Everyone jeered when he kissed me, and Rock yelled, “Get a room.”
Then it was a flurry of food and and laughter, the loft overflowing with conversation and music, Ray tearing through the place after the terrified cat, the Kings’ and Willa’s son toddling after them both.
“I can’t believe you did this for me,” Bram said.
“She’s been working on it for weeks,” Remy said, taking a bite of the cake.
“The only way I could get him away from the house was to agree to buy supplies for the demon cat,” Poe said.
“You did good,” I said. “All of you.”
“We’re a good team,” Bram said, dropping a kiss on my mouth. “And now I”m going to demolish more of that cake.”
I watched him leave, Poe and Remy melting back into the living room with our guests.
He’s right, M. You are a good team.
I think so too, I told June.
Are you happy?
I swallowed my sadness, because yeah, I was happy. Happy for the first time in a long time. But happiness after June would never be the same as happiness before June and that was something I was still learning how to live with.
I am. Are you?
I’m at peace, M. I really am.
Will you still come around? Now that Ethan is gone?
It was the thing I hadn’t dared to say out loud: that maybe June would leave when Ethan finally got what was coming to him.
I’ll always be here. Always.Just live your life, M. I’ll be right here if you need me.
I think I actually believed it.
Nothing was ever guaranteed. I still didn’t know how my parents would handle my new life with the Butchers, and I know firsthand that anything could happen.
But watching the three men who’d barreled into my life wearing masks and carrying knives, I knew I had all the certainty that mattered.
Because I had them.
All of them.
And that meant I had everything.
Thanks so much for reading Claim the Dark and the entire Blackwell Butchers’ series. Preorder the first book in the Blackwell Hawks series and find out what happens when Bram’s little sister Casie joins the Hunt — and is marked as prey by the wild and unruly Blackwell Hawks.
Read Blackwell Hawks Book One
And coming soon…
Something entirely different! Preorder book one of Blackwell Hollow, a super secret Blackwell adjacent standalone series beginning in March 2026.
Read Blackwell Hollow Book One
Start at the beginning of the Blackwell Saga with the Aventine University Box Set — FREE in KU
I hate them.
