Page 22

VANESSA

My leg bounced as we drove along, anticipation bubbling up inside of me. After three months of living in my greenhouse while we repaired my home, it was finally time to move. We could have left my ruined cabin like it was, but that would be an awful thing to do to my landlord who had let me do whatever I wanted with the property. I wanted to pay him back in a way, so restoring his rundown, one-bedroom place to a slightly more modern cabin that he could possibly rent out or retire to seemed like a good way to do it. I would miss the place, but I couldn’t wait for what was to come.

“Easy there,” Leo teased. “You’re going to wear a hole in the floor.”

I grinned at him, too thrilled to speak.

A few days earlier, I’d finished my last shift at the grocery store, closing that chapter of my life forever. I had been tempted to flip Tiffany off on my way out—or maybe even slash her tires—but I decided the best thing to do was ignore her entirely. Not because I was taking the high road, but because Tiffany thrived on attention, and denying her so much as an acknowledgment was likely to drive her crazy.

And, boy, did it. She was fuming when I left after making my rounds. Even after several days, I still got plenty of satisfaction from how peeved she’d looked. She would be even more pissed once she realized she had to do everything she’d always palmed off on me.

“What, did you chug a couple of energy drinks?” Ricky joined in from my other side, but I could tell both men were pleased that I was so excited. None of us had ever expected this to happen, but thanks to all the riches we’d taken from Katarina’s home when freeing the tree, every single shifter who joined in battle walked away with a nest egg that would have them set for life.

“Nope, all natural here,” I said, craning my neck to look out the window as we turned down the last long road to our destination. It was a cool, end-of-autumn morning, the sky a pale gray as we pulled up to an impressive plot of land with a main house, five supporting cabins across the property, and enough infrastructure for a small hobby farm.

Except, it wasn’t simply any impressive plot of land, it was our impressive plot of land. The entire pack had pooled a tenth of our gains after the battle and found a place where we could all live, grow, and run together. More cabins would need to be built, naturally, and maybe we’d end up expanding onto more land, but for the moment? It was perfect.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed as more of our convoy pulled up beside us.

Most of Leo’s pack didn’t know how to drive or couldn’t remember whether they did but, once again, America’s family came in clutch and offered to chauffer the twenty-six of us. Me, Leo, Ricky. Jason and Miranda. Andromeda. The dozen we’d found in the cave. And finally, the rest who had been found or wandered onto my property after we took Katarina down. Apparently, she had created the enthrallment curse and forced shifters to be locked into their animal form, despite her acting like it had all been her sons. How typical.

“Wow, this looks even better in person,” America said, hopping out of the car and striding over to us. “Where’s my room?”

We laughed at that, but I wanted her to know there was also a serious side to that, so I gripped her hand and squeezed it firmly.

“You can visit whenever you like and stay for however long you want. Our land is your land.”

She blushed sweetly. “I was kidding. I know this is your pack’s territory.”

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s everyone’s territory,” Leo said, his voice as firm as ever. “Besides, you’re basically…” He paused. “Pack-in-law.”

“Pack-in-law? Who got married?”

“I dunno,” I cut in. “I feel like all of us kind of did on the battleground. At the very least, we’ve all probably bled on each other.”

“You’ve got a point there. All right, we can swing by from time to time, but only if you come down for Cinco De Mayo .”

“Have you ever got a deal,” I said, letting go of her hand only to pat her on her shoulder. I wasn’t going to give up a chance to miss good cooking and great music anytime soon.

The conversation died down as our pack all lined up to look at what was now ours. Finally, after so many years, I had a real family, a farm of my dreams with the man I loved, and financial stability. I could focus on writing a book. Or catch up on my reading list. And of course, build my new garden from the ground up.

Did I also mention… Chickens?

Leo turned to me, and when I returned his gaze, tears sprang to my eyes. I was about to be a weepy mess, but I couldn’t help it. I was so happy!

“We did it,” I murmured, my voice cracking.

“We did,” he confirmed, his large, warm palms coming up to cup either side of my face. “All thanks to you.”

“All thanks to us. ”

With that, he kissed me, and just like every other time, my stomach flipped, my heart thundered, and the world narrowed down to the two of us. Him and me, and all the love we had for each other.

I truly was the luckiest woman in the world. Or, uh, dryad, I supposed, and I couldn’t wait for our extended family to start on our journey together.

And, of course, to get to planting.

The End.

Thank you for joining us on the journey of The Healer and The Wolf !