I choose you.
She smiled in the dark, in the arms of the man she loved. In the embrace of her future. And she whispered the words she never thought a simple girl like her was destined to say. “I choose you back.”
She’d learned big lessons. She’d thought her life wasn’t her choice, but there was always a choice. The only person who could ever tether her to a dark future was her. She’d just had to become brave enough to take a leap of faith and trust in the man who’d saved her from a bully all those years ago. Who had protected her from an entire Pride today.
Her new life wasn’t all tied up in a pretty package with a perfect bow. Some of the council had escaped. Some of the Old Tarians had escaped. The girls here would need help to rehabilitate and gain confidence, and Ronin would have a long and bumpy road ahead as he would fight to maintain one of the biggest lion Prides in existence. Not every day would be a rainbow, but enough of them would. And as long as the good days existed, well…then the bad ones would be okay, too.
The most important part was that she wasn’t alone, and her mate, her Alpha, her Ronin…he would never be alone again either.
From this day on…she would be a proud Tarian lioness.
From this hour on…there would be no more running.
From this moment on…home became a person.
Home was Ronin.