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All of it was so fucked up.

“None of it should have happened. We should have protected you differently. We should have let you live.”

“And I also had to make my own mistakes. We all do.”

“And I don’t want to make them anymore.” My tongue stroked over my dried lips. “I thought I was condemned to this life. Loving both of you and my son from afar. My protection the only thing I could offer. But you made me see. You made me see myself. You ripped off every barrier to reveal what was underneath. And that’s my love, Elena. My love for you. My love for him. My love for this baby.”

I sat up further so I could press my hands over her belly.

“You said you wanted me to choose you, Elena, but I have always chosen you. It’s always been you. Always. And I want to be your forever. If you’ll have me that way.”

Elena threw herself against me.

“Yes. Always. Forever. It’s you and me, Heathen. There has never been any question for me.”

Those delicate arms were so fierce, and I curled mine around her waist and hugged her close.

Breathed her in.

Apples and cinnamon and life.

We’d been carved in the shadows.

A secret.

Now, I would stand in her light.

Because this love was no longer a burden.

EPILOGUES

ELENA

“Are you sure this is what you want?” Trevan squeezed our threaded fingers from where he stood at my side. The two of us stared at the little house that sat about three hundred yards to the left of the family house on the compound.

He tilted his head to look down at me. The spray of the sun lit him up. Every rugged, sharp edge of him soft. I didn’t know how it was possible.

Worry filled his voice. “You wanted your independence. To get outside these walls.”

My chest stretched tight, and I tightened my hold on him as emotion flooded me.

We had plans to have the little house renovated, adding two additional rooms and making it a home. They were due to break ground tomorrow.

I peered up at him. “It turns out I didn’t need to run away to find what I needed, Trevan. I just needed it to catch up to me.”

“And what did you need?” There was no missing the mischievous razzing in the low tenor of his voice.

I grinned up in his direction. “A big, burly Heathen.”

His chuckle scraped the gentle breeze that blew through the trees. “Ah, he was right there, nipping at your heels all along. Crawling like a beggar right behind you.”

“No need for begging. She was yours all along. You just needed to claim her.”

Shifting, Trevan looped an arm around my waist and plastered me against his rigid, hard frame. The man so giant. A tower over me. His mouth fell to my ear. “Mmm…and how I do enjoy the claiming.”

Energy buzzed. Both gentling and spurring.

“If you plan on living next door, I’m going to need you to stop pawing at my sister. Last thing I need is to find you two like this day after day.”