Epilogue
Millie
I stepped out of my shower feeling very fresh, ready to tackle the day. I’d had the best night’s sleep since Alice was born, her first time sleeping through the night. It was fabulous.
Felix called to let me know that breakfast was almost ready, and I hurried to get dressed. I was starving. When I got to the kitchen, Alice was on Tyrone’s hip, Cannon was cooking eggs, and Felix had just finished setting the table.
“Well, aren’t we the picture of domestic bliss?” I loved it.
Alice turned to face me. “Mama, Mama.” She had just started saying my name, and I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of hearing it.
I went over and picked her up. “Yes, Mama’s here. Are you ready for yums?”
We were heading out to the farmer’s market, partly to see our friends, partly to pick up some supplies, and partly as a way to spend time together where we didn’t feel the need to do some sort of housework.
There was always something to do around here, whether it was the typical cleaning or working on one of the many projects we had going at one time.
I didn’t mind, but every once in a while, we needed an outing.
The cabin had been transformed since the first time I saw it.
Everything had been painted. The living room looked like people actually lived there and not like the room someone forgot to grab the last few items from when moving.
Felix and I had refinished the cabinets together.
They were now a shade of light blue that I absolutely loved.
The place was great. There was still more to do, but that would forever be the case.
We ate, Alice mostly picking at her eggs, and then drove to the flea market.
The place was packed, and, as we walked around, I found more and more things we could use.
We’d been coming regularly, and it had helped a lot with filling in the gaps with the things we didn’t want to do ourselves.
The canned veggies, honey, soaps, handmade towels and washcloths for the kitchen, along with some lotion filled Alice’s stroller as I carried her.
All our purchases were things that we’d probably take on ourselves under normal circumstances. This was so much better.
We stayed through lunch, eating with our friends, and then decided to head out, hoping Alice would nap in the car, which she did.
The second we crossed back onto the sleuth lands, my bear got agitated. I thought for a second it was me, and me alone. But then I scented all the bears.
“What’s going on?” My father was dead and no one from the sleuth had bothered us since, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t.
“Don’t know,” was all that Cannon said as he drove up to the house. He cracked open the door. “Human.” He slammed the door and ran around the side of the house, Felix insisting I stay in the car with him as Tyrone joined our alpha.
When they came around the corner again, they weren’t alone. Isella was there with them, and she looked awful.
“Felix, can you grab Alice?” He only got halfway through his answer before I was out the door, running to her.
“Isella.”
My mates visibly relaxed upon hearing her name.
“How’d you know I was here?” I hadn’t seen her since her wedding.
“I have nowhere to go.” Tears were flowing down her cheeks.
“Is Mark okay?”
“He’s with his wife.” I was so confused. I watched them get married. “I need a place to stay.”
“Absolutely.” Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t offer without talking to my sleuth, but she needed help. I still didn’t know what kind, but a place to sleep was a start. “Let’s get you inside and settled.”
I showed her to the room that had been Felix’s before they moved into my nest. We never got rid of the other beds because my mates insisted that I should always have my space in case I wanted it just for me.
Now, I was glad for it. She said, “Thank you,” but not much else before she fell sound asleep.
There was time to find out the details later.
I shut the door, giving her privacy, and joined my mates and Alice in the kitchen.
“Is this okay, guys?” It was kind of too late to ask, but I did feel bad, and if they said she had to leave, I’d make sure she did.
“You told us about her.” Cannon grabbed the back of his neck. “Does she know what you are?”
“No. We’re probably gonna have to change that.” Being around here, she was going to see a bear. There was no way around that. “I know we can trust her. It sounds like she broke up with her husband and he married someone else.”
“I’m glad I’m not human,” Cannon mumbled. He wasn’t putting humans down, but marriages often ended in divorce, and mates? They were forever.
“But it’s not so simple, I don’t think. It’s hard to explain.
I dreamed about her not too long ago, and, in that dream, she was holding an infant.
I thought it was hers. Now, I don’t know.
It almost feels like it was someone else’s child.
” In any case, the happy ending she thought she had was very much not her reality.
“I’d like to give her a home as long as she needs.”
“Of course,” Cannon answered as alpha, “and if she needs a sleuth, we can make that happen too.”
I really had the best sleuth ever.
“Mama, mama.”
“Sorry, Alice, did I ignore you for a couple of seconds there?” I picked her up. “You ready for tubbie time?”
She giggled. It was her favorite time of day. Normally, we saved bath time until bedtime, but she’d gotten into a whole lot of fun at the flea market and was now hiding behind a layer of dirt.
“I’m going to go find who’s living under this dirt. Then, when we come back, we can start working on dinner.”
We, not me. We. That one little word explained why my life here was better than I ever could have hoped for.
It wasn’t them and me; it was we in all things—in household tasks, in parenting, in our relationships. We were all equal.
We loved each other with all that we had, and that wasn’t something you could buy.
Although, I suppose my mates kind of had, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s not easy to be an omega, human or shifter. Millie’s bestie from school is finding that out the hard way in The Naughty Omega and Her Three Bears. One-click today to find out why her fairy-tale wedding did not lead to a fairy-tale life.