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“I’m not pregnant, right?” I ask.
“No, but we’ll double check,” he says. “And if you are…we’ll do whatever you need to do. All I need is you, Tilda.”
I put my hand on his forearm, squeezing gently. “Thank you,” I whisper. “And thanks for telling me before we got there. But…can we just sit here for a minute? I don’t know if I’m ready to see everyone yet.”
Reyes lowers himself to the grass, spreading his knees wide and holding out his arms. I join him there, leaning back against his broad chest, finding that I’m actually a little sore from last night. I look at the sunrise sky, wisps of clouds like cotton candy on the horizon.
“Didn’t mean to spring that on you, but I thought you should know,” he breathes into my hair.
I snuggle into his chest, my hands on his forearms, stroking the soft, dark hair there. “I mean it,” I say. “I’d rather know than be kept in the dark.”
“I would never keep that from you.”
“I know,” I say. “Because that’s who you are.”
We sit in silence for a moment, staring at the sky. Reyes’ hands fall to my shoulders, stroking down my arms and forcing them to lose the tension they’ve been building for…well, a lifetime. “So what are your plans?” he asks. “Do you want to hear mine?”
I nod, closing my eyes. “Yeah. I think I’d like that.”
He smiles against my hair, kissing the crown of my head. “I’m thinking about proposing to the woman I love.”
I laugh softly. “And who will officiate when the priest gets married?”
“I don’t know,” he murmurs. “I think your best friend did a pretty good job.”
My heart swells at the sense of belonging that fills me. Peacheshasbecome a good friend—maybe the person I’m closest to in the world, after Enid. “And then what?” I ask.
“Then…I think we’ll need to build more housing around the den,” he says. “More and more lycan come seeking shelter all the time. I want our community to thrive.”
I nod, looking up at the sky. It’s sobig—endless. The potential here is endless too. “I think I’d like to expand the garden plot,” I say. “Get some livestock and a few horses. Start training them so we can ride.”
“It’s a good plan,” he says.
“I think the bottom line is that we have a bright future ahead of us no matter what we do,” I say. I turn in his arms, meeting his brown eyes, and I reach up to touch his face. “I just want to watch our garden grow.”
He pulls me to him and presses a kiss to my lips, the sun warming our skin. The cicadas sing in the forest just at the edge of the prairie, and a mockingbird cries somewhere in the distance.
“You two coming in or what?” a voice calls from the direction of the den. “We know you’re out there!”
We break apart with a laugh, and I shake my head.
“Fucking Grant,” I mutter.
“Hope you have a high tolerance for bullshit, because I’m confident he has a whole lot of it in store for you,” Reyes chuckles.
I laugh with him, pressing my forehead to his. The den is waking up, and it’s time to go home; I know that. But I hold onto this moment in time, inscribing it on my memories.
“I love you,” I whisper. “Thank you for capturing me.”
He smiles. “I love you, too. Thank you for finding me.”
And together, we go home.
EPILOGUE
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TILDA
