The wolves formed a circle, growling up at the dark lord they’d turned against, and that’s when Elizabeth pulled the trigger.
The bullet sliced through Dante’s back, cutting through his dark heart, and he convulsed.
Rick raced forward, having shifted into his human form, and with a sheet of printed paper in his hand, he loudly chanted Latin words.
Eddie raced forward as well, holding his own Latin chant, and began reading just as loudly, and there was a third chant that Lucy herself boomed out as she stared Dante down.
Dante jerked and bucked, convulsing above their heads. The dark light emanating from his body dimmed until it was entirely snuffed out, and without warning, he suddenly plummeted to the floor.
Dean raced to him as Rick exclaimed, “I can feel it!”
Eddie shouted, “So can I!”
Then the entire wolf pack, all those innocent souls that Dante had turned, chimed in, exclaiming the freedom that they felt, the release of Dante’s dark power leaving their tortured bodies.
Dean placed his palm on Dante’s chest. There was no heartbeat. He pressed his fingers to his throat, but felt no pulse.
It was finally over.
Dante Alighieri’s dark reign of power had ended.
And the werewolf hunter who was destined to become Dean’s one true mate had been at the helm of it all.
Chapter Twenty-Two
ELIZABETH
Had she slept for days? Weeks? She had no concept of time as she woke beside Dean in his bedroom, a soft autumn breeze drifting in through the broken window that needed to be replaced. There was no rush, though. There was nothing out there more dangerous than moose and bears. Dante Alighieri had been cast out of this world. He would never again come after them. Peace had at long last been restored to Devil’s Fist, and Elizabeth Halsey was proud to have been a part of it.
It took her a moment, lying beside Dean, to figure out if it was dawn or dusk outside. The low light and cool air were deceiving, but maybe it didn’t matter. Whether they had slept for months or not, she felt rejuvenated and deeply grateful as she rolled onto her side, curling around Dean as she lifted onto her elbow, and began gently caressing his sleeping face.
God, he was handsome. And he was all hers.
They were engaged!
Okay, maybe they would have to get a ring before she told her mother. Gretchen could be snobby about that sort of thing. But the commitment was there. She could feel it burning warmly in her heart. Dean Quinn was her one true mate, her soulmate, and there was only one more thing to do to tie their loving hearts in an eternally lasting bond.
She couldn’t wait.
With that in mind, she leaned in and kissed his mouth. Dean stirred and she lifted up, watching him waken. He gave him muscles a stretch, arching his back and flexing his arms, as he opened his eyes.
“Your shoulder looks good,” she mentioned before delivering a soft kiss to the healed bullet wound she had inflicted.
“Way to shoot me in the exact spot I’d already been shot,” he teased.
“I feel terribly about that,” she smiled.
“Hey, don’t, I was being serious. You saved me from a second scar.”
“Your scars are sexy,” she said. “And they can always be covered up with more tattoos,” she reminded him.
As he playfully rolled her onto her back, coming to lie over her nude body, he teased, “You think you have all the answers, don’t you?”
“I know I do.”
“I guess I have that to look forward to for the rest of our lives,” he commented.
Just hearing him say it made her heart soar. They did, didn’t they? They had the rest of their lives ahead of them.
She felt her gaze smolder up at him as she took his face in her hands and a serious expression came over her.
“I’m ready, Dean,” she breathed as a zing of excitement mixed with soft fear swelled in her chest. “I’m ready to be with you in the way you’ve always wanted.”
“I’ve been dying to hear you say that,” he growled in a raspy, sex-filled tone that made her melt for him.
“Will it hurt?” she asked in a whisper.
“Only a lot.”
Her eyes widened and she waited for the punchline, but it didn’t come. “Oh God, you’re serious.”
Before she could question him about the particular details of what him turning her werewolf would entail, Dean took fast hold of her wrist, brought it to his mouth, and sank his fangs deep into her flesh.
She winced, feeling the sharp sting of his bite, and then blood trickled down her wrist.
He tore into his own wrist, and as he wed their bleeding skin together, she gasped at the sweetly stinging surprise of his hard erection thrust into the tight sheath of her sex.
She’d never felt anything like this. The sweet rush of pleasure mixed with a scalding sting of pain in her wrist.
As Dean began moving his hips, thrusting his thick shape deeper and deeper into her aching core, and as she grew wet and gradually relaxed, expanding to accommodate his large size, Elizabeth soon found that the movement between her legs was far more powerful than any sharp, raw pain she felt as his blood flowed into hers.
She moaned, every muscle in her body melting at the feel of his body penetrating hers in a sensual, massaging rhythm. Soon she felt the sweet, oozing tension between her legs winding up tighter and tighter, as she coiled towards the brink of climax.
“I love you, Elizabeth,” he groaned as he pulled her face to his and crushed a passionate kiss over her slack, moaning mouth.
She could barely reciprocate as the first blissful clench of her climax squeezed through her.
When next she exploded, rising over the sensual crest of a powerful orgasm, she cried out that she loved him, too.
If they could spend every night together, wake up next to one another in bed each and every morning, and build a life in Devil’s Fist, she would be the happiest girl in Wyoming.
As the ritual unfolded, Dean reaching his own climax before guiding her through an agonizing yet incredible transformation into her wolf form, Elizabeth felt like she was finally coming home.
Chapter Twenty-Three
DEAN
None of the Quinn brothers were especially pleased that Sheriff Rick Abernathy had managed to swoop in on their mother while a war had been looming, least of all Shane, who didn’t have much of a leg to stand on as far as Dean could tell.
Shane had courted the sheriff’s daughter and it would seem that revenge was both sweet for Rick and completely unintentional.
Sasha and Professor Gaylord Geer III had wasted absolutely no time tying the knot weeks ago, and it would seem that Nikita had taken a cue from her mother-in-law in both the speed and location of her nuptials.
Dean stood next to his brothers, every one of them wearing a suit and tie, as Troy stood in front of Nikita and Rick as he once had for their grandmother and the professor, presiding over the ceremony.
Dean couldn’t have been happier for his mother, though he figured it would take some time to get used to having the sheriff as his stepdad. They had come a long way, hadn’t they? At the start of the summer, all five brothers would’ve liked to tear Rick’s throat out. But they had come together over the months to align against a common enemy, and that alliance had prevailed over all else. They had won. They had driven Dante down into the pits of hell where he would stay for all of eternity. And they had restored the peace that they had all always cherished throughout the Fist.
As the sheriff began to express his vows to Nikita, Dean looked out at the huge gathering of seated guests that covered the expansive backyard. It seemed every single resident had come out for the occasion. They were all free and each one of them knew exactly why.
Because the five brothers of Quinn Security had never given up.
Sure, nearly the entire town at this point was werewolf, but Dean saw that as a good thing. Devil’s Fist had always been a place where werewolves coul
d live in harmony and without threat of being hunted. That would never change.
Of course, there was still a handful of mortal humans in the town, Elizabeth’s mother, Gretchen Halsey being one of them. For now, Dean and Elizabeth had decided not to tell her that there were werewolves in the Fist and that her daughter had just become one of them. It had been a serious stroke of good luck that Gretchen had decided to stay in Wyoming, Elizabeth having convinced her that rebuilding Devil’s Advocate might be the perfect next chapter in their lives. Gretchen still had her reservations about leaving the cosmopolitan city of Los Angeles behind in favor of a dusty old town where she hadn’t been able to find a decent martini, but Dean trusted she would soon come around.
There was a lot to love about Wyoming, and he believed that once Elizabeth and her mother got the old souvenir shop up and running again, Gretchen would discover her own love for this special place.
Troy pronounced Nikita and Rick man and wife and the guests stood and cheered.
As the bride and groom held hands and started together back up the aisle, the band struck up a tune and the guests broke off for the dance floor.
Dean found Elizabeth helping her mother to stand and kissed Gretchen’s cheek, as Curt Wilson, the gruff owner of Damned Repair, the autobody shop on the outskirts of town, pulled his hat from his head, mustered up as much charm as he could manage, and asked Gretchen if she might like to dance.
To everyone’s surprise, including Curt’s, Gretchen accepted and they started off for the dance floor.
“I did not see that coming,” Elizabeth grinned as she locked her big, green eyes on Dean.
“Something tells me there could be a lot more love stories in Devil’s Fist,” he mused as he wrapped his arms around her. “Ours might not be the only happy ending.”
THE END
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