Epilogue

EPILOGUE

REMY

Ten Years Later

M y brain barely registered the hand between my shoulder blades a second before the shove sent me deeper into the mountain of pillows filling my bed. Hands and knees dug into my spine.

“Dad! Wake up!”

Grunting, I rolled over and stared at my youngest. Sawyer was the spitting image of his mother, big green eyes that always seemed to sparkle with mischief and a mop of dark hair that was always falling in his eyes.

“I’m up,” I muttered, unable to stop from smiling at the three-year-old who quickly scrambled to sit on my bed. I glanced to my left to see Skye’s side of the bed was empty except for the seven pillows she insisted on using.

But considering my wife was seven months pregnant with twins, I wasn’t going to argue. I’d sleep on the floor and let her make the entire bed a pillow fort if needed. Although, judging by the way she growled when I’d suggested it last week, she hated that idea.

I was usually her favorite pillow.

“Where’s your mom, buddy?” I asked, blinking the last traces of sleep away.

“Downstairs with Aunt Larkin,” the voice in the doorway said matter-of-factly.

I looked over to see my oldest, Rhys, standing in the doorway. A frown was firmly fixed to his face, making the seven-year-old look like he was about to turn seventy.

“We’re having cakes!” Sawyer declared with glee, rolling off me and the bed. He landed on the floor and took off down the hall for the stairs.

“ Pan cakes,” Rhys corrected with an eye roll that would have made his Aunt Katy proud.

I sat up, and looked at my eldest. “Am I the last one up?”

Rhys shook his head. “No. Uncle Dante is still sleeping. I heard Aunt Tate say it’s because you two were up late talking.”

“Did your mom send you two up here to wake me up?”

Rhys shook his head, still in the doorway. “No. I just wanted to come up to my room, but then Sawyer ran in... I told him to let you sleep.”

“It’s good he woke me up,” I admitted, glancing at the clock and realizing it was later than I’d expected. Dante, Tate, and Ryder had arrived later than planned last night with their kids, and I’d lost track of time when Dante and I stayed up and kept talking after everyone else went to bed.

It sounded like my friends were finally ready to make a permanent home in Blackwater, and I was glad I had kept the lot next to Katy’s house open for them.

“Why were you going to your room?” I questioned, my gaze sharpening as I watched Rhys start to fidget.

Rhys sighed finally, his small shoulders deflating. “Because Lucas keeps annoying me, and I don’t like it.”

“I thought Luke was your best friend,” I pointed out. Tate, Dante, and Ryder had adopted Lucas two years earlier, and Luke had become fast friends with Rhys.

“He is,” Rhys said, clearly conflicted.

“So, what’s the problem?” I asked gently.

“Leia,” Rhys spat out suddenly, his small face twisting with frustration.

My brows shot up. Last I checked, Leia was also one of Rhys’s best friends. Rhodes and Larkin’s daughter was only a few months younger than Rhys was.

“But I don’t like it when Leia spends more time with Luke than she does with me,” Rhys explained with a frown. “They’re downstairs together right now.”

“You guys are all friends, Rhys,” I told him slowly, treading carefully. Skye and I had been suspecting something was up with Rhys for a few days now. He’d been acting weird, oddly quiet for a boy who was already showing signs of being Alpha himself one day.

“But...” Rhys made a sound of displeasure, his brows pulled together still.

“But what?”

“Leia’s not Luke’s,” he finally snapped, his dark eyes flashing. “She’s mine .”

Skye froze where she had been coming up behind our son. Her eyes met mine over his head in shock.

“Baby, what do you mean she’s yours?” Skye asked softly.

Rhys spun around. “I don’t know. But Luke shouldn’t touch her when she belongs to me.”

Skye frowned. “Leia isn’t a toy, Rhys. She doesn’t belong to anyone.”

Rhodes would disagree. His daughter and Larkin were his world. I was secretly glad my son wasn’t saying this in front of him since Rhodes would likely pack Leia up and move across the country if he heard what Rhys was saying.

Rhys seemed to deflate in front of us. “I know, Mom. I didn’t mean it like that. I can’t explain it.”

“How long have you been feeling like this?” I questioned.

Rhys shrugged. “Since always. But now that Luke’s here, it’s worse.”

Skye awkwardly knelt in front of Rhys. “Honey, I know you love Luke and you love Leia.”

His tiny face scrunched up in disgust. “Ew, Mom. Yuck. I don’t love Leia.”

Skye’s lips flattened as she hid her smile. “Of course not. But you need to remember that Luke and Leia are your best friends. Just have fun, buddy. And you can talk to your dad or me if you keep feeling like this, okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed after a second of thought. “Is it okay if I go read in my room for a little while before the party?”

“Sure,” she agreed. Our son had inherited our combined love of books at an early age. She patted his back as he walked away.

“That was interesting,” I murmured.

“Yeah.” Skye winced, still kneeling. She reached out a hand for help. “I can’t do this on my own.”

Chuckling, I got off the bed and hurried to help her back up.

“Should we be worried about Rhys?” she asked me hesitantly.

I exhaled hard. “We’ll keep an eye on him. He’s always been attached to Leia, you know that.”

She nodded. “Yeah. And I know he’s a third gen, but... they’re kids. He can’t be feeling like that , can he?”

“Honestly? I don’t know.”

“Great.” She rubbed her lower back, twisting it. My hands gently batted hers away so I could massage the tight muscles for her.

“That feels good,” she sighed, her eyes closing.

Grinning, I leaned in and nipped at her shoulder. “How good?”

“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head. “Not good enough to get me back in bed. It took me almost ten minutes to roll off the side this morning.”

I frowned, turning her around in my arms. “I would’ve helped you.”

She looked at the swell of her stomach between us and lifted a brow. “I think you’ve helped me enough.”

I splayed a hand on her stomach, grinning when I felt it move beneath my palm as one of our daughters kicked. “They’re active today.”

“They’re active every day,” Skye corrected, shaking her head. “And all day. It’s like they sleep in shifts so I can’t rest.”

“Why don’t you relax?” I suggested, wanted to tuck her back in bed. She did look tired.

“Because there’s a plane landing in a few minutes, which means we’re looking at even more people descending on this house in an hour or so,” she pointed out.

I sighed and nodded. Maybe inviting everyone over for Rhys’s birthday party had been a mistake, but we never missed a birthday party for any of the kids. We all showed up for each other.

“Is my sister here yet?” I asked.

“She called,” Skye answered, her nose wrinkling. “Dillon had a bad night.”

The two-year-old little boy my sister and Maren had adopted a few months earlier was still trying to adjust. He’d had a rough start in life, and I knew my sister was worried that he would keep struggling.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

Skye pressed a finger to my lips. “Language.”

I wanted to laugh, but she was right. As comical as it had been for Sawyer to say, “Fuck it” a few weeks ago, it definitely wasn’t something I was proud of.

I nipped her finger instead.

“Which plane is landing?” I asked her as I headed for the bathroom to get ready.

Skye leaned against the doorframe in the bathroom, absently stroking her stomach. “My parents.”

“Your brother coming with them?”

She smirked. “Which one?”

“The married one,” I clarified with a laugh.

“Ah, yes. Dimitri and Lulu will be here,” she agreed. “I still can’t believe they just eloped.”

“I can,” I muttered, brushing my teeth. “Took ‘em long enough.”

“They had a lot going on,” she insisted defensively. “And speaking of brothers, any word on yours?”

“They’ll be here,” I told her, grinning.

“You know your Mom is going to get them to try and lock down a wedding date,” Skye mumbled.

“They’re young,” I replied. “They’re having fun with their mate and trying to establish a new pack.”

“I’m just glad they finally stopped fighting over her. That was a tough year when Dax and Sam were at each other’s throats.”

I looked at her in the mirror. “I can’t imagine sharing a mate.”

She looked down at her stomach. “Do you think these two will have the same problem?”

“Only if they bond to the same person,” I replied.

Skye made a face. “Yeah. But they knew it was a possibility since they’re twins. Look at Kyle and Konnor. They made it work with Ainsley.”

“Kyle and Konnor aren’t Alphas, babe,” I pointed out. “Alphas aren’t known for sharing.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Whatever. I’m just glad it’s behind us. If they started another fight at one of the kid’s birthday parties, I would be the one going Alpha on their asses.”

“I love it when you go all Mama Wolf. It’s hot.”

“I’m, like, a million pounds,” she spluttered. “There’s a planet between us when you hug me.”

I closed the distance between us in two strides, my hand sliding around the back of her neck firmly. “I don’t care if there’s a universe between us, you’re still mine and the sexiest woman I’ve ever met.”

The way she melted a little, her green eyes turning liquidy, made me feel like more of an Alpha than when I was commanding our pack of a thousand.

Her eyes jerked to the bed. “I guess I can’t get any more pregnant.”

I grinned. “What about the people coming?”

“They can wait,” she replied smugly. “We’ll blame it on my hormones. Right now, I need you.”

I felt Rhodes tense up beside me again and I almost slapped him with the spatula in my hand. “Dude, would you chill out?”

“Sorry,” he muttered. “Larkin’s been inside for a while.”

I smirked and flipped the burgers on the grill as the sounds of a kid shrieking with laughter filled the air of the backyard.

“Think she finally got smart and realized she can do better than you?” I teased.

Rhodes swallowed. “She’s pregnant.”

My gaze snapped to him. “Seriously? Congrats, man.”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It was still on the longer side, mostly because Larkin threatened to glue extensions to his head if he cut it too short. “You know how hard it was when she was pregnant with Leia.”

Larkin had suffered the worst morning sickness ever when she was pregnant with Leia. It lasted her entire pregnancy and stressed Rhodes out to no end.

“You want to go check on her?” I asked. “I got this.”

“No,” he grunted. “She’ll just yell at me for hovering again.” He relaxed beside me as Skye and Larkin came out the backdoor, smiling and carrying platters of food for the kids.

Sawyer broke away from the table he was coloring at with Ryder and his three year-old daughter, Ellie. He came running to me with a paper clutched in his small fist.

“Look, Dad!” He thrust the paper at me.

I passed the spatula to Rhodes and took the paper, trying to decipher the squiggles and shapes. “This is awesome, Sawyer.”

“Uncle Ryder is making it his next tattoo!” Sawyer proclaimed, grabbing the paper again and started running back to Ryder. “He’s the best uncle ever .”

“I could be the best uncle ever,” Rhodes muttered under his breath.

“Are you seriously jealous?” I laughed.

“You realize he’s buying their love with tattoos,” Rhodes argued. “He lets each kid design one.”

It was true. Ryder let each of the kids design something to tattoo on him. He liked being able to wear what they created, but he needed to grow more skin or we had to stop having kids. He was running out of canvas with as many kids as we had running around.

“What do you think my odds are of getting Lark to name the baby Han?” Rhodes asked suddenly.

I stared at him. “You’re kidding, right?”

“We have a Luke and a Leia here,” he pointed out. “They need a Han.”

“No,” I said firmly. “Just... no.”

“It’s better than Chewie,” he grumbled. “Have you and Skye decided what to name the twins?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. She wants to name them after our parents.”

“That’s cute,” he remarked with a shrug. “Or you could do that thing where they have the same first letter. That’s popular.”

I snorted. “Yeah, I don’t see Skye going for that.”

I looked around the backyard where my family and friends were all playing and laughing together. Leia giggled as Dante swung her around in a wide circle before setting her down so she could run to catch up with Rhys and Luke. He watched her go before tugging Tate under his arm.

The backdoor opened again and Sawyer took off with a yell to his grandparents. I gave them a wave as they joined the party.

Skye came up beside me and looped her arm around mine, leaning her head against my shoulder as she watched the chaos around us.

“I love our life,” she whispered softly.

I kissed the side of her head. I loved our life, too.