought so,” I grinned, then left the bedroom. I hadn’t eaten since yesterday and was starving for some breakfast.
I didn’t even make it to the kitchen before my strong mate caught me around the waist. Before I knew it, Jeremy had me pinned against the wall, his lips crashing down on mine. I would never tire of Jeremy’s kisses. They were addictive and just so damn perfect every time.
He broke the kiss, a smug expression on his face. “I forgot to eat last night, and you know what that means.”
A whimper left me as he kneeled in front of me. Yes, I did know what that meant. I was about to be devoured.
Again.
The end.