Epilogue
HEIDI
Four Months Later
I love running with Kaenon.
My doe barely makes a sound as her hooves blur across the forest floor, bounding and leaping and rushing through the fullness of summer all around us.
Scents of the warm world all around us are comforting as they glide across my senses—sugar maple trees, damp soil from last night's summer rain, spring onions, wild geraniums, sunflowers…
But it's my ancient warrior's scent that pulls me forward faster.
I can sense exactly how much he's loving this, too.
He's just ahead of me, running in his magnificent, huge stag form as we race home together.
By now, I've seen him shift into every one of the animals living under his skin—the sabre-toothed tiger, the massive golden eagle, his wolf, his black dragon, and this beautiful stag.
I'm always blown away by how graceful and powerful he is in every form and the harmony he has with each of them.
Finally, he slows as we reach home, shifting back into his human form. When I shift back and grin up at him, he leans to kiss me, soft and slow.
"Thank you," he murmurs, his voice a bit more accented than I've heard it in the past. He's been weaning himself off the translator Asher gave him over the last few months, so he won't be reliant on it, and now he's learning English on his own. "I needed that with you."
"So did I." I kiss my sexy shifter again. "I'm going to go shower off and get ready. Asher said we'll transport at four, and I don't want to be late to the Amatos' place."
He nods, his gaze dropping to my ass and staying there as I hurry in through the back door. Pausing since I know he's watching, I give the tiniest little shimmy, wiggling my ass so he breaks into a huge smile.
"I want that on my face later," he calls.
I laugh. The others have been a bad influence on my ancient warrior, teaching him about all kinds of sex positions and things to try with me.
I slip inside, heading toward my room. We've had a few minor renovations done to my place, knocking out the guest room to make the main room big enough for a huge bed and a second bathroom.
Just as I step into our room, Jessica floats through one of the walls, squinting at me. She's seen me naked plenty of times—more often lately now that I've been shifting so much with Kaenon.
"I'm proud," she announces.
"Of?"
"I was just outside, and I saw that little shimmy. I'm just proud that your whole no-shimmying rule went right out the window with your other silly rules when you started boning your husbands."
Husbands.
It's true. A couple of months ago, I married my quintet members and keeper.
It was a beautiful, simple, small early-summer wedding held at a little venue in Koasville.
The Amatos, the Baird quintet, the entire Decimus clan, Jada and her quintet, Noah, Stephanie, and a few of my friends and coworkers who stuck up for me while I was all over the news showed up for it.
Even Zak's demon relatives came, even though I can't count the number of times Asher sighed about having demons at our wedding.
He couldn't complain about infernal things at our wedding, though, since Devil was our ring-bearer.
We also had ghosts.
I let everyone know in the wedding invites that my wedding would be a little haunted, since my maid of honor would be my dead best friend.
There were still some shocked looks when she floated down the aisle pretending to hold a bouquet, visible to all, thanks to her passing through Maven first. Athanis was there, too, since he and Jessica have been officially dating since around the time my guys and I bonded.
Neither of them has been reaped yet. I don't fully understand it, but I'm grateful. Kaenon's also been happy to have a friend from his time still around.
The best part of the wedding was being able to share it with so many people without having to feel what they were feeling or worrying that I might accidentally touch someone and project my emotions.
After bonding as a quintet, I quickly realized that now, I can choose when to feel others' feelings and when to share my emotions.
My guess is that it has something to do with the altered blessing from Arati on Asher’s back. I have so much control over my empathic abilities now that it's fantastic. I can choose to just be normal one moment, and the next, I can be sharing my emotions with one or all of my husbands.
"Oop. El? You're dripping."
Jessica's words draw me out of thought. I frown down at myself, confused about what she means, until I see the little droplet of blood on the floor.
Oh.
My period's starting.
Immediately, I block any of my emotions from my bond with my guys. I've subtly kept them out of the loop every time I've had a period over the last few months, so they won't have to feel the cramps and such.
I also don't want them to sense the twinge of disappointment I have right now.
Which is silly. I shouldn't be frustrated. We've only been trying for a few months—with most legacies, it takes a lot longer to get pregnant, if they ever manage it.
"Hey. You okay?" Jessica checks when she sees my downcast face, her brow furrowed.
"I'm good. I'm just going to hop in the shower, and that'll help. I think I saw your boyfriend haunting Zak's new bike," I add.
"That fae is fascinated with modern mechanics," Jess grins.
"If he wasn't born thousands of years ago, he would be one of those guys today who drool over cars.
I keep telling him completely bullshit facts and acting like I know everything about cars and motorcycles, and he just buys it. I love him."
"You're kind of evil, but I love that for you."
"Me too," she sings, floating back through the wall.
With a sigh, I clean up the droplet and get in the shower, grateful for the warmth and steam when the cramping and other oh-so-wonderful symptoms start.
Nearly forty minutes later, I'm dressed in a little sundress with a sweetheart neckline that I bought recently.
As I'm detangling my hair, Zak pokes his head into the bathroom with a slight frown.
"Candy? Why the hells are you keeping your—fuck, I like that dress on you."
I grin at him, doing a little spin. "Nice, right?"
He's thoroughly checking me out now. "So fucking nice, but I can't remember what I was saying. Oh, right—why are you keeping your feelings from us? Something wrong?"
"Not at all. How was training?" I ask, bright and casual.
Somehow, it got around legacy circles that Zak was a prized competitor in the Entity's arena. A lot of legacies with their eyes set on joining the new, extremely tough-to-get-into RLHNA law enforcement training program started reaching out, requesting that he teach them.
Now, he trains people in a gym across the street from Steph's bakery, where I've resumed working part-time. Whenever he's on a "lunch break," he's usually just in the bakery kitchen, trying to convince me to let him go down on me at work.
I've held strong so far, but he is one persistent half-demon.
Kaenon has been helping historians understand and interpret many aspects of the ancient fae.
After Marwood was removed from power by the fae elders, Kaenon also started working with the fae at their facility.
By studying him, they're learning a lot from the work of fae in the past, supplemented by the scrolls Athanis and Thalo left behind.
Asher has done a few odd mercenary jobs, which Ian sometimes helps with because it turns out he's one hell of a hacker. Asher also helped the RLHNA design and restructure its new law enforcement training program. Otherwise, my keeper and my thrall have both cut down on work.
Which I appreciate, because as it turns out, I really like just hanging out with my quintet.
And spending time in bed with them. Which we do a lot of.
Zak's gray eyes narrow on me. "You're trying to change the topic."
"It's nothing. I'm good," I promise.
"Yeah? Let me feel what's going on, and I'll believe you."
Debating for a second, I decide it can't hurt, so I let my empathic ability flow as I wrap my arms around him. Immediately, he jolts, alarm crossing his handsome face.
"Holy shitballs, that hurts. What's going on? Who the fuck kicked you in the stomach?"
I fight a laugh. "I'm just cramping. I've tried not to share that with you guys every month."
He grimaces, touching his head. "Why does your head ache, too? And what the fuck is happening to your poor lower back? What kind of sick, twisted shit is this?"
"Welcome to the wonderful world of womanhood." I throw in jazz hands.
He huffs, leaving the bathroom to look for my phone in my room. Once he finds it, he grumbles, "Enough of this shit. We're calling your husband."
"Which one?" I laugh. "Kaenon is still out running, and Ian—"
"You think I'm gonna call your vampire when you just started leaking his favorite snack?" he rolls his eyes. "No, this is a job for—what do you have him in here as, again? Buns of Steel? There he is."
The phone rings for a second before I hear Asher answer on the other end, sounding mildly concerned. "Is something wrong, Shorty? I can't feel you through the bond, so I was about to—"
"Come home quick. Our wife is dying."
Then Zak just hangs up.
I stare at him, realizing I'm probably missing a freakout of epic proportions by not sensing Asher's emotions through the bond right now. "He might think you meant that literally."
"Good. The sooner he magics your cramps away, the better. And hey—I don't give a fuck if we need to feel a bit of pain, I like sensing you all the time. No more hiding feelings from us."
I try not to fidget with my dress before I sigh. "In that case, I should probably tell you that I've just been kind of…disappointed, lately."
Zak freezes before his expression morphs into something like panic. "Fucking hells. Damn it—okay, I'll find a way to fix it. I can work more, or less, or if you wanna brainstorm with the others, we can try—"