Epilogue
After our mating, we spent the next morning having breakfast with everyone. It's a couple of days later when we return to the packhouse.
Although the process of me moving in with him has just started, it's going smoothly with relatively few arguments. Since one half of his cabin functioned as a workroom, he moved everything into his actual workshop to create more space for all of my stuff.
This time it isn't Dayne calling a pack meeting, but Talis. Except, it's less of a pack meeting and more of a BBQ beside the lake one Sunday afternoon with football, more food than any of us can eat, and lots of laughter.
Kier is giving me a knowing look as we sit cross-legged on the grass, and I know what he's thinking. There were no arguments during our breakfast after our mating, and there are no arguments now.
No matter what I say, he refuses to believe that our pack is one that argues, sometimes a lot, regardless of how many times I try to tell him otherwise.
He's giving me a particularly smug look when Dayne says something that has Talis shouting that it was a one-time thing that happens to everyone. Dayne replies that he's never accidentally peed himself in his entire life.
That's when Dean brings up Savannah's poop incident, which has her snapping that it wasn't her. Then Nathan mocks my bullet journal/sticker book, which he went through when he went looking for the keys to my handcuffs. I'm not about to let him call my journal a sticker book, even if he is right, so that starts a new argument.
In the middle of this sudden uproar, Luka, who's manning the BBQ, looks like he's had enough, and after loudly claiming he has a headache, wanders back to the house.
But then he jerks to a sudden stop.
One by one, we turn because we know why. There's a scent coming from the forest and it's a stranger.
I have a brief glimpse of long, dark hair before the woman steps back into the forest. Suddenly I remember what Jenna said about seeing a woman with dark hair outside Kier's cabin. A woman he claimed not to know.
So I glance at Kier to ask if he recognizes her, but find he's staring with stunned amazement at where Luka has crouched in front of her hiding spot. Her scent tells me she hasn't left, even if I can no longer see her.
"Hey, it's okay. No one here is going to hurt you," Luka murmurs.
We all fall silent because it isn't just her scent we're picking up, but fear. Naked fear. Which I guess explains why Dayne hasn't lost his shit about a strange shifter on pack land the way he did at Jeremy's appearance months ago.
I've gone back to staring at the hidden woman, but when Kier speaks, he draws my gaze back to him. "Eden?" He rises to his feet, disbelief stamped on his face. "Is that you?"
I get to mine, just as slowly, feeling a little jealous even though Kier and I are newly mated and I know I have no reason to be. As if he knows it, he grabs my hand and tugs me closer, though he doesn't look away from where the woman is still hiding.
"Who's Eden?" I ask quietly, not wanting to scare her away.
"She was Jared's, Jaxon's brother's, mate."
My eyes widen. "You mean the one who-"
"Disappeared, yes. Eden, where have you been? We all thought you were dead."
There's no response from the hidden figure, and Luka edges a little closer. When the scent of her fear increases, he stops. "It's okay. I'm not coming any closer. Eden, huh? I'm Luka."
We all wait for a response because this is all so bizarre.
I'm still not sure what to make of this because if Eden was hanging around Kier's cabin several days ago, where has she been, and most importantly, what is she doing here? Is she after Kier?
In the silence that follows, there's a sound of gushing water. "Oh, shit."
We all spin around at the sound of Talis' voice.
She stares across at us with wide eyes and her hand over her pregnant belly. I doubt I'm alone in lowering my gaze to the wet ground beneath her, and then back up again.
"Uh, Talis," Dayne murmurs, sounding more shell-shocked than I think I've ever heard him in my life.
For a moment, we all forget about Eden's sudden arrival because it looks like she's not the only unexpected arrival today.
Talis swallows hard. "I think my water broke. I think it's time."
No one moves.
No, I'm wrong, someone moves. There's a rustle in the trees, followed by the sound of swiftly running feet. The scent of fear disappears.
"Eden?" Luka calls out.
But there's no response from Eden, the old alpha of the Stone pack's mate, a woman Kier long believed was dead.