Legacy

Chapter Twenty Eight - Epilogue

“Eileen, you know what comes after this,” Ethan said, voice stern though his eyes sparkled with mirth. “Marriage.”

“Oh, you stupid—” Eileen snarled, lunging up from her spot at the breakfast table and proceeding to chase after Ethan, who wove his way in and out of furniture to make her path more difficult.

Gray, still patiently sitting at the table, said, “I would appreciate it, Ethan, if you stopped antagonizing my fiancée.”

“Yeah,” Eileen snapped, ceasing the chase and folding her arms over her chest. “Besides, I haven’t decided who all’s going to be in the wedding.” Her eyes narrowed mischievously. “I was thinking you could be the flower girl.”

Smothering a chuckle, Gray kept his gaze on the papers in front of him while Ethan glowered. Daintily, Eileen spun around before heading back to her seat. “I was also thinking about asking Evan instead.” Not that she expected either one of them to go for it: in the end she’d probably have to look for someone else outside her family.

“I think that’s a much better idea,” Ethan agreed, voice still dangerous and eyes still shining.

Gray muttered something under his breath about the two of them. Eileen rubbed her hand along the fourth finger on her left hand, wondering if she’d get used to having a ring there. Though Gray protested that they’d find a ring together later, Eileen didn’t really care: werewolves didn’t always take the traditional marriage route, sometimes settling with none to small weddings, and Eileen agreed with those thoughts—she just cared about being with him.

The proposal had been simple. After discussing their roles in the upcoming war, a silence had fallen. And, knowing that they would always be together anyway…

“You blurted out, ‘What if we got married?’ and I had no choice but to oblige,” Gray muttered.

Startled out of her memory, Eileen asked, “How do you do that?” Every single time she’d thought about the proposal recently, he’d been able to chime in at just the right moment and finish it for her. It was kind of unnerving, especially when he swore he couldn’t read her mind.

“You get that dreamy look on your face,” Gray said with a grin. “And it’s easy to figure what you’re thinking about. After that it’s just luck.” Huh. Eileen accepted the answer for the moment because Gray tapped the papers in front of him, changing the subject. “The sooner we focus on this the faster we get done with this unofficial meeting and can start going after the hunters.”

The hunters had been smart. Eileen’s thoughts drifted once again.

Soon after the proposal situation Eileen and Gray had grouped with everyone else and decided they couldn’t wait much longer. Eileen had been allowed to go along, something that thrilled her: being able to calm Gray down had its perks now. Despite feeling confident in her skills, Gray had kept her protectively behind him as he approached the fallen compound and scoped the area for hiding hunters.

Without being asked, Eileen had watched their backs, though no one showed.

After five minutes of scanning the empty woods, they finally dropped their careful stance and decided something was definitely wrong. It took another ten minutes to discover the hunters had abandoned the area after finding their fallen leader: Eileen and Gray had no choice but to return home and devise a different plan, given the change in circumstances.

Several days later and Eileen was tired of going over maps, letting them know so by dropping her head over the back of the chair, exasperated. Gray patted her arm lightly, still tracing routes on the paper in front of him. “They’re moving as one group, so as long as we can catch up to them, we could still take out a good number before they retreat too far for our reach.”