Page 117 of Knot So Sweet
"Clearly." But Sally's smiling. "When's the celebration? Because we're definitely throwing you a party."
"That's not necessary..."
"Too late," Meredith interrupts. "Already planned it. Next Saturday. My house. Everyone's invited."
"Everyone?" I look around at the packed room. "That's a lot of people."
"You're pack now. Part of this community. That means we celebrate you."
The meeting itself is a blur. I barely hear the agenda items, too focused on the warmth spreading through my chest. These people, this town, they're accepting us. All of us. No judgment, no shock, just genuine happiness.
Afterward, people keep coming up to congratulate us. To ask questions about the bonding. To invite us to dinner or coffee or their kids' birthday parties. It's overwhelming and wonderful and exactly what I needed.
"How're you holding up?" Liam asks quietly as we finally extract ourselves from the crowd.
"Good." I lean into him. "Really good."
"Not too overwhelming?"
"A little. But good overwhelming." I look up at him. "They're happy for us. Actually happy."
"Why wouldn't they be?" Garrick asks, joining us. "You're perfect together. Even a blind person could see that."
"A blind person would just smell it," Xaden adds. "You three reek of pack contentment."
"That's the sexiest thing you've ever said to me," I deadpan.
By the time we make it back, I'm exhausted. Not physically, though my body's still recovering, but emotionally. The goodkind of exhaustion that comes from being seen and accepted and celebrated.
We end up in bed together again, tangled in sheets that smell like all of us. The moon is full through the windows, casting silver light across the room.
"I love you," I say into the darkness. "All of you. Just in case I haven't said it enough."
"You've said it," Xaden murmurs. "But we'll never get tired of hearing it."
"Good. Because I plan on saying it a lot."
"We love you too," Liam says. "In case that wasn't obvious."
"It was obvious." I smile into Garrick's chest. "You're all terrible at hiding it."
Garrick shakes his head. "Not hiding anything anymore. What you see is what you get."
I drift off to sleep thinking about the future. About babies and forever and growing old together in this house on this mountain. About writing and baking and healing and loving.
About choosing, every single day, to stay. To build. To belong.
About being exactly where I'm supposed to be.
EPILOGUE
VIOLET
Dolly's engine hums steady as we cruise down the highway, mountain peaks rising on either side like they're showing off. The morning sun turns everything gold, streaming through the windshield warm enough that I crack my window. Cold air rushes in, sharp with pine and snow melt and the promise of spring that's still a few weeks away.
It’s been two years since I drove this highway alone, scared and desperate, with forty-seven dollars in my pocket and a dead car battery waiting for me. I thought everything was ending.
Now I’m back in these mountains with my life packed into Dolly’s worn-out interior.
