Page 90 of Ember's Claim

Things are changing, but it’s all been for the better. Hell, Lana and Kalla are girls number three and four that we added to the pack in the last two weeks.

Not all the females who soaked up my pheromones were able to conceive last time, but if we continue along this path…

In another twenty years, the balance of males and females will be in a much better place than where it started.

That’s good enough for me.

This wraps up the main epilogue, but I get more requests for extra long, super fluffy epilogues than anything else. I really wanted to show you Ember and her guys with pups, but since this is just the beginning of opening the next generation world, I was hesitant to lock myself into any timelines. Especially when I don’t know how many years those stories will take to play out in their world.

If you can accept a set of far in the future epilogues with kids, but no definitive explanation for how many years there are in that time jump... Turn the page.

Epilogue

Anders

An Undisclosed Number of Years Later

Building a strong community takes time, but Ember has managed it beautifully. That’s not to say she was never challenged after Aimes’s supporters, because she was. For close to two years, it felt like every other month, some idiot male wolf would pop up, convincedhewould be the one to finally best her.

It never happened.

Not once was it even close.

It took a while, but word spread well enough that those challenges moved to every three months, then every six months, and at some point, they stopped altogether.

It’s been years now, and Ember’s goals have become a reality. We’ve built a thriving shifter community where no one lives in fear. The wolves will always be at the heart of the pack, but we’ve got refugees from nearly every shifter species.

Female shifters who’ve spent their entire lives hiding, now live out in the open here on pack lands.

It’s kind of incredible to think that Ember’s wolf is responsible for making all of this possible. Lorcan wasn’t wrong when he said her wolf would handle the alpha responsibilities that Ember, as a human, is too soft to face. I mean, the three of us don’t shy away from enforcing the rules, but having a female alpha is what draws so many to us.

And that’s not to say Ember’s wolf is always in alpha mode. Over the years, she’s grown more playful as she settled in to running the pack. She has endless patience when she’s working with the pups and a strong resolve to make every terrified shifter who asks for sanctuary feel safe.

All around, she’s grown into a confident and compassionate leader.

And as more time passed, she started to express more interest inmaybehaving a pup or two…which is how we ended up here.

She might have endless patience when it comes to everyone else, but with her pregnancy came an intense irritation with everything Veryn, Lorcan, or I do.

Not that she doesn’t have every right to be cranky. She’s currently growing three pups. She can growl and snarl and steal our clothing if she needs to.

It’s strange because the bond gives us insight into what she wants and needs. The main problem is, it changes approximately every thirty-three seconds. So, just as we’re addressing the last issue, something else pops up.

The hardest part is knowing how physically taxing it is on her, but not being able to do a thing to fix it. If I could swap places with her, I would.

This whole pregnancy adventure rests completely on Ember’s shoulders, but once the babies are here, we’ll be able to help, and I just keep trying to remind myself that this helpless feeling won’t last forever.

Lorcan, Veryn, and I congregate around the path that leads to the cave behind the waterfall.

“Well, one of us has to go in there,” Lorcan says, staring directly at me.

“The cave basically belongs to the two of you,” I sputter, nodding toward the entrance. “That meansyoushould go in.”

Veryn snorts. “You two are ridiculous. It’s not like she’s going to hurt you.”

“No, but I also don't want to agitate her wolf,” I clarify, rocking on my heels. She’s been so particular about the nest in the house that we generally only enter when Ember is in human form to invite us in.

“You won’t.” Lorcan gives me a shove with magic. “And we’ll be right behind you.”