Epilogue
The relocation of Shane’s pack was a game of hurry up and wait.
The potential threat of hunters bearing down on Tolstone expedited their plans but complicated the logistics of who moved first. Paul went first, since his alpha couldn’t travel right away, and carried out most of the necessary preparations.
Shane and Kimberly were the last to leave Tolstone two weeks after the hunter incident, just as he originally estimated, and after Gage released her from her old pack to be blended into her new one.
Out of the two, Kimberly had the most stuff to move, and that was made clear by the stacks upon stacks of boxes that filled their shared apartment, along with her many potted plants.
Transporting her ferns, spider plants, pothos, philodendrons, and one massive tropical monstera had Kimberly on edge in the front seat of the moving van.
Every little shift of the furniture in the back had her worrying if a leaf had been crushed or a clay pot had broken.
Shane’s only possessions could be shoved into a few pieces of luggage stacked in the bedroom after the rest was donated.
With Shane on light duty, Paul and Wanda offered to help their convalescing alpha get moved into his new apartment.
Kimberly managed to convince him to accept their help, so he sat on the sofa and played supervisor, directing his packmates where to drop the boxes as Kimberly hurriedly tried to unpack as soon as the boxes were dropped.
“Are you trying to win the award for first settled in?” Shane asked as his mate threw cooking utensils in one of the kitchen drawers with a clatter.
Kimberly sighed and tilted her head back.
It was then she registered the thin sheen of sweat on her forehead and down the curve of her back. “No. I just know I’ll feel better once all of these boxes are gone. It makes it look like we’re in transition or something.”
Paul came through the apartment door with a box of bathroom linens. “News flash, darlin’. We are.”
Shane gestured to the corner of the room where they had stacked the broken-down, empty boxes. “We’ll be reassembling these bad boys in a matter of months once we can find a bigger place.”
Kimberly groaned and pressed her fingers into her eyes.
Her mate laughed at her expense and waved her over. “Come on. They’re almost done. Let’s just take a minute to breathe.”
Unable to deny a cuddle, Kimberly left the kitchen and wove her way through the maze of boxes to the sofa.
She plopped down next to his good side and let him pull her in for an embrace.
His body warmth intensified her own, but she didn’t mind the extra heat when it came with the now familiar touch of love through their mating bond.
With the help of the antitoxins and rest, Shane’s bullet wound closed up nicely, and the poisoned flesh lightened from a deep black to a light shade of purple like a fading bruise.
He told her it didn’t hurt much anymore, but she still saw the way he occasionally grunted and grimaced with pain when he moved a certain way or accidentally bumped his thigh.
None of that stopped them from making love the minute Nolan cleared him for strenuous activity.
It had been only a few times, and Kimberly set the pace.
She erred on the side of caution and kept it slow and easy, despite Shane’s protests.
Like a sad puppy dog, he submitted to the safe positions, but soon lost himself in a sexual haze and didn’t complain when they lay side by side, tingling and sparkling in the aftermath.
Wanda brought in a stack of two medium-sized boxes, dropped them by the bedroom door, and then dusted off her hands. “That’s the last of it, boss. Anything else we can do?”
Shane shook his head. “I’ll return the moving truck in the morning. Thanks again for the help.”
“No problem. Are we still meeting up tomorrow?”
“Yep. Vincenzo’s Pizzeria at six. My treat.”
Wanda grinned and bid them goodbye but left the door open for Paul.
The beta stayed and dabbed his forehead with a stained rag from his back pocket. “Anything we need to talk about before I go?”
Shane shook his head again. “Anything I can think of can wait until tomorrow.”
Paul wordlessly put up his thumb in a sign of good deal and walked out.
Kimberly snuggled close, reveling in the moment they had to themselves. “Are we still going to check in with Dominic?”
Shane made a noise of remembrance. “Oh, yeah. I almost forgot.” He pulled out his phone and checked the time. “It’s almost time for the alpha meeting. Want to chime in now or wait?”
Kimberly linked an arm with his. “Now is good. It’ll distract me from the mess.”
Shane chuckled and tapped a few buttons to make the call. “It’s not a mess if it’s only been here for a couple of hours.”
“So, by tomorrow it’ll be a mess, and I can unpack?”
Shane kissed the top of her head, and pleasant shivers shot down her spine. “No.”
Kimberly made an objecting noise when Dominic answered the FaceTime call.
He looked to be outside, and by the way the camera bobbed and shook, he was walking.
Kimberly tried to study snippets of the background to see what part of Tolstone he was in.
As happy as she was to be with Shane, a part of her missed her temporary home.
“Hey, guys! I see you got in safely.”
“Yep,” Shane replied. “Paul and Wanda just left.”
“We’re surrounded by boxes!” Kimberly cried. “Tell him it’s okay to unpack!”
Dominic let out a thunderous laugh. “Oh, you can hold off a day or two. Get your bearings.”
Kimberly threw back her head in a dramatic gesture. “You men and your clutter! I bet Erica would side with me.”
Suddenly, Erica’s pretty face popped up beside Dominic’s. “I completely agree! No mess makes a clear head!”
Dominic scoffed, “Says the one who unpacked her whole house in, what, a couple of days?”
“Something like that.” It looked like Erica snatched the phone from Dominic and angled it so her face filled the screen. “You unpack your shit, Kimberly. Even if it’s a couple of boxes a day.”
“Yeah, and what happens when we have to leave in a couple of months for a permanent home?” Shane asked.
Ignoring his logic, Kimberly glanced around the apartment. “I don’t know. I kind of like this place. It’s not fancy or big, but it’s nice.”
“Anyway!” Dominic took control of his phone again. “The pack is all good?”
“Yep. Everyone’s settled, and we hope to hear back on Trent’s college application soon. John’s got a job already lined up for next school year. Everyone else is still job hunting, but they’re getting interviews on the calendar, and we should be in line to get your loan paid back soon.”
“Take your time,” he told Shane. “Hank will say different, but I’m not worried about the money. I’m more concerned about everyone’s safety.”
Kimberly sobered at the reminder. “Any news on that front? With the hunter?”
Dominic sobered and let out a sigh. “We got a name and info from his license plate. No family. We dumped the car and body outside a town about three hours from here. The news was all over it and claimed it was an animal attack like we wanted. Some organization, supposedly the hunters, took possession of the body. No burial that we know of. Cole’s kept a pulse on the comings and goings outside that town, but his connections haven’t seen anything unusual yet.
We’re still keeping a lookout, and as much as I hate it, we may have to put Tolstone on a lockdown until we know anything more. ”
Shane shifted on the sofa cushion. “What about that pack from Virginia? Any word from them?”
“Their alpha got back with us soon after we initially reached out and said he would pull the pack out at the first sign of real trouble. Haven’t heard anything yet, but maybe I should check on them again. Just to make sure or see if they found out anything.”
Kimberly leaned over. “Is Andy still there? Has he had more visions?”
Soon after the night of the attack, Cole came to tell Shane that Andy was not interested in rejoining his pack.
Instead, he was assigned to Gage’s pack to make up for their loss of Kimberly.
That eased some of her guilt of leaving, but Shane’s ego might have still been bruised over the affair.
He told Kimberly he really wanted that second chance, but Andy was adamant.
Either way, they both knew he would be in good hands with Gage.
“If he’s had any new visions, he’s not sharing.”
“What about Gage and Declan? How are they? And the flower shop? Do you know if they found a replacement for me yet?”
Dominic gave them one of his charming smiles. “You sound like you miss us, Kimberly.”
She smiled back, a little sadder. “I do, but you know I’m happy here too.”
At that, Shane kissed the crown of her head again, unafraid to show affection for his mate.
Not a soul in Tolstone or within Shane’s pack gave them grief over their mating.
Even Kimberly’s family seemed relieved that she finally made it official with her high school sweetheart.
She hated how her long-time fears and excuses were for absolutely nothing.
She could have saved herself so many years of heartache.
Then again, perhaps everything was supposed to work out exactly the way that it had.
“It’ll get easier,” Dominic said. “Your old pack is doing just fine. No new replacement for the flower shop. Kaelyn asked about you. Do you want me to give her your number?”
Kimberly frowned when she remembered her goodbye to Kaelyn. Her former neighbor and enemy had tried so hard to forge that friendship, and Kimberly had only recently warmed to the idea of such a thing.
“Better yet, text me her number, and I’ll message her later this week.”
Erica appeared on the screen again as the background changed from what she now recognized as Tolstone Square to the inside of the antique shop. “All of the ladies are going to miss you. I vote we all find a halfway point and meet for cheese dip and margaritas somewhere every once in a while.”
Kimberly glowed at the idea. “I’d really like that. I didn’t take advantage of those ladies’ nights enough when I had the chance.”
“We all get it. You were going through a lot. I am just so happy to see you happy now. You really deserve it.”
Deserved happiness. There was a concept that had been so foreign to her up until recently. But it was true, and she knew that now.
She deserved happiness and the freedom to be authentically herself with someone she loved.
And that someone had been, and always would be, Shane.
Their relationship could have really ended ten years ago when they were forced apart by men who didn’t know how to be real alphas.
Now, as Shane relearned what it meant to be a reliable leader, and she understood the true inner power of a shifter, their paths crossed at just the right time.
They helped and leaned into one another in ways that couldn’t have worked at any other point in their lives.
They had to fall apart to fall back together in a beautiful and messy way that seemed destined to happen from the very beginning.
The End