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He pulled away. “What is it?” he asked, watching me with new concern in his eyes. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” I said, then I laughed as tears crawled down my cheeks. “Yeah, I’m just really happy.”

Tears sprung to his eyes, too. “Me too,” he said. He pulled me close again. “We’re in this together, Harley.”

“I know,” I whispered. “Forever.”

He kissed me. Love flowed through the bond connecting us. I felt it from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes. Steph was my partner, my mate, the other half of my soul.

We were starting the next part of our journey. And this time, we were doing it together.

EPILOGUE

ACE

Eight months later

The Cole cemetery was a small, well-kept plot of land tucked in the woods behind the clubhouse. A trail led to it, but most clan members didn’t even know it existed. The trail wound through the woods, then up a steep, rocky hill, to a small clearing that overlooked the lake. It was marked by an old wooden fence that was built long before I was born. Parts of the fence needed repair. Winter was finally beginning to edge into spring, so that’d be a project for the next few months when the world began to warm up again.

Here lay the remains of Cole alphas from the last four generations. My great-great grandfather, my great-grandfather, my grandfather, my father, and now…

My twin brother.

I looked down at the small, unassuming headstone.

Sean Cole.Son and Brother.

That’s all it said. What else was there to say?

I’d considered not burying him in the family cemetery. After what he’d done, Hawk and Harley would’ve supported me if I’d chosen to just dump his body in the middle of the lake.

But after everything, he was still my brother. I didn’t want to pretend he had never been a part of my life. I didn’t want to pretend I hadn’t loved him.

“I’m surprised you’re here,” Hawk said as he stepped through the rickety little gate. He was bundled up in a parka against the brisk chill, and his boots crunched on the frost still lingering on the grass.

“How’d you know where to find me?” I asked.

“Tammy said she saw you walking towards this trail,” he said with a smile. “You know she’s one of the only ones who comes up to this cemetery other than us.”

“She misses our folks as much as we do,” I said. “That makes sense.”

“You haven’t come up here before now, though, have you?” Hawk asked.

I shook my head. Hawk had been up here plenty of times since Sean’s death. Though I’d told him plenty of times, I felt like I could never truly show my gratitude for how he’d stepped up while I was in the hospital. He’d acted like an alpha himself, gathering the clan members to help dig the grave and bury the body.

Now, he stood at my side, one hand on my shoulder as we both looked down at the grave. “I wish we could’ve saved him,” I said.

“Me too,” Hawk said. “I wish that every day. But… I don’t have any regrets, either.” He spoke in a whisper, like he couldn’t believe what he was saying.

“Nor do I,” I said. “We did everything we could.”

“What brought you up here today?” Hawk asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Just a feeling. Remember when we were really young? Sean always loved this kind of weather. This kind of cold, right when spring was about to kick in.”

Hawk chuckled. “Yeah. He always wanted to start throwing the football around?—”

“—And we’d be out there freezing our asses off.”