Epilogue Silas
Months Later
Lena and I were natural partners. She fit easily at my side, watching, listening, and learning.
Knox rarely came down to the workshop anymore, preferring to leave us to the interrogations. Even though he trusted us to handle things our way, occasionally he would wander downstairs. Not to interfere, but to check in and to make sure we hadn’t disappeared too far into the violence of it.
Yesterday, we picked up an Arca Resistance Rebel from the jail. He’d been working for the Northern Shifters, supplying them with goods, weapons, and even smuggling shifters out of New Arca. Exactly the kind of operation AIED was prioritizing now that the criminal underworld had settled.
Command's focus had shifted north.
There was a war brewing.
And I was fairly certain Command would transfer our unit soon, likely to the Northern Borderlands where Arca needed us most.
Lena was… exceptional.
Sharp, methodical, and unnaturally good at seeing patterns where others missed them, pulling answers from places most people didn’t know to look. We had learned a lot from each other, but with her in our unit, we weren’t just effective anymore.
We were invaluable.
Arca knew it.
They wanted us on the front lines.
I watched her now, awe running through me as she brought a blade down in one clean, decisive motion, separating our interrogatee’s pinky without hesitation.
No flinch. No pause.
Just precision.
Beautiful.
Behind her, three pieces of the past hung mounted in frames along the wall, dried and preserved.
Yuri’s pinky finger hung in the first, darkened and shriveled with time. Marco’s payment only got him so far. Once the money ran out, Knox had no trouble finding him and making him pay for his betrayal.
Luca’s tongue was mounted in the second, puckered and withered, something I had taken myself.
The third and final frame held Marco’s nipple, carved free by Lena, preserved as a reminder of his debt to her, settled in flesh.
Trophies.
Proof that even men like them could be reduced to pieces.
For hours, Lena had carved her revenge into Marco. Then when exhaustion had worn her down, and I sensed she had satiated all her rage, I placed the screwdriver in her hand and let her finish it.
After that, Knox and I fucked and knotted her, right next to Marco's corpse, as promised.
And when we were finished…
That was the end of Marco.
No legacy.
No power.
Just a small, puckered piece of flesh mounted to our basement wall.
When it was finally over, I felt it through the bond, the shift in her. Something heavy had finally lifted.
Relief.
I thought about the first time I’d seen her smile, really smile. Small and uncertain, as if she didn’t quite trust it yet. I had given her that puzzle, and when her lips had curved just slightly, I’d felt absurdly proud of myself for it.
Now, her smiles came so much easier. Unrestricted and without hesitation.
And each time they did, I felt the same pride settle in my chest again.
Not just because I’d made her smile.
But because I had played a role in healing her.
In helping her find peace.
And she'd done the same for us.
Lena glanced over, catching me watching her, a knowing look slipping into her expression.
“What?” she asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.
“Nothing,” I said, though I couldn't quite hide my smirk. “Just thinking.”
Her brow arched immediately. “Careful,” she said lightly, teasing me. “Don’t hurt yourself.”
A voice carried from the stairs before I could respond.
“Probably should leave the thinking to this twin,” Knox said as he descended, tone dry, eyes flicking between us. “And stick to what you’re good at.”
I scoffed as he stepped into the workshop.
“Still alive?” he asked.
“Barely,” I replied.
“Well,” Knox continued, shifting his focus, “did you figure out where they’re smuggling goods through the wall?”
“No,” I said, glancing back toward our interrogatee who had just lost consciousness. “He claims the shifters meet him on our side. Says he doesn’t know where the breach is.”
Knox’s gaze sharpened slightly. “You believe him?”
I shrugged, holding out my knife. “You’re welcome to ask for yourself if you want confirmation.”
His eyes flicked to Lena, as she nodded slightly. “If Lena agrees, I believe you.”
I rolled my eyes.
Lena crossed her arms loosely, looking between us with an amused shake of her head. “I find it hard to believe you two used to do this together before me,” she teased. “You don’t share or play very nicely anymore.”
“Yeah, well…” I said, stepping closer, a sharp smile forming, “we’re still good at sharing some things.”
Knox moved in from the other side, closing the distance, sandwiching Lena between us.
And she didn’t pull away.
She didn’t flinch at our proximity or tense at our touch. Instead, she leaned into it easily, her gaze moving between us with an affection that still felt unreal some days. There was so much warmth in her now. Trust. Love. Things I once thought Marco had destroyed beyond repair.
The woman standing between us was barely recognizable as the omega we had first dragged from that cell.
Back then, she had hidden beneath furniture just to escape being looked at.
She used to bare her teeth and bite at our hands whenever we reached for her, terrified of what touch would cost her.
Every inch of closeness had been met with panic, distrust, or the instinct to flee.
Now she sought us out on her own.
Maybe not the rest of the world.
Maybe not anyone else.
The damage Marco had done still lingered too deeply for that. But with us, she curled against our sides when she slept. Reached for our bodies without thinking. Let our hands settle on her without fear stealing the softness from her eyes afterward.
She had bloomed.
No, more than that. She was thriving.
Now, we stood here together after everything we had survived, after everything Marco had taken from all three of us. Somehow, despite the damage, we had still found our way to each other.
At first, pain tied us together. Shared trauma, anger and the understanding that we had each been shaped by violence and loss. But somewhere along the way, it became more than that.
Our bond wasn’t built on survival or revenge anymore.
It was built on trust. On choosing each other again and again, even after seeing each other's scars. It was built on Lena reaching for our touch instead of fearing it, and on Knox and I learning how to offer comfort instead of only knowing how to cause pain.
Marco no longer had any place between us.
There was only us now.
Only the bond we had chosen.
And whatever came next.