It was true. From the moment I’d met her back when she’d had no memory, trapped in a world and future that wasn’t hers, Mera had been in a rush. A rush to escape. A rush to find Shadow. A rush into her future.
For the first time, now she appeared content. There was nowhere for her to rush because she’d found her home.
As had we all.
The final room was the main bedroom, and the timber floor continued in here, with three large white rugs to soften up the space. “Welcome home,” Mera sighed. “And with that, I’m going to leave you two alone to explore.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “We’ll be in the playroom when you’re done. Tabby will be fine for a few minutes. Take your time.”
She pressed a kiss to my cheek, and then Len leaned over so she could reach his. When she was gone, her warm energy fading, I found myself drifting into the room our best friends had created for us. It was huge, with a super-sized bed covered in bedding of a similar gold and silver filigree pattern to the library chairs. There was another fireplace in here, warming the space, and I could see a huge closest—filled with clothing—through one door and a bathroom through a nearby door.
“Mera’s our very own fairy godmother,” I said with a shake of my head. “Ironically, since we’re from Faerie.”
As I turned, I gasped to find Len right before me, watching me like I was the only one in the world. No more words were exchanged as powerful energy simmered between us, and both of us broke the moment at the same time, lunging forward.
By the time my lips met his, I was already in his arms, and he used energy to strip our clothes away. In the next heartbeat, he was inside me, and my body was screaming into our first climax.
“Did I say you could come, Storm?” Len rasped, thrusting up, neither of us able to make it to the bed in our need.
“Will you give me orgasms until I pass out as punishment?” I choked out, swirls of my next orgasm already brimming.
“Always, my love,” he promised in a rumble, and I let out a sigh of how perfectly imperfect we were.
This was my forever and my home. This was my happily ever after.
End of story. Finally.
58
SAMANTHA
Clarity pack felt different when we returned the next day. Quieter, with less energy, but also less darkness coating the essence of the town. Len and I walked through, with Tabitha in my arms. Shadow and Mera were there as well, the beast holding his daughter as we moved forward to deal with the pack.
Their time to manage their corruption was done, and with Shadow deciding to pay a little more attention to the shifters, they better hope they’d chosen right.
“Shifters!” he bellowed when we’d reached the center of the small town. “Get your asses out here.”
I wandered a few feet away from him, looking down the path toward the main forest, seeing that Alpha Lorenze remained frozen in the same spot, right where I’d almost lost my freedom to his son. Just seeing that area, with the debris of wedding decorations still tangled around his frozen legs, had dark memories attempting to rise.
I was too strong for that to take me down now though. I chose what memories to keep, and that was one I was more than happy to discard.
“That’s where it almost happened?” Len asked quietly, his eyes swirling as he followed my gaze. “That’s the alpha who hurt you and Tabby?”
Exhaling deepling, I turned away from that direction, facing Shadow and Mera once more. “Yep, that’s the asshole.” Or what was left of him. He looked very beat up, and I wondered if it wouldn’t be kinder to just kill him now.
Rid his presence from the worlds.
Only a few dozen shifters emerged at this point, following the call of their god, stepping into the clearing with their heads hanging low. I knew all of them. They’d been in Clarity when I was, and I wondered what happened to the others. There were none of the stronger members here, including Grant.
“Where is everyone else?” Shadow asked, his voice lowering as he looked between them all.
Floe, who was no more than seventeen, shuffled forward. She ran a shaking hand through her white-blond hair, which was standing up in messy disarray. “They left,” she whispered, more of her body trembling as Shadow faced her. “When you told them to clean this pack up, most of the strong ones bailed.” Her eyes strayed toward Lorenze. “After they beat up the alpha for a while.”
Jack, one of the older males, stepped up to join her. “It’s just us left. Those who had no need or place to run to. We’ve been living like a pack, but without an alpha, and we’ve had no trouble at all since you left.”
Shadow gestured for Jack to step forward, and maybe it was that I moved closer too, but they finally appeared to notice me in their midst. “Sam!” Floe called, eyes widening, but she at least stopped shaking like she was about to fall apart. “You’re back. You’re… so strong.”
I stepped up to stand beside Shadow. “I am stronger. You are as well.”
They were. Each of the shifters standing here had been the lower end of our pack, copping the worst of the abuse, but outside of their visible fear of Shadow, they looked stronger and healthier than ever.
