Page 99 of Savage Hunter

Harmonia kisses the back of my hand. “They are safe now. Ares and Polaris took both the baby and the girl to New Orleans. Persephone and Rage will take her sister’s baby under their protection and Ares and Nova will adopt Ghost’s girl. Ares is already working on the adoption papers for both.” She takes a deep breath and looks as close to happy as I’ve ever seen her. “And Nova had her baby, too. Persephone and Rage were with her the whole time.” Harmonia gestures toward Lilith who stands tucked into Riot’s side. “Lilith too.”

“What about Persephone’s sister?” I ask, but I think I already know the answer.

“She died delivering her son. The nanny tasked with taking care of her baby was there. No one could do anything. If you ask me, she died of a broken heart.”

The room falls silent and one by one everyone leaves me with Harmonia.

“I’m proud of you, Harmonia. You’re stronger than you believe.”

“And I’m proud of you. We’ve survived a lot and look at us.” She lowers her lips to mine and I pull Harmonia in close, ignoring the scream of my muscles.

“I thought I lost you for good.”

“I thought you did too.”

Her tears drop to my chest. I make a secret vow right then to never do anything that will make her cry again. Pain and anguish will never touch her pure soul.

“We have a second chance at love, baby. What do you say?”

Her smile returns and I feel like I’ve given her the moon. “Let’s take it.”

I smile for the first time in over a year and actually feel the joy that comes with it. From savage hunter to killer, and now I’m a redeemed villain in love.

Ain’t that something.

Epilogue One

Avery, two months later

We are not out of danger yet. There’s still the problem with Euphoria. Harlon and Ares are working that out. Harlon believes taking down the Society will take care of the drug problem. I agree. Silas is dead but Ares has another brother out there creating havoc. The men didn’t want to worry Wolfe over the details, but Ares’ brother Veles is still out there. And Society 69 is left without a ruler. That won’t last for long and if my gut is right Veles will take the dark crown sooner rather than later. If he hasn’t already. When that happens, I fear the amount of death that will follow.

But that problem is not for today.

The Savage compound is in ashes. Just like my life. It’s been two months since Wolfe died and came back to me. Two very long, hard months, to be frank. Recovery took a lot longer than Wolfe expected. Rehab and relearning how to use his body after nearly a month in a coma was not fun. He was frustrated with his body more than he cares to admit, but he won.

I wrap my arm around his waist, and he puts his across my shoulders.

All he talked about beforethe incidentas we label it is leaving this place and never looking back.

So did I. I wanted to disappear and just fade into nothing.

And now that I face piles of ash where my home once stood, I realize sometimes you have to burn things down to the ground in order to start over. But running away is never the answer.

We lost Mace, Dragon almost didn’t pull through. Wolfe. I take a shuddering breath and feel the weight of the evil my mother brought to this world. The pain and suffering she caused others is not for me to wipe clean no matter how much I wish I could. All I can do is put love and light out into the world and hope it helps someone somewhere at some point in their lives.

From ashes rise a kingdom.

I comment that line of poetry to heart. It’s pretty, but I’m sure Ares and Nova don’t have the same sentiments as I do about it, given they wanted to bring their baby home and build a life together here.

“Are you sure you can walk okay? You don’t want the wheelchair?”

“If I spend another minute in that damn thing I will lose my mind.” Wolfe takes my hand in his and he leads me to the part of the house where he kissed me—the kitchen. Large pieces of wood lay charred on the foundation.

He’s shaky, but able to put one foot in front of the other. It won’t be long before he’s back to full force and I have a feeling he’ll want to lend a hand in rebuilding this place. Dragon’s too. It’s all ashes and debris.

“Do you know where we are?”

“This used to be the kitchen. Over there is where the coffee pot would be.”

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