trapped in the cave all the time, not knowing who their parents are, getting hit and starved... Pretty soon everybody is crying. Long story short, you’re a hero and they’re our kids now. Your kids... cubs. I mean.” He cleared his throat, looking a little nervous. “Anyway. We’re gonna be fine. I wanted to tell you that.”
Her heart was soaring. It threatened to beat out of her chest and she lunged forward and threw her arms around Cody. “Oh my God... ”
“I know!” Cody laughed as she peppered his face with kisses. “Oh my God, Cody! This means they can finally go to school and they don’t have to hide and I can take them to the park! I can take them anywhere!”
“We can?” Cody said hopefully.
She kissed him on the mouth. “We can. We can take our cubs anywhere.”
“You’re my mate,” Cody said, his voice cracking as he returned the kiss. “And you guys are my family. I hope that’s cool with you.”
“I think I’ll live,” she whispered, and didn’t let him go until she’d fallen asleep again.
Epilogue
Jessie
Three months later...
“Wow, you really fixed the place up!” Nathan clapped Cody on the back, his baby daughter in a carrier on his chest. His mate, Alanna, stood at his side in the foyer of the house on Everly Street that Jessie was still getting the hang of.
“Jessie!” Alanna said. “Wow, you look great!”
They chatted and Jessie led Alanna to the kitchen where Molly was at the kitchen table listening to earbuds as she poured over math homework. She worked so hard at school, it sometimes worried Jessie, but then Molly’s eyes would light up as she explained to Jessie some new thing she’d learned. She genuinely loved school and had never been given such a stable environment to learn in. So Jessie let her throw herself into her schoolwork to her heart’s content and just made sure she took a break to play or relax from time to time.
Jessie, Cody, and the cubs had found the house on Everly street after a few rather chaotic weeks of living in Cody’s suite. But that had never been a long term solution and they had both known it and the cabin was too small and had no electricity and also wasn’t theirs.
Jessie suspected it had been strange for Cody to move out of the lodge and away from his brothers, even if the house was just a couple miles away. But it had all been exciting too. The house was a little bit of a fixer-upper but Cody had plenty of money for the renovations. It was three stories; an old sort of manor in the middle of Colorado. There were eight bedrooms and a spacious yard with grass and enough room for the swing set Cody wanted to buy for the kids.
It had been a couple of months, and Jessie still felt they were settling in. There was always something new she had to get for the house or some small thing that needed fixing but she found joy in it all. And she wasn’t sorry when Cody suggested she quit her job at the lodge. To stay home with the cubs, at least while Sophie and the twins were still so small, sounded like the greatest idea since sliced bread to her. Though her life turned out to be nearly as busy as it had been before between carting the older kids to school and activities and taking the younger ones to the park or taking all of them out to the woods with Cody for a nice run in the woods.
A car honked outside and Jessie heard Eric and Lydia laughing as they walked up the drive to the door. She had found friendship with Lydia and Alanna, who came over to hang out or came over with a babysitter to drag Jessie out of her big, loud, warm home to take her out for lunch or take her for cocktails and adult conversation because she could get caught up in the kids sometimes. They were sweet and not hard to get along with and when Jessie occasionally got down on herself for being “just a homemaker” though it was what she had discovered she loved best, they were quick to talk her out of that self-deprecation.
“You rescued those kids!” Lydia said once over margaritas. “You’re a damn hero! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!”
She was grateful for them and valued their friendship.
“Hello, Uncle Eric!” Jason came skidding into the