Epilogue

Dean

"We don't have to go."

"That's not what Kim told me," Bailey argued. "I was told in no uncertain terms that it was imperative that we come tonight."

"Pretty sure we just did that."

"Dean!" she scolded.

"We're already late," I pointed out.

"Whose fault is that?"

I didn't dare tell her she looked like a hot mess after our office sexcapade. My blood was still pumping, and I was ready to go again.

The day of the attack when I'd set her down, naked, on top of my desk, a fantasy started to play out in my head. That was weeks ago, but we finally found the perfect moment to squeeze in a bit of after hours playtime.

I knew I was never going to sit in this office the same again.

Spending time with my entire family after that was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.

"But I need you," I said. I was not above begging either.

"You just had me."

"It's another hour before the security guard runs a check in this section tonight."

"Is it the idea of being caught that has you so wound up? Because if that's the case, we can just do it in here tomorrow during work hours."

I grew instantly hard.

"Are you teasing me?"

"Dean!"

"Bailey. I can't help it that you're so irresistible."

"And I love that you think that, but I promised Kim, and it's the first time since everything happened that we are actually free on family game night."

"Okay, but you owe me for this."

"You already negotiated that for office sex."

"Damn."

"You're cute when you're desperate, but you should know by now that I'm usually just as desperate for you. And we will absolutely make time for this again."

"I love it when you talk dirty."

"You're a dirty bird."

"Correction, I'm your dirty bird."

I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her. She didn't argue. Checking the time, I knew we had time for one more round if I made it a quickie.

Testing my luck, I laid her back out on my desk.

Damn, that was a beautiful sight.

Squatting down, I kissed her inner thigh.

"You're incorrigible."

"Call me boss and I'll make it a quickie."

"You better. . .boss."

Hot damn, I loved this woman.

With one swipe of my tongue just to make her squirm, I jumped up and positioned myself at her entrance.

Before me was my heart in human form. She was my best friend, my lover, my ride or die, my everything and I felt like the luckiest man alive to call her mine.

"Hold on tight, this is gonna be fast and hard just like you like it."

*****

We were late for family game night.

"Hair check," Bailey said just before we reached the door.

"You fixed it in the car. You look great."

"I can't believe you made us late."

"It was worth it," I whispered in her ear as she knocked on the door.

Kim answered it.

"Family doesn't have to know, Bailey."

"Sorry we're late. We had, um, a late work thing at the office."

I bit back a grin. If I commented now, I knew she'd smack me for it.

Family night family game night was being hosted by Elias and Kim this week. It was on rotation throughout the family. Mom and Dad were there, Gia and David, Ryan and Gracie, as well as Kim's dad, Clarence, and her brother Andrew.

Kim's family had always done family game night, and when she and Elias mated, they'd opened it up to all of us.

Most of the time, it was a lot of fun and I looked forward to it. But tonight, my brain was still back at the office.

"Hey man. How's it going? The office keeping you busy?" Andrew asked.

I had to fight not to react to his choice of words.

"Yeah, you could say that."

"We've missed you each week."

"Sorry, with work and remodeling the house, we've just been insanely busy."

After much consideration, Bailey and I agreed to stay at the Davenport House, though we were in the process of remodeling the top floor into our private quarters. The house was far too big for Mom and Dad alone, and none of my siblings wanted to live there. It made me happy to know that she was comfortable enough in my childhood home to want to stay.

"Well, I'm glad you made it tonight. I know it means a lot to Kim to have Bailey here. She's a bit of a hero to us all."

Bailey's heroic rescue of Kim had been retold so many times about town that they treated her like a saint or something now. It definitely overshadowed our mating and helped to launch her into Ravenden.

I knew being the only wolf in town wasn't exactly easy for her. Wolves craved community, but so far it seemed like she was finding that here amongst us birds, too.

"What game are we playing tonight?" I asked.

He chuckled. "It's Monopoly night."

"Nope. Babe, come on. It's time to go," I said.

"No way. Get your ass in here, Dean," Gracie yelled.

"I hate you all," I told them, but it only made the others laugh.

"What's wrong?" Bailey asked me.

"We're playing Monopoly."

"Is that bad?"

"It's banned from my house, dear," Mom told her.

Because there were so many of us we divided up across three boards. There was a whole formula to narrow it down the winners until only one game remained.

I wasn't at all surprised to see Andrew and Mom won their games to advance. But when my girl beat Clarence, I thought all hell would break loose.

Kim's dad was a sore loser when it came to Monopoly. He threw the board across the room, stole the dog piece Bailey was playing with and refused to give it back to her, which forced her to choose a new piece to play with in the final game as that was the only dog we had.

"Real mature, Clarence," I taunted, earning myself a bird as he flipped me off.

"Nice," Elias teased.

The final round came down to the reigning champ—me, and then Andrew, Mom, and Bailey. If she thought for one second that I was going to team up or go easy on her, then she was in for a rude awakening.

It was a cutthroat match. The women ended up teaming up together despite rules against it. Their alliance remained tight as they defeated Andrew, but they couldn't take me.

Finally, Mom landed on my Park Place and couldn't pay up. Out she went, but not before gifting all her properties to Bailey.

"That's against the rules, Mom."

"Rules were meant to be broken, Son."

I growled, but kept playing my game.

I had to admit I loved how cut throat Bailey played. She didn't seem to give two shits that I was her mate.

"All my money's on Bailey. If anyone can take down Dean, it's got to be her," Andrew announced as a pool was started and everyone placed their bets.

I rolled the dice. Snake eyes.

"Shit!"

I'd just landed on Water Works, and I was running very low on cash. Bailey owned all the utilities, compliments of my mother.

I had to cash in all my hotels just to stay afloat.

Bailey immediately bought them and stacked the next few properties I had to cross.

She was thriving, and I was quickly on a path to crash and burn, though I wasn't about to admit it.

"She's got him. No way is he surviving that," Gracie insisted.

"I don't know. Dean does have a golden horseshoe up his ass," Andrew countered.

I rolled the dice and counted up the space.

"I told you! Look at that."

I took safely landed between her properties.

She played through with ease and it was back to my turn.

I counted up the spots I needed to hit a Community Card. Then, I rolled the dice.

"Yes!"

"Wow. Look at that," Gia praised.

"That's my boy," Mom cheered.

"What did I tell you?" Andrew praised.

I drew the card: Go back two spaces.

I checked the board, and my jaw dropped.

"Dammit!" I threw down the card, accidentally knocking into the table as I stood, which sent the pieces flying into Bailey's lap.

"Hey!" she griped.

Everyone started talking and arguing at once.

"You see? You see why this game is banned at my house?" Mom said.

In the center of all the chaos, my mate sat there grinning. I knew it wasn't because she'd won. She wouldn't care about something like that. What she did treasure above all else was our family. It may not be the one she was born into—thank God—but it was the one she'd chosen to mate into and I knew it was everything she wanted in life.

As she hugged each of my sisters, high-fived my brothers, talked shit with Andrew and Clarence, and wrapped an arm around each of my parents as they congratulated her, I made a vow to never skip family game night again—unless it meant an uninterrupted late night in the office.