Chapter 159: Finally

(Jenna POV)Thirty minutes passed.Then, finally, Nick came back. I heard his voice through the door. He was talking to someone.My heart began pounding fast inside my chest.I stood up. The door opened.The other person he was talking to? She was female. Brunette. Drop-dead gorgeous.Presumably, she was also the owner of the shoes and purse that I had seen.They were both wearing casual clothes, which made sense given that they had just come back from a run.Of course, now I was a little irritated with Mrs. Tankersley. She didn’t say Nick had gone on a run WITH SOMEONE.No matter.I had a plan, and I was sticking to it.The conversation between Nick and the other she-wolf stopped the moment they saw me standing there.Nick blinked a couple of times.He stared at me.The she-wolf stared at me.I stared at both of them.“Jenna?”The she-wolf looked at Nick, clearly confused. She put her hand gently on his arm. “Nick, who is she?”I wanted to remove her hand and break it, but I

Chapter 160: Mine at Last

(Nick POV)It took entirely too long to get rid of my sister.She, like the rest of my family, was enchanted by Jenna. She wanted to spend time getting to know her.However, she would have to wait.I was first in line. Last in line.Hell, I was the line.Once Emma was gone, I locked the suite door and sent a mind-link to my team that I was not to be disturbed.I then turned my attention to my mate.After four long years of waiting, I was going to savor every moment I had with her.If the intensity of my desire for her scared her, she didn’t show it. If anything, she fed it right back to me.“Say it again,” I demanded, as I pulled her onto my lap such that she was straddling me.“Say what?” she asked, as she ran her fingers gently up and down my arms.“All of it,” I said gruffly.“I love you,” she said with a smile. “I choose you. I want you.”Goddess.I almost came in my pants just hearing the words.It had been years.Years of hoping, praying, waiting.Years of watching her try

Chapter 161: Mark of the Chosen

(Nick POV)“It was not green eggs and ham. It was eggs and toast.”“Whatever. Answer my question.”“Do you really want to know?”She gave me a dirty look.I chuckled.“Okay, fine. I had planned for that meeting to go a very different direction.”“Which was?”“Ideally? You underneath me, moaning my name.”Jenna’s eyes widened.“Please tell me you are joking.”I didn’t say anything.“Goddess, Nick! What kind of she-wolf did you take me for?”“Obviously I miscalculated,” I confessed. “Once I saw the mate bond between you and Danny …strained though it was… I had to improvise.”“So you asked me about green eggs and ham?!?!?”I shrugged.“Clearly it left an impression, so I still consider that a successful trip.”She rolled her eyes.“You are awful. Do you have any idea how p&ssed I was at you that day?”I leaned forward and began kissing her neck.“Feel free to punish me however you like,” I whispered against her skin.Her soft moan sounded like heaven.I ran my fingers along the he

Chapter 162: Closing the Distance

(Jenna POV)Nick kept me up very, very late.As in, he woke me at least once every couple of hours.And it was f&&king worth it, no pun intended.I had never experienced anything remotely like it. Nick was a monster between the sheets, but he was loving and kind and generous too. The expression “becoming one” had never made sense to me before, but it did now. To say that I woke up a happy, satisfied she-wolf was an understatement.Or I would have woken up that way, had I not woken up to two very blue, very intense eyes staring at me.To be fair, though, I was using his naked chest as a pillow, so he didn’t have a lot of other places to look.Groaning, I reached up and tried to shut Nick’s eyelids closed.“Go back to sleep,” I begged.“It’s 11:15,” he responded, as though that made his being awake obvious.“Exactly. That’s early.”“It’s actually rather late.”“Tell that to the alpha who tried to turn sex into an Olympic sport last night,” I complained.He had the audacity to laugh.

Epilogue - part one

(Danny POV)When the news broke that the Alpha King had found his queen, my first reaction was relief.That is, until I found out his queen was Jenna.I would never admit this to anyone else, but I cried the night that I found out. I also found myself screaming into the night sky at Beth, demanding that she come back to life and fix the mess that she had made of my life. Over time and the course of therapy, however, I learned to accept that Jenna was moving on. I also learned to accept …as in really accept… the part that I had played in losing her.Jenna’s mating and crowning ceremony was a huge event, and I forced myself to attend.I had been prepared for the event to be hard on me. In fact, I had even arranged to have an early-morning therapy session the next day. However, a strange thing happened instead.I found peace.Watching Jenna up on that stage with her new mate and husband …watching her dance with him during the reception… and watching her interact with him and exchang

Epilogue - part two

(Three Years Later)(Jenna POV)I leaned happily against my mate and husband as I watched our friends and family gather for our quarterly barbeque. We rotated between Blue River Mountain Pack, the Royal Pack, and yes even Midnight Moon. Not everyone made every barbeque, but we made an effort to make as many as we could.Today’s barbeque was being held at Blue River.One of the benefits of being Alpha Queen was that the curse of the rejection did not haunt me. I could be here at Blue River for one day or ten and not experience any pain… not that I had ever really tried to test that theory. I loved the home Nick and I were creating together too much to be away for long.“What are you thinking about, Sweetheart?” Nick whispered in my ear.I looked up at him and smiled.“Just how much everything has changed. Jow happy I am. How everything has worked out the way that it should."And it had.“My son is making you sentimental,” Nick commented, rubbing my stomach.It was true. I was only