Epilogue

The ambulance doors burst wide open.

Pain courses through my belly, my legs twitching with every contraction.

“Dammit, they’re late!” I scream as I am carried on a gurney toward the hospital’s emergency room. “How are they late?”

“Everybody’s here, baby!” Orion replies.

He’s by my side, along with Drake and Kai. The three of them look paler than sheets of paper while I’m sweating like a hog and struggling to remember my breathing exercises. I feel so huge and bloated like I’m about to explode. The world around me fizzles in colorful uncertainty.

I’m about to be a mother.

My water broke half an hour ago, and the contractions are getting closer and closer together. I hold Drake and Kai’s hands tightly. Maybe too tight, judging by their winces of pain, but they won’t say anything. They understand what I’m going through, and they’re determined to stay by my side. To be with me all the way through.

“Look, baby,” Orion adds. “The whole club is here!”

Indeed, I follow his gaze and gasp and laugh in between crippling contractions as I see the whole of Blackthorn Riders MC gathered just outside the emergency room’s main entrance. Dad, too. He’s wide-eyed and nervously smiling. Paddy shaved his scruffy beard and looks like a boiled potato, but I love him, nonetheless. I just hope he grows it back.

“No, I mean the babies!” I manage, panting and practically boiling on the inside. “They’re late! Two days late!”

“You’re going to be okay, Nadia,” my doctor says, laughing lightly. “Your latest blood tests and ultrasound gave the three of you a clean bill of health.”

“Oh, God, the pain …” I moan, feeling another wave coming. “I can’t do this.”

Orion manages to plant a kiss on my forehead as I’m wheeled into the birthing suite. “Baby, we’ve got you,” he says.

“We’re here,” Drake adds.

“I’m scared shitless!” I say, shuddering as the next contraction hits me hard.

The doctor looks under my skirt. “Oh, she’s already crowning. Let’s move people.”

I thought it would last longer, but once the epidural kicked in, it was game over. I’m constantly amazed by how much a woman’s body can handle solely for the purpose of bringing a new soul into the world. Granted, I was generous. I brought two new souls into the world, and God, let them grow strong and resilient enough to handle whatever life throws at them.

“I can’t protect you from everything, but I promise I’ll teach you both how to rise above,” I whisper to my babies in a moment of peace and quiet.

My body feels soft and pudgy. I’m exhausted and drowsy. I can’t move much, but I am able to hold my boys—two perfect angels swaddled in ivory-colored cotton, two red-faced raisins to whom I am forever and irreversibly bound.

“You were incredible,” Orion says, sitting beside my bed.

I’m not sure how long it’s been since I gave birth, but the room feels brighter and bigger than before. This is probably because I am so happy, so relieved, and so thankful to be alive in this moment, to be able to witness this miracle, to be a part of it.

“I love you so much,” Drake adds, gently kissing my cheek.

“You’re the real soldier out of the four of us,” Kai sighs deeply, unable to take his eyes off our boys.

They’re our boys. No paternity test needed unless it’s for medical reasons. It’s what we agreed upon. They’re going to be raised in our strange and beautiful family. They’ll have three dads, and so many cool uncles, and my heart leaps with joy just thinking about what a marvelous childhood awaits my sweet babies.

“I wasn’t sure I’d make it,” I tell my men.

“Oh, but you did,” Orion says. “We couldn’t have done this without you, Nadia. We’re nothing without you.”

“I’m everything with you,” I reply, then glance down at my boys again. “They’re handsome little tykes, aren’t they?”

The door opens. Dad comes in, along with Paddy, both of them carrying huge bouquets of roses and lilies for me. Tears burst from my eyes as soon as I see them. Silent tears of gratitude and affection, of love and relief.

“Good Lord, they’re perfect,” Dad says, his voice trembling with emotion. “Perfect.”

“The size of torpedoes, but yeah, perfect,” Paddy replies.

I laugh wholeheartedly, glad to see my boys sleeping through the whole thing. I’ll be joining them soon enough, as slumber is already testing my eyelids.

“Which one of you is the culprit? Can you tell?” Dad asks, looking at Orion, Kai, and Drake.

“I think we’ll be able to tell soon enough,” I reply, smiling. “But they’re ours. It doesn’t really matter to me.”

“Nadia, I’m proud of you, honey,” Dad says.

Paddy rolls his eyes at my father trembling on the edge of tears as they both approach my bed with slow and careful steps. “Cut the crap, old man, you’re going to make me cry, too,” Paddy says, then looks at me. “Have you settled on the names yet?”

“We did, yes,” I proudly declare. “We actually put it to a vote. Patrick, Michael … I’d like you to meet Patrick and Michael.”

Dad and Paddy freeze, eyebrows shooting upward. Those tears that they’d both been fighting back finally fall freely as they stare at me and the boys. Orion, Drake, and Kai stifle bouts of laughter, and I watch and welcome their wholehearted emotions.

“You crazy girl, you named your boys after us?” Dad mutters. “Us? Two old idiots?”

“Speak for yourself, Quick,” Paddy says, a loving smile crossing his face as he shifts his focus back on mine. “It’s an honor, Nadia. All I can do is promise to be the best uncle these kids will ever have.”

“You and thirty other Blackthorn Riders made that promise,” Orion chuckles.

“Good,” I say. “It means our sons will grow up to withstand and maybe even lead the world. With so many Blackthorn Riders behind them, Michael and Patrick will crush everything in their path.”

“I just hope they get as much of your spunk as possible,” Dad says. “There’s a bit of Cassandra in them, too.”

“And there’s a bit of you, as well,” I reply.

I wouldn’t have it any other way. My sons already have strength and honor flowing through their veins, courage and kindness, and fierceness and sweetness in equal measure. I hope they get a little bit from everyone.

Orion’s strong moral code, Drake’s lighthearted spirit, Kai’s staunchness, Paddy’s sense of humor, Dad’s ambitious nature, and my mother’s gentle soul—I’ll give them everything else, everything I’ve learned along the way so that they’ll never fear a single day of their lives.

So that every road will open up to them without hesitation.

I know it’s going to be a fun, magnificent ride for us all.

The End