Extended Epilogue
TWO MONTHS LATER
JASPER
“I always thought this was supposed to hurt,” Briar says.
Ronan rolls so close to her that his knees bang the leg of the tattoo table.
“It depends on the area. Some are more sensitive than others.”
“Which one of yours hurt the most?”
“That’s easy,” Dash butts in, prodding the back of Briar’s calf through her black lace tights.
“The one he has right here. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to seeing Ronan cry.”
“Really? I thought that would have been when he got the . . . you know,” she mutters, meeting Ronan’s dark eyes.
“The ladder?” he asks.
The tattoo artist starts shaking with a silent laugh before Landon clears his throat, glaring at him.
Our poor pack leader has had one hell of a time trying not to be an intimidating asshole during Briar’s first tattoo appointment.
“I was the one who gave him those piercings, Briar. You don’t have to worry about what you say in this shop. I’ve just about heard and seen it all,” the artist, a guy who goes by John-Boy, tells her.
I’m positive if it were a woman tattooing Briar, Landon wouldn’t be hovering over the head of the table with a constant scowl on his face.
Briar hasn’t seemed to mind his protective behaviour in the slightest, though.
She never does.
Her Montgomery pack tattoo is nearly finished now.
The intricate design only took an hour but will stay inked on her hip for the rest of her life.
“Oh! I didn’t know you did piercings too,” Briar says, stretching an arm above her head to take Landon’s hand.
Ronan’s already got one locked in his grip, his thumbs stroking her knuckles.
He gives Landon a run for his title of Most Protective but hasn’t quite stolen it yet.
Dash has busied himself with distracting her from the bite of the tattoo gun by showing her the clips of him on the team’s most recent highlight reel.
Now that we’re heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs, he’s been more focused than ever.
“Are you wanting something while you’re here?” John-Boy asks while wiping the runny ink from her hip.
I stare at the tattoo, warmth flooding me.
The lack of simultaneous emotion coming down the pack band is proof of how good we’ve all gotten at opening and closing our mental walls.
I lift mine, welcoming their varying reactions.
“I’m not sure. I always wanted my belly button pierced,” she replies.
Landon’s answering arousal shoots to my groin before I shove that invisible wall right back up.
There’s not a chance that I’m getting hard in here.
“If you want one, do it, Bright Eyes. Being here today is our only plan,” Dash says.
She shakes her head, slowly pushing up on her elbow to glance down her front.
The widening of her eyes as she stares at the tattoo John-Boy’s now wiping cream onto is exactly what I was waiting for.
“I want today to be about this tattoo, nothing else,” she tells us.
“Do you like it?” I ask.
Her pretty blue eyes blink up at me as I move to her side.
“I loved it before I had it on my skin, and I love it even more now.”
“Alright. Let me wrap this for you, and then you’ll be good to go,” John-Boy says before wheeling back on his stool and leaving us.
I slip into the space he’s abandoned and bend to brush a kiss across Briar’s cheek.
“It looks incredible on you.”
“I’m a bit bitter it’ll be hidden most of the time, though,” Dash adds.
Briar flashes him a teasing grin.
“Would you have preferred it on my forehead?”
“Yes,” he deadpans.
Landon rolls his eyes and runs his fingers through Briar’s hair almost subconsciously while staring through the shop to where John-Boy is.
“We’ll live. Knowing that you wear not only our marks but our pack name as well is incredible.”
Briar tips her head back against the tattoo table and runs a finger along his side.
“I love you too, Landon.”
He drops his stare, focusing only on her.
“I love you, Haven.”
“We all love you,” Ronan grunts, squeezing her hand.
Dash flicks him in the thigh.
“Don’t be jealous, Ronan. You’re grumpy enough as is.”
I smile to myself, watching the four of them together.
There’s a calm to the chaos that seems to be our every day, and right now, this is the perfect mix of that.
While we’ve taken the last two months to strengthen our bonds and learn more about Briar and her us, we’re still the people we were before.
Briar has brought out the best qualities of each of us, and I, for one, will never stop thanking her for what she’s done.
The failing pack we were before she came along is gone, a strong, balanced one in its place.
And we owe that to her.
Feeling the weight of my stare, Briar looks at me.
I let my walls down just for her and feel as she does the same.
The sear of her silent words leaves me scorched right down to the bone.
And I love you, Jasper.
I leave myself unguarded, bared completely for her.
My reply is obvious as she takes a stroll through the hallways of my mind.
You’re mine from now ’til forever, Briar Montgomery.
brIAR
They’re not going to do it.
It feels wrong to admit it, even to myself.
The Rayton Riptides are going to be swept through the first round of the playoffs.
And to make matters worse?
Landon’s father is here to watch it in real time.
Dean Montgomery stands in front of the glass in the sky box, one hand clenched while the other taps anxiously at his hip.
His wife, Landon’s mother in every way but blood, hovers beside me, just as nervous but doing a much better job of hiding it.
“Oh, I can’t even watch this,” she murmurs, half-hiding her eyes behind her palm.
“I want to look away but don’t want to miss anything, either.”
“Landon’s going to be devastated.”
My chest tightens.
I know just how devastated he is because I could feel it for the first two periods.
Landon was so focused on the game that he let his walls fall, opening the floodgates.
I could have cried from what I felt from him.
I expected the disappointment and frustration, but it was the shame that hurt most. Not because he thought I would ever be ashamed of him but because he expected that from his father.
I’ve kept my distance from Dean ever since, letting him swear at the glass alone.
My omega hasn’t stopped pacing and snapping her teeth the entire time we’ve been up here with him, wanting retribution for the way he’s made our alpha feel.
“I hate that I’m so far from them,” I whisper.
Daph rubs a hand up my back and leans close.
“You’re better off up here. Safer too. The crowds by the ice aren’t safe.”
I cup my throat, nodding stiffly.
She’s right, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel wrong.
“Move your feet, Landon! Christ!” Dean shouts before throwing himself around in a circle, gripping the back of his head.
“There’s no urgency from any of them tonight!”
It’s hard to keep from snapping when I say, “They’re tired. Landon’s played longer shifts tonight than he has all season.”
The older alpha glances at me briefly—almost dismissively—before staring back down at the ice.
“This is the NHL. He’ll stay on the ice for as long as he has to. It’s not an excuse.”
Daph sighs, letting her hand fall.
“Don’t, Dean. He’s trying his best, and you’re being an ass.”
The muscles in his back tense, Landon’s number stretching slightly on his jersey.
“The pressure he feels with you here tonight isn’t helping, either. He already worries enough about disappointing you. The last thing he needs once they come up later is to hear you say those things to him after a game like this,” I bite out, wrangling an omega bark from running free.
“Just be supportive. He needs that from us. They all do.”
My sweet Dash is torn up inside.
The ache of his guilt radiates through me while Ronan’s anger bites.
Jasper’s keeping his emotions hidden, but I don’t need to feel them to know that he’s carrying the weight of this loss on his shoulders the way he always does.
They’re mine to take care of once we’re away from this place, but until then, I have to set boundaries for everyone else.
“She’s right, Dean,” Landon’s mother says.
“You’ve only just started speaking more. Don’t ruin it now.”
Mr. Montgomery regards us with a fleeting look before glancing back, holding our stares longer this time.
“Old habits die hard.”
“That’s why I’m here. I’ll remind you of how things are going to be from now on,” I say.
After I was introduced to Landon’s parent’s, he did open up to his father about how he felt about his mother and his childhood because of what she’d done.
It was hard, but he’s reassured me that they’ve been closer since then.
More open, although it’s hard to believe that with how little they still speak today.
Maybe that’s just how things will always be.
Tense but not completely broken.
The speck of hope glows on the horizon, slowly spreading every day.
Well, it will as long as they both watch what they say to one another today.
Mr. Montgomery nods stiffly before returning his gaze to the game.
His wife releases a soft sigh and takes my hand in hers, squeezing.
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing.”
“We both know that isn’t true.”
I bring my gaze to the window and immediately spot Jasper skating beside Landon.
Dash is spread out in his net, focused but calm as he watches everyone move on the other end.
Ronan tosses himself into another player and then skates off as he collapses.
I smirk at that.
Even nearly an hour later, when I finally get to see them face to face without glass between us, I still smile.
I take my spot beneath the weight of their loss and help them carry it.
Dash sweeps me into his arms before the others can and holds me tight, like he’s afraid I’ll disappear.
“Needed this right now, Bright Eyes.”
“Take as much as you need,” I whisper.
Jasper comes up beside me and brings his nose to my hair, inhaling deeply.
“Thank you for being here.”
“There isn’t anywhere I’d rather be.”
Ronan joins us, and I’m shifted into another set of arms. I glance around the skybox, in search of the last member of our pack when I find him.
Dean has stopped him before he could reach us.
My gut sours before I grow frozen.
The words that escape his father startle me more than I would have expected.
“I’m sorry, Son. This loss doesn’t define you.”
Landon stands frozen.
I let go of the breath I was holding when he claps a hand against his father’s back and lets him pull him in for a hug.
“Thanks, Dad.”
I blink away the burn in my eyes and press my forehead against Ronan’s chest, caramel coffee swarming me.
Peace settles in the room at the same time Landon joins us, stealing me from Ronan.
The skin beneath my pack tattoo stretches as I push up on my tiptoes and kiss him, tasting forever on his lips.