“Last one there is a rotten egg!” she called without slowing down, knowing that she had her daddy wrapped around her little finger. And you know what? I was fine with it. She wasn’t hurting anyone by racing forward, so why not let her have a little fun? Besides, it wasn’t every day that someone moved to a paradise and regained what had been so violently taken from them.
“Wow, they’re still saying that? That’s been around since I was a kid.”
“Some things are just eternal, I guess,” I said, reaching for Ben’s hand. He took it, sending me that wonderful smile that still made my heart thump and my feet stick to the ground. “Everyone want to look at the main house first before we explore the peripherals?”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Simon said, grinning from ear to ear. “Side note, if I’m dreaming, nobody is allowed to pinch me. Leave me in a coma forever.”
“It does feel a bit like that, doesn’t it?”
He nodded to me, and the six of us followed Veronica down the drive.
To her credit, the soon-to-be kindergartener actually made it two-thirds of the way, standing there and panting slightly until we caught up with her. United, we made it to the porch, where I was surprised to find Natalie waiting for us.
“I thought you’d be frolicking in your pasture for the next ten business days.”
Natalie and I had grown a lot closer, and while I wouldn’t say we were besties for life, there was a connection between us that went beyond that.
“Was going to,” she said matter-of-factly before her eyes flicked strangely to Ben. It was just a split-second thing, but I noticed it just enough to be confused. “But then I figured there is only one first time your alpha leads you into your new pack lands.”
Ah, I probably should have thought of that. But even after all my time with shifters, there was still so much to learn.
Ben cleared his throat, almost as if he was embarrassed at the statement, before striding forward and pulling out our brand-new keys to unlock the brand-new door to our brand-new house. “Welcome to our new home,” he said, beaming brightly.
And God, I was so incredibly proud of him.
We all headed inside, and somehow, the house was even more beautiful than the pictures had shown. I had had a couple of chances to visit in person before things were finalized, but with the school year being so busy and everything else, I couldn’t find the time to be as involved as I would have liked. Besides, I really wasn’t all that picky. As long as I was with my family, both new and old, and we had all the room we needed, there really wasn’t anything else I could want.
But as I walked through the place with its high ceilings, tons of windows for natural light, built-in shelving, and even aworking fireplace, I felt like we’d stumbled into something truly perfect. I could envision an entire future ahead of us, no matter what that might bring.
And that feeling of joy, of contentedness, only increased as we went upstairs through the multiple rooms and the two full bathrooms, as well as the balcony that overlooked the massive backyard and the rest of the acreage. Never in my life had I ever thought my family would be able to live on such a large plot of land, with no more mortgages, or taxes, or anything else unless we managed to bully Ben into letting us pay it. I’d gotten a bit more of a solid idea of his finances in the time we’d been together and knew we could all live fairly comfortably for the rest of our lives even if we all went down to part-time work—not that any of us wanted to. I’d worked quite hard for my career, and I truly loved my students, so I was content to put my money away for emergencies and for my stepchildren’s futures and any new surprises that came along.
While I had no plans to ever biologically have a baby, if there was anything that the last two years had showed me, it was that family could come in all sorts of packages. If we did happen to run into someone who was meant to join us, I wanted them to be just as supported and financially free as the rest of us were.
Goodness, the thought of it, and the ease that had suddenly entered all of our lives, made me want to cry. Naturally, that made me a bit quiet, but no one commented on it as we descended down the stairs and returned to the kitchen.
That was one of the things that Ben had actually been the most insistent on. When he’d first been in talks to buy the house, apparently it wasn’t up to snuff for him, but once he closed, he’d hired contractors who did it up the way he liked. There was an expensive oven that had two doors, while everything else was a glossy chrome. It was like his last kitchen, but dialed up to thenines. It seemed you could take the wolf out of the city, but you couldn’t necessarily take the city out of the wolf’s kitchen.
I was so caught up in my thoughts, I didn’t realize that everyone else had gone quiet too. Wondering if they were as swept up in the beauty and possibility of it like I was, I glanced around only to see that they were all staring behind me.
“Ummm…?” I murmured, wondering if somehow my skirt had gotten tucked up into my underwear. But Nox cleared their throat and made a gesture for me to follow their gaze.
I turned around, only to realize that Ben was kneeling there, a box in his raised hand.
Oh my god!
“Giselle,” he said, opening the box and revealing a beautiful, teardrop-shaped ring with four gems on it. The two in the center, which were mounted in platinum filigree to appear as united halves of a bigger stone, were Ben and my birthstones, while the smaller ones set into the ring were Benny’s and Veronica’s.
Was this really happening?
“You have brought more to my life than I ever thought could be possible. Every night my head hits the pillow, I thank whatever deity brought us together, and every morning I wake up thrilled to have another day in your presence. You have helped me heal, strengthened me, and made me a better man.
“I know we’re already mated, bound together for our whole lives, but I want to be united with you in every way possible. Giselle, will you marry me?”
“Yes!” I cried, voice cracking and hand shaking as I held it out.
Cheers erupted all around us, and I lost it, letting out all the happy tears that I had been holding in since we walked into our new home. I had been so content with the life we had ahead of us, I hadn’t imagined it could get any better. But as I threw myself into Ben’s arms, I realized it wasalwaysgoing to getbetter. Every milestone we hit, every time I felt we were at our best, there would always be more. Because I had family, I had a pack, and I had love.
Perfect, unadulterated love.
There would be bruises in the future, I knew that. And there would be ebbs and flows. But no matter what happened, I knew we truly had found our happily ever after. After so much pain, so much tribulation, and many of us wandering around lost, we were finally home. All of us, not just the living, but the memories and love of Millia, of Veronica’s mother, Nancy, of everyone in Ben’s previous pack. We were a beautiful and stained tapestry of everything that life could be. The past, the present, the future, all blended together to tell a truly beautiful story.
But now it was time for the rest of our story to begin.
