“I’m glad Bear chose me.”
With a single, soft laugh, Jenner brushed his scruff against her cheek once, then whispered, “How could he not? Loyal, protective, beautiful, strong woman. You’re everything I could’ve wanted in a mate.”
“Can I tell you something?”
“Anything,” he rumbled.
As the last streaks faded from the evening sky, she sighed and pulled his hand against her cheek. “I miss you already.”
Jenner was quiet for so long she turned in his arms to face him. He rested his cheek on his arm and brushed a strand of hair from her face. “For the first time since my first hibernation, I hate that part of myself.” His eyes tightened as he brushed his gaze over her hair, then back to her eyes. “I don’t want to do it.”
Lena gave him a reassuring smile and ran her hand down his side. His tan skin was webbed with the silver scars Tobias had given him all those years ago. Her mate—so strong, but allowing her to see a side of him he shared with no one else.
“It makes no difference if you have to go to sleep or not,” she whispered, holding his gaze so he could see the honesty of her words. “I’ll be here when you wake up. Always.”
Jenner hugged her tightly against him, his heart beat steady and strong against her cheek. And as the shadows lengthened across the room—their room—he murmured the words that had become medicine for her soul. Words that she would never tire of hearing because they’d gone through so much to get right here. “I love you, Lena.”
And because of his devotion, their future together now stretched on and on. He had come in and pushed her barricaded heart open. The changes and growth she’d gone through had been painful and scary, but with Jenner, she’d finally felt like she could close her eyes and jump off the edge, knowing he would catch her. Today was the first day of the rest of their lives. And as she pressed her lips against his warm skin, his earlier words brushed her mind.
Whatever comes…it’s me and you.
For the first time in her life, she didn’t feel alone. She wasn’t a ship lost at sea.
From now until forever, Jenner would be her anchor, as she would be his.
Epilogue
Lena cocked her head and readjusted the large picture over the bed until it was straight. There was no headboard, so she’d decided to make a photo montage of differently sized and shaped pictures across the back wall instead. They were all black and white prints of her and Jenner’s wedding day.
Her gaze drifted to the picture window. Outside, the ground was covered in white, and the branches of the towering evergreens were covered in snow. Large flakes fell from the gray sky in a constant downpour. It was beautiful, but more than that, it was haunting. Sadness bloomed in her chest as she ripped her attention away from the wintery landscape. A piece of her would always hate snow now.
It had been one month since Jenner had gone to sleep. One month that felt like a year as each day dragged. Twice already, she’d given in and curled up under the house with him in her warmest winter clothes just to be close to him—her silver-furred bear.
Elyse had warned her over and over, but Lena had no way to mentally prepare for how long hibernation actually lasted. Six months didn’t sound so bad before the snow. One, two, three, four, five, six, and it would be done. She would be reunited with Jenner. But when each day dragged on for eternity, it was a different story.
The pictures scattered across the bed around her feet were an escape. This project was a way to remember how good things had been, and how good they would be again.
Soft notes sounded from the record player in the living room, and Lena reached forward, brushed her fingertip lightly over the enormous print above the mattress.
Her and Jenner’s wedding had been at the lodge in late September, and the first snow had decided to show up that day. Mom and Lena’s sisters had traveled all the way to Alaska for it and fretted over the weather for two days before the wedding, but not her. The falling snow made the most beautiful photographs.