Harris dropped the machete and pulled me into his arms. I clung to him, my hands fisting into his torn shirt, and buried my face against his shoulder.
We held each other for a long time.
Everything had changed. Harris was a wolf. He’d given up his humanity for me. And I’d almost lost him because I’d been too afraid to let him in.
But we were together. We were alive. And that was what mattered.
“You came for me,” I whispered, my voice breaking.
Harris’s arms tightened around me. “Always,” he breathed, right into my ear. “I’ll always come for you, Reed. Doesn’t matter if I need to travel a thousand miles or across worlds.”
I pulled back to look at him. His eyes were still gold, still blazing with alpha power. But there was something else there, too. It was warm and fierce and certain.
And I’d almost thrown it all away.
“I’m sorry,” I said, the words spilling out. “I’m so sorry, Harris. I was wrong. About everything. I was afraid and I—”
“I know,” he cut me off gently. “We’ll talk about it. But not here. Not now.”
He was right.
I nodded and let him help me to my feet. My body was valiantly fighting to heal itself, but this wasn’t just scratches in my skin. It would be a while yet before I was fully back to normal.
The Algea’s body lay at our feet, headless and still. The amulet gleamed in its chest.
Around us, Lacey, Hunter, and Lee watched in their wolf forms, their eyes wide.
Harris looked down at the body, then back at me. “We need to burn the body.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We do.”
“I had a torch, but I lost it when I came through to the Otherworld. There’s a bonfire at the commune, though,” Harris said. “The pack is there, waiting for us. The witches, too.”
I nodded.
Together, we lifted the corpse of the Algea—Harris taking the shoulders, me taking the legs, the severed head tucked under my free arm—and we started back toward the commune.
Toward home and pack. Toward whatever came next.
Whatever it was, we’d face it together.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO || HARRIS
The bonfire was still roaring when we reached the commune. The entire pack was gathered around it, sitting vigil. The witches were still there, too, standing off to one side. Simone and Poppy together. Ethan and Nathaniel. And even Tatiana and Wynn. Their faces were all drawn and exhausted, but—perhaps in solidarity with the pack—they’d all stayed.
Reed and I carried the Algea’s headless corpse between us, and the crowd parted to let us through. Together, we lifted the body onto the fire.
The flames burned higher, as if ravenous, consuming the creature’s tattered white gown and pale flesh. The smell was acrid and wrong, unnatural, but I didn’t look away. None of us did. We watched it burn.
Reed stood beside me, his shoulders squared despite the exhaustion I could feel thrumming through him. He was covered in blood, most of it his own, and there were still wounds visible on his chest and arms, though they were closing slowly.
But he was alive. We both were.
Reed turned to face the pack, and I felt the weight of his authority settle over him like a mantle. Even battered and bleeding, he was every inch the alpha.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice carrying easily over the fire. “All of you. For everything.” His gaze swept across the gathered wolves, witches, and vampires. “We will speak of this more. But not tonight.” He paused, and I felt the vulnerability through the bond that almost made him change his mind. Then he finished: “I need time to recover first.”
Lindsey stepped forward, her expression softer than I’d ever seen it. “We can handle the rest, Reed. Go. Take care of yourself.”
