CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

GAGE

We talked about this day for what feels like forever, and yet I still don't seem to have my head around it. I'm getting married. Me . The guy nobody ever fucking wants. It feels like some bizarre dream or something, because I'm suited up and standing with my Pretty Boy and Mav, waiting for the two women who've made us theirs.

I feel like I want to say ‘take that' to anyone who thought I wasn't commitment material, but their opinions don't matter now, and honestly have never mattered. What matters is the four people I'm about to get semi-legally bound to. Our brides don't know that we've brought lawyers in, to make sure they're not only given full access to our money, but also that they'll be looked after, if anything happens to any of us. For once in my life, I hate the ‘what if I die' plans, because for the first time, living is all that matters to me. That and this family we've built, that we're still building, that might just keep growing.

Jesus. I look toward the door, but there's still no sign of them. Also, this tie is choking me, for fuck's sake. I pull at it again, and Sebastian grabs my hand.

"Don't mess with it, baby, you look perfect." If only I could fucking breathe right now. I try to pull in a full breath, but it's like I'm only getting a tiny gasp of air each time I try.

"Is he gonna pass out?" Mav asks, his hand on my shoulder as Sebastian steps up in front of me and cups my face in his palms.

"Breathe, Gage. Everything's going to be okay. Look at us, we're getting to keep them forever. This is what we always wanted, so just take a deep breath, baby, and watch that door for the rest of our heart to appear."

"That's sappy as fuck, man," Mav whispers, but he doesn't argue. Breathe. Just take a breath, like it's easy, like it happens all the time. Jesus, my hands are tingling, and I rub them together, trying again for a breath.

"Kiss him, man. Get him out of his head." The minister makes a sound like a grunt, and we hear him step away from us, but Sebastian's lips meet mine, and he teases me into a gentle, sweet kiss, and I grab the back of his head, wanting my tongue to win this non-existent battle with his. A million kisses with him would still never be enough. Every time is perfect.

"Jesus, get a room," Mav mutters, and I reach back at him, accidentally hitting him in the junk with the side of my hand. "Fuck! Hands off my junk! Kinda need that for later, man."

"At least he's breathing again, right, baby?" Sebastian offers me one last peck against my lips, and backs up again, stroking my cheek. "Just relax, Gage. It will all go perfectly."

"And then they'll explain all that crazy squealing this morning, although I guess it was probably excitement, because they get to marry us," Mav says, slapping my back and knocking me forward a half step. Prick. For once I don't call him on it, because there are more important matters at hand.

My eyes go back to the door, to where our fucking ladies should be emerging from. They should be walking down the aisle by now, surely? Are they late? Did they change their minds? Did they run from us? Jesus fuck!

"What time is it? Are they late?"

MAV

If he asks me one more time, I swear… does he think he's the only one shitting his pants right now? He's right, they're taking too fucking long, and it's eating at me to go and find them and drag them out here to marry us. Sebastian seems way too calm, but maybe he's just as fucked up as the two of us, but he's putting his focus on Gage's meltdown, hell, maybe it's helping both of us that he's losing his shit like this. I'd squeeze his shoulder again, but I think he bruised one of my nuts, and I'm planning to get our wives to check it for me later. Always look for the silver lining, right?

"They're taking too long. Are you sure your watch is right?" That's it, I'm punching him. I turn to yell at him, but he's looking even paler than he was a minute ago. Poor bastard is about to pass out, and if he does, I'm never letting him live it down. I mean, I kinda love the guy, and Pretty Boy too, but come on. It's not that scary.

A noise behind the door we're all watching, more than we'd like to admit, makes me tense, and I wipe my palms on my trousers, because why the fuck are they sweating all of a sudden? It's almost time. I check my watch, and fuck me, Gage is right, they're four minutes behind schedule. No wonder he's shitting a brick.

"I'm gonna go check on them," I say, and growl at Pretty Boy as he grabs my arm.

"They'll be here, man, just fucking chill."

"Why does he get all the ‘breathe, baby, it'll be okay', and I get ‘fucking chill'? What if they're both ill? They might have morning sickness again. They might be changing their minds. They might be running for it, while we stand here like pricks with our thumbs up our fucking asses and-"

"Why am I the only sane one right now?" Sebastian groans, rolling his eyes at me. "They'll be here. Give them five more minutes, then the minister can go check. They'll go nuts if we ruin the surprise of their dresses, and you know that."

"Why are you the sane one? Why are you so calm and so fucking sure? We kidn… this isn't exactly a conventional marriage, right?" I mean, we pretty much railroad them into everything, so what if they're suddenly thinking this isn't what they want after all? Maybe Gage isn't as insane as he seems right now. I mean, he is, but what if he's right?

My stomach is starting to hurt, as that door doesn't open for long agonizing minutes, and I think I'm gonna puke. Don't puke. Don't be that loser. One groom freaking out is enough. Gage is doing all the crazy for us. Thing is, we don't deserve this. We don't deserve them, so what if this is the final retribution? Letting us stand here like fucking morons, while they run for the hills? They fucking own us now. What if that's their revenge for everything we've done to them? What if they leave us? Not gonna lie, I'm starting to feel faint myself, and I can't be the loser who passes out either. I grip Gage's shoulder again, but this time it's to hold me up.

Fuck it. I'm going looking for them. I take one step and that door finally fucking opens, and the violinist starts playing their chosen piece for walking down the aisle. Oh, my fucking beautiful goddesses. Is it weird that I almost fall to my fucking knees at that first sight of them?

STELLA

The lady Gage hired to be sure everything goes as planned, opens the French doors for me as the sound of violins surround me. I loop my arm in Lucy's, as we step outside to violinists playing Pachobel's Canon. Live musicians. Of course. I told them all a recording was fine, because I didn't want them to go all out when it's just us. However, there's something so beautiful and magical about having them here.

"Ready?" I ask her, but she only nods.

There's a long red carpet leading to the gazebo decorated with white hanging flowers streaming down from the ceiling, and a sheer piece of material held to each side with large bouquets of white flowers. That's not what takes my breath away. The set up is stunning, but it's my three men that threaten to take every bit of air from my lungs.

All three of them stand in the gazebo dressed in black suits, with matching vests and dark blue ties. The suits are fitted perfectly, showcasing their strong muscles, but it's the eyes that nearly cause my knees to buckle.

We walk slowly toward our men, when really I want to toss my flowers on the ground and run to them. The last eighteen hours away from them has felt like the longest of my life, and I know Lucy feels the same. I'll be very happy to never spend the night away from them again. We make it to the gazebo, and Sebastian steps forward and takes both of our bouquets and sets them on a table off to the side. Gage takes my hand, and Mav takes Lucy's, and they walk us up the red brick steps.

Gage leans down and whispers in my ear, "You look fucking stunning in that dress, Stella, but I can't wait to rip it from your beautiful body."

Mav clearly says something equally dirty to Lucy. The blush on her cheeks is proof of that. Sebastian takes my free hand and Lucy's as well as we all stand facing the minister.

Holy shit. I'm getting married.

The guys grip my hands like I might try to run away. I would hope they wouldn't think that's a possibility, because I'm all in. As fucked up as the way this all happened is, I can't possibly go through life without them.

The minister speaks about love in abundance, which is definitely fitting because five people means more love. He allows each of the men to speak which I wasn't expecting. Sebastian turns to Lucy and I first.

He clears his throat and squeezes our hands. "This started out rather," he clears his throat again, "unconventional, and I guess it still is. We will never be perfect men, but we'll love you perfectly. Always."

Mav takes his place as he steps back, his gaze bouncing between us. "I'm not one for flowery words like Pretty Boy, but I love everyone here. Every single one of you is my family. I will love you until my dying breath, and even then, I'll continue loving you."

Gage steps forward and wipes both our tears with the pads of his thumbs, and smiles. "I always say, ‘if it feels good, do it,' and this feels good and right. Thank you. Both of you have given us everything we could ever want."

His words take my breath away, because did Gage just thank us for loving them? As if I ever had a choice. Every single person in this family provides something different. One man could never be everything the three of them are. And Lucy. She has owned a piece of my soul for a long time. I know most of society would find this union strange as hell. And that's okay, because for us, this is what happiness looks like. It's not one man and one woman. It's not two men. It's not two women. It's five people that love each other so fiercely, they'd do anything to make it work. That's us. Five people absolutely fucked up on their own, but when they come together, everything falls into place. It's as if I was a solo musician all my life, playing my lonely song, and then they walked into my life, and suddenly my song is a symphony. Every beautiful part only deepens the connection. If one piece were missing, it would destroy everything.

LUCY

When the minister said they wanted to say a few words, I didn't think they'd be such eloquent words from our men in this moment, or any moment, if I'm honest. They mostly talk with their appendages, but those words are ones I'm always happy to receive. Anyway, we're not doing personal vows or anything, because if we did, it'd get X-rated pretty fast, knowing these three. Those little expressions of love from them were perfect, and I want to do the same.

I clear my throat, and everyone looks at me, expecting some kind of genius from one of the writers in the group, but I'm sure I'm about to disappoint.

"Um… we write red flag guys, but I never knew that was what I wanted until I met you three. You're twisted, and depraved, and mostly morally corrupt, but" I giggle as they start to frown at me, "but you're perfect for us, and I've never been happier. You taught me what family is, because it's this, mutual depraved love."

Stella starts giggling, and I join in, squeezing her hand. "And I'm so happy that we'll be together forever, babe."

I kiss Stella's cheek and hear one of our guys groan, and then Stella looks at us all in turn.

"You all said everything I'd want to say right now. We were made for each other, so let's spend our lives making everything we do feel good."

And with that, and with smiles back on everyone's faces, the minister picks up where he left off, and guides us through our special ceremony, marrying us to each other for all eternity, because we all know death isn't the end for us. It couldn't be, because we've all got a bit of psycho stalker in us, some people have a ton of it. We'll always find each other.

When we get to the rings, all three of our guy's grin widely as they accept theirs. They're white gold to match ours, with the infinity symbol looping all the way around them, and inside, engraved with, "IIFGDI". We've lived by the phrase ‘if it feels good, do it' the whole time we've been together, so it felt right to etch it into the rings they and we would wear forever.

Mere minutes later, we're married. All five of us married, in a pretty much illegal, and not at all recognised way, but that doesn't matter. What matters is what it means to us, what it says about our commitment to each other, and what it says about our future.

The kissing part is fun, because first Stella kisses me, which I'm getting used to, and the guys absolutely love, if their groans are anything to go by. Then Gage grabs Stella for a filthy graphic kiss, while Mav grabs my face and slams his lips on mine, his tongue in my mouth for longer than a wedding kiss should really last. Next, Gage grabs Sebastian and kisses him slow and sultry, while Mav turns to Stella and kisses her, dipping her low and making her giggle.

Half the fun is in watching the kisses, the love that shines through with each connection. Gage turns to me as Sebastian goes to kiss Stella, and then Sebastian kisses me, and then with an outraged grunt, I realise Gage is kissing Mav. Sebastian and I laugh as we see Mav's hand against Gage's throat, but it's not a threat, or control. It's just there.

Gage turns Mav to us then, and Sebastian grins. Oh my god. With a sigh, Mav grabs the back of Sebastian's head and drags him close. "Just this once, Pretty Boy," he murmurs, then presses his lips against Sebastian's, a kiss with no tongue, but no less intensity or passion. Wow, is anyone else moist?