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Because I was pretty sure that’s what my mom would’ve wanted, for me to give de Froulay a chance.

“And I’d be honored to attend, Renata,” my father returned gravely.

I gave a small nod. “Good.”

“We’ll be in touch,” Zaq added.

“I’ll clear my schedule as soon as I receive the invitation.”

I twined my fingers through Zaq’s and bumped my shoulder against his. “Okay,” I said. “I’m ready. Let’s go home.”

Epilogue 1

RIDLEY

TWO MONTHS LATER

We held our mating ceremony under a fat October moon in Zaq’s mom’s lush garden. It was a small, intimate gathering of family and a few friends.

Behind us was Zaq’s family home, a Victorian Gothic dream of turrets and wraparound porches and intricate woodwork that overlooked the Chesapeake Bay. Silver fairy lights were strung above the garden walkways.

In the two months since Zaq and I had returned to New York, everything had worked out pretty much as Leo and Gabriel had intended. Reaper was dead and Ridley Crawford along with her, and I’d become Renata de Froulay—Ren for short.

Me, a syndicate princess.

Sometimes I wondered if I’d taken a wrong turn and landed in Bizarro World, where everything was backward and upside down.

But it was worth it, because it had brought me to this moment, facing Zaq in a candlelit gazebo, a bouquet of fragrant white roses and lavender in my hands. He gazed down at me unsmiling, the candlelight reflected in his green eyes so the gold flecks glinted like tiny stars. Even if I couldn’t sense his emotions through our link, I would’ve known how much this meant to him from his serious expression.

He’d regained the weight he’d lost but kept the sexy scruff because he knew how much I liked it. The silky gray shirt he wore with black pants shimmered in the dusky light, clinging a little to his chest and making his lean, powerful body look good enough to eat…and lick…and suck…

But that would have to wait until later.

Zaq held out his hands. “Ready?”

All the spit left my mouth. But I wanted this, more than anything.

I handed the bouquet to Camila Vittore. Mila, as she’d asked me to call her, had turned into a friend. A newly-made dhampir, she’d asked me to teach her some of my fighting moves. She was so cute, but determined.

“Ready,” I told Zaq, and took his hands, my heart so full I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had burst right out of my chest and flown to him like one of those winged-heart cartoons.

My one regret was that Twilight couldn’t have attended. I’d have liked to have at least one friend at my side. But she’d dropped off the grid. I hoped that meant she was on another assignment, and not that she’d gotten in trouble for helping Rafe.

Crow seemed to have backed off. The Board of Directors had assured Karoly that she was on a new assignment. I wasn’t convinced we’d seen the last of her, but I refused to dampen my newfound happiness by worrying about her. Not tonight, anyway.

Zaq and I had elected to say our own vows. He went first, and had me tearing up before he was finished, saying how I was his heart and he hadn’t realized what his life was missing until he’d met me.

Then I said mine. “You’re my heart, too. I never even let myself hope that there was someone like you out there. Not for me. And that you love me, that you feel the same way, is the greatest gift I can imagine, and I promise to treasure and nurture that gift for as long as we both shall live.”

We finished with the ancient words, first him, then me. Words I’d never thought I’d speak, but that seemed right when spoken to Zaq.

“My heart is yours. My body is yours. And my throat is yours.”

I’d already accepted the mate bond back in Paris, but as I spoke the ancient vow to Zaq, I felt a jolt clear from my head to my toes, like the connection had been cemented into place, never to be broken.

Zaq’s eyes widened and glowed blue at the rims, like he’d felt it too. His gaze flicked to my throat, where I wore the simple white-gold necklace he’d gifted me with just that morning.

I swallowed, a shiver of arousal racing up my spine to join the tingles left behind by the mate-bond jolt. I hadn’t told him yet, but I’d decided that tonight I’d take that final step and let him drink from me. My mating gift to him.

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