A Cold Wind Blows (Forgotten series, #3)

Epilogue

Five months later

I wiped the sweat from my eyes and dodged the next pointed attack. Steam curled off of my opponent like I knew it did for me. The courtyard was a mess, our feet scraping against the cold ground, the snow melting against our bodies. Grime coated the ones who had allowed themselves to hit the dirt.

I dodged his next attack before grabbing the back of his neck and shoving him to the ground. He struggled for a moment as I pinned his arm before he submitted. I let him go and helped him to his feet, pounding on his back to let him know he had fought well.

He bent over with a smile despite how heavy he was breathing. I rolled my shoulders and my neck, feeling the muscles pull. There was a stinging nip to the back of my arm and when I lifted it Lace gave me an innocent look that held heated eyes.

"You taste like sin... and sex." Her mouth tugged up into a smirk and I grabbed the back of her head and gave her a searing kiss, bending over her possessively. She wasn't one for public displays of affection but the teasing pokes from her claws weren't warning me away. I gave a low growl as I pulled back, the adrenaline and triumph made me want to drag her off to the nearest out of sight place and take full advantage of what she was offering.

"You taste like trouble." I tugged her close and nipped at her mark, leaving a patch of irritated skin that I soothed with my tongue. "Where are the kids?" I had to ask because Nina had learned to walk and if we weren't careful she wandered off. She found great joy from doing so, giggling when we caught her and then immediately trying to do it again.

"Playing in the snow." She pulled away from me and pointed to snow hill where Aiden and Caeda were overseeing nearly a dozen children playing on it. It did me good to see that they were having fun as Caeda threw a handful of snow at her twin. She was getting better, still wasn't a hundred percent and I doubted she would be but she was getting there.

It was also nice to see all of my children playing. Caden had a full recovery despite the scars it had left on him. He didn't seem to notice them unless the weather changed and then he curled up with us in the bed and we rubbed at them, trying to take away the ache he felt from them. He had his fifth birthday shortly after he had been taken off bed rest. Lander's and Graham's birthdays hadn't been long afterwards. They had all been spring and summer babies.

The thought made me smile. Lace had attempted to bake each of them a cake but she couldn't seem to get it right and burned each one. I let her despite knowing they would burn, because it made her happy to try and she needed all the happiness she could get. I glanced at her as we both moved towards the snow pile. She had made a lot of progress. True, she was still brutal and unable to play well with others but she was able to somewhat smile at others, small ones that put others at ease and made her fan club grow.

Her story of the bear had done as I knew it would. It became legend on this mountain and the others next to it. Rumors had come back to me that I hadn't mated to a shifter at all, that my mate was a mountain spirit given a corporeal form. I did nothing to dispel them, if they were willing to believe that I had conquered the very mountain and taken her spirit as my mate they could. However I knew it was much harder to win the hand of Lace than the hand of a mere mountain spirit.

We are nearly here. Mason's voice entered into my head and I felt a bit of nervous excitement fill me as I pulled on my shirt, it was a bit too cold to be shirtless without training.

Okay. Let me know when you get in. I had found Lace's family. It had taken me over four months. I had searched on my own but I hadn't known her parent's names or what pack she had come from. After I searched for nearly two months without success in even finding her brothers, I had placed a bounty on finding them, letting the Hunters use their resources to do it for me.