It had been the happiest three days of Violet’s life. A tremendous weight of fear and terror had been lifted off her shoulders and she could finally feel free again. She could finally be herself again.

Jax had been a wonderful surprise and she was loving the process of getting to know him better. Zane and Axel kept saying how much he’d changed since the last time they saw him and thanking her profusely for taking the huge stick out of his ass (their words).

He was such an easy going guy and so quick to smile that Violet had a hard time believing them at first. That couldn’t possibly be her Jax.

But as she had let a lot of pain go, so had he. Violet knew he had suffered a deep wound when his parents were murdered and he had never dealt with it or gotten over it before. It was nice to finally watch him let it go.

It was inspiring to her and she was trying hard to let her pain go as well. The past two years as Anton’s captive had been hell, but she was trying to start over with Jax. She would still wake up in the middle of the night, sweating after a horrendous nightmare, but Jax’s comforting body would always be there, making everything okay.

She would curl up to him, inhaling his intoxicating scent and listening to the peaceful sound of his breathing mixed with Benjamin’s and she knew deep down that everything would be okay.

The hard times were behind her. It was time to start over.

And as cruel and horrible as her time with Anton was, she had gotten Benjamin out of it. That little kid was the light of her life, so she couldn’t help but think that it was worth it.

She let out a laugh as she watched Benjamin and Jax playing in the sand at the park. Benji grabbed a handful of sand and ate it, and instead of telling him off, Jax took a handful too and shoved it into his own mouth.

“What are you doing?” Violet asked, laughing as she watched from the bench. “You’re reinforcing his bad habits!”

“Says you,” Jax answered with a mouthful of sand. “This stuff is delicious.”

Her two boys had been inseparable and sometimes she had even felt left out. At first, she had been worried that Jax wouldn’t accept another man’s child, especially Anton’s, but that hadn’t been the case at all. He seemed to love the boy with all of his heart and was a natural at being a father.

Sometimes she would think to the future and fantasize about having another child with Jax. They hadn’t talked about it yet, but she could tell that he was thinking the same thing.

Colwood, Montana was going to be her new home. She already knew it. The mountains, the charming small town vibe, the sexy lion shifter who lived here—it was all so perfect.

She knew her parents would try to convince her to return to California, but that wasn’t her home anymore. This was.

It had been really emotional when she called her parents to tell them what had happened. In the first month with Anton, he had put a knife to her stomach and made her call them. It had broken her heart to say the words that he had written down, and she still got nauseous whenever she thought back and remembered how hurt and sad her parents had sounded on the other end of the line.

He had made her tell them that she didn’t want to see them again. That she had left to start a new life and she didn’t want them in it.

Violet closed her eyes and felt that familiar ache in her stomach when she heard the hurt in their crushed voices. Anton had made her do a lot of horrible things, but that had been the worst.

She was nervous to go back and see them, but she was also eager to explain it all. She knew that they must hate her for cutting them out of her life, and she desperately wanted to explain everything to them. And more than anything, she wanted to show off their new grandchild.

They had seemed skeptical when she had called, and who could blame them, but they agreed to see her, so she bought an airplane ticket for her and Benji and was set to leave in two days. Jax had wanted to go for support, but she felt it was something she had to do alone. They would meet Jax at a later date, but for now, she had to clean up the mess that Anton made by herself.

And anyway, his friends needed him. She hadn’t gotten the whole story, but she knew that someone important to him named Draven was over in Europe and needed his help. He was leaving with Zane and Axel in two days as well.

“Not the slide!” Violet shouted when she looked up and saw Benjamin at the top of the tall slide. Jax was grinning at her.

“He likes it!”

“I don’t!”

“Too bad,” he let the boy go and Violet’s stomach lurched as he shot down like a little chubby rocket, flying down the slide and shooting into the air.

She gasped as a million horrific images of him landing horribly shot through her mind, but Jax was fast, very fast, and plucked the laughing little baby safely out of the air.

“See?” he said, showing Benjamin as he squealed with delight. “He likes it.”

Violet’s heart was pounding in her chest. “Just stick to eating sand, please.”

Jax laughed as they returned to the toys in the sand. She took deep breaths, trying to calm her thumping heart as she watched them.

Gwen and Hadley had warned her that shifters did things a little differently and she would have to get used to it. That’s an understatement. She still had a lot to get used to.

She was really starting to enjoy the girls’ company and spent a lot of time in the muffin shop, chatting away and helping out as they took turns gushing over Benjamin’s chubby cheeks.

It was going to be a good home here both for her and for her son. For the first time in a long time, she was looking at the future with an optimistic outlook.

A high-pitched squeal made her look up and she giggled when she saw her son laughing at Jax. He had the plastic bucket on his head and was making funny faces at the boy.

Violet slid her bookmark into her book and stepped off the bench to join them. She had brought a book and tried to read, but it was too hard to concentrate with Jax in front of her. She loved watching him playing with her boy, their boy, and her eye kept darting up off the page to watch them as they fooled around in the sand.

“How’s the story?” Jax asked, glancing down at the book in her hands as she walked over.

She didn’t know about the story in the book, but her story had ended pretty damn good, although she couldn’t help thinking that this was just the very beginning.

“It’s good,” she said, smiling as she sat down beside them in the sand. “It has a very happy ending.”

“Happy endings are always good,” Jax said with a smile as he leaned forward and kissed her on the lips.

“Yup.” She smiled as she licked his taste off her lips. “They’re the best.”