Page 125 of When the Smoke Clears

Silence slams into the clearing.

Luke’s arms lock around me so tight I can barely breathe. His body trembles against mine, chest rising and falling in quick, harsh bursts. I clutch his jacket, fingers twisted in the fabric, as if the world might slip from beneath us, too.

Chase collapses to his knees. Dalton staggers back, tears streaking down his face. One of the deputies whispers a prayer under his breath.

Gabe exhales slowly, grimly. “We’ll send a team down at first light. See if we can recover the body.”

Luke presses his forehead to mine, breath shaking against my lips.

“You came,” I whisper.

He swallows hard. “Always.”

His voice breaks on the word.

Around us, men lower rifles that suddenly feel obscene. Dogs quiet. Snow begins to fall—slow flakes drifting through the air like fragile feathers, settling on Luke’s hair, on my trembling hands, on the empty spot where Nathaniel once stood.

The mountain exhales, as if relieved to take back the silence.

But beneath the quiet, something darker thrums. A truth Nathaniel choked on at the end.

This was never just about him.

The forces he feared—the ones he tried and failed to shield them from—are still out there, shadows stretching long against the snow.

Tonight, a man fell. A father died. A secret fractured.

And though Luke’s arms are around me, holding me together⁠—

I can feel it.

This was just the beginning.

CHAPTER 31

LUKE

The rough bark digs into Isla’s palms as I press her gently against the tree, my body moving with hers in rhythm. She gasps my name, and I swallow the sound with a kiss, pouring every ounce of love I have into her.

The world narrows to just this—the warmth of her surrounding me, the taste of her lips, the breathless exchange of two people clinging to each other as though nothing else matters. After everything we’ve endured, this feels like salvation.

Her nails scrape lightly down my arm, not from pain but from holding on, grounding herself in me as I anchor her. The canopy above filters sunlight in broken patterns across her bare skin, gilding her in gold like she was always meant to belong to this place, to me.

“You’re mine,” I whisper against her ear, my voice hoarse with both possession and reverence.

“I always have been,” she breathes, pushing back to meet me, her strength and surrender blending in one perfect motion.

I cradle her breasts in my hands, my forehead dropping against her shoulder as wave after wave of sensation rolls through me. I try to hold on, to make this moment last forever, but her whispered “I love you” undoes me completely.

When release shatters through me, I hold her tighter, my face buried in her neck, the scent of her hair, the salt of her skin, the very essence of her wrapping around me.

“I love you, Isla,” I murmur fiercely, like a vow, like a prayer.

She turns her head, finding my lips with hers, and the kiss that follows is softer, slower, full of promise.

We stay tangled together for a breathless moment, the forest alive with birdsong around us, before I reluctantly ease back. The connection breaks, and I already miss her.

She laughs lightly, tugging her shorts back up with flushed cheeks. “We should probably get back. Family dinner tonight.”