Epilogue
Three weeks later
Pack territory felt bigger these days.
Reece hadn’t realized how curtailed his running had been while he was bound to Delainey. Now he could roam for miles and miles without worrying about human legs tiring out or needing to stay within a warded boundary.
It was good to have his space, at least for a few hours, but he always found himself coming back to his mate and taking his place beside her.
They were still testing whether there were any conditions on the connection between them.
He had barely been able to sleep when she decided to stay in her room at the coven house one night, but that was because he’d gotten used to sleeping next to her.
He didn’t know how long he could put up with being separated.
Right now, though, that wasn’t an issue.
Delainey was sitting in a chair behind the pack house, a box of pizza in front of her and two beers on the table.
“Sorry I took so long,” Reece said. “Cole had me running an errand.” He leaned down and kissed her.
Delainey laced her fingers through his hair, held his head close, and gave him a thorough welcoming kiss. “It’s all right, but the pizza’s cold for you.”
“For me?” He flipped open the box and saw that three pieces had already been eaten. The cheese looked a little congealed. “You didn’t wait?”
“I waited about fifteen minutes,” she picked up her beer and tipped it toward him in a mock toast, “and then Nico stuck his head out and said you were an hour away. One of us could enjoy decent pizza.”
“I am offended,” he dropped into the chair and stretched his long legs out. “Has the romance faded so quickly?”
She shrugged and didn’t look the least bit repentant.
Reece took his pieces of pizza. It didn’t taste great, but he was sitting next to his mate in his home, and no one was giving them any shit right now. There were worse things that could happen.
Delainey reached out and took his hand. Behind him, he heard the sliding glass door open, and two members of the pack quietly walked out and barely spared them a glance before heading into the woods for a run.
“Are you staying here tonight?” he asked. He hoped the answer was yes. She’d stayed here more nights than she hadn’t in the past three weeks, and he had even forced himself to stay at the coven house twice.
It still made him a little uneasy to be surrounded by that much magic, the memories and the nightmares of his past hadn’t been completely healed by the power of love and the mate bond between them, but he thought it would get easier with time.
There were plenty more cottages on pack territory, though he would wait a while before he made any suggestions about that.
He wanted to make a life with Delainey, to make a home with her, but they’d already had a preview and they would need some time before they were ready for the real thing.
He finished his pizza after a while. They sat there, holding hands and looking up at the night sky.
“I love you,” Delainey told him. “You know, I realize I hadn’t said it yet, but I do.”
Reece held up their joined hands and kissed the back of her palm. “I love you.”
A wisp of a memory floated up to him.
A shadowy battle.
A wolf where he didn’t belong.
They were just snippets that might have been a dream, and he wondered what they meant and why he was thinking of them now.
But then Delainey slid out of her seat and tugged him up from his chair. “You want to sneak up to your room and make out?”
“Oh, are we just making out?”
She tugged harder on his hand. “I guess you’ll have to see.”
He would follow this woman into hell. He was more than happy to follow her up the back stairs, up to his room, and down onto his bed, where they did a little bit more than just make out.