Page 95 of Soul Bound

I meet Thalia’s gaze and nod my head slightly, silently telling her she’s welcome. I would do it all over again if it meant I ended up right here.

We help Nadia load up all the things we had bought for Ella, and Ranger installs the car seat base. Nadia hugs us both, thanking us over and over again for all we did to find Ella.

I hand her a cell phone Whisper had sent me. “Use this from now on, it’s untraceable. Please call us when you find somewhere to settle down and when it’s safe, we’ll come to visit.”

Nadia takes the phone from me. “Please do, I want Ella to know about the people who saved her and helped her mom.”

“We would love that. Send lots of baby pictures, we’ve got a lot of people here who are dying to watch her grow up. I think Ransom is somewhere crying right now,” I joke.

“I promise I will.”

Ranger stands behind me and wraps his arms around my waist before resting his chin on my head as we watch Nadia drive away. I can’t help the tears that fall down my face as I watch them leave. They’re not sad tears, they’re tears of complete joy. I don’t know how I thought this was all going to play out when Thalia found me at Cresthill Psychiatric Hospital, but I never saw this coming.

I never thoughtIwould be the one getting the happy ending when all of this was over. But we both are. Thalia’s baby is safe with her twin sister, and I have a man I never allowed myself to dream of having. My future always looked bleak. I was never excited about life, I just went through the motions of living, just barely getting by. But now, when I think of my future, I see myself feeling happy like I am now. I’m going to live a life I’m truly excited to live and I’m going to do it all with the broody werewolf behind me.

“We did it.” I sigh.

Ranger kisses the top of my head. “We did it,” he murmurs.

I turn around in his arms so I can face him. Reaching up, I guide his face down to mine. I beam at him and say, “I love you.” I follow up those words I never thought I’d tell someone with a kiss, emphasizing them. “I know our souls are already bound, but I’m really excited to be mated to you.”

He tugs me tight against him. “Just a few more hours and you’re mine, baby.”

“Looking forward to it, White Fang.”

Movement in my peripheral vision has me turning my head. Thalia stands in almost the exact spot I stood the first night I showed up at Pru’s house. While she still is ethereal and ghostly, she looks shinier—a happy air around her. I’ve seen this before. I know what’s coming next.

“Thalia’s here.” I pull away from Ranger and walk closer to Thalia, pulling him behind me as I go.

“What’s she doing?”

“She’s about to go.” Thalia looks over her shoulder and smiles, another figure starts to come into focus behind her. It’s Violet. My heart breaks knowing Violet died helping us get Ella out of New York, but when she waves and smiles back at me, I know she’s okay. She’s at peace with her decision.

“Go where?”

I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know where they go, but I know it’s better than being stuck here. She no longer has unfinished business here, and she knows her daughter is safe. She’s at peace and it’s time for her to move on.”

I find solace in knowing she’s not going to be alone. She has her friend with her. “Goodbye,” I tell them both. “I’ll see you on the other side someday.” But not for a long time, because I have a long life ahead of me that I’m looking forward to.

Warm peace blankets me as they both walk away from me and disappear into a shimmering light. They’ve found their peace, and now, so have I.

28

Ranger

Ileft Winslow back at the house while I went out to set up for our mating ceremony. It’s basically our wedding night, and I want to make it special for her. I know her, and I know she would be happy doing it in a fast-food parking lot, but I don’t want that for her. I want her to look back at this night as the best night of her life, I already know it will be mine.

Just months ago, I gave Ryker shit for all his fussing and worrying about getting the setup for the mating ceremony right, but here I am stringing up the last strand of lights. I’m pleasantly surprised with how it has all turned out. I started thinking about where I wanted to do the mating ceremony the second we landed in Montana earlier this week. I thought about setting up by the lake or finding a nice clearing in the woods, but ultimately, I wanted to do it where we would be spending our lives together.

In our home.

Granted, I’m not done with the cabin yet, the foundation and the exterior framing is all that’s finished. I’m going to have to tear some of it down because I’ve decided I want to build a bigger house for us than just the single room cabin I was building for myself. I want this to be our forever home and if one day we decide we want to have kids of our own, we need room to grow.

I’ve wrapped the wood framing with Christmas lights and in the middle of the concrete flooring, I have set up a bed of blankets and pillows. The mating ceremony has to be completed outside under a full moon, and since we don’t have a roof yet, this works out great. I set up a space heater in the corner because it’s officially fall and the nights get chilly, I don’t want her to be cold.

With the last strand of lights in place, I climb down from the ladder and move it back to its spot beside the Airstream trailer. We haven’t been sleeping out here since we had Ella with us, but we are planning on staying in there until the cabin is finished. I’m going to hire a contracting company so it can be built faster. I already talked to an architect and had them draw up the plans for the new cabin, I plan on showing them to her tonight. While Winslow has no qualms about living in a trailer, I want to give her a real home.

I check my phone for the fifth time in two minutes to see if she’s texted me yet. Remington and Pruitt had demanded they do her hair and makeup for tonight. Winslow had begrudgingly agreed to let them dress her up, even though her eyes screamed at me for help. I offered to come back to the house and bring her back to the cabin, but she insisted she was more than capable of finding her way. Some battles are just not worth fighting—especially if you know you have no chance of winning.

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