Epilogue

Sunlight. Warm and bright. I felt sunlight on my face and dimly realized the sun reminded me of someone. I opened my eyes and blinked into the light, slowly brought the world into focus.

“Julie?”

She moved into my field of vision, smelling of worry and stress. When she bent closer, the sharp scent of lavender spilled from her fawn-colored ponytail. I stared up at Eliza for a minute before I placed her.

There were other scents. Carson had been in this room recently—his healthy baby smell soothed me on a deep level, gave me the strength to draw another breath.

Tony. I knew exactly where he stood, though I hadn’t looked yet. I didn’t need to. I sensed him, the particular mix of musk and sweat of Tony. Even now, he pulled on me and I suddenly wondered if his scent, rather than the sunlight, had called me up from wherever I’d been.

Other people had been in the room, but not now. If I focused hard enough, I’d know just who.

Something was missing and I frowned.

Oh, right. Ash. Blood. That’s what I expected. Pain. Where was the pain?

Eliza’s eyes looked dark as the shadows.

“What happened?” I asked. Though I knew. God, I knew.

“You made it.” Eliza’s face beamed and I sensed her pure joy, radiating out in a dizzying wave of scent that flooded me. “Oh, Julie, it’s all going to be okay. You’re one of us. You’re a Were. You’re one of us, now.”

She was wrong.

She was a stranger.

I turned my head. My gaze unerringly found Tony’s and read shared truth in the amber depths of his eyes.

I’d never be one of them.