CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Loki

With my legs still feeling like jelly, Bea takes my hand, pulling me down the stairs at a rapid pace. "C'mon, babe. We have to be around for the cake," she urges with excitement clear in her tone.

Grinning wide, I pick up my pace, racing faster down the stairs toward everyone gathering in the middle of the clubhouse. "Damn, woman, I had no idea you loved cake so fucking much," I tease.

Snapping her head back at me, she glares while still smirking at me. "Shut up. I just want to sing happy birthday to Poppy and Louis, that's all."

Rolling my eyes as we step up behind everyone, I wrap my arms around Bea's waist and hold her to me tightly. "Uh-huh. You keep telling yourself that. You might fool people into thinking you're a health nut with this app, but I know you, Bea. You love candy and junk food just as much as the rest of us."

She turns her head, peering back at me. "Maybe, but you just never know what can happen when cake comes out. It makes people do weird things," she states just as Clover and Wes walk out from the kitchen, carrying a huge tray with two cakes on it.

I go to ask her what the hell she means by that, but I'm cut off by Wes launching into a verse of "Happy Birthday." Bea giggles under her breath, turning to face the action as we all sing along.

Badly.

But Poppy smiles so wide as Alpha, Haven, and Livvy stand by her side. The happy blended family.

Beside them, South, Ingrid, and one-year-old Louis enjoy the rendition as we all continue to sing.

"Happy Birthday, Poppy and Louis. Happy Birthday to you!"

We all cheer as Poppy leans in to blow out her eight candles on top of her commando-themed cake. Topped with a fondant grenade, fake barbed wire wrapped around the edges, fondant bullets and dog tags with her name on top, and a metal check plate ‘8' to finish off the theme.

At the same time, Louis leans forward, his tiny hand ripping a chunk out the side of his much cuter blue cake with a giant ‘1' on top. Little toy bears and building blocks are scattered around the edges to finish it off. It's far more childish than Poppy's, with the added toy motorcycle thrown in, of course.

But everyone chuckles, watching Louis smoosh his cake into his mouth. It's the cutest damn thing as South and Ingrid cuddle into their little man while Hurricane and Novah take a bunch of photographs.

Alpha sends out a whistle through the room, gaining everyone's attention, and the general chatter dies down while we focus on him. "I wanna thank everyone for being here today. Obviously, Livvy and I are more than excited we even get to celebrate Poppy's birthday this year after having a few without her." Poppy turns to face her father, cuddling into his legs, but he continues, "I want to especially thank Clover and Wes for helping put this party together for Poppy and Louis. You guys went above and beyond." We turn to them, and they both smile. Wes wraps his arm around Clover in celebration. Her eyes light up, and a flush crosses her face as Maverick glares at Wes.

"Arm off, Prospect!" Maverick grunts, making the rest of us snicker as Wes quickly drops his grip on Clover and takes a large sidestep away from her.

Clover rolls her eyes with a huff, then turns to Alpha. "It was our pleasure, Pres. Happy to help."

Wes nods in agreement. "Yeah… anytime, Pres," he relays.

Glancing around, I notice I can't see Hayes anywhere. Our other prospect has seemed to have gone AWOL. Though, to be honest, I'm not even surprised. The guy is completely incompetent. He probably went out to get ice or something, broke down, and forgot to take his cell. It's absolutely something he would do.

If he's not back closer toward the end of the party, I'll locate his tracker. But for now, I'm going to stay with the party. I'm not wasting my time on a damn idiot.

Holding onto Bea a little tighter, I continue to watch as Alpha turns to Haven. "I want to take a moment to thank you, Haven."

Her eyes widen as she snorts out a laugh. " Me? What the hell did I do?"

Livvy shakes her head. "You brought our daughter back to us. Without you, we wouldn't even be having this party for Poppy today."

Haven offers a weak smile as Alpha takes her hands in his but glances down at Poppy, nodding his head. She grins wide, bouncing up on her toes, and picks up the grenade from the cake in her hand, making us all furrow our brows. "Feeling a bit peckish there, Poppy?" Haven chuckles as Poppy giggles, and Alpha suddenly drops to one knee.

The entire room lets out an audible gasp as Haven's eyes widen so wide it's almost comical to see. Her breathing stops as Alpha grins at her.

"Haven… you changed me. You changed my life. You brought my family back to me and made it not only whole again but so much bigger and brighter. On paper, no one would ever think that you, me, Poppy, and Livvy could make this work. But we do. The way you and Liv take care of our daughter, it blows my fucking mind. You blow my fucking mind. I always said after everything fell apart with Livvy that I would never get married again… but, Haven, I can't imagine this life where you're not mine in every. Possible. Conceivable. Fucking. Way. I love you. And I know you never thought I was going to ask you this… but I am asking, baby, will you marry me?"

Haven swallows hard, her eyes instantly shifting to Livvy. I can't stop smiling that her first thought in this is to the ex-wife of the man proposing to her. But Livvy simply smiles, giving Haven a subtle head nod. And with that, Haven instantly lets out a small sob, her bottom lip trembling as she slowly bobs her head. "Yeah… you better fucking believe it!" she replies, jumping into Alpha's arms, slamming her lips to his in a passionate kiss.

We all throw our hands in the air, letting out a huge cheer, just as Poppy hurls the cake hand grenade to the floor in her excitement. While Alpha and Haven continue to kiss, the rest of us settle and watch as Poppy bends down to the mess on the floor, searches through it, and picks up a ring. "Got it, Daddy!" she yells, making Alpha pull back from Haven.

He spins, facing Poppy as she smiles at him, and he takes the ring from his daughter. "Thank you, baby girl."

Haven bursts out laughing as Alpha shrugs, showing her the ring covered in cake crumbs. "Wanna make this official?" he asks.

She snatches the ring from him, slides it in her mouth, sucking off the hand grenade cake crumbs, then hands it back to him. He rolls his eyes, then proceeds to place it on her left ring finger. "You're locked in tight now," Alpha states.

Haven grins. "I already was," she chimes, then leans in, kissing him again.

Poppy spins, giggling, and embraces Livvy, who is also smiling wide. I have to admit, I am so fucking elated for them. After everything that family has been through, they deserve true happiness.

Bea spins to face me, beaming with joy as I hold her tighter. "That went even better than I thought it would," she states.

Widening my eyes, I jerk my head back at her. "Erm, are you telling me you knew Alpha was going to propose today?"

She shrugs, waggling her eyes. "What happens in the clubhouse kitchen stays in the clubhouse kitchen."

Furrowing my brows, I let out a small laugh. "What does that even mean?"

She giggles. "Sadie was making the cakes, and I happened to walk in when she was putting the ring into the grenade… I made her spill the tea."

Widening my eyes, I snort out a laugh. "That's what you meant by ‘you just never know what can happen when cake comes out?' "

Bea shrugs, smirking at me, and it's impossible not to think how fucking beautiful she looks right now. Still slightly flushed from me being inside her moments before, with a glow of happiness from the joy of the party. Inhaling deeply, I slide a stray strand of hair behind her ear as I stare into her stunning eyes. "I fucking love you."

She cuddles into me tighter. "I love you, too, but the party is still going, and now there's so much more to celebrate—"

"I wanna show you something," I interrupt, take her hand, and start leading her away from the party, even though it is clearly starting to kick up a notch now.

She furrows her brows as I lead her up the stairs toward our bedroom. "Loki, c'mon. I mean, I am down to go again, but we really should stay and hang out with our friends for a little bit—"

I push open my door, and as she steps through, she instantly stops talking, her breath catching in her throat as she comes to a grinding halt. Moving in behind her, I close the door, making the dark room twinkle even more with the sparkling lights I've strung from the ceiling.

Her eyes wander all over the room, clearly in awe as I enter past her, making my way for the remote and switch on the television. Bit by bit, she walks to the edge of the bed to see a tray filled to the brim with chocolates, cookies, Mike and Ike sour candies, and, because I know how she loves balance, a mix of fruits.

Slowly she turns to face me, a genuine smile crossing her face in recognition of what I am doing here for her tonight. "Alex Grimes, when did you find the time to do all this?" she repeats the exact phrase she said to me the first time I did this for her.

Chuckling, I step up to her, remote still in hand, then lean in, gently pressing my lips to hers while simultaneously pressing play. Her fingers slide up into my hair as she kisses me back with so much gusto. But it's when the sounds of honking car horns sound and Romeo Midnight, the radio host from Valentine's Day, says, "Hey there, all you sleepy Angelenos," that Bea pulls back, snapping her head around to face the television, her eyes wide.

My arms tighten around her as Valentine's Day , the movie, plays in our room while it's set up just like the night of our prom. She slowly turns back to face me, her eyes glistening as she looks at me. "You're far too good for me, Alex."

I let out a small laugh, sliding that pesky hair behind her ear again, and rest my forehead against hers. "What kind of man would I be, if I didn't spoil you, and give you all the things you love?"

Her shoulders slump, and her hand comes up, gently caressing the side of my face. "Well… you just earned yourself another blow job tonight." I burst out laughing as she grins, detaching from me and pulling me over to the bed. "But first, we have to watch the movie and eat all this food."

Laughing as she pulls me down onto the bed, I hold her close, kissing the top of her head.

Honestly, I don't even care if we just watch the movie and fall asleep.

Today has been such a great fucking day, and I want to live in this for a moment.

Seeing Bea's eyes light up as I brought back the nostalgia of our past is so worth it. Our history is painful. It caused legitimate health issues, maybe for both of us. We fucked it up completely.

But the thing about our past is, even though the ending was brutal, before all that, it was fucking epic. It was what fairy tales are made of. And if I can try to capture that part of our journey here, tonight, and make Bea happy, that is all I could ever want.

In the end, we still have shit to do—a governor to deal with—and that is going to be a big fucking deal.

But tonight, I am going to enjoy being with my woman, celebrate the club having a win with Alpha and Haven's engagement, and take a moment to let it all sink in.

Because in the dawn of a new day, we all know how quickly shit can change.