Midnight Serenade

Epilogue

I learned that Sawyer had told his boss the situation before running after me. His boss called Sawyer's dad and my uncles and then joined them in coming to rescue me with Sawyer. I was glad I didn't know it was my family beforehand. It was bad enough being terrified about Sawyer, his dad, and other unknown pack members. They'd all taken a little bit of a beating, but they seemed to enjoy that fact. I guess it gave them some closure about my parents.

Sawyer said that injuries taken as a wolf didn't heal as quickly or easily as getting injured as a human. So shifting didn't speed up their healing and they'd be left with scars. Sawyer had three gashes along his ribs, and I hated to think that those scars might just be the first of many. I didn't anticipate anything else comparable to Ray, but I'd learned that the pack leader was always the target. I'd only been introduced to the world of shifters for a short time, and I already saw it happen twice. How many times would Sawyer have to defend his position when he took over?

The best anyone could figure was that Ray assumed that by getting someone in the pack to be his mate, he'd be part of the pack, and then he could challenge the pack leader and take over. It was beyond disturbing that he meant to use me for that purpose, and like I thought, it wouldn't have even worked. An outsider didn't get to join the pack. He wasn't a wolf either, so if by some weird turn of events the rest of it worked in his favor, the pack would never have accepted him as their leader.

There was some speculation that maybe he intended to try to use my mom first, and that's how my parents died. Figuring I was the next best thing, and readily available, he took me. I hated that it made sense because it meant that my parents died for nothing. His entire quest had been pointless all along.

Tony was able to speed up Natalie's release. He filed a report about Ray attempting to kidnap me again. He embellished and claimed that Ray absolved Natalie of any guilt by confessing that she knew nothing and that she had in fact been his victim as well. As far as the police department knew, Ray took off and hadn't been heard from again. The case would go cold since they'd never find him, but at least for us, it was resolved.

Natalie chose to come stay in Hot Springs. She wasn't allowed to know anything shifter related, but at least I was able to have a relationship with her. Mrs. Duncan gave her a job, and she seemed to love the work.

I was glad that all the pieces of my life finally seemed to fit together the way they were supposed to, so at the moment, I was free to focus on getting as much out of my time with Sawyer as possible before either one of us had to start classes. I only had two weeks until my first day and I was beginning to dread being the new kid, even if I had friends already. Sawyer had a bit longer, but not much.

Today he had a day off from work, so we were going to spend the day as wolves. I was excited to see how much better it would be now that we'd be able to speak to each other the whole time.

As I was getting ready, I returned to my room to find Ashley standing in the doorway, looking inside.

As her default was to ignore me or throw some snotty comment my way, I was on guard. She'd never once sought me out.

"Hey, Ashley," I said tentatively.

She turned and I was surprised by her lack of hostility. She was prettier than I thought without that scowl. "Hey." She gestured to my room. "It looks nice."

"Thanks?" It was very weird to hear her say something pleasant. "Do you want to go in?" As she was just standing there, I had no idea what else to say.

She nodded and walked through the door like it was the most normal thing in the world. I followed and tried to think of a nice way to ask what the heck she was doing.

She sat on my bed and looked around. "Brooke did the flowers?"

"Yeah. She's really talented."

She bobbed her head and looked at everything for another minute before she focused on me. "So, are you and Sawyer official now?"

Oh boy... "Yeah, we are," I said, dreading whatever her reaction would be.

She frowned at the floor for a second before looking at me again. "Well, I guess it had to be someone. And I think I'd have been more pissed if it was one of my friends."

I smiled. "I can understand that."

She sighed. "So, my dad said that Ray was a real psycho."

Startled by the subject change, I sobered. "He was."

"That must have sucked to grow up with him."

I relaxed, realizing this was probably Ashley's way of making amends. "Natalie mostly raised me. He wasn't around that much. But yeah, it really did."

She nodded "Sorry. It's good that you don't have to worry about him anymore."

I smiled. "Yeah."

She sat for another minute, not seeming to know what else to say. "Well, have fun today."

"Thanks," I said before she headed for the door and left.

Still feeling pretty shocked by the whole encounter, I shut the door to get dressed.

I'm outside, Sawyer said in my head as I pulled on my shoes. A second later the doorbell rang.

I smiled. I'll be right down.

By the time I made it downstairs, Sawyer was in the kitchen with my aunt and uncle.

"You kids want breakfast before you leave?" Aunt Nora asked.

"I already ate, but thanks," Sawyer said. I knew he'd have jerky and other snacks in the bag he carried, for later too.

My stomach rumbled and everyone looked at me.

"I'll just take something to go," I said, wrapping some sausage links in a pancake before we headed for the door. "Thanks!"

"Have fun," Uncle Marshall said.

"And be careful," Aunt Nora added, giving me a look that had me blushing pretty badly. When I told my aunt my plans for today, she'd felt the need to sit me down for "the talk". Apparently now that Sawyer and I were official, everyone assumed we simply couldn't wait to have sex. Aunt Nora told me many many embarrassing things that I'd have liked to erase from my memory. Among them, she told me that young shifter girls got pregnant super easy. Like practically all we had to do was think about it. I had no idea if it was a scare tactic, but if it was, it was pretty dang effective.

Uh oh, someone got the sex talk, Sawyer teased.

Shut up! I said, mortified.

I cleared my throat, but my voice still cracked when I said goodbye, and Sawyer laughed.

"Do you think it's true?" I asked, once we got outside. I was still blushing scarlet, but I was really curious.

Having no trouble following my train of thought, Sawyer shrugged. "No idea. The only ones who know always say that it is, but who knows? It doesn't really matter. Whether it's easy or not, it's still possible. But if we assume they're lying, and they're not, there's a whole line of people who'd be waiting to kill me."

I grinned. "You're the pack leader's son. They couldn't kill you."

"Yeah, well, my dad would be at the front of the line, so I really don't think my position in the pack would be much of an issue."

"I guess we'll just have to control ourselves then," I joked.

Sawyer sighed. "Yeah, too bad."

I laughed.

"But there's all kinds of other fun things we can do," he said, with a good dose of mischief in his tone.

I looked at him, blushing a little but also intrigued. "I'm open to suggestions."

He grinned and we walked faster.