Chapter 54

TARYN POV

We’re quiet for most of the drive from Crescent Lake to Silver Ridge, my hand in Reid’s as he navigates the roads and switchbacks that bring us higher into the mountains. He squeezes my hand every once in a while, sending comfort and love to me through the bond.

We’ve spent the last few days in a bubble, existing in a world filled with only the two of us as we built up our trust in each other and strengthened our bond before ultimately marking each other. The storm may have put a damper on everything else — the rest of the wedding, Haven and Wes’s honeymoon, and getting to the bottom of everything to do with my old pack — but it gave us what we needed. It gave us time. Time to bond and accept each other, to forgive and mark each other.

But now it’s time to face the real world. And something in me tells me we’re in for a bumpy ride. Even Blake isn’t her normal chatty self. Instead, she is quiet in the backseat of our SUV, picking up on the solemnity of the situation.

“What