EPILOGUE - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

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I do not own Twilight, no copyright infringement intended.

And now, the end is near, and so we face the final curtain… (My Way, Frank Sinatra.)

Thanks at the bottom…

THIS CHAPTER COINCIDES WITH THE RED EYES AND THE SHE-WOLF EPILOGUE

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2057AD

I could hear her heavy breathing and the pounding of her legs as she rushed through the trees. Running out wide, I planned to ambush her once she stopped, but for now, I would let her sprint.

Filled with need, it was all I could do not to pounce this very second.

Doing a mental survey of the forest, I was pleased to find that there was no-one within earshot—not that being heard ever bothered me. I got a certain twisted satisfaction from everyone's reaction to my openness with my habits, including Leah's. It all added to the thrill of the chase.

Finally, the mental voice that I was tracking paused. The frantic pursuit had ended, and now was the time for stealth so that I could approach her unawares. It was always more fun that way.

Staying out of the range of her eyesight and downwind, I slowly creeped towards my prey, using the shadows to conceal me to the best of my abilities—which were considerable.

As I prepared to strike, I inhaled deeply and enjoyed her animal bouquet. She looked around nervously, looking for the dangerous predator she had sensed was close, and I smiled as I observed unseen.

Hurtling toward her as she looked behind, when her head returned to face forward, my mouth was there waiting for her. I put my hands on both sides of her face, and kissed her.

Her pulse raced, crazy with panic, as Leah was startled and tried to pull herself away.

"Shit, Demetri!" she yelled, as I let her escape my clutches. I smiled as I saw that as she registered what had happened and calmed a little, her pupils dilated and various other tiny indicators told me that I had her full attention.

"Too easy. I hope you don't allow all vampires to sneak up on you like that," I said smugly. "It's not safe, you know?"

Her brow furrowed as her eyebrows rose. "You only manage to catch up with me because of your party trick. Without that, you'd eat my dust." Despite our years together, we still had a certain rivalry. It was all part of what made a good relationship great.

"Eat your what?" I asked suggestively, looking the woman I loved up and down as she stood there entirely naked. I was never one to miss an opportunity to bring sex into the conversation.

Leah's eyes twinkled at me, and a wide smile crossed her face. She put her palm on my chest, and began pushing me backwards with tangible force.

"Always. About. The goddamn. Sex." My back thudded against a tree, and a fine shower of bark dust fell on me.

"You wouldn't want me any other way, la lupa." Now I was firmly pinned, Leah wound her warm nakedness around me; I had to close my eyes to thoroughly appreciate what the rest of my senses were telling me.

When I opened them again, she was staring at me intensely.

"Demetri…"

"Yes, Leah?"

"You wear way too many clothes," she drawled with a sexy huskiness to her voice.

I was the luckiest man on earth—there was no doubt about it.

"I agree entirely. Would you like to do something about that?"

Leah's hands dropped to my chest, and she gripped the front of my shirt. "What? Like this?"

As she pulled, the garment detached itself from my body under my coat. It was definitely one of the hottest things Leah liked to do to me. As she tore off my trousers, I made sure to remove my coat myself, so I'd at least have one item of clothing intact.

All the time, Leah's eyes held mine. My body didn't need any more foreplay, as a flush of anticipation washed over me.

"Oh, yes, Leah. That is—" Leah cut me off with an urgent kiss.

Sliding my hands down her warm body, one hand found her toned buttocks, and I forced her breasts against my now bare chest with an arm around her shoulders. Her heat enveloped me as she crushed back, and the tree groaned with the pressure.

It didn't matter how many times I saw Leah naked, which was often, thanks to her wolf genes, it always thrilled me—particularly when I happened to be naked, too.

Leah pulled away and the tree almost sighed in relief; I missed the contact as soon as the cold air hit my exposed skin. My disappointment didn't last long, as Leah smirked and dropped to her knees, looking up at me with mischievous eyes.

It must be after midnight, because she only did this on birthdays. And what a birthday present it was.

I didn't think it was possible to get any harder, until Leah's warm hand wrapped around me, and she delicately touched my sensitive tip with her lips. She then grinned and made eye contact.

"Quanto mi ami?"

It took a few moments for the lust haze to clear, but once I could speak, I croaked, "Oh, Leah. Ti amo più di quello che posso dire. Tu mi completi." I guessed that a little sweet talk wouldn't harm the situation, and it was the truth.

I was rewarded as I felt the friction of Leah's lips pass over me, followed by scorching wetness. I groaned and then, as she reversed the motion, I cursed in Italian, enjoying the sensation of her soft lips dragging across my flesh a little too much.

Running my fingers through Leah's short dark hair, she continued to give me my birthday gift, her eyes glittering up at me as she smirked around my length. I leaned back against the tree as my eyes rolled back into my head.

Her body temperature of one-hundred-and-eight-point-nine felt like ecstasy to someone who had grown accustomed to room temperature at best, and as highly tuned as my senses were, I whimpered at the sensation of her saliva coating me, the throbbing of her pulse, and her tongue brushing against the most sensitive part of me.

Obviously, I must have been a good boy in a previous life, as this was heaven.

But it wasn't enough. Pushing Leah away from me, I crawled down onto the forest floor, pinning her arms, and separating her feverish thighs with my knee. Hungry she-wolf eyes ran over me, focusing on the organ that had been in her mouth only moments before.

I wanted to thrust forward, badly, but instead I pressed my lips against hers.

There was no need to rush—she was mine for the rest of eternity. There was nothing else on earth quite like this. I wanted nothing more than to stay right here forever. Leah was the only being unique enough to ever convert me to a one-woman-man, and she made it feel like a natural state for me.

My kisses journeyed over her skin to her warm, soft breasts.

"Amo solo te...per sempre," I breathed.

"Demetri…" Leah moaned. "Ho bisogno di te. I want you now."

Leah could be so impatient at times; it was one of the things I loved about her. After a request like that from the hottest woman alive, literally, spread-eagled beneath me, it would be rude to say "no."

I pushed forward, and Leah arched to meet me. Participatory women had always been what I preferred, and to say Leah was an active partner was an understatement.

Thrusting into her and slowly withdrawing, I chuckled at the idea that we had ever considered ourselves natural enemies. She was made for me, and I wouldn't change one thing about the way she was. She was a raw and animalistic force of nature, strong and independent, who loved both physically and emotionally, with an intensity that took your breath away.

To some she seemed cold and harsh, but once you were allowed inside, you saw the real Leah. She was far from icy and hard—she was soft and warm…wet…pulsing…digging her fingernails in the back of my neck…arching for a final time…tensing.

Leah cried out a number of choice expletives. Ladylike had never been on my list of desired female attributes.

My release came only seconds after hers, and it took a while for rational thought to return. I rested my body on hers, enjoying the thudding of her chest, her heat, and her breath near my ear.

I was happy. I was ecstatic. Somehow, I had rolled the dice, lost all that I once had, but gained so much more.

There were things I missed about the old lifestyle—Felix and Heidi the way I remembered them, the prestige of being part of the Volturi Guard, the ability to unleash the more violent sides of my nature, and most notably, human blood. In return for my sacrifices, I'd gained Leah and Harry. A day did not pass when I did not appreciate how lucky I was.

Recently, I'd been considering what else could possibly make my life more complete, and could only think of one thing. Broaching the subject of wanting to be around to witness a vampire/shape shifter hybrid birth, and to be at hand to experience their childhood, would be difficult.

I hoped she'd say "yes." She could remember the last time as clearly as I could, but it was different now. We had Carlisle Cullen at hand, and the rest of the coven to interfere to their heart's content.

It had been Leah's mother that had first sown the seed in my mind. She'd contracted a fatal condition that left her weak and helpless, consuming her from the inside out. The feisty and proud Sue Clearwater had begged Leah to allow her a kind ending, via the teeth of her almost son-in-law.

My last conversation with Leah's mother stuck in my mind. I'd never sat and had a heart-to-heart with my victims, and it was rare that I killed out of kindness.

Weary and without the fire that I'd seen passed down to Leah, Sue had first told me stories of herself and her husband, and of Leah and Seth as children. Then, as the moment had drawn near, she had grown more serious.

"I never thought I'd say this to a vampire, but I trust you not to hurt my daughter. Now make her happy." Her words had been forced through her pain. "She's had enough heartache for one lifetime. Give her everything—she deserves it."

I'd nodded solemnly, and Sue Clearwater had given me the signal that she was ready to go and meet her ancestors. The words gave me something to think about and they stuck with me.

I wanted to give Leah everything. I wanted the woman I loved to have everything an immortal could possibly ever need or desire. I wanted to be the one to make my she-wolf happy.

It hadn't escaped me that she'd been unable to look me in the eye since, and I became paranoid that carrying out my mother-in-law's last request had changed the way she felt about me.

Her mother's death hit hard, and she'd expressed a need to go reconnect with her past in La Push when she took her remains back to their spiritual home. Despite my wariness of her old pack mates, primarily her old alpha, I'd let her go and never breathed a word that I'd feared that she would choose not to return. I wanted Leah's spiritual home to be with me.

When she had returned, the resentment she'd shown earlier had dissipated. Leah was been full of stories of who had stopped phasing, who had an impossibly large family, and smiling as she told me about the antics of the younger pack. It hadn't been lost on me how her face had lit up talking about her various cousins and their babies—more potential shape shifters.

Maybe, if we had a daughter and thanks to Leah's unique genes, there might be another she-wolf in the world? Maybe we could start a whole pack of them? As Harry was now married to Tanya, it seemed that we'd never have grandchildren from him.

Leah would make a fearsome grandmother.

But first, I needed to ask…

Finally, Leah broke the silence. "Which way to Yellowstone? Do you think the cabin with the hot tub is still there?"

Images of our previous visit jumped to mind, and I smiled at the memories. "We could always go for a run and find out for ourselves."

The grin that Leah gave me told me that she was thinking along similar lines to myself—that Alice Cullen would be getting some interesting mental pictures just about now. She had been threatening to throw a party for me since we'd worked out exactly which day my birthday fell on.

I didn't want a party. I particularly didn't want an Alice Cullen party, where she would dress us all up like Barbie and Ken dolls, and then cover every surface she could in candles or flowers.

Leah knew me better. She knew exactly how I wanted to celebrate, though I strongly suspected that she might not anticipate what I wanted to ask her later. I wondered what her reaction might be.

Hot fingers ran up my back, and up to my shoulder blades. I looked the woman I loved in the eyes.

"Happy two thousandth birthday. You don't look a day over twenty-five."

I laughed. "Well, you're only as old as the woman you feel..."

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TRANSLATIONS

Quanto mi ami? - How much do you love me?

Ti amo più di quello che posso dire. – I love you more than I can say.

Tu mi completi. – You complete me.

Amo solo te...per sempre. – I love only you...forever.

Ho bisogno di te. – I need you.

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IL FINITO – THE END

~X~

Thank yous…

First, thank you to my pre-reader and fic wife, WolvesCanEatMe, for sticking with me all this time, and being party to all my hair-brained schemes and craziness.

To my betas SweetVenom69 and Duskwatcher for all of their help with fixing my chapters. I really appreciate all your comma wrangling and story advice.

To my Twilighted and My Vamp Fiction VB's Nowforruin and Bforqueen. Thanks for being so quick off the mark.

To all my regular readers and reviewers who I've gotten to know as friends. Please, please, please keep in touch. I'm on twitter as angel_eyes1_uk and I would love to keep hearing from you all. I know I already hear from a lot of you already. I would have loved to mention you all by name, but you already know who you are. *grins*

Thanks so much for taking the time to read. Appreciated as always.