LOGINAuthor's Note To everyone who read this book with me—thank you. Thank you for sticking with Anaya and Ryker through the chaos, the danger, the realms and entities and everything that tried to keep them apart. Thank you for cheering for Olivia and Mateo, for a love that didn't start easy but became one of the strongest in this whole story. Thank you for falling for Skye and Andrei the way I did, for waiting through every almost-confession with me. This story started as one thing and grew into so much more — a family, really, one I got attached to right alongside you. Writing Kingston and Sofia into the world, watching this whole found family gather around one table by the end, meant more to me than I expected it to. I'm endlessly grateful you chose to spend your time here, in this world, with these characters. Every comment, every read, every moment you stuck around for one more chapter — it mattered. Thank you for the journey. I hope it stays with you the way it's stayed with me.
Chapter 133 - The END Olivia's POVThe rain held off for the funeral, which felt like exactly the kind of small mercy Luna Diana would have arranged herself if she'd had any say in the matter. She'd never been one for dramatics, not even in death, though the entire pack turned out anyway, dressed in black beneath a sky that couldn't quite decide whether to stay grey or clear.I stood near the front with Mateo's hand locked tight in mine, watching them lower his mother into the ground beside the husband she'd lost decades ago, and let myself remember her the way she deserved to be remembered—not as the frail woman who'd spent her last months slower and quieter than any of us had ever known her to be, but as the force she'd been for most of my life.She was the one who found me, after all. Twenty-three years ago, a terrified, humiliated young woman with no idea what came next, and it was Diana who'd sat beside my bed that first night and told me, with a certainty I hadn't earned yet an
Chapter 132Olivia's POVThe house was quiet in that particular way it only got in the late evening, after Kingston had finally been wrestled down for the night and Sofia had gone home with her parents, leaving nothing behind but stray toys scattered across the living room floor and the faint smell of the dinner we'd all shared a few hours earlier.I found Mateo out on the back porch, exactly where he usually ended up these days, a glass of wine forgotten at his elbow, staring out at the darkening yard like it held something worth studying."You're thinking too hard," I said, settling into the chair beside him."Just remembering," he said, not looking away from the yard."Remembering what?"He finally turned to me, and even after all these years, something in his expression still had the power to make my chest go warm—that same steady, quiet affection he'd carried for me since long before either of us had known what to call it."Everything," he said simply. "All of it."I let my head
Chapter 131 Andrei's POV The jazz club Kelly had recommended turned out to be tucked below street level, down a narrow staircase that opened into a dim, smoky room lined with red velvet booths and a small stage where a quartet was already deep into something slow and syrupy by the time we found a table near the back. "This is exactly what I pictured when you said jazz club," Skye said, sliding into the booth beside me instead of across from me, close enough that her shoulder pressed against mine. "Kelly has surprisingly good taste for a man who once set a grill on fire." "Low bar, but I'll allow it." A waiter appeared with two glasses of red wine we hadn't technically ordered yet—apparently the house didn't believe in menus so much as vibes—and we settled back to let the music wash over us, the saxophone bending low and mournful before the whole quartet picked the tempo back up into something brighter. "I used to think places like this were pretentious," Skye admitted, swirling
Chapter 130Andrei's POVThe boat was smaller than I expected—intimate, really, more like a private charter than the crowded tourist cruises we'd passed on our walk along the river that afternoon. Just a handful of other couples scattered along the deck, soft music drifting from somewhere near the bow, the whole vessel gliding slow enough that conversation didn't have to compete with the engine."This is not what I pictured," Skye said, leaning against the railing, the wind catching loose strands of her hair. "I thought it'd be one of those big double-decker things with a tour guide shouting facts through a megaphone.""I did some research," I admitted, coming up beside her. "Wanted something quieter.""You really did plan this trip like a military operation.""I prefer 'thorough.'" I wrapped an arm around her waist as the boat eased further out into the current, the city beginning to catch the last of the light—gold bleeding into the stone facades, the water below turning the color o
Chapter 129Skye's POVSeven months. That's how long it took to get from a flower house confession to standing in front of everyone I loved in a dress my mother cried the entire first time she saw me in.The ceremony itself passed in a blur of golden light and half-formed memories—Andrei's face when I came down the aisle, like he'd forgotten how to breathe. My mother's hand trembling in mine before she passed me off. Sofia, seven months old now and thoroughly unbothered by the significance of the day, gnawing happily on the strap of her tiny flower girl basket instead of throwing petals like she was supposed to."She's supposed to throw them," Chelsea had whispered from the front row, and Kelly had just laughed and said, "She's doing her best," which set off half the guests.By the time Andrei slid the ring onto my finger, I'd stopped trying to hold back tears altogether. Anaya, standing just behind me, squeezed my shoulder the second the officiant pronounced us married, and I turned
RYKER'S POV“Why do I want you so much?”Anaya groaned as she kept kissing me with urges like no other. I didn't even know why I wanted her, how could I know why she wanted me?.She began to undress, our lips connected as she pulled her gown off and threw it aside.“Touch me.” She mumbled against t
ANAYA'S POVThe hall cleared immediately,tension filled the air and mom and dad did nothing to change it.I kept glaring at the stud who had the guts to kiss me. This made it the second time I was being kissed without my approval today.Fuck!!!!“How have you been Anaya?, we're sorry if our entran
OLIVIA'S POVMonths later …..“Argh!!” I screamed as the contraction in my waist worsened as I moved. Alpha Mateo had his hand behind me, his worried gaze fixed on me.“Just Breathe.” He said, I dug my fingers into his flesh as I sucked in my breath and released it with heavy pants.“Get it out alre
MATEO'S POV “How did we become so unfortunate? Oh goddess please not my children, please.” Mother muttered beside Olivia as she kept soothing her head calmly.I watched her closely, hoping she would wake up and smile at me like she always did.The news destroyed her, it destroyed me as well but Ol







