Epilogue
KAEL
Asoft breeze moves through the fields, slow and steady, brushing over the land like breath.
The menace is gone—mutilated cattle, unexplained crop symbols, ranch hands who don’t look back.
The older hurt is gone now, too. Of Wildblood hunters who exacted vengeance from fear. Targeting mates because their lives were tied to more powerful ones, ones beyond the reach of most mortal intervention.
I absentmindedly rub the scars over my stomach, letting go of memories of the Wakefield Ranch too dark to hold onto.
The night Clemson’s woman died—and then him. The night I got a gut full of lead.
And the oath I took afterwards, never to stay anywhere again. But now I understand. The bond gives more than it takes—but what it takes, it takes all at once.
I lean against the fence, watching the night stretch out toward the horizon. For the first time in longer than I can remember, I’m staying.
To build a home and a life I never thought possible.
That’s when I feel her. I wait, lips pressed into a lopsided grin. Next come the rustle of footsteps, light and familiar.
Eliza doesn’t say anything when she reaches me. She just slides into my side, her warmth fitting against me like we were always meant to.
“You’re smiling,” she says softly.
I huff a quiet breath. “Your fault.”
She tilts her head, studying me. “Since when?”
My gaze drops to her. To the faint echo of my marks beneath her skin.
Brown-sugar warm eyes, cinnamon-freckled cheeks, pink lips sweet as apple blossoms. So beautiful, she’s a gut punch to my soul.
“Since you,” I drawl.
Her expression is soft, inviting. I dip my head, brushing her mouth. An easy gesture filled with enough love to burst my heart.
She senses it, face flushing as her hand comes up. Her fingers brush over my chest, tracing the glyphs now settled beneath my skin. No longer straining or fighting. But burning with a steady devotion for her alone.
“Does it still hurt?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Aches is all. Bittersweet, like my feelings for you.”
“Bittersweet?” she murmurs, forehead knitting.
“Yes, love you something fierce. Like it could rip my soul clean in two… like you’ve crawled permanently beneath my skin.”
“Kael,” she sighs, fingers sliding higher, slower now. Intentional.
I catch her wrist before she can pull away, touching my lips to her knuckles. Then, sliding my tongue between her digits, circling them, pressing my lips to each fingertip. Her pupils blow wide, breath going rough.
“You keep doing that,” I say quietly.
“Doing what?” she asks, though she knows.
“Looking at me like you need me.”
She steps closer. No hesitation in her words. “I do. More than anything.”
Something in my chest tightens. “Resonance.” It comes out a soft rumble, tickling her fingers.
“I’m afraid of something,” I murmur, eyes locked on her. “That I want you so wildly, so violently I could hurt you.”
She shakes her head, a small smile curving her mouth. “Never.”
I study her for a long moment. “How can you be sure?”
“Because of the bond. Our oneness now. And you forget,” she says with a chuckle. “That want you’re feeling? That desperation is mine, too.”
My hand slides to her waist, pulling her in. Slow. Deliberate.
“You know what this means,” I say, voice low.
Her breath catches slightly. But she doesn’t pull away.
“Yeah,” she whispers.
I lean down, my forehead resting against hers.
“I don’t run anymore,” I tell her.
“Good,” she breathes. “Because I’m not letting you.”
A low sound rumbles in my chest. Not warning or restraint. Something else entirely.
My mouth finds hers, slow and deep.
Her fingers curl into the collar of my shirt, pulling me hard against her. We devour each other, thoughts merging until I can’t tell which of the two of us is hungrier… or naughtier.
When we break, heavy pants mixing with the chirps of crickets and cicadas and the distant lowing of cattle, she asks, “Can you actually read my mind?”
I chuckle, thrown off by her question. “Why do you ask?” I press her hand against the thud of my heart.
“Because for me, it’s all feeling, sensation. But sometimes, I have the impression you’re getting more.”
I take her mouth again, can’t stay away. Lost in bliss that doubles back on itself. Exploring her, exploring me.
I hold her gaze when we have to breathe again, answering, “First-generation Wildbloods are feared for their psychic abilities. Especially among other Wildbloods. My grandma thought that came from the original Sentinels. But for me, with you, it’s emotions mixed with thought forms when I concentrate very hard. Or it’s very quiet like tonight.”
“And this?” she asks, pressing wicked plans into my head. Faint images, anticipation that hums up and down my spine.
“Mmm,” I say. “Out here? Beneath these stars?” My voice drops to gravel. “Tied up?”
She giggles. “You’re good at this.”
I shake my head, pulse racing, blood heated. “Need practice. Rusty when it comes to humans.”
“And how about when it comes to your mate?”
That last word lands hard. Puts a dangerous sting behind my eyes.
“Kael?” she asks, blinking slowly.
“Sorry,” I rasp. “Just never thought I’d find you. Never thought you’d want me the way I want you.” She palms my cheeks, filling my head again.
Heat pools behind my sternum, then curls low at the base of my spine. “My, my… such thoughts for a lady,” I tease, blown away by the memory of her remembering me at the watering hole.
She smiles, soft and wicked, still thinking and feeling.
“God, Eliza.” My voice roughens. “If I’d have known, nothing would’ve been able to stop me from claiming you then and there.”
“But you did know I was looking,” she teases, fingers stroking over my neck and shoulders, undoing me bit by bit.
“Knew you were curious. That’s a different thing for a man like me.”
“I’m still curious,” she says with that sassy voice of hers, eyes flashing.
“About what, primrose?”
“Whether you’ll wait to grab that rope or just take me here, hard against the fence.”
“There’s much I’m still getting used to about this time and place,” I confess. “But your dirty mouth was worth waiting nearly two centuries for.”
Her eyebrow arches. “You don’t know half of what it can do.”
Her knees hit the dirt, and I unravel a little more. Won’t hold on much longer.
I swallow hard, still unbelieving she’d offer me this. Despite my differences. “You don’t have to—”
“Want to,” she says, staring up at me with simmering eyes. “Just try not to latch onto my face.”
A laugh escapes me, loud and robust, amusement I haven’t felt for too long to remember. I don’t stop until my eyes are blurry. She’s got a fair bit yet to learn about me.
Eliza’s looking up through a fringe of black lashes, face radiating pleasure. “Never heard you laugh like that before. I love it.”
“No,” I say with a forced frown. “You love me.”
“I do, Kael Guthrie. More than you can know, but you’re about to find out.” She gets serious now, focusing on unbuttoning and unzipping. My jeans and boxers bunch in her hands as she slides them to my knees.
Her eyes round. “You’re bigger than I remember,” she murmurs, wrapping her dainty fingers around me.
“Then we need to do this more often.”
I moan as she slides back and forth, my mind pressing against hers, savoring how much she wants this, too. She leans forward, teasing me with the tip of her tongue, then circling me with her lips.
She won’t be able to get half of me in her mouth. That’s okay. Every centimeter is bliss wrapped in an invitation.
All the time, her hand keeps sliding, finding the rhythm she knows I want.
I groan, deep-chested and full, leaning against the fence post like it’s a crutch.
Her cheeks hollow, eyes meeting mine. There’s so much love in them it steals my breath. Then, the corners crinkle as she giggles, saying with a wink. “No alien funny business. You promise?”
“Only until I get that rope,” I moan, “and make good on your fantasy.”
The throb between her legs tightens my lower core as she takes me in her mouth again. Hand, tongue, and lips working me into oblivion beneath a blanket of stars.
When I can’t take anymore, when I have to bond her, I sweep her into my arms unceremoniously, lifting her dress.
“No panties,” I grunt.
“May never wear them again… with you around.”
“Good.”
Her ankles lock above my ass, hips sliding forward to take me.
Every damn inch.
Until we lock into place, becoming one thing all over again.
The world narrows again. Now, it doesn’t feel like losing control. It feels like finally having something worth holding onto.
And this time, I won’t ever let go. Because some things are worth staying for.
The hum settles low in my bones.
Steady. Content.
But beyond the fence line—far out where the mountains meet the dark—it shifts.
Not gone.
Just… waiting.
He nearly died for her.
Now he’s taking her out in public… and daring anyone to look twice.
A small-town date turns into something far more dangerous when Kael decides he’s done holding back.
Eliza’s his. And tonight, he plans to prove it.
Get the bonus scene now when you sign up for my newsletter.
Sentinels don’t choose.
They don’t feel. They don’t break from the collective.
Calder does all three.
And the human woman he can’t stop watching may be the reason the entire system fractures.