Epilogue - One Month Later #3
I turn. She's awake now, propped up on one elbow, Koa still dead asleep beside her.
"Yeah, love?"
"See you Friday?"
"Wouldn't miss it."
She smiles, and it's the smile that does it—the one that's just for me, just for this moment. The one that says she sees me, knows me, wants me.
The one that makes this whole fucked-up situation worth it.
"Good," she says. "Because I'm not done with any of you yet."
"Neither are we," Revan says, kissing her forehead before following me to the door.
We leave them there—Lexi and Koa in that too-small bed, wrapped around each other, both of them scarred and healing and alive.
Outside, the campus is just waking up. Students heading to early classes, dining halls opening, the world continuing like nothing happened.
Like we didn't just spend the night redefining what love looks like when it grows in darkness.
"Same time next week?" I ask Revan as we walk toward the parking lot.
"She'll text us before then."
"Yeah." I grin. "She will."
As we drive back to Blackridge, I can't stop thinking about her. About them. About this impossible thing we've built together.
It won't last forever. Nothing this intense ever does.
But while it does?
I’m going to enjoy it.
LEXI
I wake up properly when my alarm goes off at 7:15. Koa's still here, arm draped over my waist, breathing deep and even against my neck.
Revan and Atticus are gone, but I expected that. They have their own lives, their own responsibilities. We all do.
This isn't a fairy tale where we live together happily ever after. We're still figuring out how to exist in the same world without destroying each other. Still learning the boundaries, the rules, the way to make this work when we're all fundamentally broken people.
But we're trying.
And that's more than I thought I'd have a month ago.
I carefully slip out of Koa's grip and head to the shower. The hot water feels good on my sore muscles, washing away the evidence of last night. When I emerge, wrapped in a towel, Koa's sitting up in bed looking deliciously rumpled.
"Morning," he says, voice rough with sleep.
"Morning. You staying?"
"For a bit. Walk you to class?"
"I'd like that."
“Come here,” he commands.
He grabs my ass and says, “Did you have a nice shower?”
I nod, watching him carefully. “What’s this about? You’re smug.”
“I’m not smug.”
I nod. “You are.”
His fingers graze the curve of my ass. “If I had known––”
“Koa,” I stop him. I take a step to my dresser, but he pulls me back.
“Not so fast,” he whispers in my ear. “See the thing is that I didn’t know you wanted to be fucked in the ass, Lexi.
And if I did, I would have done it months ago.
Now.” He grabs the towel wrapped around me, dropping it to the ground.
He looks at my ass and drops to his knees. He opens my cheeks and licks.
The pleasure is intense. A moan tears out of me.
“You like that, Tiger?” he teases, licking harder.
“Fuck,” I breathe. “Koa, I have class.”
“So do I, baby, but you’re going to let me fuck your ass first.”
He pulls down his boxers and bends me over the bed. “Grab your vibrator.”
I reach in the top drawer and pull out the vibrator as he teases my ass with the tip of his dick.
“Lexi,” he groans. “You belong to me and only me. I only share because you beg me to, but this…this fucking ass, this pretty pussy––” He shoves a long finger into me, and I moan.
With his other hand, he puts his fingers in my mouth.
“These lips are all mine, Lexi.” Then his attention is back on my ass.
He smacks it. “I’m so fucking excited to fuck this ass, Lexi. ”
And with one push, he slides right in and groans, “Fuck.”
I press the vibrator against my clit harder, and I’m immediately shaking, trembling, falling apart. He fucks my ass with rapid speed, heat starts traveling at my center until I feel it in my toes, my fingertips, and the back of my neck.
“Aw, fuck,” I cry out, feeling my body completely let go.
“So fucking pretty,” Koa praises, still fucking me.
And the orgasm overtakes my entire body. I start seeing stars, and it’s the best orgasm I’ve ever experienced.
Koa rides the waves and then comes with me.
We’re spent, lying next to each other.
Then he smacks my ass and says, “Come on. You’ve made me late for class.”
“Oh, I made you late?” I scoff.
We step into the shower and wash each other’s body. He takes care of me like I didn’t know was possible, washing me with soap, kissing me under the shower head.
“We’re doing that again,” he mutters.
He dries himself and then pulls on his jeans. I watch him move around my small dorm room like he belongs here. Like this is normal.
Maybe it is now. Maybe this is our new normal.
I get dressed—jeans, a clean shirt, my backpack. Koa waits patiently, scrolling through his phone, and when I'm ready he stands and takes my hand.
We walk across campus together in the morning light. Students pass us, some glancing, some staring.
At the liberal arts building, Koa stops and pulls me close. "See you tonight?"
"Maybe. I've got a study group, and Thea wants to get dinner."
"Text me when you're done. I'll come get you."
"You don't have to—"
"I want to." He kisses me, soft and possessive all at once. "I always want to."
I watch him walk away, hands shoved in his pockets, looking like any other college athlete heading to morning practice. Nobody would guess what he's capable of. What we've all done.
And that's exactly how we want it.
I head into class and take my usual seat near the back. The professor is already setting up, writing discussion questions on the board about "The Sun Also Rises" and lost generation masculinity.
My phone buzzes. Three texts.
Atticus: Made it back. Already missing that ass, sexy.
Revan: Practice in an hour. Thinking about you.
Koa: Forgot to tell you—you're fucking perfect.
I smile, typing back quick responses to each of them. Different messages for different people, because they each need something different from me.
And I need different things from each of them.
The professor starts class and I put my phone away, pulling out my notebook. But I can't focus on Hemingway and disillusionment and the aftermath of war.
I'm too busy thinking about my own aftermath.
About how I killed my father and don't regret it.
About how I have three men who want me, and I want them all back.
About how the parasite in my chest finally stopped feeding because it found something better than power.
It found belonging.
Broken, bloody, violent belonging—but belonging nonetheless.
The lecture continues. Outside, the world spins on. And I sit in my seat, taking notes on literary theory, looking like any other college student trying to pass her classes.
Nobody knows.
Nobody needs to know.
This is mine. Ours. The secret we carry between the four of us.
And when class ends and I walk back out into the sunlight, I know they're all out there somewhere—Koa at practice, Revan and Atticus at Blackridge.
But tonight, or tomorrow, or whenever we can steal the time, we'll come back together.
We'll collide like we always do—violent and beautiful.
And that's not a fairy tale ending.
It's better.
It's real.
The End.
Thank you so much for reading!