• Please note that there are spoilers for The Phoenix and The Wolf in this post. If you haven’t read the book yet, I recommend waiting to read this post until you have finished that.

It was a week before I was supposed to send the manuscript to my editor and my hands hovered over the keys of my computer. My characters were screaming that I don’t have the ending right, but this was the ending I had planned from when I very first finished The Earthspark.

Tellen and Nienna were supposed to end up together. That was it. End of story.

So as I wrote Ross and Nienna’s parting words, I cried. I knew in my heart it was wrong but for so many reasons I felt like I needed to forge ahead with the story where Tellen and Nienna still wound up together.

However, after talking with one of my beta readers, I finally had the courage to write the ending the way I knew it needed to go. The way I had been writing it since book 2.

I let go of the notions that I had to please people with my stories. I let go of the thought that just because a character started out as the right choice, doesn’t mean that they are still the right choice.

While the ending you are about to read is still sweet to me in so many ways, I know the version that ended up in the book is the right one and so do my characters.

So, while Tellen doesn’t get the girl in this series, stay tuned for series 2, because he’s finally met his match, and it just might be more than he ever thought it could be.

In the meantime, if you were dissatisfied with the ending of The Phoenix and The Wolf, please enjoy this alternate version.

The Alternate Ending

This scene is set as Ross and Nienna are walking through the camp after the treaty signing.

“Nienna, what are you talking about?” Ross asked.

“Cerilda. You stared at her multiple times during the signing. She was constantly bumping you and nudging you, whispering things in your ear.”

Ross’s mouth fell open. “It meant nothing. That’s just how she is.”

“You returned every glance, every nudge, every comment, every smile. That isn’t nothing.” Nienna shook her head and stepped away.

Ross grabbed her good hand to stop her. “Nienna, please. Cerilda is like my little sister. We grew up together.” 

He needed to make her see this. 

“A little sister who grew up into a beautiful woman.” The wan smile Nienna gave him was like an arrow to the chest. “Even without my memories to guide me, I could see how she watched you as we traveled north. And on occasion, the way you watched her.” 

It was as if the quicksand had slid past his middle, constricting his chest. 

Nienna brushed his cheek with her fingers. “A part of you may love me. But I think part of you also might be falling for her.”

Ross staggered back. This was not how this conversation was supposed to go. “But Nienna—”

She plowed over his words. “I loved you, Ross. How couldn’t I? You’re everything a girl could want. But I can’t do this.”

“This is Tellen’s doing, isn’t it?” The words were out before he could stop them. His chest stung like he’d drank more of that poisonous tea.

“No. I could feel it the moment you rode up. You are king, Ross. But I’m not made to be a queen. I barely survived being a princess. As Zared said, I’m too much like a feral alley cat.”

“And that’s what I love most about you. You are beautiful, inside and out. Feral or not, you are who I want beside me.”

“I want to be near you too, but I can’t.”

Nienna held him tight as he tried to think of any way to salvage this. He didn’t want to face the truth in her words. As Protector, he hadn’t been tied to the land and the country the way Zared had been as king. But now, Ross was king and that sensation of a chain around his neck tightened until he couldn’t breathe. How could he expect someone as free-spirited as Nienna to survive in his new world?

“How am I supposed to do this without you?” Ross asked. The quicksand had slipped above his head and he was drowning.

She stroked the back of his head. “You rely on your friends, your uncle. Frank and Jenna and Imogen. She will always be there for you, and so will her children. You can even count on Owen—at least to tell you all the things not to do.”

That elicited a choked laugh, even as he fought back the tears stinging his eyes like angry wasps.

“What are you going to do?” he asked when they broke apart.

Warmth wet his shirt as she squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll see if Alturis will take a scarred and beaten spinster as a professor.”

He kissed her forehead. It tasted bittersweet. A kiss of good-bye. “Then Alturis will have gained the best professor there ever was.”

****

Nienna hugged herself as she watched the Ballitine delegation ride back toward their camp. 

“I really had hoped that would have gone differently,” Owen said as he stood beside her, leaning heavily on his crutch. “I’d always hoped to have him for a brother-in-law.”

I had thought it might happen, too. But out loud she said, “Well, there’s still Jeremiah Ferris.”

Owen curled his lip in disgust. “Don’t even joke about that. Besides, the pickle-muncher already found a bride. So you’re too late. Which you would know if you hadn’t run away.”

“Maybe if Barrett’s girl doesn’t take him back, I can marry him. He’s apparently royalty now.”

Turning eager eyes on her, Owen said, “Now you’re thinking. He already knows what an imp I am, so there will be no surprises.”

“You admit you’re an imp, then!” Nienna declared. “Well, the first step to improvement is acknowledgement of faults.”

Owen waggled his eyebrows. “I think imp is just the beginning. I have an entire battle’s worth of tricks against my card now.”

Allowing herself one more look at Ross’s retreating figure and the redhead riding beside him, Nienna blinked back her tears before turning away.

“I’ll miss him too,” Owen said more quietly. Nienna nodded, then walked away toward the nearest tree-covered hill before Owen saw her trembling lip. He didn’t stop her.

Nienna climbed the hill and wandered among the trees until she was deep enough all the sounds from camp had died away. The earthy smells of forest soil and plant life were a balm to her broken heart. 

In a small clearing, Nienna sat down beneath a large beech tree. She sat there until afternoon gave way to evening. Her stomach rumbled, but she had no desire to go back to camp. The food would only turn sour in her stomach anyway.

As Ross’s face flashed in her vision once more, Nienna buried her face in her arms and wished for sleep, but the sound of crunching twigs caught her attention.

On the opposite side of the clearing, Tellen approached, mossy eyes bright in the dim light. 

“I’d thought you’d gone with the Ballitins when I didn’t see you in camp,” he said. “Instead, I found your tracks leading up here.”

“I could have gone,” she said, giving him a watery smile. “He offered to take me.”

Tellen sat down beside her. “Why didn’t you go?”

Nienna leaned her head back against the tree, allowing the sounds of the crickets and frogs from a nearby pond to soothe the ache in her chest. 

“I didn’t love him the way I had thought.”

“I’m sorry,” Tellen said, and he actually sounded it. “He would have treated you well.”

“I’m sure he would have.”

For a time, the loudest things were the crickets, hopping around in the tall grass. As night deepened, the temperature cooled, causing Nienna, still in her summer dress, to shiver. Tellen placed his arm around her, rubbing the gooseflesh from her skin.

She leaned into him, breathing in the wildness of him. Pine forests, wild meadows, rainy skies, and salty seas. All her favorite scents wrapped into one. 

As she rested her head against his chest, she felt something hard and sat up.

“What is that?” she asked. 

A shy expression crossed Tellen’s face. “Why don’t you find out?”

Suspicious, Nienna lifted the flap on his vest pocket. Her fingers brushed against metal when she reached inside. Grasping the object, she pulled it out. 

It was a silver wolf head ring coated in diamond dust and polished to a gleaming finish. And just her size.

She gasped, her mouth falling open. Nienna peered up at Tellen, too many questions trying to force their way out of her. 

Finally she asked, “You’ve carried it all this time?”

Tellen peered up at her from beneath his lashes. “I’ve been alive for over eight thousand years. I’ve only found one girl who could make a weathered old fossil like me want to become new. But I lost her to my stubbornness and pride.”

Tellen took the ring from her and weighed it in his palm before giving her a determined look.

“If happiness existed elsewhere for you, I would not stand in your way. But I won’t lie that I hoped it would always lead you back to me.”

Nienna found the air suddenly too thin as he ran his thumb along her jawline.

“Will you forgive me? Will you give me a second chance?” 

Fingers curling into his hair, Nienna pressed her lips to Tellen’s. Green sparks tingled against her mouth.

Tellen stroked Nienna’s face when they broke apart. 

Then he sang.

“So take my hand

And we will fly

To the tallest peak,

And the open sky.

And I will make your dreams come true…

Like mine.”

Nienna curled into Tellen, laying her head down on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and gently pulled her in tighter. The thrum of his heart kept pace with her still-racing one. 

Then Tellen slid her ring back into place on her fourth finger. “I want you to keep this.”

“I shall treasure it always,” she said before she pressed her lips to his once more.

And there in Tellen’s arms, she felt like she’d finally come home.