The Black Tide (Outcast 3)

Emotions my creators had thought me incapable of.

“I believe I could agree to something like that,” I said softly.

“I’m glad,” he said, and kissed me.

It was both a promise and a commitment, and it made my blood race and my heart sing.

This man—this ranger—was mine.

“Shall we go home?” he said eventually, and offered me his hand.

I smiled and twined my fingers through his as the two ghosts raced ahead of us.

Ever since I’d been created, all I’d ever wanted was to be accepted for who and what I was.

I had that now. Central City would no longer be a place I had to sneak into. I could come and go as I pleased, whenever I pleased, even if the identity by which I was now known was not truly my own.

But I also had something far more precious—for the first time ever, I had a home.

I had someone who cared and—between the ghosts and little Raela—a family of my own.

For the first time ever, I belonged.