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Dark tendrils of black magic were leaking from it and floated up toward the sky.

She didn’t understand the wind, or the whooshing sound until she realized they were wings.

Tawk’s gold dragon dove down right above them, flattening she and Cash to the ground. He opened his enormous mouth and dragged some of those black tendrils into his throat. Tawk roared, and flew over the trees, then circled as Wreck drew more of the poison out of that goddamn locket.

She couldn’t stop crying as she watched Wreck repeatedly feeding the curse’s power to the golden dragon. With each pass, Tawk’s gold scales darkened, and he seemed to grow in size. Wreck fed the power of the curse to that dragon until there was nothing left but the locket, and then he cast that up into the sky for Tawk to devour with the chomp of his razor sharp teeth.

Wreck fell to his knees, and Kade faltered in the air. The Alpha was shaking as he lowered him to the ground, but he set him upright, on his feet, and Kade—her Kade—he stood on his own.

Green flames licked his skin as his eyes opened to behold Jess.

“We had a plan,” Cash said softly from beside her.

And God, she’d never cried harder than she was right now as she bolted for Kade.

She fell into his open embrace and pushed them both back ten feet as she sobbed against his chest. “I love you, I love you, I love you,” she murmured mindlessly over and over again. “I thought I wasn’t going to get to tell you that.”

“I already knew you loved me, Jess. Your locket gave you away.” His voice was gritty and hoarse, like he’d been screaming, but it was Kade’s voice. He was really here. He was warm, and talking, and she could hear that gorgeous sound of his heart.

Bum-bum, bum-bum, bum-bum.The sound of his pounding heartbeat had replaced the death chant of the Heichman Curse.

“Wreck are you okay?” she choked out through the heavy, acrid scent of his power. Green flames still peppered the asphalt around them, but Wreck had sagged back onto his bent knees. He heaved labored breath, but he rocked his head back and looked down his nose at her. A slight smile took the corners of his lips. “I will be.”

Kade released her long enough to take a blanket from Cash’s hand, and he wrapped it around her. “I saw your tiger,” Kade rumbled. “She’s just as pretty as I remember.”

“She’s a monster,” Jess whispered thickly.

But Kade’s lips stretched into a smile. “She’ll fit right into Wreck’s Mountains.”

“Wh-what?” she asked, hope filling her chest.

He held out his hand and Cash set something onto his palm. The blood drained from her face as she realized what it was.

Kade held a knife.

Jess clapped her hands over her mouth as the tears started streaming again. “Really?” she forced out.

Kade looked exhausted, but he nodded. “I wanted to do this better. I wanted to ask you in front of the whole Crew, and give you a special day if it’s what you want, but I’m about to have a couple rough weeks.”

“The green flames are a little brutal to recover from,” Cash explained from where he crouched near Wreck. “Kade won’t even want to be in the light for a while.”

“I don’t want to wait that long to ask you,” he murmured, searching her eyes. “When you left, it gutted me. I don’t want to be away from you again. Now you know exactly where you stand with me. I want all of you. I want to be your Promise again. That’s what I want.”

Jess looked around at the remnants of the fading green fires all around them, and the destroyed truck, and the trailer he’d brought to take her home. Again. They were sitting right in the middle of the destruction their love had created.

He’d had a plan, and he’d stuck to it, and he’d ended the curse.

Kade had saved them both.

She wiped her wet cheeks and forced the words past her tightening vocal cords. “Yes.”

“Really?” he asked, wincing as if the volume of his voice hurt his head.

She nodded, and whispered, “Really. I couldn’t name a better place to make a Promise to you. It was always you.” Shaking from the adrenaline rush, she cut his hand again, right over the old scar she’d made, and then she offered her hand. “Over the scar Connor made, please. I’ll take two Promise marks from you. Erase his.”

Kade’s eyes were glowing so bright as he nodded. He made his second Promise to her, and this time, she would cherish it.

He had chosen her right after her accident before, when he’d barely known her, but now?