“I guess I hadn’t. Huh, we do have a few secrets, don’t we?”
“I guess we do.”
“So what’s the second one?” I was already getting sleepy again, the emotional toll of seeing my mum, waking up, and seeing Luch again already making its mark on me.
“The second one is that I love you. I love you so very much, Faelan of the flowers, and I will through all time. Of that much I know. We feel it, you know, us Wulvers.” Luch tapped his chest. “We’re bound now. I’ll always protect you and walk by your side, if you’ll have me.”
“I will,” I said, and smiled against his lips when he came in for a kiss. “And I love you, Dr. Carmichael. And while I dearly love seeing you all sexy in your scrubs, I just don’t have the energy for anything else right now.”
Luch’s laugh rang out across the room.
“Only you would suggest we could get dirty while you have a waiting room full of your friends desperately waiting to see you again.”
“I do?” I’d never had friends, or family, who’d wait in the emergency room for me before.
That’s when it clicked into place for me.
I’d done it. I’d found a home, friends, and now with Luch? A family.
“You sure do, darling. A lot of people that care deeply about you. Myself included.”
“They can wait … just a little longer, right? I can’t seem towork up much energy to do anything more.” Already my eyes were fluttering closed, and I snuggled closer into Luch’s chest. “Just a little bit more. Just like this.”
“Anything for you, my love. Sweet Faelan of the flowers, together we’ll walk the fields, mine forever.”
Those were the last words before I drifted into a peaceful and pain-free sleep, knowing in my heart of hearts, that I’d finally grown roots and was ready to bloom.
EPILOGUE
Faelan
“Ugh, dogs.”Gloam looked at me and peeled off from where we walked toward the castle for a Highland Games event that Lachlan and Graham were hosting for tourists. I’d been told that Sophie had bested Lachlan in a swords match before they’d fallen in love, and I’d been promised a replay of that moment if I came.
Maybe I was also coming because Sophie wanted more photos of hot men in kilts for the castle’s marketing campaign, and there was promise of Luch in a kilt tossing a caber about.
It had been over a month since the accident, and Luch had allowed me to watch him change under the full moon. It had been unnerving, even thrilling to watch, as flesh shifted to fur, and body changed to animal. Yet the eyesremained the same, that tawny green gold that I loved so much, and luckily, I found I could still communicate when he was in this form. It was just like talking to Gloam, actually, and I’d gone on a long walk with Luch under the moon, with Gloam keeping his distance while Luch was in wolf form, and it had felt comfortable. Normal, even. Well, normal for me, at least. But my normal didn’t have to look like anyone else’s normal, did it?
The practice was booming, and I’d been lucky to hire Zara to help me with admin work. She was great with the clients, a whiz at technology, and used her own special computer systems to help her with filing, reading reports, and making calls. Even better, her support dog Mitch came to work with her every day, and we got to educate the community about working dogs and how to treat them when people saw them out in public. At first, Zara hadn’t even wanted to get paid for her work, since she’d been so grateful that I’d helped save Mitch, and I was coming to learn she had her own powers. She hadn’t shared her magick with me, yet, but I was certain in her own time she’d open up if she felt comfortable. In the meantime, I’d told her about my healing abilities, and she’d taken it in stride.
That was the other thing—though I would always be cautious with whom I told about my abilities, I now had learned a powerful lesson.
It didn’t matter anymore who really knew that I could heal with magick.
On a larger scale, it probably did. Like if someone told someone who wanted to, I don’t know, maybe make a movie of me or something like that, then yes, it wouldmatter. But to tell a few trusted friends who lived in Loren Brae? I no longer had an issue with that. Because I’d come to realize that I was the one in the power. I owned my own business, I was a full member of the Order of Caledonia, and these women, and their men, had my back. Unquestionably. Nobody could run me out of town anymore.
And if they tried, they’d have to get through an exceptionally scary, extremely strong, wolf.
There was a reason they referred to security as being a blanket, and I now tugged that around my shoulders, the warmth of acceptance from family and friends adding a spring to my step as I neared the castle.
I even walked by the loch on my own now.
After I’d left the hospital and returned home, I’d discovered my scalpel had a third band glittering on its handles. It must have been healing Luch that had sealed the deal, and now I suspected the Kelpies would leave me alone. Or at least, I hoped. Things had been quiet since the attack, and I hoped it would stay that way as we found the other members of the Order.
Sophie was just a touch on edge, as she didn’t have a line on the next person yet, and I’d promised to help her pull some threads on leads she’d had on my day off.
But not today.
Today was for ogling hot men in kilts.
