Everything. And nothing. He was giving up everything he knew—money, power, luxury. It was nothing compared to what he gained. A cause worth fighting for. A real place for Kaja.
“I know.”
Kaja’s hand found his chest, and those brilliant blue eyes stared up at him. “Dante, you cannot leave your home. I know why you’re doing this. Please. I will fit in. I will adjust.”
He didn’t want her to adjust. He wanted his wolf. And she was wholly mistaken. “This is what I need, Kaja. I didn’t understand it before. I’m a warrior. I’m a beast, and this is my cause. Come with me. Fight with me. And this isn’t my home, Kaja. You are my home.”
She wrapped her arms around him, her answer rolling across his brain.
Yes.
Beck nodded. “You are more than welcome, cos. You are needed.”
Dante was surrounded by his family. They formed a tight circle.
“I love you, brother,” Susan said. “You come home to us someday.”
“My baby.” His mother wept unashamedly. “I’m so proud of you.”
They walked away one by one, each doing his or her part to get ready. Dante’s father looked at him.
“Do you understand what you’re doing?”
“I’m fighting for what’s right.” He waited for his father’s lecture on how naïve he was being.
His father’s strong jaw trembled. “I raised you right, son. I always knew it. You make me proud. Anything you need, you call your family. And Kaja, thank you. You’re my daughter. Dante’s told me a bit about your plane. Forget them. This is your pack. You are always welcome here, daughter.”
Kaja held on to Dante, her chest shaking with emotion. He felt her great love for his family, but he was doing the right thing. She would never belong here, and he would never be happy without her.
Four hours later, Roan proved true to his word. The guards lay unconscious, and the door to the Refugee plane opened before them.
“Your Highnesses.” Roan gestured to the doorway. “It will be a day’s journey to the Unseelie plane. The decoys have not been caught yet. We will be safe. It is my great honor to serve you.”
Beck thanked him, his face grim. He showed his wife and brother through the door.
They were on the run. They would win their throne or be buried under it.
Kaja smiled at Dante as she walked through the door.
He followed. He left his plane behind because his whole world was wrapped in one small woman. She held his heart, his future.
He would have it no other way.
The door closed behind Dante, and he faced his destiny.
Epilogue
The Seelie plane
The sun warmed her face, and Bronwyn Finn looked out over the meadow. The fields were filled with wheat. Tall stalks swayed in the wind, and dust blew up from the tiny dirt road that led to her tower. Her hands already ached from just the thought of harvesting all that wheat. She put that reality aside. It was weeks before she would spend every day in the field. She could remember a time when she’d been a pampered princess.
Now all she had was this tower. From her vantage, it felt like she could see the whole world. Well, hers at least.
“Bron, it’s time for supper.” Gillian’s voice drifted up from the bottom of the tower.
Bronwyn had to smile. Gillian still thought of her as the child she’d saved that terrible day in the White Palace. That day when she’d lost her mother and father, Bronwyn had found Gillian McIver. The Unseelie princess had become her healer, her savior, her surrogate mother. When she was younger, she would never have believed it. Unseelie and Seelie living together, dependant on each other. Loving each other as family. But Gillian had been her world for a very long time.
And Gillian was a slight pain in her ass. Bronwyn was twenty-seven years old and still being called to supper.