Elyse laughed thickly and buried her face against his neck, hugging him up tight. She was crying again, but that was okay. It didn’t make her soft. He’d seen her go to battle for him and knew what she was capable of.
“I saw you standing over me, firing at any wolf trying to get to me. Bleeding and fearless. You stunned me, Elyse. My beautiful badass.”
She sighed a happy sound and snuggled into his embrace, as if she could never be close enough to him.
He smiled over her shoulder as Miki lay down and began gnawing on his stick. Ian inhaled deeply and looked around the homestead to the barn, then to the pasture where the small herd of cattle bawled occasionally, chewing on their hay. He looked to the horses’ corral where Demon was acting ornery as ever, bucking and nipping at Milo.
Everything and nothing had changed.
“Ian?” Elyse whispered against his throat.
“Yes?”
“You said to give you a winter season.”
His smile deepened. Oh, he knew what she was asking. He eased her back and kissed the long scar on her cheek, then let his lips linger on hers before he drew back and asked, “Knowing everything, are you still in this?”
Her lips trembled into a smile, and she nodded. “I am.”
Ian swallowed hard and brushed her wavy hair behind her ear so he could better see her. Lifting his gaze to hers, he asked, “Elyse, will you marry me?”
She laughed and gripped his wrists, held his palms to her cheeks as they flushed pink and warm under his touch. “I thought you’d never ask.”
“Is that a yes?”
“I already bought a dress.”
Ian chuckled and searched her dancing eyes. “Is that a yes?”
And then Elyse, his Elyse, pursed her lips and nodded an answer that changed his entire life for the better in the span of an instant. With a shuddering sigh, she rested her forehead against his and smiled. “The answer was always yes.”
Epilogue
Elyse bounced nervously as she waited for the truck she could hear coming. Ian had been on a delivery, earning them money that would help them carry through the year, and damn, she missed him fiercely when he did trips like that. Even if they were sparse and short, any time spent away from him was hard after the long, lonely winter.
“There he is,” Josiah said from beside her. There was a smile in his voice, and she understood it. She couldn’t wait to see the surprise on Ian’s face either.
The old brown and white Ford crested the hill and bumped and bounced down the muddy road toward them.
She grinned big at Tobias and Jenner, and the latter, Ian’s dark-headed brother, looked down at her with an exasperated expression in his vivid blue eyes, as if her mood was catching and he couldn’t cling onto his grumpiness hard enough. “I already told you. He’s not going to like us in his territory.”
“We’ll see,” she sang, completely unconvinced.
Tobias, who looked eerily like Ian but with emerald green eyes, stood stoically on the other side of Jenner with a slight frown marring his thin features. Hibernation hadn’t been easy on any of the Silver brothers.
Ian slid out of the truck and walked around the front, eyes on his brothers, as if he was seeing ghosts. “Tobias? Jenner?” He jogged toward his brothers, but then stopped right in front of them, expression unsure. “What are you doing here?”
Jenner nodded toward the preacher that stood on Elyse’s other side. “We’re standing for you on your big day.”
“The woman who hired you to be her husband begged us,” Tobias clarified, his blue eyes tightening.
“Elyse,” she said happily, undaunted by Tobias’s grousing. “My name’s Elyse. You should probably learn it since you will be my new brother.”
“In-law,” Tobias muttered. He cleared his throat and stuck out his hand to Ian with a low growl. “It’s good to see you.”
“D’aaw, love!” Elyse said, scrunching up her face and hugging her wildflower bouquet tighter.
Ian blinked hard and glanced at her white dress, then the preacher, then back to Tobias’s extended hand. Instead of shaking, Ian leaned in and hugged him roughly, clapping him hard on the back, and then moved on to Jenner and greeted him the same way. “It’s damn good to see both of you, too.”
All three of them were growly, snarly, beastly men until Ian moved farther away, but that was okay. Nothing could dampen today.
Glancing down at his jeans and thin, black sweater, Ian asked, “Do you want me to clean up?”
“I think you look perfect,” Elyse said, jumping into his arms and hugging his neck.
His chuckle was so deep, genuine, and warm, it vibrated against her chest. Walking her backward until they stood in front of the others, he smiled politely at the preacher.
With a slight frown, Ian leaned back on his heels and glared at Lincoln McCall, who was standing quietly on Josiah’s other side. “What’s he doing here?”
“Well, I’m a big fan of Link’s since he helped me out of that little wolf situation this past winter,” Elyse explained with a significant look at Ian. “And besides, you have two groomsmen, and I need two bridesmaids to make it even.”