Finale
Six months later
“I’m going home.”
Even now, six months later, the memory of his peaceful smile before he took his last breath comes too fast. But here, standing inside the cabin again, I don’t feel the guilt, rage, or shame like a hot poker in my chest. It’s still an ember. It probably always will be.
But time has healed me enough to let something soothing settle in too.
I’m proud I knew him. Thankful I was there for his final breaths. And grateful that Orion brought me back here one last time to truly say goodbye.
The pool of blood that soaked into the floor is gone. Each board has been sanded so smooth you can’t tell where Benoit bled out in my arms.
I have no doubt Orion did that in anticipation of bringing me back here. He knows no amount of healing could ever make me brave enough to see the shape of my friend’s death stained in the wood.
I lightly kiss my fingers then place them on the spot where I laid his head.
“Rest, dear friend, forevermore.”
I sit back on my heels and sigh, letting go of as much grief as I can after everything that’s happened since.
The Troisgarde doesn’t sleep, investigating who betrayed them while fending off attacks from Wildes and rogue Furys that get more dangerous by the day.
And Lucy? We still haven’t found her. Six months have passed, and still, nothing.
All we know is she withdrew a large amount of cash from her account, hasn’t used her cards since, and she left her cat enough food to survive for a week—as if it’d take us that long to realize she was gone. It didn’t even take Hatch an hour.
We’re operating under the hope that my kidnapping was so triggering, she had no choice but to run. She’s so good at hiding, I doubt we’ll ever find her, not unless she wants to be found. She’s probably safer that way. The war is worse than ever, and Brylie suffered the most.
Does Lucy know?
If she did, nothing would’ve kept her from coming back. I have to believe she has no idea, because the alternative, that she knew and couldn’t come back, is too much to bear.
I haven’t gone home since Benoit’s funeral. Dad doesn’t want me to take so much as a single step off Fury land. Not without Orion.
If only they’d made that rule before Brylie.
My eyes slam closed. I can’t think about her. Not here. Not when our friend’s finally at rest.
I quickly swipe my eyes and blow out a harsh breath.
Orion crouches beside me, then bumps my shoulder and nods farther into the cabin.
“You remember how you took down that one Wilde? The darts to the leg?” He whistles. “Served him up on a platter for me to come in with the assist.”
“Yeah.” My laugh is watery, but it comes easy, like it always does with him. “We’re a good team.”
“That one was all you, reckless girl. You were quick on the draw with those darts. Almost like you already had it planned.” His eyes narrow. “I’ve wondered how many times you’d thought about doing that to me.”
I snort. “Too many. You really should’ve paid more attention around the girl who hated you.”
“Nah, you never hated me.” His lips twitch playfully. “You wanted to, sure. But you didn’t, did you?”
My mouth tugs up. “Well… I tried .”
“Thought so.” His grin makes butterflies flutter in my chest.
That’s the thing about Orion. That grin?
It’s rare for everyone but me. I’m the carefree party girl, the free bird, the one everyone counts on for a good time.
But I get to be quiet with him. He’s serious with everyone else, so freaking serious.
But with me, he laughs. He keeps me down-to-earth.
I help him soar. We’re the perfect balance.
Benoit would’ve loved him for me.
My eyes drift back to the floor, and I exhale.
“You ready?” Orion rises slowly, still reverent for my fallen friend, and holds out his hand.
I take it without thought. My gaze lifts, pausing where we connect, then travels up to the gentle concern furrowing his brow.
I clear my dry throat. “I’m ready.”
He helps me stand and hooks an arm around my shoulders, leading me toward the lake.
As much as I don’t want to move on, we’ve done everything we can do by this point. I hate this holding pattern—God, I hate it—but I have to live. I would want that for them if they were in my shoes, so I know they’d want the same for me.
So I am ready. Ready to find happiness where and when I can, and that’s always been in the man who looks at me like I’m his whole world.
The one who’s now grinning like a fool, leaning up against a tree by the lake with the waterfall behind him.
“You said before we got here that you had something you wanted to tell me?” I frown, looking around to see if I can figure out his plan.
His lips purse before he looks from me to the tree and back again.
“Don’t you see… ah.” He snorts. Then he picks me up and twirls me, making me squeal and my dirt-speckled tennis skirt whirl around like a tutu. But at this height, I finally see it.
Black paint is slathered over the tree trunk, hiding the red that was underneath.
By the time he’s put me down, confusion creases my brow deep enough for my future Botox injector to have a conniption. Meanwhile, Orion looks pleased as hell.
“This is Fury land now?” I ask, pointing up.
“Not just that.” His lips quirk up. “It’s our land. Once my family claimed it, I bought it.”
My jaw drops. “Just like”—I snap my fingers—“that, huh?”
His smile turns predatory, and he stalks toward me in that way that makes me feel deliciously like prey.
“Just. Like. That.” His eyes darken. “I hope you realize by now, I’d do anything for you.
Walk through fire. Jump off cliffs… give you back the place we fell in love.
I couldn’t stop the bad that happened here, but I want us to relive the good, make new memories too.
We haven’t had that feeling of ‘just us’ since we left.
I wanted to give that back to you again. ”
His intensity makes my heart swell and my lower belly throb with a tantalizing swirl of feeling cherished and desired all at once.
I open my mouth to thank him, but a tree is suddenly at my back, and Orion’s hands brace on both sides of my head.
His slow, deliberate steps had backed me into his trap without realizing.
I bite my lip because he looks positively feral—jaw tight, eyes dark, tanned biceps straining his T-shirt and inches from my face as he cages me in. Like giving me this gift has turned him on. That, combined with his hungry gaze, and I’m ready to climb him as if he’s the tree behind me.
“What happened to Lost Cove being neutral?” I murmur, hot and bothered, but also needing reassurance we’re safe. I trust him, but with the reality of this war, I need to hear it.
His expression clouds. “Bossie Wilde happened. They desecrated generations of family graves—on both sides, took over Whitby Rose, and went after you.” He shakes his head.
“We finally pushed back. The ‘cove’ in Lost Cove wasn’t near lost enough for my liking.
So every inch of this place is secure—physically and digitally—with Dash’s state-of-the-art camera systems.”
“So…” My eyes scan the treetops. “They’re watching?”
“The fuck they are.” He scowls. “And wipe that excited grin off your face, because, baby? That ain’t happening. Your orgasms are mine to give, taste, hear—all the damn senses. Exhibition’s off the table, got it?”
I giggle, and he keeps his disappointed warning glare as he slides out his phone from his pocket, checks it, then returns it.
“The system updates me every time someone crosses into a new section of Fury territory. If we don’t confirm it, the alert pings to Hatch and Dash too.
While we’re here, it’ll notify me if anyone’s coming. I installed the app on your phone too.”
His face grows serious, the way it always does when he talks about the enemy. “Bossie’s Wilde boys have been pushed back. As far as we can tell, they’re not even in Old Bridge anymore.”
I don’t tell him that doesn’t make me feel better. If they’re not in Old Bridge or Lost Cove… then where are they? Are my friends and family in danger?
Pushing the worry that’s constantly in the back of my mind aside, I nod. There’s not much else I can do but trust him.
Trying to bring back the sensual playfulness we always have, I give him a cheeky grin.
“Is the waterfall ‘ours’ too?”
He jumps on the mood, smile crawling across his face again as he leans in. “Hell yeah, that’s ours. And this time, I won’t stop from coming inside you.”
His nose trails along my jaw, making me shiver. I tug him closer by his cutoff tee while he nips down my collarbone to my breast through my racerback tee and sports bra.
“It’s all ours, Luna.”
Ours.
It feels so good to pretend that it really is ours and not just his, especially when his voice drops to that deep, primal, territorial rumble.
“Just like every inch of you is mine,” he continues. “Every inch of this place is yours. Fury land, all the way to the bog, along our new border?—”
“New… border?” My eyes fly open, and I grab his collar and tug him up. He blinks at me, eyes hazy with lust and confusion, but I’m seriously pissed.
“Orion Fury, you mean to tell me that during my ‘Survival Week,’ I wasn’t just walking Fury land, I was covering Lost Cove too? The only ground you had to cover was Fury land! No wonder it took me so long.”
He holds back a laugh. “Well, not all of Lost Cove. But around here, yeah. Don’t forget, I had to do it all on my own. And I was just?—”
“Sixteen, yeah, yeah.” I wave him off. “You’re the big, bad Fury. I’m the feisty, little Bordeaux. We get it.”
I roll my eyes but when they get back to him, his face has gone serious again.
“You don’t have to be, you know.”
I frown. “Don’t have to be what? Because let me tell ya, I’ve tried not being little and feisty. One’s out of my control. The other I’ve got plenty of ballet tutors who’d say other?—”
Orion drops to one knee and fishes something out of his back pocket.