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He’d said an I-love-you by telling her he would stay if she asked.
She was saying I-love-you by letting him go.
She rested her shoulder blades against the trunk of a great tree and listened to the fading of his engine as he drove away from here. Away from her. Please come back soon.
With a shuddering breath, she peeled her shirt over her head and let the falcon take her skin. She wanted the animal to see him off, so she could get some closure. So she wouldn’t be building her empty nest with him in her mind. As Lucas wound his way through Damon’s Mountains, she followed high above. Usually she didn’t feel the cold of the wind, but today was different. She shivered. Her wings twitched with the movement, and she dipped in the sky.
When he passed the territory line of Damon’s Mountains, she circled twice, watching until his truck disappeared, and then she aimed her wings toward a little trailer park nestled in the heart of the mountains. She passed Asheland Mobile Park, where everything had started. She passed the Boarlanders and the Gray Backs, and when she reached Smashland Mobile Park, the others were returning home. Cadence was getting out of her truck tenderly, and Kru sauntered out of the woods. He cast a sad smile up at the sky. Gunner limped out of the woods behind him and trudged up the stairs of 1010. He cast a quick glance up to the sky at her, and then disappeared inside. He was hurt, but he would heal.
Lucia wasn’t here. She would probably never settle here without a viable Alpha. Plus, something was wrong with her animal. She should’ve Changed during the fight, and something had prevented it.
What a mess.
Jenna didn’t know what they would all do now. Maybe some of them would move off without leadership. Or maybe this would just be home, with no title of “Crew.” Perhaps this would always be an in-between stepping stone for them.
Jenna wanted to give Smashland some time and see if it stuck. Besides, she liked the memories she’d made here. Lucas had been here. His scent would linger for a little while, and after she was done feeling sorry for herself, those memories would make her smile.
This had been the worst, and also the best, week of her life.
Gunner had said he had no regrets.
Well?
Neither did she.
Epilogue
“Jenna! Load up!” Cadence called out from where she was loading the back of Jenna’s flatbed truck with an old blue cooler. “What are you staring at? Let’s go! We’ll be late!”
Jenna nodded and told her, “Be right there!”
And then she knelt down and lifted up the small plastic cage. Inside, there was a brown mouse with enormous balls. A smile took her face. She couldn’t help it, all the memories of the random pet field mice in the different trailers at Asheland Mobile Park drifted across her mind and filled her heart. The first mouse in the mountains, Nards, was somewhat of a legend.
The little mouse ran over to the small water dish and took a quick sip, then placed his tiny hands on the plastic cage and stared at her with his big eyes, his whiskers twitching as he sniffed the air. She needed to come up with a good name for him.
“You like him?”
Jenna grinned at Kru, who was sauntering across the clearing with a couple of six-packs of beer in his grasp.
“Thank you for the present.”
“I didn’t get you that. I got you these.” He lifted up a pack of the fruity beers she liked.
“Oh.” She frowned at the mouse and set the cage inside of her doorway. Maybe Gunner got him for her. Or Cadence? Or hell, Lucia might have gotten it. She had visited a couple of times in the last week, but hadn’t talked to them. They could just smell when she was near.
“I’ll be back soon,” she told the little mouse as she closed the door behind her.
Today was the day.
Bash was throwing his annual Pizza Roll Barbecue for all of the Crews on Damon’s Mountains, and this year, the Warlanders had been given an official invite. None of them had the heart to tell him they had all been packing up their trailers and would move on. Kru and Cadence were scheduled to move out tomorrow, but today? Today they were all determined to have a good day.
They had made a pact around the firepit last night. Even Gunner had agreed to it, even though he’d barely talked since the challenge a week ago.
Jenna draped the strap of her purse across her chest and jogged down the stairs. As she settled behind the steering wheel, Cadence climbed into the passenger’s side and smiled. “You ready?”
“No,” she said softly. “And yes. I don’t want today to be over. It’ll go by fast.”
Cadence shrugged. “Can’t stop change, Brown.”
