Now I stand in the clearing of the life I chose, my husband somewhere behind me, my old family in front of me, and I let her hold me without flinching.
“You’re talking,” she whispers. “I missed you so much, Briar.”
My eyes burn. “Missed you too.”
Rafe says nothing. He doesn’t need to. I can feel him there, steady at my back, giving me the space to have this.
Bethany wipes her face and looks past me into the clearing. “This is… not what I thought.”
I almost laugh.
No. The Feral Ones are rarely what people think.
Mercy appears first, moving with one hand braced at the base of her spine and the other carrying a basket of biscuits, her round belly leading the way. Knox and Finn trail her by half a step on either side like two giant, overprotective shadows.
“Lord, y’all did make it up the mountain.” Mercy smiles at my family. “Good. We were startin’ to think Rafe gave bad directions on purpose so he could keep her to himself.”
Bethany snorts. Mom looks horrified for one second, then catches Mercy’s teasing tone and softens.
“I’m Shannon,” my mother says, touching her own chest. “And this is Bethany.”
Mercy shifts the basket to one hip and nods. “Mercy. These two are Knox and Finn, my personal collection of overgrown problems.”
Finn grins. Knox looks offended. Bethany’s mouth twitches. Then her eyes widen when the reality of their dynamic hits her.
Aurora waves us over from the table where she’s cutting pie while Lucas steals blackberries off a plate one sticky finger at a time. Silas catches his son by the shoulder before he can swipe a whole handful and lifts him onto his hip without breaking stride.
“Come sit before Boone eats everything worth eating,” Aurora calls.
“Lies,” Boone says from across the fire, Serena riding his shoulders while Ivy tries to rescue a spoon from the child’s fist. “I leave at least one bite for guests.”
Mom blinks, looking from one family to another, from the children to the food to the men moving through all of it with an ease that does not match the stories she must have told herself before coming here.
Mama Rue steps up beside her like she grew out of the mountain itself.
My mom startles, then laughs at herself.
Rue looks at the dish she brought, then at her face. “You’re the mama.”
Mom nods. “I am.”
Rue studies her for one long second, then says, “You raised a girl who knew how to live.”
My mother’s mouth trembles. “I didn’t save her,” she says quietly.
“No,” Mama Rue says. “You raised her to know how to save herself. We just gave her somewhere to land.”
The words go straight through me.
I look around the clearing then. At Mercy being bullied toward a chair by three different people at once. At Boone finally surrendering Serena to Ivy with theatrical sorrow. At Elias scooping Fern up under one arm while Tandy laughs at whatever he mutters into their daughter’s hair. At Malachi and Rowan setting out plates. At Lucas racing in circles until Silas hooks him again with one calm hand.
At Rafe, watching all of it, and watching me.
And for the first time, I see what my family sees.
Not a hiding place.
A life.
