EPILOGUE
JESS
The bell over the café door jingles when I push it open, and I don’t hesitate. Not anymore. No more dares just to feel alive. No more running to prove I’m not the girl everyone leaves behind.
I’m done disappearing.
Casey spots me first. Her chair screeches back so hard it nearly tips, and then she’s moving, so fast she almost eats tile, laughing and half-crying, arms already wide. “There she is! Took you long enough, Mancini!”
The old me would’ve thrown back something sarcastic, kept the armor up. But the new me—the one who’s learning it’s okay to be soft sometimes—just grins and opens my arms.
“Missed you,” I say when we collide, and I mean it bone-deep. “Missed all of you so damn much.”
“Took you long enough,” Casey hiccups against my shoulder, laughing and crying at the same time.
Something in my chest settles, and I choke on a laugh. “Coordinates? Really?” I pull back enough to look at Casey, grinning through the tears.
“Obviously.” She swipes at her eyes, laughing. “You think I’d let you ghost us just because you got yourself a pack? Please.”
“Hey, I was under Nexus’s strict 90-day trial. No contact with fam or friends, even if you guys are both. Not that I didn’t try, but I got busted.”
“Two Alphas and a Beta,” Kayla adds, eyebrows waggling, then gives me a quick hug. “We need details.”
Danica cups my face, mascara already threatening mutiny. “You look different. Good different.”
“I feel different,” I admit. And I do—solid where I used to be hollow, anchored instead of adrift. “I found my pack.” I squeeze her hands. “But you three? You were my first pack. You taught me I deserved one.”
Casey’s chin wobbles. “Damn it, Jess, we just fixed our makeup.”
“Lies,” Kayla says. “You cried the whole drive here.”
For a wild, perfect second, we’re the girls from Nocturne again—loud, glittering, untouchable.
We collapse into the booth in a tangle of elbows and stories that can’t wait. A tiered tray of macarons sweats in the steam, the teapot sighing like it knows secrets.
I pull out my phone, thumbs flying:
With my girls. Living my best life. Don’t wait up. If I send or a string of emojis that don’t make sense, we’re all drunk and need an extraction.
Eli: + . Three DDs on standby. Hydrate. I will quiz you!
Rowan: Proud of you. Have fun. We’ll pick you up when you’re ready to come home.
Cassian: Behave. I know you won’t.
I can’t stop grinning and flip the phone face down on the table.
“They’re texting already, aren’t they?” Casey teases.
“Yep.” I don’t even try to hide my smile. “And I love it.”
Because I’m not running anymore. I’m not disappearing. I have a home to go back to—and best friends/sisters who’ll always have a seat saved for me.
“Okay.” I plant my elbows on the table, eyes bright. “Tell me everything. And I mean everything—packs, Alphas, the whole ridiculous story. Don’t you dare leave out the good parts.”
Kayla lifts the teapot like a bartender about to start trouble. “Doctor’s orders: we’re starting with yours.”
“Mine’s easy,” I say, warmth flooding my chest. “I found my Alphas. My Beta. My home. And I stopped running from the idea that I deserved it.”
Casey reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. “Damn right you do.”
“Now spill,” Danica says, eyes sparkling. “Because we’re doing karaoke and J?gerbombs after this, and I need ammunition for embarrassing toasts.”
I laugh—loud, reckless, free. Rain stitches the windows in silver, the café golden and warm around us. There’s no test waiting. No trial. No clock running out. Just four women who clawed their way out of hell and found their way home.
Different packs, same us.
And tomorrow I’ll wake up tangled in Rowan’s arms, steal Cassian’s coffee before he’s caffeinated enough to stop me, and watch Eli make perfectly-shaped homemade pancakes while catching me up on the latest anime news. I’ll go home to my pack—the family I chose and who chose me back.
But tonight? Tonight belongs to my girls. The ones who accepted me as I am.
“All right,” I say, grinning so wide my cheeks hurt. “But if I’m going first, someone better order more macarons. And possibly tequila.”
Casey flags down the server with a wicked smile. “Oh, honey. Cancel your plans. We’re gonna need the whole damn tray and a bottle of the good stuff.”
Danica raises her teacup like a toast. “To Jess. Who stopped running and found her way home.”
“To all of us,” I correct, clinking my cup against hers. “We all made it out. We all found our packs.”
Kayla grins. “And we’re never letting go.”
“Never,” I echo.
The word sinks deep, settling somewhere permanent. I’m not the girl who had to steal cars to feel alive anymore. I don’t have to scream to be seen or sharpen my edges just to survive the day.
I have three men who see straight through the armor and love what’s underneath. I have sisters who knew me before I knew myself. I have a life I chose—not one I clawed my way through.
Casey squeezes my hand across the table. Danica’s already crying again. Kayla lifts her teacup like she’s about to make a toast.
And it hits me—this is what I was running toward all along. Not freedom from something, but freedom to be exactly who I am. Messy. Loud. Soft. Sharp. Strong. And so completely loved it knocks the breath right out of me.
“Same time next month?” Casey asks, that wicked gleam lighting up her eyes.
“Try and stop me,” I shoot back.
Because I’m done running. Done hiding.
I’m finally—gloriously, impossibly—home.