Her fingertips trace the scars on my skin while we lie together, and I feel so content I nearly forget about the stitches in my head for a short moment.
“Where would you want to go?”
“There’s so many places; New Orleans, Austin, California, Montana, maybe Myrtle Beach,” she lists.
“Myrtle Beach is a hellhole,” I reply.
“A hellhole I haven’t gotten to see for myself.”
She pokes my side, and I immediately buck away from her touch, making her laugh.
“Then it’s settled. As soon as it’s safe, we’ll take a trip.”
“All of us?” she questions.
“All of us. As much as I want you all to myself, I get it. You don’t have to worry about sharing with me, Lily. I’m not as jealous as you,” I tease, and she pokes me again.
“Take that back,” she growls, and the little shit pokes me so hard it’s a mix between tickling and torture.
“Okay, I take it back. I’m the more jealous one, but I accept them. You need all three of us, and what you need will always be the most important thing to me.”
“How did I get so lucky?” she sighs wistfully, nuzzling closer to me.
“I ask myself the same thing every day.”
I already knew I loved Lily, but now I know for certain there isn’t a single life in which I could live on without her.
Each day that passes,life gets easier. It doesn’t hurt that the change between before and now can be seen all around me. The change throughout the compound is palpable, and I welcome it.
I wish Leon were here to see it; I know he’d be proud.
The hurt and pain of his loss isn’t something that just goes away, but there are moments where I’m able to live in the present, and I’m grateful for it. Usually when one of my pack mates has me wrapped up in their arms and my full attention is on them… it’s like the pain goes away, and I welcome the momentary delusion wholeheartedly.
On the other hand, there are just as many moments where I’m alone or too lost in my thoughts that I can’t escape the reality of him not being here.
It’s during one of those moments where I’m contemplating what could have been while sitting in my tree when Axel comes walking by with something behind his back.
“What do you have?” I ask him with narrowed eyes, happy for a distraction.
“Can you come down?” he asks softly.
I climb down and stand in front of him. He looks so handsome today, and I can’t help but tuck a loose strand of hair behind his ear.
He seems like he’s on edge, and it has me concerned as I try to peek behind his back.
“What is it?”
“Leon’s ashes,” he whispers, pulling the simple black urn from behind his back and presenting it to me.
There’s a lump in my throat as I stare at it. I had assumed they left him at that stash house.
“You… you all went and got him?”
He was wearing a Wraith’s cut, so I had figured they all thought he was a traitor and would’ve… just left him there.
“I know it’s not a full funeral like he deserves, but it’s the best we could do,” he shrugs.
“No, Axel… this, this is everything.”
