Page 167 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

“Would you ever have imagine this? That we’d end uphere.” I gestured around us, to the joy and happiness, then to our wrists where the Mate Bond lay. “I freakin’ kidnapped a prince who happened to be the man I wanted to kill?—“

His grin was dragon-eating as he nuzzled my neck. “Too bad you fell for the werewolf you were destined to kill. Now you get to live with me,” he said. But he turned serious at mylook.“I am thankful, Little Red. For all the trials. You may not have known I was Hood, but in any other circumstance, one of us would have died. But you were too stubborn to kill just any old werewolf, and I was too intrigued to kill the little werewolf killer who showed compassion in every bone of her body, even if youdidstab me.” I poked his ribs and he chuckled, grabbing my hand before Ireached for a blade. “Worry not, Little Red, I’ve loved you from the moment you stabbed me.”

“My blade stole your heart?” I teased.

He winced. “Painfully.”

I elbowed him even as my shoulders shook with laughter I tried to contain. He kissed my forehead and I smiled, snuggling back against the werewolf I loved.

This isn’texactlya happily ever after.It’s not a fairytale, after all. It’s a tale of two people who came together and learned how to put up with each other and that life was better with the family they chose.

Legend says the Curo Duo were still roaming the streets of Mongolia’s cities terrorizing criminals and arguing about who had sharper blades.

They’d become legends, but legends were easy to pass away as fairytales that would later be altered so much they would become an entirely dissimilar legend.

Little Red Riding Hood lived on in our hearts, and so Alia and Shen would live on, just as they had back in those days: together, in each other’s arms, until the end of time.

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