Instead, it feels peaceful.
I’m standing at the kitchen window, looking out at the harbor lights scattered across the dark water, when Brody comes up beside me. The moon is rising, pale and bright over the bay, and his hand slides into mine.
“Come outside with me?”
Something in his smooth voice leaves me breathless.
Outside, the night is cool and clear, stars pinned everywhere above us. Corey and Jakob are already on the back porch, leaning against the railing, and the energy between the three of them is different.
“We have something to ask you,” Brody says.
My heart stumbles. “Okay. Should I be worried?”
Corey reaches into his jacket and produces a small velvet box. He passes it to Brody, who takes it carefully, almost reverently, then opens it.
My heart is stuttering right now.
Inside is a gold ring with the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen, and my breath catches in my chest.
All three of them drop to one knee before me.
The porch creaks beneath them, and my hand flies to my mouth.
“Claire.” Brody’s voice is steady, but his hand trembles around the box, and the contradiction wrecks me. “I love you to bits. You fogged up your window watching me bake. You signed my book with a heart. You accidentally invited my entire pack to a wedding and then survived everything the universe threw at you and came out standing.” His eyes are bright, the tears there unhidden. “Marry us. Be our Omega. The forever kind.”
Corey’s wearing his crooked grin, his hand settling on Brody’s shoulder. “I love you, Claire. Plus, what he said. Except I want to add that you’re the toughest person I’ve ever met, sunshine, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure you never have to be that tough alone.”
Jakob is quiet at first, but his control breaks enough that I watch every emotion flaring across his face. “I’ve wanted this since the first day I met you,” he murmurs with a smirk. “Not because it was easy. But because even then, some part of me knew our pack had been waiting for you. And I absolutely love you.”
I’m a wreck. Tears streaming, grinning so hard my face aches. “I love you three so much.”
Then the ring slides onto my trembling finger with Brody’s help.
“Yes.” The word shatters on its way out, and I let it. “To every one of you, I want to be your Omega and to marry you.”
Brody’s on his feet, his mouth on mine, while Corey crashes in from the side, his arms around us both, his face against my shoulder, and Jakob’s arms close around the group from behind, his chest to my back, his breath warm on my neck.
This is my pack.
When we separate, breathless, laughing, I meet each of their gazes. “I can’t believe this is my life.” And for the first time, I stop waiting for the good things to leave.
They’re staying. All of them.
And so am I.
EPILOGUE
CLAIRE
Months Later
“Katie, there are hundreds of people out there. I can see the end of the street, and the line doesn’t stop,” I say, my voice trembling as I stare out the bookstore window.
“Isn’t that exciting?” She’s beside me, phone in one hand, latte in the other, her grin so wide it’s threatening to consume her entire face.
“It’s terrifying.”
“It’s the same thing. Embrace it.”
