Epilogue - Dane
It had been six months since the battle. Six months since the heart of Silvermist had been destroyed, alongside the last remnants of a dark history that they were only too happy to bury.
As was custom with such things, Red Teeth and his alphas had been burnt down to ashes and scattered in the wilderness of the forest, with the hope that they may give back to life and nature what they had taken from it.
It had been a somber sort of funeral. A lot of old wounds were dredged up.
Nicolas clung to Daisy like she was the only thing keeping him afloat.
Felix stood, stoic and vast, watching the final remnants of his war burn away.
Rick had looked out into the forest. Towards the Grove, far away beyond the hills and trees.
And Dane…
Dane had wanted to hide behind sarcastic quips and jokes.
But he couldn’t. Not with this.
Red Teeth had been the enforcer of the Iron Walkers before him. Left a legacy of blood and fear. And Dane needed to face that, confront it both in his history and in himself, to ensure that such darkness was never repeated.
Lola stood by his side as he watched the flames lick upwards into the night sky. She had taken his hand. And she had smiled at him like he was worth a damn.
He supposed, with her and Sam and their unborn baby, he did have something to be proud of. Something to build.
Lola had made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that she wasn’t going to pause her research or her thesis or any of it just because she was pregnant.
She had gone on a rant about gender norms and feminism and the death of independence, completely blind to the fact that Dane had never actually tried to stop her in any capacity.
He figured it was just part of her adjustment to her new life, and so he let her rant and brewed her a cup of her favorite tea. She had accepted it with a sniff, making some snarky comment, and he had promptly fucked her attitude right out of her.
It only took her five minutes after said attitude adjustment to get right back on her high horse about things.
Dane didn’t care. Secretly, he loved her fire.
Her passion. Her adoration for musty old books and late nights in the library.
She was making excellent strides in some of her theories, and Rick had begun sniffing around for ideas he could present at one of his beloved Accord meetings.
She agreed to share her findings if, and only if, he allowed her access to his personal collection.
After a muttered insult about Yale and their supposed intellectual inferiority to Harvard, he had relented.
Lola came back home that night, arms laden with books, and a terrifying grin on her face.
And Dane fell even harder for her.
They still fought like cats and dogs. He still couldn’t resist winding her up, and she couldn’t resist taking the bait, but it was never serious. If anything, it was the best fun Dane had had in years.
And Sam, little baby Sam, who wasn’t so little anymore.
At eight months old, he was big and strong, and Lola talked about percentiles and weight groups and kept meticulous notes on his development, but Dane didn’t need any of that.
He bounced his son on his knee, listening to his gurgling laughter, his heart so full he was worried it might explode.
He had begun looking at houses. Now that Lola was officially living with him, and another baby on the way, it was clear they needed more space than Dane’s apartment. Lola’s only opinion had been “close enough to walk to the library.”
Of course.
It suited him rather nicely to be close to the center of town. Nicolas was in the middle of finalizing architectural plans for the new and improved Pine Shadow Club, with heavy input from Rick. Who knew the man had such strident opinions regarding floorboard layout.
As long as there was a training yard, a bar, and plenty of space for his people, Dane didn’t care.
He was one of the first to volunteer to help clear the wreckage of their old club, and fully intended to contribute to the building of the new one.
He wanted his sweat, his labor, his effort written into the very walls of the place.
A permanent reminder of his dedication to the pack.
Felix joined him in the manual labor, venting all his frustration at the turn things had taken with Red Teeth into lifting heavy things.
An approach Dane could applaud. As such, they were both enjoying a cold beer in Rick’s garden, tired from a hard day, content to watch the pack sprawling over the lawn.
Lola was ensconced with the women, Sam dozing in her arms, with the same look on her face as she got when she was trying to decipher medieval texts from Europe.
Dane listened to their conversation for long enough to hear Daisy chattering about placenta and estrogen before quickly snapping his hearing back.
“Are you going to have any more?” he asked Felix, glancing over at the alpha. “Cause I think Daisy’s intent on raising a small army from the sounds of things.”
Felix snorted and took a swig of beer. “Not for a long while. Cassie wants to finish her college studies before we even get married. I’m not going to broach the topic of more kids for at least five years. She’s still so young.”
“Unlike you,” Dane grinned. “What are you, thirty soon?”
“Something like that,” Felix said, ignoring the jab.
Typical. Where was his gullible little mate when he needed her?
“What about you, Rick?” Felix asked, straining his neck to where Nicolas and Rick were arguing over tile samples.
Rick looked at him like something he’d scraped off the bottom of his shoe at the interruption. “I beg your pardon?”
“Kids,” Felix repeated. “Do you want more?”
Rick’s nose wrinkled imperceptibly, “I hardly think so.”
“Where is Eva?” Dane asked, peering into the throng of screaming children as they dashed about the place, Danny and Logan at the forefront.
He spotted her, caramel curls bobbing as she trotted politely between the gathered women, watching them with big blue eyes and painful hope. According to Rick, her mother only ever gave her attention when she thought she could get to Rick.
And Rick…
Well. Whatever ‘loving’ was, Rick was the opposite.
Dane whistled sharply in Eva’s direction, and the girl glanced up in shock. Dane waved her over, and she obliged, far too well-trained to even consider disobeying, and came to a halt in front of him, little hands clasped behind her back.
“How can I help you?” she lisped, comically well-mannered in her powder blue dress.
Dane laughed. “Christ, Rick, you’ve got her talking like the Queen of England!”
“Better than her talking like you,” Rick replied, regarding his daughter with cool detachment.
Dane’s jaw tightened, but he smiled at Eva, noting her distress at the idea of displeasing her father. “I’ve got a task for ya, little lady, if you’d be so kind?”
She nodded almost aggressively, her expression fierce in its concentration.
“I’m having an argument with your dad, you see? He reckons you can’t convince the other kids to go swimming in his big fancy pool. I think you can. What d’ya say? Wanna run down your friends and see if you can get them in their swimsuits?”
“Oh, I can do that!” Eva said, her expression bright. “Can…can I go swimming with them?”
“Course you can!” Dane said, ruffling her curls, “Why don’t you go tell them, and I’ll take the cover off the pool. Meet you there in ten minutes?”
“Ten minutes,” Eva repeated, smiling a big, gappy smile at him, “I’ll see you there!”
She raced off, determination in every step, and Dane watched as she zipped between the other children. Delight broke across their faces at the idea of swimming, and in Rick’s coveted pool no less, and soon they were trooping towards the pool with several of the females, Cassie and Daisy included.
But not Lola. Lola was still in her chair, looking at him like he’d hung the moon in the sky.
He cleared his throat. “I’ll be over in a minute, yeah? You don’t mind taking the pool cover off, Felix?”
“On it,” Felix groaned as he stood, stretching out his muscles, “you know, you’ve always been great with the kids. All of them. It’s lovely to see you getting to raise some of your own.”
“Aw, come on, man, don’t get all soft on me!”
“I’m serious,” Felix nudged him in the shoulder, “this whole fatherhood thing… you’re really good at it.”
Dane swallowed the unexpected lump in his throat, coughing to clear the emotion, kicking the ground with his foot. “I…thanks, Felix. That…that means a lot.”
Felix smiled at him before jogging over to Nicolas and pulling him away from the stupid floor tile argument that was somehow still going, heading up towards the pool. Rick watched them go before turning back to Dane, lips pressed together in disapproval.
“You should go easier on her,” Dane said, “she just wants to impress you. A hug wouldn’t kill you, Rick.”
Rick’s eyes flashed. “How I choose to raise my daughter is my business.”
“Never said it wasn’t,” Dane replied, raising his hands in surrender. “I’m just saying. She’s desperate for your approval. It couldn’t be more obvious. Just something to think about.”
“Then I’ll think about it,” Rick said, his voice pure frost.
Dane rubbed the back of his neck, “Hey, uh…did we ever hear from John Heath? About the boon?”
If it was possible, Rick’s expression grew even icier, “No. Not yet. But he’s coming for an Eastern Alliance meeting next month. I’m sure it will come up then.”
With that, he turned on his heel and stalked towards the pool, his fists clenched.
Dane let out a sigh.
One day, perhaps Rick would stop punishing Eva for her mother’s crimes. Perhaps.
He turned towards Lola, who had managed to climb to her feet, maneuvering Sam around her swelling belly. Dane jogged over, taking his chubby son from her arms, checking her over as he did so.
“Are you okay? Do you need anything? Water? Food?”
“I’m fine, Dane,” Lola said with a smile, leaning into his side. “What you did for Eva was really nice.”
“She’s a good kid. Bit too nervous. Just needs a bit of help breaking out of her shell.”
Lola laughed. “I can relate to that.”
“Do you wanna go swimming? It’s about time we got Sammy in the water, I reckon.”
“Oh God,” she said with a dramatic eye roll, “it’s not enough that he’s conquered crawling, now you want him terrorizing everyone in the sea as well as land?”
Sam gave a happy babble, opening and closing his little fists in the air towards Lola. She leant forward and nuzzled his tummy, making him laugh.
“Alright then,” she said with a smile. “You two go swimming. I’ll give it a miss this time, I want to carry on with my book.”
“Let me guess,” Dane said with a smirk, “Integrated Pack Histories Regarding Shifter Attitudes to Cultural Contamination from Human Colonization in the Trans-Alpine Territories?”
Lola let out a surprised bark of laughter before pulling a book out of her bag. “Twilight, actually.”
Dane guffawed, tucking her in close under his arm. “That crap? She knows nothing about actual packs. And why the hell would the main chick go for a vampire when wolves actually exist?”
“I’ll let you know,” Lola said with a grin, “and then you can tell me all about pack history from the, what was it, trans-alpine region?”
“I’ve already forgotten,” Dane said, pressing a kiss to her lips.
She hummed, smiling against him.
And deep down, deeper than he thought existed within him, everything settled into place.
*****
THE END