Final Chapter…. Short and Sweet…A possible sequel set up or a terrible cliffhanger ending.


Rome –

I want to go home to my kids, Max thought, I'm such a sap about this. Read, play soccer, go to gymnastics and mommy-me stuff with Noah. After this case wraps…John said it was my choice. We spend so much on childcare and…Oh, I like being a mom. Focus, Max, focus. "That's…she wasn't there?"

"The bodies were burned. He had explosives buried in the caves and they," Morrell said, as they sat in her office. "He would have rather they be dead then brought back here. They were starting a new world."

Kim, she thought. "Kim and Kenny's baby?"

He shook his head. "Not yet. We have a dozen feral kids in custody."

She gulped at that. "A dozen?"

"He had at least 20 wives and over 100 kids with them."

Max stared at him with that. "How could no one know? It's an urban legend and…who was he?"

"He was a dentist who thought it was his job to save him and his family from the coming apocalypse. His wife, Tatiana, and him took their kids into those woods and started a new life there by kidnapping young girls and impregnating them."

Max sat back at that. "I read the case file about the fire and how…were they still there? His first wife and…He had four kids before?"

Morrell nodded. "Three sons and a daughter. The daughter was barely three months old, and the boys were three, five and eight. They were Cana, Samuel, Michael and Jonah."

"What…what did they do out there? Just…"

"He bred with them. With those caves destroyed, the kids can barely speak," he said. "We might never know."


In the Woods

"That world is evil," Solomon said. "We will leave, start anew."

Elena nodded, cuddling their gathered children. "Yes, Master."

"We will gather our missing children, Elena. The warning received was a blessing."

She smiled at that, calming the youngest. "They will pay for their sins against us."

"Where will we go?" Laila asked, as they sat in the lowest and untouched bunker of their home, still with 65 of their children and nine of their sister wives. "They destroyed our home."

Solomon smiled at that. "We aren't the only pack. We will join the others. It is time for my other daughter and grandchildren to join us."'


Rome – 3 Months Later

"You look good."

Max looked up at that. "Hi."

Jill smiled at her young friend, all of six months pregnant, holding Gracie's hand and looking radiantly happy, with her and Kara. "And hello, Gracie. You look more and more like your mom every day."

Gracie giggled at that. "Mommy is pretty. Daddy keeps kissing her and Kara thinks it's gross."

"Dad always kisses Mom when he thinks we're not looking," Kara stated. "They love each other, Gracie. I told Dad I was going to kiss boys and he said not under my roof."

Gracie giggled, and hugged her big sister. "Boys are gross."

She does look like Max, Jill thought, except with the darker skin and curly dark hair. That face is all her…Gracie is such a sweetheart. Kara is so grown up. They ran off, eloped, she completely took his name, and they became a family. "Where are your dad and Noah?"

"We're having girl time. Daddy took Noah for boy time."

"Very pretty," Jill smiled, looking at their painted nails before back at Max. Kim's baby would be the same age as Gracie. The baby that people speculated was Kenny's when she was pregnant with her…the baby that is so obviously John's. "We want to have you over."

Max nodded. "We should…probably before I pop here."


In the Woods

So lovely, Solomon thought, watching from the edges. It is her time. She knows it too. It is time for Cana to come home after all she's done for us. We will save her and her children. She will take her mother's place with me. She is ready.


Rome

"Last day?"

Max nodded, drinking the tea she wished was coffee. "My resignation is in. I'm going to grab the kids after and…we'll meet you for dinner?'"

He kissed her forehead with that. "It's a lot of changes for us."

She smiled up at him. "John, it's an amazing job offer for you. Oregon will be an adventure, a fresh start from this town for us and the kids. Being a stay at home mom is…it was never what I wanted when I was younger, but…I don't want strangers raising our kids. I want to be there for them."

"Get out of here, Sheriff."


In the Woods

"This is all that is left?"

Solomon nodded. "It was detonated, Cana. You warned us they were coming."

"I couldn't let them find you, Father. Not after everything you did for me."

"It is time for you to join us."

She smiled at that, thinking of her family. "We're ready. I brought you supplies for the journey to our new home."

"Your children?"

"They'll adapt to our ways. They need to know their real family. Just like I did after you found me with those people. Mother sent me to people who never wanted or loved me. My home is with the pack."

The pack, the women Cana sent our way over the years. "Come, Cana."

She smiled, rubbing her pregnant stomach softly. "Tonight, Father, I'm getting my children from school and we'll join you. He won't even know we're gone until it's too late. We'll meet you in the usual spot after I take care of my husband."

"Lovely Cana," he smiled, stroking her long hair. So much like my original Tati before she sent Cana away. Cana who sent me Elena this time. Cana who made it look like her boyfriend killed her as revenge for breaking her heart. Cana who has a lovely family that will be part of the pack. Cana who brought the boyfriend to me, so we could dispose of him…and feed off him. Cana who is coming home. "Tonight."

Max smiled, as she kissed her father on the mouth. "Tonight, Master."


Rome –

He is a good man, Max thought, watching John with the kids. He really is…and he never knew who I am. No one knows who I really am. The daughter of Solomon Whittaker, who was sent away by her mother to have a normal life. Adopted by the Stewart family who never loved me. Solomon found me, told me, I became his…finding him wives. Providing from the pack from the outside, worshipping my Master.

"Mommy look!" Gracie called, as she did a cartwheel.

"Amazing Kiddo," she called, sipping her wine. Kenny who never blinked when I started dating John, I thought he would. I thought he would fight for me, but instead he got Kimberly pregnant. How could he think I wouldn't know? She was easy to dispose of…and he had to pay for betraying me. Planting her blood and setting him up? I am happy with John, being Maxine Littleton is a role I love, I enjoy her and my kids. I can be better for them. For us. Smiling, she leaned back against John's chest, thinking of what she had done earlier. I'm free.


In the Woods

Cana, Solomon thought, as he lay dying in the clearing. Cana did this. She poisoned us all. My own daughter chose sin over salvation and her family.


Rome

Max stood in the clearing with Morrell and Jimmy Brock, looking at the sea of bodies. Keeping her stricken expression as she surveyed her dead father and siblings. I choose my new life. Cana Whittaker is dead, they think she was here. I'll be Maxine Littleton, happily married to John Littleton, and we have our own pack now. Looking at Jimmy kneeling over a dead Elena, she should have never had an affair with Kenny, she would still be alive if she hadn't. Father said she was a fine wife and adapted to their ways here very easily.

"Jimmy?"

"My little girl," he said, holding her tattooed hand. "He did this to her."

Max looked at the pack tattoos she would never have and Elena covered in filth. Pregnant like me. "He can't hurt her again. She's at peace."

He looked up at his former deputy. "If we had listened…"

"We couldn't have known."

I'll never forgive myself, Jimmy thought, finally standing to let them take the body away. "Keep your kids safe, Max."

She touched her distended stomach and thought of the three at home with John. "We will. We all need a fresh start."

"I thought Kenny killed her."

"He might…see the news. Come back. He's been exonerated, and no judge would prosecute him. Not after this. All he wanted to do was find her…he spent so much time in these woods searching…Oh, god, what if…he found her, or they found him and…Oh God."

"We don't know that."

They ate him, Max thought, they fed his flesh to the children, as they do with any outsider that found them. There is nothing to find. "Too many lives were lost. I want to hold my kids and never let go."

"Do it. You and John, take them, raise them," Jimmy said looking at her. "Be happy with them, Max."

She nodded, rubbing her belly. I'm Master now. No one will ever hurt my family.


***Possible sequel about Max vanishing with her kids forthcoming, a follow up to Living Without You and a canon story following Max/Kenny post series finale.