Epilogue

I paced in front of the mantelpiece anxiously, my wolf instincts had been a hundred times more protective than usual of Chloe in the past seven months. I forced my feet to stop moving and instead focused on what usually calmed me, looking at our pictures lined neatly along the mantle. Chloe of course had insisted and I had argued but as usual once they were up there I wouldn't take them down for the world. It appealed to the possessive mangy animal still pacing in my mind, it was an obvious statement that Chloe was mine as she was with me in most of the pictures.

I started chronologically, pulling each memory to the front of my mind, recalling each smell and sound. The first was the camping trip she had promised Simon when we left the safe house. Not only was she wearing the promised bikini (we had compromised on a nicely modest one, a tankmartini or whatever, and she of course had gotten a completely different one when I wasn't looking) but she was roasting a marshmallow WHILE wearing it. The rest of us, including Tori for some unknown reason, were laughing at Chloe's expression of absolute horror at her flaming marshmallow.

After the showdown with the Edison Group and Chloe got out of the hospital, dad had talked to her father about her living with us while he was out of town. Dad had said that with Chloe's aunt MIA and the possibility of Edison Group survivors it would be safest if Chloe was somewhere she could be protected. Of course neither of them told me and I found out by being kicked out of my room to bunk with Simon.

The next was her high school graduation, I loved this picture, someone (Simon) had managed to take it while Chloe was mid-leap, flying towards me while I was turning towards her, a wide-eyed look on my face. I'd managed to catch her and set her down and try to tell her how dangerous it was to jump at people who weren't looking but she'd just jumped on me again, this time countering my safety lecture with her lips. That second picture was in the same frame with Chloe's feet a foot from the ground and me holding her in what she called the fool-proof lecture-stopper.

I grinned and looked at the next one, Chloe and me graduating from Stanford together, she was getting her masters in film direction and I was getting my PhD in mathematics and biology. She was laughing as she compared her smaller diploma to my two bigger ones. I remember that she'd said that it was a good thing I was so strong or I wouldn't be able to carry all of my scholastic awards.

The next was a smaller picture, taken of Chloe running around in circles in four-inch heels while we got ready to go to the opening of her first movie, Simon and dad were laughing in the background. She'd been so nervous and pouring energy that she'd accidentally raised several people—the theater was old and had a few skeletons in the closet, well technically basement. Luckily her first movie had been a horror film and people thought the zombies were an "extraordinary feat of makeup and perfume." Chloe had gotten them all back in their graves before the movie started. This picture was tucked a little away because Chloe didn't like to be reminded of that little incident.

The picture in the middle was my favorite. Chloe was shining in a simple white strapless silk dress, trying to make me eat cake while I had my hands around her waist, holding her at arms-length and trying to work up a good scowl. Chloe's dad was smiling in the background with my dad, my father and Jaime. We had to find someone to custom make a tuxedo for me and had to alter the heck out of Chloe's dress to make it small enough to fit her. I remembered Chloe's face when the bridal store attendant had suggested she look in the children's section. But the wedding had been perfect, gone off without a hitch. Jeremy, Elena and Clay came with the whole pack—which probably helped to discourage any potential trouble-makers (excluding the twins who had spiked the punch, pretty rowdy for twelve year olds). Their wedding gift to us had been the twenty acres of land that we lived on now.

I took a second to glance across the room at our enlarged marriage certificate. It was signed Derek Souza-Danvers and Chloe Souza-Danvers. After nearly a decade I had decided that it was time to take Jeremy's last name. Guests thought that we had had the misfortune of leaving the certificate lying somewhere where animals could get it because there was an inky black paw print in one corner which was the main reason it had such a big border. Chloe had insisted and being the spineless pushover that I am I agreed. And maybe I loved it just a little that Chloe made it clear that she was marrying both parts of me.

Next was our honeymoon, it was one of the few serious pictures we had. I wasn't even sure who took it but it was the two of us lying in a hammock with the sunset behind us. A little cliché but Chloe's face was perfect in it, she looked so happy. My expression was a little embarrassing, I was looking down at her like she was the only thing in the world that mattered. Which was true but that didn't mean I wanted a picture of it.

Then a picture of Chloe in a graveyard, standing knee-deep in the mist and yelling into her director's megaphone. Ironically after the success of her first movie she became the thriller queen of independent movies, which she accepted gracefully and grumbled about at home. There was an Oscar on the shelf next to the fireplace with "best special effects and makeup" on it, Chloe had managed to talk a few old actors into making appearances in zombie-form. The film world thought it was her personal quirky thing that she credited the zombies to dead actors.

The next was of me, Simon and dad. We had taken him skydiving for his sixtieth birthday and the photographer had gotten a series of pictures that we'd put in one of those three-picture frames. The first was the three of us in the airplane, getting ready to jump while dad did his lawyerly best to talk us out of it. The second was all of us in the air, Simon bulleting past the two of us while Dad's arms wind-milled frantically. The last was all of us on the ground, our hair windblown and grinning from ear to ear, even dad.

The last picture and most recent was at Simon's release party for his "graphic novel" trilogy. It was a series that he had published one chapter at a time in comic magazines before DC had agreed to publish each as its own book. The main characters in the book were a teenage sorcerer, a werewolf and a girl necromancer. He definitely drew me like Schwarzenegger and upped Chloe a few cup sizes. Savannah was stomping past in the background and the three of us were each holding one of the books, Chloe's perched on top of her basket-ball sized stomach.

"D-DEREK!!" A yell from upstairs made me whip my head around, it was the first time I'd heard her stutter in years outside of the bedroom.

Then I smelled it and did something I hadn't done since we'd moved in, I vaulted the whole staircase, skidded on the upper landing and ran into the master bedroom. My beautiful stubborn extremely pregnant mate was standing frozen in the bathroom, her light blue stretchy cotton summer dress sticking to her legs with wetness.

In one motion I scooped her up and went carefully and quickly down the stairs. She was heavier than usual but still felt like she weighed next to nothing as I cupped her with one arm and opened and closed the front door behind us.

The pregnancy had worried us, with our genes being mixed up all to hell and both of us being a different kind of supernatural. But we found a local doctor who was also a witch and understood our whole situation and carefully monitored it with me. If it wasn't my wife who was pregnant with the potential monster the development over the past months would have been fascinating. It was still pretty interesting though, it looked like the baby was healthy and the birth would be normal.

I placed Chloe in the passenger seat of the car, strapping her in and then peeling out of the driveway like a bat out of hell. I speed dialed our OB/GYN and told her we were coming, she said to go straight to the ER entrance and I hung up.

"Can we get there in one piece please??" Chloe grabbed my arm. "He's not breaching yet you maniac!"

"If she is anything like her mother she will have no sense of timing." I was grateful that the hospital was less than ten miles away. "This is your fault you know."

"MY fault?!" She screeched, making me wince. "How is it MY fault??"

"YOU got ME drunk." I pulled up to the emergency room entrance, not waiting for a wheelchair and scooping Chloe up, striding with her to meet our doctor in the hallway.

"YOU bought that bottle of tequila to begin with!!"

"It is NOT my fault that you wore that ridiculous red dress." I growled in her ear, trying not to picture the slinky mini-dress she had worn to our third wedding anniversary and focus on my wife being in labor.

"Well I bought it with YOUR credit card so it is!" She shot back.

I grinned at the blond firecracker that I was lucky enough to call mine and nuzzled her face. "You look beautiful."

"I'm in freaking labor you moron!"

"And you have the sweetest voice." I kissed her quickly before depositing her in the delivery room.

"Mrs. Danvers, you need to be still now and stop yelling at your husband." Our doctor said calmly, (she was used to us). "And Mr. Danvers if you want to be in here you need to change into scrubs." I followed a nurse to the adjacent room and changed quickly, keeping my ears focused entirely on Chloe and was back in under thirty seconds.

I glanced over her, taking a moment to listen to her heartbeat, making sure it wasn't being too strained. "How are you doing?"

"I… Am… Going… To… Divorce… You!" She threatened, huffing to catch her breath.

The wolf in me whined worriedly and wanted to curl up with Chloe, assuring her that there was no reason to divorce me while the human part smiled and kissed her forehead. I caught her slender hand and rubbed my thumb across the plain white gold band on her ring finger. "I love you too little bird."

She couldn't stop the tender smile that flitted across her lips at that before her eyes widened and she screamed. I held her hand and waited while our first child was born.

It was a girl.

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Super long AN

Hey guys, first, if you were wondering about why it was seven months instead of nine it's because in Broken they talk about how werewolf babies take a shorter time to come to term since a wolf's gestation period is much shorter.

Also, I am planning another Darkest Powers project, not exactly a sequel but I will consider it. If you're really clever you might figure out what I'm thinking from the epilogue. I would be more than happy to take suggestions in the reviews for the epilogue!

Body and Soul, Kenhat, Emmoria, Silver Bird, Surreal, Moon Princess, Laura, Kayla, Jamie Kay, Nema Dragon, Jessi, Ghost, Karate Girl, Sam, Spencer Reid, Emily, and Mandy- Thank you all so much for reading the whole shibang! It's been a real pleasure writing for all of you guys and if I had enough brain power I would write a personal note to each and every one of you, until next time!

Black Heart- you haven't seen anything yet, the project I'm working on is 99% fluffy Derek and Chloe moments ~.^ and yes I read The Reckoning, afuckingmazing. Just fully awesome.

Kat- it has been a pleasure interacting with you. I look forward to what you have to say about my other stuff!

All the World's- Hopefully I'll be able to give you something to read post-reckoning that you enjoy just as much.

Sharpest Satire- For the record I killed BOTH Chloe AND Derek ;P

Marusaki- M-rating fluff on the way, hold your horses.

Seiyas- That is exactly who I was thinking of as Lola!

Yoli- Definitely didn't mean to forget anyone, sorry. Thanks for reading, M one-shot is going up first and then the next segment in my Darkest Powers venture.

Rikku- D=First, thank you for the Kit-to-Simon lecture idea, I loved it and couldn't not use it, hope you don't mind! And not only did you not curse me but I will be giving you EVEN MORE soon.

Ayonne- The nurse is totally from Dangerous. I just loved reading something from Derek's POV that was actually written by Kelley Armstrong, dunno if I already talked about that...

If I forgot anyone it's not because I don't love you! Just tell me and I'll write to you in the next Darkest Powers by Azure!

Because you asked, the next story is going to be called "An anniversary to remember" and that's the m-rated one-shot, followed by "Snapshots" which will be longer and alternating M and T ratings.

SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ PAST THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED THE RECKONING SPOILERSPOILERSPOILER!!!

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Okay, how seriously badass was Chloe in the book?! And is anyone besides me a little freaked out? First kiss goes to Simon, Chloe kicks more ass with seriously amped up powers, Kit's Tori's dad (saw that one coming), Andrew has super questionable friends, Davidoff holds someone at gunpoint... So which one of you guys is really Kelley Armstrong? And I don't want a cut of the profits I just want to be your bitch.