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The anxiety dissipated as quickly as it had arrived.

God, I was ready for all of this to be over so I could stop worrying whenever Harley and Dylan weren’t right in my line of sight.

I walked down the steps and around the side of the house.

A narrow stone walkway led from the gravel lot out front around the house to the backyard.

The path had long, narrow flowerbeds on either side of it.

When I was a kid, Mom had filled the beds with lush, colorful flowers of all kinds, so the path was like a little slice of paradise.

It was always buzzing with bees and butterflies, and I remembered returning from school and running around the house to jump in the lake.

There hadn’t been any flowers in the beds in years. I’d been too busy as the alpha, and I’d let my mother’s hard work fade into dead old bushes and dense weeds.

“What are you doing?” I asked when I spotted all four of them on their hands and knees in the dirt.

“Dad, was this a garden?” Dylan was covered in dirt and had somehow even gotten it on his face.

“Yeah,” I said with a fond smile. “It was your grandmother’s. She loved tending this garden and growing as many differently colored flowers as she could.”

“I want to do that, too,” Dylan said with a huge smile. “I’m gonna dig out all the weeds and make this garden pretty again, the way Grandma kept it.”

“I think that’d make her really happy,” I said. “She’d be really proud of you.”

Dylan dug his hands back into the dirt with renewed determination. He bit the tip of his tongue between his teeth as he pulled the weeds up by their roots.

“And he’s making his aunt work hard, too!” Cassidy said in joking frustration.

Harley looked up and caught my eye with a curious raise of her eyebrows.

I smiled at her, and she stepped closer to me.

I always wanted to be close to her. I was drawn to her like a moon to the Earth.

When she was within reach, I pulled her into my arms for a kiss.

Dylan made a dramatic gagging sound. “Mom! Dad! We’re trying to work here. ”

“All right, all right, I’m just going to steal your mom away for a minute,” I said. We stepped away from the gardening project and onto the deck together, and I leaned against the back railing and pulled her into my arms again.

“Everything okay?” she asked. “Did you hear from Suri?”

“Better than that,” I said. “Hawk’s calling the enforcers. We heard from Thames.”

“And…?”

“It’s done.” I leaned forward and kissed her cheeks, then her forehead, then her mouth. I couldn’t get enough of her, couldn’t stop touching her. “It’s done, Harley. Thames broke the deal. He’s even leaving the state. The Vahdat clan really put the fear of God into him.”

Harley frowned. “That’s it? Thames is just letting go?”

“He’s a sick man, but he’s not an idiot. He knows when he’s outmatched. No lives were lost. No one was hurt. He’s gone.”

The world would be a better place if Thames were out of the picture entirely. I had a feeling now that he was back on the Vahdat clan’s radar, if Thames wasn’t careful, that might happen sooner rather than later.

Harley exhaled. “I’m glad Suri didn’t put a hit out on him or anything. Then I wouldn’t be much better than Thames myself.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said warmly. “You did the right thing.”

The tightness in her posture eased. “Really?”

I nodded. “Of course. You were worried?”

“I thought I might be overstepping. You and Hawk were dealing with it, then I kind of just swooped in…”

“Hawk and I were banging our heads against the wall trying to find any solution that didn’t require us to do the kind of criminal stuff Thames is into,” I said. “You didn’t swoop in. You could tell I needed you, and you stepped up to help.”

She gave me a relieved smile. “Okay, good. But now what? Sean and Forrest are still out there.”

“This could make Sean spiral out completely. Thames said he was at the end of his rope. Levi said the same thing. His dragon’s already starting to lose control. If he won’t challenge me himself, his dragon might force him to, even if it’s a doomed mission.”

“Why would his dragon do that?” Harley asked.

“He’s an alpha, too. Without a clan, he’s losing his mind. His dragon might not be able to stand this kind of disrespect. It might get so bad that even if he knows he’ll fail, his dragon will need to challenge me. He might choose death in a challenge over a life alone.”

“I don’t want you to have to kill him,” Harley said softly, “but I want this to be over. So, so badly.”

I embraced her tightly, and she tucked her face into the crook of my neck.

“I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, Harley, and that’s because you stepped in to help me. Thank you.”

“I’d do anything to keep you safe,” she whispered against my skin. “The same way you’d do it for me. We’re a team, Steph. Nothing’s going to break us apart.”

Her lips moved against my neck, right where a claiming mark would go on me. Even if her mark wouldn’t linger the way mine would, my dragon still craved the feeling of her teeth in my skin, marking me as hers, just as much as she was mine.

“We’re a team,” I echoed. “Forever. I promise you that.”