“What happens now?” The question falls from my lips naturally, echoing what I asked him after the battle, after the Coven left, after everything changed.
He smiles. A real smile, not the predator’s grin or the fighter’s snarl, but something genuine, warm, and impossibly human for a creature that gave up his humanity millennia ago.
“Now?” He shifts beneath me, sitting up and pulling me with him until we’re face-to-face, chest to chest, surrounded by glowing wildflowers and the evidence of our passion. “Now we burn brighter.” The words settle over me. A vow, not a promise of safety, normalcy, or any of the things I used to think I wanted. A promise of something better. Something wilder. Something that embracesexactlywhat we are without apology or restraint.
“Brighter,” I echo, and the moment the word leaves my mouth, it’s no longer just his conviction. It steadies my spine, sharpens my resolve, threads itself through my determinationuntil the line between his certainty and mine dissolves into something shared and unbreakable.
He stands, pulling me up with him, and we’re both covered in ash and dirt and the remnants of our passion. But we’re also glowing faintly with residual magic, marked by power we’re only beginning to understand, transformed in ways that go deeper than just blood and binding.
Our clothes are scattered in shreds across the wilderness floor, and Crave raises his brow at me in concern. But I smile, waving my hand through the air, and with a whirl of orange light, our clothes suddenly materialize back on our bodies.
Completely torn free.
He shakes his head with a bright smile. “You’re really getting the hang of these witch powers, aren’t you?”
A small giggle escapes me. “If I can put clothes on this fast, imagine how quickly I can take them off?” I wink at him, and a low growl escapes him.
“Hey, the flowers have only just started growing, and you’re still finding your strength… don’t tempt me to start this all over again.” He pulls me toward his bike, which somehow survived the blast unscathed, though now I look at it, I see Hex’s sigils glowing on the side. Clearly, a protection spell is in place over the club’s bikes.Hex will be happy to know his coding has worked.I climb on behind Crave, my arms wrapping around his waist, my body fitting against his. This isexactlywhere I belong.
As the engine roars to life and we prepare to leave our sanctuary, I take one last look at the field of glowing wildflowers. They pulse with crimson-gold light, beautiful, impossible, yet permanent. A reminder that even from our worst impulses, something good can grow.
This is ours.
This wilderness.
These flowers.
This moment.
This future we’re building one impossible choice at a time.
Crave kicks the bike into gear, and we tear away from the clearing, racing toward the clubhouse and whatever comes next. Behind us, night breaks fully over the horizon, painting the sky in midnight blue, and for the first time since this all began, I’m not afraid of what the darkness will reveal.
Not when I’m holding onto him.
Not when we’re burning this bright.
Together, we ride toward an uncertain future, leaving a trail of glowing wildflowers and impossible hope in our wake, proof that monsters can choose love over power and that sometimes, the most dangerous thing isn’t the darkness we carry but the light we’re capable of creating despite it.
The clubhouse rises in the distance, and I tighten my arms around Crave’s waist, letting the engine’s roar drown out any remaining doubts.
This is who we are now.
This is what we chose.
And as we race toward home, family, and whatever battles wait on the other side of this moment, only one truth matters…
… we’ll face it all together.
Burning brighter than anything they’veeverseen.
Epilogue
ROGUE
Two Months Later
The guilt tastes like failure.
