My Cheating Mate (Emma and Jeremy) novel Chapter 164

Cas appeared beside me, more damaged than I’d ever seen him. Shirt completely destroyed. Multiple wounds still healing. Looking like a vampire who’d been in sustained combat for six hours.

Which was exactly what he was.

“We held,” he said.

“We held.” I looked out at the evidence of the night’s fighting. “The Council?”

“Their tactical force is broken. Leadership hasn’t been captured–they’d have pulled back before the collapse. But their operational capacity in this region is destroyed.” He paused. “They’ll regroup. This isn’t over permanently. But Jeremy, it’s over for now. Long enough to rebuild. To let the coalition consolidate. To let the moderate supernatural commenities see what happened here and choose sides accordingly.”

“And the ones who switched sides during the battle?”

“Will be valuable.” His voice was certain. “Council operatives who saw our forces fighting together and couldn’t maintain their ideology–those are exactly the voices that will move other moderate communities. Firsthand witnesses who came here believing the Council’s doctrine and left believing something different.”

My phone buzzed. Emma.

“Tell me,” she said when I answered. Her voice was carefully controlled. Containing everything she’d been feeling all night.

“We held. It’s over–for now.” I could hear her exhale. “Emma, we held.”

The sound she made wasn’t quite crying. More like six hours of terror releasing all at once.

“Grace?” I asked.

“Perfect. Slept through the whole thing. She’s currently explaining to three vampire guards why they should build a block stable with her.” Emma’s voice cracked slightly. “Jeremy-”

“I know. Come home. Bring Grace home.” I looked around at my pack–battered, exhausted, but intact. Wolves and vampires treating each other’s wounds without hesitation. Family taking care of family. “It’s safe. Come home.”

After I hung up, Cas stood beside me as the sun fully rose. Both of us watching wolves and vampires work side by side in the morning light.

“Grace is going to want to know every detail,” he said finally. “She’ll interrogate both of us for hours.”

r “She’s five. She’ll interrogate you for hours. I’m Daddy–she’ll just make sure I’m not hurt and then move on to the good stuff.”

“Clearly she has priorities.” He paused. “Jeremy, the debt. Your family’s debt to me. I’ve been thinking about it.”

I braced. Here it was, finally. Five years of waiting to find out what an ancient vampire lord would ask for. “What about it?”

“I want to forgive it.” He said it simply. No political maneuvering, no calculated reveal. Just the words. “Everything I’ve received

by being part of your family–being Uncle Cas, knowing Grace, being trusted by Emma, having people worth fighting for it’s worth more than any debt. More than any favor I could collect.”

“Cas-

”

“Let me say it clearly since I seem to be doing that today.” He met my eyes. “Forgiven. All of it. Your debt to me, Emma’s debt. Gone. What you’ve given me in return–a family, a purpose, a reason to believe that something better than eight centuries of isolation is possible–that’s not a debt I can collect. It’s a gift. And gifts don’t come with favors attached.”

The words landed differently than I’d expected. Not relief, exactly. Something more complicated. Something that felt like the completion of a journey that had started with a desperate phone call at 2 AM years ago.

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“Thank you,” I said Inadequate but true.

“Don’t thank me.” He looked out at the stmthable to go anywhere now until it set, practically speaking, though he could tolerate it briefly. “Just take care of them. Emma and Grace Take care of your family.”

“Our family,” I corrected.

He was quiet for a moment. Then, very quietly: “Our family.”

We stood together in the morning light. A future Alpha and an ancient vampire lord. Wolves and vampires working around us. A war survived. A debt forgiven. A family intact.

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