A.N.: Praying for the world right now...the line's gotten too thin between nightmare and reality...

I am so sorry for taking this long to update. I planned to finish this so long but well, life happened, is happening...and I know I said this before but I suck at writing endings, especially happy ones.

Thank you to each and every one of you for reading and reviewing this story. I hope everyone will be satisfied with this ending and I know it was sort of abrupt but the story needs to stop somewhere. No beta so all mistakes are mine...

I do have a few stories I've been dabbling with, mostly short stuff not any long saga like this one so I may post those in the future. Most definitely, I will post again, God willing, and perhaps finish the other stories I neglected. And maybe dabble in some original fiction ;)

This isn't goodbye, it's just the beginning. I love writing and through this journey, I've learned so much and there's still yet so much to explore and learn still.

I couldn't have finished this story without all your reviews. Especially faithful reviewers like SassyNoles :)

Thank you.

Chapter 77

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was the smudged sky. It seemed as if a giant hand had swirled the clouds from the more threatening heavy dark to the promising pale grey of rain. But behind the grey cast of the sky, the light of the sun peeked through, outlining the ominous clouds with a hint of shine.

That's the thing about La Push. It's always chilly and filled with rain in this place but after the skies let loose its habitual weeping, the sun always re-emerged to dry its tears.

Hissing from the stab of pain in her temple, she'd moved her heavy eyes to his face. And the way he looked at her even amidst such danger pulled her Instinct to the surface. She saw then that silver lining in the darkness of his gaze. It was the Wolf she hadn't seen in so long…

Watching him catapult into his wolf had been like seeing a storm unfurling.

Now, as natural as the gathering of the dark rain-heavy clouds, as violent as the tumult of the cresting waves, his Wolf looms before her like a fierce shield.

He's all reawakened power. She could feel the intensity of it in the timbre of his growl, in the vibration of the tiny grains of waterlogged sand beneath her.

Wincing from the lingering pain in her head, she grapples with trembling fingers against the sandy surf but still, she couldn't find the effortless strength so easily anymore. What had they done to her?

Before she and Cub could board the flight, the Gees had been hot on their trail. She'd picked them out easily from the airport crowd. Official looking men who were moving steadily towards her, airport authority cards dangling from their necks. So, that's the way the Gees are playing it, she'd thought.

She'd immediately gone into the ladies bathroom, tightly gripping Cub's hand.

Mercifully it had been mostly empty. She cradled Cub's warm little face close. As he stared up at her sheer panic snatched her breaths. She couldn't let them take him…

"Mommy, are you okay?"

Cub had regarded her with his too wise eyes. She'd stifled down her terror and willed herself to smile at him. But right then she wanted nothing more than to stay in this bathroom with him and never step out there. She knew they would be waiting.

But she couldn't let her anxiety win, it'd only make her lose to the lurking Gees…

"Cub, I need you to listen carefully to what I have to say. Mommy has to go somewhere but auntie Micaela will take care of you while I'm gone."

"But where are you going, Mommy?" A shudder had raked his little frame.

Gathering him to her, she squeezed him close in a gentle hug. "I've got to go help your father."

She couldn't tell him, of course, about the men trailing them. If she has to face these men, she wanted Cub safe and far away.

When Micaela called her she'd swiftly given her directions her to the bathroom. Not a few minutes after, Micaela had rushed in. She'd quickly updated her, via text as Cub was right there and she couldn't disclose that they were in danger in front of him. She had to keep their little Wolf as calm as possible.

Micaela had been startled. Her fingers flashed across her phone.

Bella's phone beeped with a message. Quickly she scanned Micaela's text.

Bella…you can't face them on your own!

Glancing at Cub, her fingers fumbled on her phone.

If I go back out there with Cub, they'll take him too Micaela. You're my only chance now to get Cub away from here. Please.

Glinting eyes moving to Cub, Micaela slowly nodded.

She kissed Cub on his head, hugging him tight. "Auntie Micaela will carry you to meet some of our friends okay? She'll take care of you."

"I'm glad you're going to help daddy. I'll be good, I promise."

Sliding back a tuft of his dark hair, she'd smiled away the burning in her eyes. "I know you will be."

With swift steps, she exited the bathroom. Couldn't look back at him…she couldn't…

And she hadn't taken a few steps when she sensed them trailing her again.

Memorizing the pattern of their scents, she made sure they were following her for a while before she texted Micaela. You can go on now, they're following me.

The flight's boarding. Are you sure you want to do this? I've called Sam.

She couldn't risk them getting to Cub. Before they descended on her, she texted Micaela one last time.

Get on that plane now...

She turned to face them as they moved forward. "Excuse me ma'am but you're going to have to come with us…"

She didn't remember anything after they'd shepherded her to a closed off area at the airport…

The surf splashes against her cheek, the salty droplets jolting her from her thoughts. The chill of the sea water stings her eyes and the aching bruise on her head.

Sam looms before her, the familiar dark cloak of his wolf beautiful to see but her heart is stuck in her throat as the Gees' draw nearer. His wolf stands before her just like he used to, shielding her not from leeches this time but from people.

The people they'd once worked with, the ones who they once thought they were protecting has now turned on them. They couldn't fight the Gees' weapons. She couldn't weaken humans like she could the leeches.

Corey raises his hand slowly. His army snaps their rifles into place aiming at her wolf.

Her Sam…

The Instinct gathers in her, swifter than the storm but the Gees' bullets are faster…

"Sam!"

The scream rips from her before her wolf can. One of the bullets tear into him. His fierce pain filled growl resounds through her. Whatever they'd injected into her still has her in its grip. She can't move even as she watches through wind stung eyes as he falls within touching distance.

He crashes to the sand, his wolf gone now as fast as it had emerged. Blood gushes from his shoulder and the wound in his chest and she couldn't reach him…

She couldn't help him, she couldn't move…

Despite the blood streaming down his back, he staggers to his feet, strong and tall and beautiful still...

Corey's whisper rises above the slashing winds. "Join us Sam and we leave her alone. We leave your Rez alone. You don't belong here anymore. The wolf won't stop what you can do. You're still our Weapon."

He steps towards Corey, towards the Gees.

"Don't...Sam, don't do it...don't go to them...please..."

She keeps her eyes focused on the rise and fall of his shoulders, she could hear even with her diluted senses, the thud of his heart. Turning his back on Corey and his armed Gees, he strides to her, sinking to his knees and then she could feel the warmth of his arms, the sticky blood coating his chest against her cheek.

"I won't leave you. I'm not ever making that mistake again."

Corey laughs. "That, my resuscitated wolf, will be your worst mistake. You just killed her and yourself."

Corey and his line of soldiers move forward, rifles poised and ready.

The Sirens had fled. In the end, it's the Gees, just people, who turn out to be more of their enemy than any leech.

She could feel the dry crust of blood matting her head, could see the blood staining his bare chest.

The Instinct couldn't save them in the face of warfare. Strong and fierce as the wild wind battering the waves, the thought emerges through her drug induced fog.We're just as vulnerable as any other person now.

Will they die here on this storm-ridden shore, the very same spot where they'd whispered their marriage vows?

They'd never wanted this fight.

He'd already sacrificed enough...but the past four years have taught her that no one gets to decide if they've suffered enough or not...

She hears the vibration first before she sees them. Joshua running with his men toward Corey.

It seems as if the very heavens join the battle then as the clouds release their heavy artillery of raindrops. The whir of the military aircraft adds a thunder of their own to the storm unleashing above them.

The two factions of opposing military merge in a violent clash, fighting each other, hurting each other, human against human until they're forgotten, two bleeding Shifters embracing each other in the rain, within the fight but not a part of it.

He'd gathered her in his arms, kneeling in the pounding surf but she didn't feel the chill of the water. All she could feel is his bare heat. Like he always does, he shields her as the soldiers battle around them.

And in that moment with the explosive ring of gunfire and the pain filled cries of the defeated echoing around them, and with the tremble of his nakedness surrounding her, she feels what he felt that moment the wolf emerged. That rush of the Instinct that had been lost from him for so long, now flooding his veins once again.

But they are in the middle of a battlefield. She's reminded of that when a rough gasp nudges its way past his lips. She feels the jerk of his torso against hers.

He'd been hit again.

The scream that erupts from her muffles against his heated shoulder. He holds her closer, tighter, his bare body a shield against the storm of bullets surrounding them. Always shielding her...

She couldn't move and he wouldn't let her go. She could hear his deep murmurs amidst the deafening thunder of artillery and the clashing clouds overhead.

"I can't do it again. I can't walk away from you. Not again, not like the last time…heaven help us…"

As the deluge of the storm wanes and the sounds of battle fade, it seems as if heaven had heard his prayer.

And after it's all over, as the crashing surge of the tide mingles with the blood of the fallen, the Pack and the Alliance find them kneeling in the shallow water of the storm-beaten beach, still embracing each other despite everything that had tried to rip them apart.

Two Weeks Later

"You're so warm…I don't want to get up just yet…" The silky firm smoothness of his chest caresses her cheek.

His unscarred chest.

They'd discovered that her blood worked after all. It chased away the effect of Neil's concentrated venom albeit at a slower pace. With the return of his Instinct, his wounds had been healed. He'd bled so much on that stormy First beach, bled like any other man, shielding her...and in that moment it seemed as if his love for her was even stronger than the surging waves behind them and the threat of even more bloodshed around them...

"Babygirl."

She shivers, the tremor reaching her toes when he brushes his hot lips against the tingly lobe of her ear. She didn't want to open her eyes. I just want to remain in this bed with you forever.

"If we don't get up now, we're going to be late."

Her eyes immediately fly open. Today is the day.

A few moments later, she emerges from the shower still toweling her hair dry to see Sam making Cub breakfast. They'd brought Cub back home from the Jaguar's territory in Brazil one week ago.

Cub had almost not wanted to leave. He'd made a host of new friends with the children who frequently visited the Jaguar's secluded estate.

Seeing him with Cub like this is still so surreal. For almost four years he'd been lost to her…to them…

She smiles, noticing the heaping amount of food on her husband's plate. Her Sam's truly back…

Glancing at her, he moves to her, sweeping her into his arms and placing his hand over her chest with a familiarity that makes her eyes sting.

Damn hormones...

But she really knows it's all him, only him, his closeness that always seems to be a part of her even when they're not touching.

Burying her face against his shoulder, she slides her hands over his healed back. He'd taken two bullets in his back while the Gees had battled it out with Joshua's men. She could have truly lost him so easily.

With fervent silence, she whispers a prayer of thanks.

Sam had been liaising with the President and the Military untainted by the Gees' influence through Joshua all the while.

Corey had been apprehended and carted off to answer for his role in the formation of the Gees and would be punished for his attack on the Rez.

The Sirens had fled First beach during the battle but Natalya had sent a message: they intended no harm and would keep to themselves.

So far they'd kept their word...

He whispers into her hair. "I feel you."

The reassuring thud of his heart resounds against her. With the return of his wolf, their heart bond had been restored.

"I feel you too…"

Glimpsing into the sudden gloom of his face, she whispers. "I'm so sorry he didn't make it, Sam."

After the bloody battle on First Beach between Corey's men and Joshua's platoon, they'd found the Colonel further down the shore. So much blood had already escaped him that the foamy tide pushing against the Colonel's shattered leg had been tinted a deep red from its usual grey.

He could barely speak as Sam moved to lift him. "Son, need you to promise me…watch over her for me…your sister…"

"You're going to be okay…" But even as he said it with growing desperation, she could already scent that Joshua had lost too much blood. The worst of the shrapnel had torn through his thigh, rupturing his femoral artery.

"If I could go back…" Joshua's voice grew weaker, his words trailing off. After a long moment, he whispered, "I'd have treated her better...and I would have gladly taken your place in the dungeons…"

Those were the Colonel's last words.

"He died doing what he believed in." Sam says, moving back a little and swiftly turning to glance at Cub. She swallows harshly, her lower belly jolting at the sudden crack in his low tone.

"He saved us, saved the Rez."

Just as Sam's about to leave, Hannah comes by with Little Eagle in tow. The older Eagle engulfs her in a big hug as Bella ushers them in.

Hannah was the first and only one to notice that their heart bond had knit itself back together. "When you can't abandon something good, that something finds you again…"

She'd also revealed that Edward was truly Sophia's mate and once he was killed she would have died anyway. Since Edward's death, Sophia had grown weak and it was only her pregnancy with Little Eagle that had kept her alive and once Little Eagle was born, Sophia's tie to her dead mate pulled her into death too…

Bella had silently listened then hugged a softly weeping Hannah. But she was glad that Hannah could at least find some closure from Sophia's untimely death.

As she watches Sam leave to visit Joshua's grave, he'd been buried in the Quileute cemetery, she decides she'll tell him after the meeting with the Pack.

Cub had fallen asleep in her arms but she couldn't take her eyes off him. None of them really could. The guys at least tried to keep up a semblance of speaking to each other and greeting the Elders as they arrive at the remote spot in the woods but their gazes, like hers, are drawn to him over and over again. She could feel the pull of Sam's returned Alpha mantle. They could all feel it.

But by tradition, they'd all go through the necessary rites of passage. For an Alpha who had lost his mantle to resume his lead within the Pack, Sam had to face each of their challenges.

She could taste the nervousness scenting the air. But she couldn't deny the sense of rightness she feels, all of the Pack gathered like this with the Elders as witnesses. With him here. Her Sam, her Alpha...

It really is no challenge at all. The power of the mantle in him is too strong. And when it's her turn to stand before him, after Hannah had taken a sleeping Cub with her back to the Cabin, she smiles softly up at him.

She could feel the heavy cloak of their gazes on her. The Elders present are perhaps thinking that she'll resent giving up the mantle. But the Pack knows better.

They know she'd never wanted to be Alpha. Had never expected to be.

"As standing Alpha of this Pack, I choose to submit the mantle to you where it belongs without any challenge." She could hear the surprised whispers of Eli and the other Elders. Billy, his dark eyes shining at her with what might have been approval remains silent, seated amidst uis standing peers.

"There's no challenge here, Sam. The mantle has always been yours." She moves to kneel before him as each of the Wolves had done a few moments before but he pulls her to her feet. "I'm sorry, Bella."

"Sorry?"

"Sorry for not believing that you could do it. That you could save me..."

"Sam..."

"You did save me. And I will never doubt you again. I could never ask you to submit to me. Your wolf wasn't made for submitting. Not to any other wolf. Not to me."

She could feel the warm pulsing power of the Instinct in his palms as he pulls her closer. "When everyone else doubted me, you believed in me. You're as much Alpha as I am."

He holds her tight against the heat of his bare chest, just as tight as he held her on war-torn First Beach two weeks ago as if he never wants to let her go. It's everything she never thought she'd feel again. Sometimes she still woke up thinking that that ge's nothing more than ashes..

He whispers into her hair. "I know what I said before about your wolf submitting to mine. But I was wrong. I can't get back to leading this Pack without you." He reaches for her, large hand cupping her chin so that his long sturdy fingers almost dwarfs her delicate jaw. "You are the strongest person I know."

She burst into tears.

Really, somewhere in the back of her mind, she winces at the irony of her reaction. But she couldn't stop the tears from flowing. He gathers her close, gently leading her away from the rest of the Pack and the Elders.

"Bella, what is it?"

"I...I.." For a moment, she couldn't get the words out as her vision blurs and her throat closes up. "For all those years you were gone, I thought I wasn't enough to stop what happened, to be the Pack's Alpha...even to be Cub's mom. And sometimes I still can't believe you're here. I keep expecting that you're going to leave again or you'll disappear. Or the Gees will kill you..."

She squeezes her eyes shut, willing the tears to stop to no avail as the caressing heat of his hand cradles her cheek. "Bella, remember what you said on our wedding night? You told me things might look bad and may get even worse but someday everything would be as it should be. Today's that day. The Pack wouldn't have survived without you while I was gone. You've always been enough."

Burying her face against his chest, she couldn't say a word, she could only hold him. Pulling away from him with reluctance, she's grateful her impromptu tears had dried up. "Cub's gotten up, I can hear him chatting a mile a minute with Hannah and Little Eagle and we should probably not keep the guys and the Elders waiting."

He trails a deliciously gruff thumb gently down her cheek, wiping away the evidence of her embarrassing display. "Let's get back to it then," he murmurs. Taking her hand, he's about to move back towards the rest of the group when the words tumble out of her.

"Sam, I'm pregnant."

Shit, she hadn't meant to blurt that out now. Moving as one, the Pack whip their heads in their direction. Of course, they heard that.

His dark eyes flare with that silver spark she'd missed so much. "How...how long?"

"Not very far," she whispers. "Can't hear the heartbeat yet."

And in that way that had drawn her to him when they'd first met, he reads in her eyes what no one else could. She inhales deeply, instinctively as he comes close to her again, leaning over her to cradle her face in his hands. With a whisper, he calms the fear only he could see. "This time, it'll be different. I'll be here, Bella. I'll be here for everything."

Epilogue:

Five years later

We have gone to so many places, some of them hell, some of them heaven (Brazil I see you) but in the end, there's really no place like home, the Rez he'd wanted to escape from so desperately and the place I'd wanted to be accepted into so badly.

But of course, despite the fact that the Rez is without a doubt our home, there are challenges. Running the Pack together is no easy feat. The Wolves make it worthwhile though. We'd long since smoothed over the rough patches we'd gone through when Sam had first returned with venom in his veins. The Pack is once again the big family I'd always wanted. Jess joined our family as Seth's mate. Our gentle Omega is no longer the wolf to take all the Pack's punches but a fiercely protective father now. He and Jess have a one-year-old girl, a sweet little thing with Seth's dimples and Jess' bubbly giggle who won't stop following Cub around. Seth had helped Jess re-adjust to her humanity again after her ordeal as a Siren. Really, the Pack may seem so ferocious to those who don't know them but they're the most nurturing humans I know.

I'm proud of all of them, we both are...

Setting down the pen on the bedside table, she gently closes the Journal. Her last contraction had been barely one minute apart. The timing had gotten closer now...

She'd been writing in the Journal again since Sam returned and she'd kept at it for the years since. She remembers what Gran Lee had told her when she'd thought he was gone…The Journal needs her story too. She remembers the day well, visiting Gran Lee after Cub's clinic checkup. Gran Lee, hale and hearty at one hundred and five years old still regularly scolds Eli at all the Elders' meetings.

Despite their commitment to the Rez, they'd done a lot of traveling since Sam had been reinstated as the Pack's Alpha. They went back to Brazil where they met up with Micaela and her mate, Yuri, a tall Brazilian surfer who is just as crazy about carnival as the former Jaguar leader. Through the Alliance, they visited other remote Shifter territories. They even visited Renee at her Miami beach yoga studio.

But always it's home that calls to us. No matter how far they wandered, they always returned to the Rez. To their Pack and family.

Jenny, Joshua's daughter, would visit often. She and Claire had become great friends. And Charlie and Sue had gotten married the same year Joshua Jr. was born.

An involuntary hiss escapes her, knuckles going white as she carefully sets the Journal aside. She senses him before she sees him. With sure steady hands, he rubs her stiffening swollen belly.

"Ready?"

Anchored by the strength in his gaze, she nods. "Ready."

It's two days before Christmas and she's about to give birth to their third baby.

And just two hours later, their new baby girl joins them.

That same evening Sam helps her to the porch of their Cabin in the woods with their tiny little girl in her arms. They watch Cub and Joshua Jr. build a snow dinosaur beneath the redwood tree where they found the Journal. And she thinks then on how almost eight years ago, she'd been found alone and cold and lost in the woods and now she's surrounded by the warmth of the family she didn't dream back then that she'll ever have.

His voice caresses her from where he's standing so close behind her. "This is truly the beginning for us, isn't it?"

Cradling their new baby and gazing back up at him, she feels the slow joy build deeper and higher in her until she could no longer contain it and it burst forth through her smile. "Yes. Yes, it is."

They name their new daughter Marie-Lee.

The End