“I can’t keep any of his money,” she murmured. “I meant it when I said I didn’t want anything from Slater, not even the money.”
Asher rose up on his elbow and gave her a sober nod. “We don’t need it.”
“We don’t, right? We’ll figure it all out. I can get work somewhere.” She smirked at him. “Work that doesn’t require wigs or a dozen fake IDs. I’m going to go totally legit from this point on.”
He smiled. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
“Yes, I do. Taking care of half a dozen kids doesn’t come cheap, Asher.”
“I realize that,” he admitted. “And correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t we going to make room for more than that? I was thinking we’ve got room here at the ranch for at least eight to start. More, once I outfit the spare rooms with some of Ned’s furniture and make a few more bunkbeds. At some point, we could even add an addition to the house.”
“Are you serious?” Naomi stared at him. “I love that idea. But, Asher, unless you’ve discovered gold out here or you’re sitting on some oil rights, I don’t think we’re going to be able to do any of that.”
“I don’t have either of those things.”
“Then what?”
“When Ned died, he left me this house and the land that came with it. He left me that beat-up truck and that old yellow dog out there too. But he also left me something else.”
He rolled off the mattress and strode gloriously naked over to the bureau and took something out of the top drawer. In his hand was an envelope bearing the return address of a bank in Las Vegas. He handed it to Naomi.
“Open it.”
She tore it open and pulled out the folded sheet of paper inside. “It’s a bank statement from last month with your name on it.” Her gaze drifted to the account total. “Holy shit. That’s a lot of digits.”
He chuckled. “We’ll get by. We’ll more than get by.”
“But where did—”
“One of Ned’s passions was making furniture. Another was playing the lottery every week without fail. Two years after Ruth died, he hit big. A million and a half, plus change.”
“Oh, my God.” Naomi sat back against the pillows, her fingers trembling as she stared at the total again, which had compounded with interest into a figure teetering near twice that amount.
“He didn’t spend a penny of it,” Asher said. “He told me that without Ruth around to enjoy it with him, what did he need it for? I don’t think anything would please the old man more than to know his windfall was going to help give a bunch of kids a new start in life.”
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, what she was hearing. “Asher, I don’t know what to say.”
He sat down on the edge of the bed, his gaze intense. “Say you’ll let me share it with you—and those kids. However many you want.”
An image flashed through her thoughts—through her heart and soul. She saw Asher and her some years into the future, a house full of chattering, wild kids and a ranch full of animals. She saw herself holding a tiny baby in her arms, one with beautiful glyphs like his father and her own black hair and tilted almond eyes.
Asher nodded. “I want it too. I want the whole thing . . . with you, my amazing Narumi . . . as my woman and partner, the only friend I’ll ever need. As my blood-bonded mate.”
Her throat clogged with joy. “I can’t think of anything I want more.”
A low groan vibrated in Asher’s chest as he moved closer to her and brought his wrist up to his mouth. With eyes flashing bright and hot, his pupils as thin as razors, he sank his fangs into the corded muscles and tendons and opened his vein for her.
“Drink,” he said tenderly. “Be mine forever.”
“Asher,” she whispered, lowering her head to accept his gift—and his bond. “I have been yours all along.”
He dropped his head back on a hissed curse as she took the first sip. His blood rushed hot and tingling across her tongue.
Each swallow was a revelation, sending heat and power roaring into her with the force of a tidal wave.
She moaned and took some more, her thirst uncoiling, awakening something inside her that she never even knew existed.
It was him . . . Asher.
She felt him in her senses, in her marrow, in every shimmering, unfurling particle of her being.
She felt his love braiding together with hers as their bond took hold.
Asher eased her back down onto the bed beneath him and entered her while she fed, her hungry mouth still latched on to his wrist.
She couldn’t get enough of him, this incredible Breed male.
Her man.
Her love.
Her eternal mate.
EPILOGUE
Four weeks later
Asher hammered the last nail into place and stood back with a grunt of satisfaction.
“What do you think, guys?”
Five young boys stood in a semicircle in the wood shop, assessing the newly finished bunkbed they’d all worked on together. Max, the oldest of the dark-haired twins, mirrored Asher’s stance, with his hands cocked on his hips and his hammer dangling from the loop on his belt.
“Looks good and strong to me.”
His brother Billy nodded in enthusiastic agreement. “I like it.”
Another nod from Juan, who stood between Tyler and the newest kid to move out to the ranch, a shy twelve-year-old named Kevin.
Asher met the kid’s uncertain gaze. “You think this’ll work for you, Kev?”
“Yeah,” he murmured, trying to hide his smile.
Rather than run the ranch as a shelter, he and Naomi had decided to make it a true home. Guardianship papers were in process with the state for Penny and the four boys, and if Kevin decided to stick around, they would soon be adding him to the official family roster too.
While it could normally take months, if not years, for adoption cases to clear the courts, Asher and Naomi had a little help on their side in the form of a certain JUSTIS officer who’d since become a friend. Rachel Reynolds had not only swept the investigation of Slater’s death under the rug, but had also made sure none of the surveillance footage taken at Moda that night survived.
As for Slater’s money, Naomi had donated it to a family shelter in the city—including the million-plus casino prize she inherited from Michael as the only beneficiary listed in his will. His house was razed and the lot would soon be repurposed into a neighborhood park.
Asher smiled at the boys and clapped Max on the shoulder. “Think we should go get Naomi and Penny so they can check out our work?”
“Sure,” Max said. “Then will you show me how to carve detail work like you’re doing with that piece over there?”
Asher nodded, glancing at the new project he’d been working on solo for the past couple weeks. It was covered with a sheet to keep Naomi from getting nosy about the gift he was making for her, but he’d already shared the secret with the boys.
“Yeah, buddy. I’ll be glad to teach you what I know.”
Max gave him a rare grin. “Awesome.”
With the new bunk finished and three others in place in the spare bedrooms, they had ample space for everyone—plus a few more. Asher had a feeling it wouldn’t take long to fill these new beds and the extra room in the house. If he had his way, within a year he and Naomi would also be filling the crib he planned to surprise her with as soon as it was finished.
“Let’s go, guys.”
He led the group of boys out to the porch, where Naomi had gone with Penny and Sam earlier to watch the sunset. But they must have ventured out onto the property at some point between then and now. Asher didn’t worry; he could feel his Breedmate in each beat of his contented heart.
Dusk had settled over the desert, casting everything in a cool blue hue that was neither day nor night. His favorite hour. He smiled as he spotted the girls and the dog coming in from a small patch of ground on the western side of the property, where Naomi had spent the past week o
r so transplanting flowering cacti and succulents.
Last night, Asher had helped her place two small headstones next to the sun-beaten pair that had stood there for years longer. Now Naomi’s mother and Michael had a place with them, too, along with Ned and Ruth, who would be considered family for as long as Asher lived.
Naomi’s smile as she approached sent warmth into every cell and bone in his body. As well as a few other places.
“It’s such a beautiful evening,” she said, greeting him with a brief kiss. “Penny and I decided to take a walk and pick some wildflowers for my mom and Ruth. How’s the furniture-making coming along?”
Billy was first to answer. “We finished the bunkbed and it looks awesome!”
Naomi rewarded all five boys with a bright smile. “That’s great news. I can’t wait to see it.”
Typical of kids, they were already distracted by Sam, who’d found a stick and was now begging someone to play with him. Within moments, the group took off together along with Penny, taking turns tossing Sam’s new favorite toy in the front yard.
Asher glanced at Naomi, watching her delight as she observed the giggling pack of rambunctious children.
“Look how happy they are, Asher.”
He grunted and drew her close. “I like looking at how happy you are.”
“I am,” she said, glancing up at him. “I never knew I could be this happy. I didn’t realize how good it could feel to finally be home.”
He kissed her, ignoring the groans and shouts of, “Eww, gross!” from Tyler and Billy out in the yard.
“I love you,” he told his mate. “The home that makes me happiest is the one I see in your eyes.”
Naomi’s gaze held his in the soothing calm of the rising darkness. “Come sit with me for a while,” she said.
Then she took his hand and led him back toward their house, where Ned’s pair of hand-carved rockers waited for them on the porch.
~ * ~
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About the Author
LARA ADRIAN is a New York Times and #1 internationally best-selling author, with nearly 4 million books in print worldwide and translations licensed to more than 20 countries. Her books regularly appear in the top spots of all the major bestseller lists including the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Indiebound, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc. Reviewers have called Lara’s books “addictively readable” (Chicago Tribune), “extraordinary” (Fresh Fiction), and “one of the best on the market” (Romantic Times).
Writing as TINA ST. JOHN, her historical romances have won numerous awards including the National Readers Choice; Romantic Times Magazine Reviewer’s Choice; Booksellers Best; and many others. She was twice named a Finalist in Romance Writers of America’s RITA Awards, for Best Historical Romance (White Lion’s Lady) and Best Paranormal Romance (Heart of the Hunter). More recently, the German translation of Heart of the Hunter debuted on Der Spiegel bestseller list.
With an ancestry stretching back to the Mayflower and the court of King Henry VIII, the author lives with her husband in New England.
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COPYRIGHT
BORN OF DARKNESS
© 2018 by Lara Adrian, LLC
Cover design © 2017 by CrocoDesigns
eBook ISBN: 978-1-939193-21-6
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the Author.
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