Page 56 of Claimed By Werewolf
We were free.
Epilogue
Demi
Six months had passed since Halloween night.Since the gunshot that ended everything and started something new.
Now, mornings came slow with no roaring engines and no clubhouse walls humming with secrets.Just the rhythm of waves against the shore and the low hum of the old refrigerator in our rented beach house.
I sat on the porch wrapped in one of Werewolf’s hoodies, with my phone pressed between my shoulder and ear.My coffee had gone lukewarm, but I didn’t care.The salt air made everything taste a little better even when it was cold.
Mom’s voice crackled through the line.“So… you’re still there?By the water?”
“Still here,” I said and smiled.“It’s quiet.Peaceful.”
“Peaceful sounds foreign coming out of your mouth, Demetria Cross.You’re shacked up with a tattooed biker.Wolf?”she teased.
I laughed softly.“He wants to go by Jake now, Mom.”I had told her that more times than I could count.
She huffed.“I know, but I like ‘Wolf’ better.Sounds mysterious.”
“Mysterious isn’t exactly what we’re going for these days.”Even though I still called him Wolf, too.
“Well, mysterious or not, I’m just glad you’re both alive and not living out of a motel room anymore.”
I smiled and glanced toward the beach.Wolf was out there barefoot in the sand, with his jeans rolled to his knees, helping a kid from the neighboring rental untangle a kite.The kid laughed when it caught the wind again, and Wolf lifted a hand in triumph like he’d just won a race.
“Yeah,” I said softly.“Alive’s pretty damn good.”
Mom went quiet for a second.“I heard some talk around town,” she said finally.“About the club.”
My chest tightened a little.“What kind of talk?”
“That they’re changing things.Cleaning house.Someone said there’s new leadership.That it’s… calmer now.”
Calmer.That was a word no one had ever used for the Broken Sons.
She continued, “People are saying it’s not what it used to be.That maybe the old days are finally over.”
I didn’t answer right away.It was crazy to watch Wolf with the kite, with the sunlight shining, and think about all the ghosts we’d left behind.
“Maybe they are,” I said quietly.They certainly were for us.
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”she asked, her voice just shy of suspicious.
I smiled.“Me?I’m just a beach girl now, remember?I happened to fall in love with a sexy biker, and we ran off to the ocean together.”
She laughed softly.“Just teasing.I’m just glad to hear your voice without sadness hanging in it.”
“Me too, Mom.”
We talked for another twenty minutes about the neighbor’s new dog, about my cousin’s engagement, and about her latest attempt to quit caffeine again.
When she asked if Wolf and I had set a date yet, I groaned.“Mom.”
“What?You think I can’t ask?You’re not getting any younger, and neither is he,” she lectured.
I laughed.“We’re not there yet.”Wolf and I were just enjoying life.We both knew it would happen… someday.
