Greyson gave them a half smile, then made his way back to 1010, climbed up in the big rig, and drove it away from the trailer. In the woods, Barret’s panther screamed again.
“Are you sure this is the life you want?” Jax asked, hands on her hips as he turned her slowly to face him.
Annalise scanned the clearing, from the row of cabins, to 1010 sitting in the evening shadows of the Appalachian Mountains, back to the man she loved. Inside of her, She-Devil was quiet and steady, watching her mate. Everything she wanted was right here. “I think it’s the life I need. I think maybe Beaston was right. I used to think the bite was a curse, but now I think fate was giving me a gift instead. I had to go through what I went through so I could appreciate you. So I could be stronger. I used to wish for my old life,” she said, slipping her hands up his chest and around his neck. “I just wanted to be steady again, but there was no adventure back then. Every day was the same. Maybe I was stunted by normalcy. Now I think I wouldn’t really understand joy if I hadn’t learned how bad things can get. And I know I would’ve never understood how much I could shoulder if I hadn’t been tested. Jax,” she murmured through an emotional smile, “we’ll never be alone again.”
Jax looked so damn proud. “I wouldn’t change a single thing about you, Anna.”
But she knew what he really meant. Lifting to her tiptoes, she pressed her lips to his and hugged him tightly. And when she eased away, she whispered, “I love you, too.”
Today was the first day of the rest of her life when she would get to mark one of the last numbers off her list. She would live happily ever after in the woods with a bunch of gross boys who were probably making moonshine on the mountain behind the cabins.
This moment right here, standing in front of 1010, nestled in the mountains that called to her heart, safe and warm and whole in the arms of the man she adored, she, Annalise, Almost Alpha of the Red Havoc Crew, had found the life she wanted.