Epilogue

  “I’m so glad it’s snowing,” Damon said to Major. “Ruby’s been all wistfully hoping for a snowy wedding day. I’m agnostic on that subject but I’m a fervent believer in anything that’ll make my pretty witch happy.”

  “Oh lord the two of you.” Major rolled his eyes.

  “I know. We’re insufferably in love. I’d be sick of us too.” Damon sent his brother a smug smile.

  “It’s snowing!” Ruby bounded into their new kitchen and headed straight to the windows over the sink.

  “Even nature wants to please you, Ruby darlin’,” Damon told her.

  “Gosh, I sure wish we were getting married today,” she teased. “Wait. We are!”

  He got up to hug her because what else was there to do with this beautiful creature in his kitchen? “We are at long last.”

  “Long last.” She rolled her eyes. “It really hasn’t been that long.”

  “This is a milestone. It feels like after today our life begins in a new way. Your family will be pleased. My family is already pleased. It’s all good.”

  “You’re totally right,” she said, kissing him quickly. “Morning, Major,” she called out heading to the coffeepot. “Anyone need a top-up?”

  She brought the pot over and warmed his and Major’s cups up. “Thank you, Ruby,” Major said.

  They’d moved into the new house just two weeks before that and it had been Ruby who’d suggested having Major live with them until his house was finished. His brother stayed there a few nights a week but also continued living out of the apartment above the Mercantile to be close to Jace and Katie Faith.

  Things were changing. Their family was growing. The future was full of hope and possibility. And Ruby was at the heart of it all. His own personal miracle.

  Living with a witch during Yule had been an education. Ruby had included him in as many rituals and ceremonies as he wanted to be part of. The house was already decorated with greens and reds and blues and silvers and golds. Sprigs of holly and other greenery decorated spots the dogs couldn’t get to.

  The house smelled fucking awesome all the time. Not just her roses and jasmine, but the freshness of the green things she used in her tinctures, the lush, rich scent of the coconut oil she used in her hair.

  In short, living with Ruby was the best thing that’d ever happened to him. She looked good, smelled good and threw off magic like catnip. Perfection.

  “What are you two up to this fine day? Other than dressing up and being in a wedding in three hours, that is.” She grabbed a ham biscuit Major had brought over and hummed after taking a bite. “Nichole is going to be here shortly to pick me up. I’m getting ready at the church so I’ll see you both there.”

  “We’re going to check out the reception space, make sure things are set up on the way over. Jace has been supervising; Greg called earlier when you were in the shower to say all the food was ready and your folks and my grandparents are on that part,” Damon assured her.

  Ruby said, “My aunts and cousins are at the church dealing with the flowers. They said it was their gift to me to let me have one less thing on my to-do list.”

  Her family had been such a wonderful addition to his life. Once they’d imprinted, the Thornes had pulled him into their large, loud ranks. Full of love and security. The more time he spent around them, the more he understood Ruby and why she was as wonderful as she was.

  That and Arthur, her grandfather, invited Damon and Major to come hang out and drink bourbon laced with coffee while they let him win at dominoes. It had been a great way to get to know one another separate from interactions with Ruby.

  When the time came, he knew they’d raise their children knowing how much they were loved and valued for their uniqueness. They’d be shown what it meant to be part of a community that took care of their own.

  Nichole showed up as Ruby was rinsing out her coffee cup. The dogs adored Ruby’s best friend and sister-in-law. They heard the sound of her voice and came running through the house to her.

  “I have the most handsome little tuxedos for you two,” Nichole told the dogs as she kissed the tops of their little heads.

  Damon cringed inwardly at outfits for dogs, but Ruby loved dressing them up. He knew he’d never deny her the pleasure and the boys always acted so proud and pleased to be wearing this or that shirt or sweater or whatever, he knew there was no reason to say a damned thing about it.

  “Can you bring them to the church about twenty minutes before the ceremony starts?” Nichole asked Damon.

  “Sure thing.”

  Ruby came in, dress bag over her arm. He helped her out to Nichole’s vehicle, loading a box with cosmetics and what all else she’d need to get ready. He heard the telltale clink of bottles as he put things in her trunk.

  “Sounds alcoholic,” he murmured.

  “Any legitimate excuse for day drinking is one I’m taking, Damon. Like y’all won’t be drinking that rotgut shifter booze?” Ruby asked.

  “Only once we’re at the reception. I can’t take the risk of fucking up at the ceremony. Afterward, well, everyone knows how much wolves love a party.” He waggled his brows her way. He got close to whisper in her ear. “Don’t worry, I’ll still be plenty capable to celebrate when we’re alone tonight.”

  Her delighted giggle lightened his entire being. And that’s what she did for him. Every day.

  “Good. Got to pay your keep. I’ll see you in a bit. I love you.”

  He kissed her. “Love you too. See you at the wedding.”

  * * *

  Ruby looked at her reflection in the long mirror on the back of the door. She’d tried on a few white dresses but none of them had been the right one. And on the way out of the last dress shop she saw a sunny yellow dress tucked at the back of a plus-size sale rack.

  A-line. Floor length. Long sleeved off the shoulder. When she walked, the pleating of the skirt swirled all around her legs.

  Her hair had been dressed into an updo with braids and pretty little tendrils here and there. Instead of a veil, she chose to have jeweled pins tucked into her hair. Her earrings, gold chandeliers, belonged to Lovie’s mother and every bride since then had worn them on her wedding day.

  She felt absolutely beautiful. Ethereal as she moved and the dress seemed to caress her legs.

  “That yellow makes you look like a gorgeous sunny day,” Nichole said as she finished zipping up the back.

  Until she’d bought that dress, she’d had an idea to have a Yule theme. Snow and lights and shiny things. But the dress had changed things.

  Instead of a winter wonderland, she’d chosen instead to look forward to spring with yellows and lilacs and the occasional splash of pink. And her mother, the queen she was, had managed to track down all the flowers she wanted and had managed to get them with a discount.

  She only had one attendant, Nichole. And Major would stand up for Damon. The ceremony itself wasn’t as small or intimate as Aimee’s was, but they weren’t throwing a reception for the whole town either. It just felt like it.

  Still, who didn’t like a party? And it was even better when it was your party.

  Her mom came by with her aunts. They all looked so lovely and tears pricked her eyes.

  “You nervous?” Her mom kissed Ruby’s cheek.

  “Not really. I mean, we’re already married. We already live in the same house. This is a happy ritual and after this we’ll eat and drink and have a great time. But I’m already his wife. He’s already my husband. I can’t wait to see him all gussied up in a tux though.”

  “Is he still clueless about the dress?” her aunt Rita asked.

  “Yup. He’s got no idea.” He didn’t know about the color scheme at the church either. Not that she figured he would be upset in any way. Damon just didn’t care. If it made her happy, he supported it.

  The dogs showed up and Nichole got them all suited up. Aimee took them out to walk down the aisle with Damon.

  “You ready?” her dad asked as he tapped on the door and poked his head in. But when he caught sight of Ruby he sucked in a breath. “Oh my lord, baby, you’re perfect.”

  He came over and hugged her tight.

  “Everyone is ready and in place. I can certainly see you are. Your momma and I are so proud. So pleased you found someone like Damon to share your life with. Let’s go walk you down the aisle.”

  Her mom took one arm and her dad the other. Nichole went ahead of them and gave the organist the sign to get things started.

  * * *

  Damon thought he was prepared but nothing could have prepared him for the church full of bright spring flowers and his Ruby darlin’, walking down the aisle in a sunflower yellow dress that seemed to float all around her legs.

  At Ruby’s insistence, they’d removed anything she found objectionable from the ceremony. No one was giving her away as, “I can give my own damned self. I’ve not been a kid for years now.” There were no sexist, one-sided demands.

  “Who stands witness to this union between Ruby and Damon?” the pastor asked when Ruby and her parents finally arrived at the front of the church.

  “Her father and I do,” Anita said.

  “Damon’s grandmother and I do,” JJ said.

  She hadn’t told him they’d be doing that and Damon was glad no one could see how choked up he was as he ducked his head.

  Damon held a hand out and Ruby placed hers in it. That zing, always there, jumped back and forth between them for a few dizzying moments before calming down.

  “You look like a goddess. My goddess,” he told her.

  She smoothed a hand down his lapels. “You were made for a tuxedo. Is this a rental or did you buy it?” Like they were just hanging out having a chat instead of in front of a hundred people getting married.

  “Damn, I love you,” he said.

  “I love you too. You wanna get married?”

  He nodded. “Let’s do that. I’m hungry and there’s plenty of food waiting at the reception.”

  They promised to love, honor and cherish. They promised to protect and provide for in good times and bad. Honestly, Damon thought it was all a blur. But what he knew would stay in his memories forever was the way her entire being lit up when he pulled out a ring.

  The imprint had been sudden and not expected, so he hadn’t had a ring ready. But in the nearly two months since, he’d scoured a few different websites looking for the exact ring. It had been on the day she’d found her wedding dress that he’d found the ring at a little store in Knoxville.

  Woven silver and gold band with a simple diamond in the center. He knew she worked with her hands all day long and didn’t want anything too big or fragile. She wanted simple and sturdy. But the ring he found was elegant too. Classic.

  And her face as she saw it for the first time told him she loved it as much as he hoped she would.

  Then there were kisses and proclamations of marriage and after what seemed like ten years to get out of the church, they headed to the reception in the attached multipurpose room. There was a patio just beyond should anyone want to go outside to get air.

  The food, provided food truck style, was served by Greg and her cousins so Nichole could do her maid of honor duties better.

  He got pulled into dozens of hugs. People kept pressing money into his hands and telling him he married up. He knew that was really true.

  There were toasts and the cake was cut after dinner and finally they reached the first dance. He spun her around, their gazes locked. Love flowed from her and he soaked it up like a sponge.

  “You’re such a badass,” he said.

  “I am? I mean, I know I am,” she teased, “but what do you mean specifically?”

  “Years and years chipping away at the Rule of Silence and you come in, kick a door down, shout in Scarlett and Mary’s face and send them packing with their tails between their legs.”

  Mac’s reaction to the information had been fairly quick and very decisive. He’d cut Mary and his mother out of the pack. Removed their membership and the protection of the pack. And because Dwayne came back to town without permission, he’d done the same to his father. He even took away the house Scarlett and Dwayne would be living in.

  Damon knew that had to have been incredibly difficult. They were still his parents, after all. But they’d damaged Pembry so severely, Mac had no other choice.

  And truth be told, Diablo Lake felt a lot less claustrophobic and negative without Scarlett prowling around trying to start a fight.

  “I did it because it was the right thing to do. And there’s irony in the fact that it was Mary’s own words that damned her in the end. They can fuck off a pier, Damon Dooley. Diablo Lake has better things to do.”

  “You protected me like a warrior.”

  “That’s what people do, Damon.”

  He shook his head. “It’s what people should do. But you know as well as I do, they sometimes don’t.”

  Ruby shook her head then. “I can’t erase all the times people failed you and your brothers in the past. But I can do my best to make it better now. I’m your shield. You’re mine. You awakened a whole new side to me.”

  “I love all your sides, Ruby darlin’.”

  * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Diablo Lake: Moonstruck by Lauren Dane.

  Diablo Lake: Moonstruck

  by Lauren Dane

  Chapter One

  The rising sun and a huge to-do list drove Kit from the bed in the guest room of her best friend Aimee’s house. Much better than the last two weeks on the couch at her parents’ place. Or the hotel near the hospital, several hours’ drive away, where her father was recovering from a stroke several hours’ drive away from Diablo Lake.

  Diablo Lake, the place she’d run from several years before. And still, no matter what, she’d always be from the funky little town full of witches and shifters in the middle of the mountains that had always remained her home.

  Her absence from town was officially over. Starting today, she would take over running the Counter, the family run soda fountain. That way her dad could do his job, which was getting better and her mother didn’t have to shoulder the stress of trying to help him and run a business at the same time.

  And while she was at it, Kit needed to get the shop back on track so her parents had an economic future and, she supposed, she needed to accept that her future would look vastly different than she’d imagined it just two weeks before when she got the call that her father had been taken to Vanderbilt by helicopter.

  Kit’s groan as her feet hit the floor made her roll her eyes at herself as she stood, swaying slightly, trying to wake up.

  Coffee. Yes, that was a good first step.

  She shuffled into the kitchen and spied the huge pan of cobbler she’d totally forgotten about. Well, surely it would be far easier to get moving that first morning back than it would have been without cobbler. It was science after all. Probably. She really didn’t have time to look it up, but it sounded just right.

  She rustled through some drawers and cabinets and failed to find coffee to go in the coffeemaker or a bowl so after a shrug, she simply spooned some ice cream directly onto the cobbler. Her people were pioneers after all; she could manage this fine breakfast without all the fancy stuff.

  Aimee’s place had been remodeled, she thought as she looked around more closely. Nothing staggering, just a new coat of paint and the stuff had been moved. Aimee had a cute house. It fit her personality and lifestyle with the open floorplan. Once every three years she redid a room to keep things fresh, but overall, the style was warm and sexy with deep earth tones and overstuffed furniture.

  Katie Faith wandered through the kitchen and dining room, spooning her cobbler and ice cream into her mouth as she hugged the pan to her body.

  And that’s how Aimee found her, with a wooden spoon and an entire pan of berry cobbler. Half a pan of berry cobbler.

  One of Aimee’s eyebrows rose as she took the scene in. “Step away from the cobbler, Katie Faith.”

  Kit hugged the pan to her body a little tighter. “Shut up. I’m a growing girl and I need a good breakfast before I go to work. I also need coffee. You’ve remodeled in here and I can’t find it. How can I eat cobbler and ice cream without coffee? I know who raised you to be a good Southern woman. Your momma would be so disappointed in you. Just sayin’.”

  Aimee snorted as she breezed into the kitchen, Kit in her wake. “Just because you know I peed my pants in kindergarten doesn’t mean you get to be grumpy and eat all my cobbler without sharing.” Aimee went to the cabinet to the left of the sink and opened it up, pulling out a red canister. “I have coffee. And I told you I was going to redo the kitchen last month.”

  “I won’t tell anyone about the peed pants if you make me some. Coffee not peed pants. I’ll be your best friend,” Kit said in a singsong voice and tried to look thirsty and pitiful all at once.

  “You’re full of it, Katie Faith. Just you know that I know it.” Aimee did that thing with her finger pointing from her eyes to Kit.

  “As long as you know it while you’re making me some coffee.” Kit winked and held the spoon, full of cobbler, her friend’s way. “This is Sandy’s cobbler, isn’t it? I’m going to gain five pounds just being in the same room with it. I can’t believe I missed the bake sale yesterday.”

  “There’s always another bake sale. It’s Diablo Lake.” Aimee turned on the coffeemaker, handed a clean spoon to Kit and dug in, settling in next to her on the small kitchen bench. “You’ll be moving back here permanently anyway.”

  Kit froze. “We don’t know that for sure. Could just be six months or so.”