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Tor and me, together.
Forever.
I can’t wait.
Epilogue - Tor
The sheets are allsnuggly where I am wrapped up under them, the thick cosy quilt acting like a delicious weighted blanket. I squeeze my eyes shut tighter, wiggling myself back to snuggle up to the man who is meant to be keeping the rest of the bed warm. He is basically a furnace, and it doesn’t matter how much snow drifts against the walls of our little home, he always keeps me warm. But no matter how far I wriggle back, there is no warm body. No soft belly, or thick thighs covered in a delicious dusting of hair.
I grunt as my ass finally reaches the edge of the mattress, slipping out from the edge of the quilt, exposing my bare ass to the frigid air of our room. My eyes snap to search for my missing mate, pawing at the soft worn sheets and like maybe his six-feet-plus body somehow got lost in them. Obviously coming up empty-handed, I flip the bedding back and sit up on our bed, ears straining for signs of life in the cabin above the snowstorm battering the windows.
It is faint, but there; maybe he is in the kitchen? I think I can hear him banging about down there, making our breakfast. Caelan has been on a roll with baking since we’ve been snowed in, and I am certainly not complaining. In fact, I hope he’s bringing those cinnamon rolls in here with coffee. I’ve had some interesting thoughts about licking the icing off some fun places, and with the weather pitching a fit outside, there really is no time like the present, is there?
It has been less than a year since our adventure to rescue Theo. Since almost dying a couple of times, becoming accidental bonded mates and saving the Woods from Marieth, and her deadly immortality ritual.
We’d healed from our adventure. Mostly. Okay, it is a work in progress. The idea of ever camping again does something horrific to my insides, much toCaelan’s disappointment. The nightmares are getting better for both of us, but they still creep in, in the dark of the night.
I dream of being captured, Caelan being out of reach. Him being held, suspended in a golden glow and being unable to save him. But they are getting better. And Caelan is always there to hold me when I wake up in a panic. Just like when he wakes, fretting that I’ve disappeared, searching for me in his sleep. I am here to wrap myself around him, remind him we’re safe. It helps that we have each other.
Not just me and Caelan; the group of us have become closer. Edith still wanders in and out of our lives and the Woods, apparently significantly more often now than ever before, according to Caelan. She brings wine and gossip like only the very best friends do. Seff and Theo have become close as well, which has been really good for my brother. And Roan… well, he’s certainly changed things for Theo, I’ll give him that.
Being here, away from the city, amongst the Woods, has been good for Theo. He’s healing. Growing. He’s more than just my little brother I need to look out for. He’s my friend, too.
Honestly, as much as I’m loving being snowed in with my beloved mate, with nothing to do but toil away the snowy days together in bed, I’m looking forward to when winter finally ends and the snow clears. We’ll finally be able to catch up again, all of us. Maybe at the Tavern, or maybe we’ll have another bonfire catch-up here at the farm, like we’d done so many times over the summer. It’s like the family I always dreamed about as a kid. Only a little weirder.
Speaking of the farm, it had been in astatewhen we got back. Dave and his brothers had done their best, but there were things that only Caelan could handle. Who knew early spring was important for farmers? Thankfully, Caelan knows what he’s doing and has been diligently setting it to rights.
I moved in immediately after we returned, and for a trust fund brat who used to dance in bars to thumb his nose at his parents, I think I’ve taken to homestead farm life pretty well. Sure, I can’t exactly cook, and I’m not very good at cleaning. Or gardening. And there have been a few mishaps, like when I forgot to shut thehen enclosure one evening and we woke up to find Henny had led the girls into the house to nest in the living room. That clean-up had kind of sucked.
But we are getting there. I’m learning, at least. Caelan can’t give me too much grief over it because he is still a disaster when it comes to handling magic. It’s like theonething his hands are incapable of mastering.
And seeing those usually capable hands working is one of the very best bits of living on a farm. Getting to watch Caelan show off his handyman skills is one of my very favourite things. Inevitably mid-demonstration I get so distracted about how hot he is when he gets all intent and serious, and then I end up distracting him by putting his dick in my mouth and turning his brains to a pile of mush.
It’s not an efficient system, but itisfun.
After taking the time to get things sorted around here after ourextremelyextended adventure, and making it up to Dave and his brothers, Caelan and I had taken an abbreviated trip into the city to tie up the last of my loose ends there.
We’d spent a night partying with my ex-colleagues at the bar. They had almost eaten Caelan alive with his plaid shirt and beard, like the lumbersnack he is, and I had been sad to say a final farewell to them.
But deep down, after we had hugged and promised to keep in contact, I knew the door was very firmly closing on a time in my life that was well and truly over. I still keep in contact with a couple of them over social media, but it is few and far between.
My parents had been another matter. Almithera and Tyne, formerly known as Mother and Father, had arrived home as Caelan and I were packing up Theo’s rooms. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to join us.
Their polite enquiries about my weekend, all whilst pointedly ignoring Caelan, who was carefully boxing Theo’s things, had been my first clue that they had no idea thatanythinghad happened. In fact, they hadn’t even been in the country for most of it, having gone for a sojourn on their friend’s yacht aweekafter I had left. Realising that we could fall off the face of the planet for over a month and not have them even notice was the final nail in the coffin to our relationship.
I’d always thought it would be loud, a big blow-up with me unleashing a couple of decades of pent-up rage about them being negligent, emotionally stunted assholes and them telling me what an everlasting disappointment I was to them, our name and my historical fae ancestry. Instead, I’d felt nothing, as I looked at their cold, beautiful faces, smiled and told them that Theo and I were moving to the Whisper Woods.
They had just asked if I was able to make it to the Spring Equinox ball held by the Rochenteau’s, long-time family friends and social rivals. I’d smiled and politely told them probably not. They had seemed almost disappointed for half a moment, then wandered off into the cavernous depths of our family’s mansion.
Theo and I had received a notice from their lawyer not too long after, in the summer, advising us we had been removed from our parents’ wills. Neither of us had cared overly much. Our trust funds from our grandparents are already in our names and as large as they are, it all becomes a bit meaningless. Gerald is probably over the moon, though.
A loud thud of a door and excited barking grab my attention and I snuggle back under the sheets—the very nice and expensive sheets I insisted on keeping from my old life because there are still some things worth being a snob over—as I hear the heavy footfalls and scratching footsteps coming up the hall. An excited yip joins the scratches outside the door and I try to cover my snort of laughter when I hear Caelan shushing loudly.
“Quit it, Lucky, you’re going to wake him up and ruin the surprise. You’re only in for a cuddle, anyway, then you’reout.” His voice is firm, but Caelan is definitely the soft parent out of the two of us when it comes to the golden retriever pup we adopted over autumn. He is still a menace, but he is adorable, so he gets away with it like the spoiled baby he is.
There is a fumbling at the door as Caelan struggles to open it, before it bursts wide, hitting the antique armchair in the corner as Lucky comes bounding into the room, all gangly legs and wagging tails, jumping onto the bed with his usual energetic lack of grace.
Caelan hangs by the door, leaning on the frame, bare legs crossed, completely comfortable in the freezing cold in just his white briefs. In his hands is a tray laden with steaming cinnamon rolls and fresh cups of coffee. He really does know how to spoil me. His smile is wide under his beard, his eyes crinkling with happiness as I lavish our puppy with love and pats on the bed until he gets too excited and starts nipping and yapping and I try to calm him instead.
