Page 74 of Fastlander Fighter

He hung his head to the side and gave her a grin. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. I want to hear it before I do this.”

The smile faded from his lips and he straightened up, then nodded. “You and Ruger are mine.”

The butterflies pounded their wings through her chest.

“No more running?”

He leaned down and kissed her lips, then eased back and searched her eyes as he uttered his promise. “No more running.”

“I have two Harper cards,” Ruger announced. “Should I bring the hologram one? Or both?”

Captain offered her a wink, then turned and scooped up the boy and carried him, giggling, into the living room and toward the front door.

She took a last look in the mirror and pulled up her phone, took one last picture of her reflection as a human. She reviewed the picture, and God, she looked happy. Sloane couldn’t help her smile as she thought about the difference in her now, and the shell of herself she’d been a couple months ago.

Everything happens for a reason.

She was supposed to see Captain Change into his bear all those years ago. She was supposed to be hurt by the boy he was to understand the man he’d become. He was supposed to misunderstand the girl she was to appreciate the woman she’d become.

And now?

She shoved her phone into her back pocket and made her way to the front door to see what she’d had a feeling she would see.

Anyone associated with Damon’s Mountains who had been able to travel and get off work was gathering in the Fastlander’s trailer park. She’d had a feeling they would do this, because the shifters here were just good people in general.

They were her found family.

She’d had a feeling they would gather, but it still didn’t stop the emotional tears that rimmed her eyes. She’d been so afraid that she was hurting Ruger’s life with the divorce, but look at him.

He was sitting on Captain’s shoulders, giving a fist-bump to the blue dragon himself, Damon Daye, as they stood in line for the breakfast burrito bar Ace and Owen were serving at.

The woods were alive with good people.

Captain had given this to her and Ruger. Never again would it be her and Ruger against the world.

They had a team.

They had friends.

They had a family.

“Ready for today?” Silver asked as she came up to stand near the porch.

Sloane scanned the clearing, and recognized shifters from the Ashe Crew, from the Boarlanders, and from the Gray Backs. Some of the Fire Bears were here, and some of the shifters from Harper’s Mountains and Kane’s Mountains.

She was going to be a part of this, and her son was going to have a destiny she could only guess at. So much was uncertain, but she was confident in one thing—she was supposed to be a part of this moment right here.

So was Ruger.

He was so damn happy, surrounded by all of the people he’d looked up to.

Captain was watching her with a soft smile on his masculine lips. She gave him a little wave, and he mouthed, I love you.

And she knew he did. He didn’t say the words frivolously. The man only said that when he was feeling it deep in his soul.

She pressed the palm of her hand to her chest and smiled at the man who had pulled her up and reminded her that she was valuable. He’d brought her back to life.

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