Epilogue
Felix
SIX MONTHS LATER
The best thing about the Community of Species Hockey League? There are only four teams, and because of that, every team makes it to the playoffs, no matter how their season went.
In the past, that’s been a bad thing for me. I didn’t love being humiliated for the whole season and then having it happen all over again for playoffs. This year? Totally different.
We had a great season and finished in second place, which is a long way from our customary last. But even better than that, we had a great playoffs run… and we won.
We won the motherfucking playoffs!
There was screaming. Hugging. Tears. A fuckton of champagne and then other drinks.
Vitter clung to me, weeping, for a full ten minutes and vowed to be my best friend for life.
Gline pirouetted around the dressing room, blowing kisses and singing “The Boys are Back in Town.” Hellhounds are fucking weird.
Everyone knows that the best victory song is “We Are the Champions.”
That was two days ago, and it was one of the best nights of my life. If it had happened before Ari told me he loves me, it would have been the best night of my life. But nothing will ever top that, or the way he’s loved me and made me feel every day since.
He squeezes my hand, and I glance over. “You okay?” he asks. “You’re not going to throw up again, are you?”
I grimace. “No, but thanks for reminding me.”
“You threw up?” Dáithí asks with a scrunch of his nose. “Why?”
“I was very, very drunk,” I explain. “What with having won the motherfucking playoffs.” My grin is so wide, it’s possible that my face is going to split.
Ari rolls his eyes. “The team partied hard after the game,” he adds.
“Family and partners left a few hours in, but the players and staff kept on. Fe didn’t get home until early afternoon yesterday.
” Ari’s assignment to the Warhammers ended in late January when the DEA finally found a PR person to replace him.
As much as I miss seeing him at the clubhouse, this is better for us.
He loves his job, and I no longer have to hear my teammates make kissy noises when they see him.
“That’s some party.” Jared joins us, lowering himself to sit cross-legged on the grass and then reaching up to take a tray of glasses from Raeulfr. “Thanks, honey.”
Ari’s king settles beside me, a bottle of shifter champagne in one hand and one of fizzy water in the other. “My pleasure. Felix, can your stomach handle bubbles or should I get still water too?”
“Bubbles are fine,” I assure him. “But water, please. I’m pretty sure there’s still alcohol seeping out of my pores. Also,” I turn a glare on Dáithí and Jared, “how come my besties didn’t tell me that elves can heal a hangover?”
“They can what?” Jared demands. “Nobody told me that!”
Raeulfr shrugs. “You haven’t been hungover since we met. It didn’t come up.”
Dáithí smirks. “I don’t believe in healing hangovers. I earned it, so I should live through it.”
Eoin’s peal of laughter identifies that as a lie.
“Anyway,” Ari interrupts before an argument can break out, “as glad as I am to be spending the afternoon in your lovely rooftop garden with you all—and apparently with champagne—what’s the news you said you have?”
I lean against his side and accept a glass of sparkling water from Jared. I’m also curious about this news—curious enough to leave my house after swearing I never would again. Post-playoffs hangovers are no joke, even with the most amazing elf boyfriend in the world to heal me.
Raeulfr finishes passing glasses around and picks one up for himself. “First, congratulations to Felix for his incredible achievement. We’re all so proud of you.”
Heat floods my cheeks, but I can’t stop myself from smiling.
“You already said that,” I mutter. They were all at the final game, screaming themselves hoarse for me, and then joined us on the ice after.
That was one heck of a moment—high on victory I earned, surrounded by teammates I respect and even like, and then mobbed by my family and best friends, all of them screaming their love and support for me. It was fucking epic.
And Ari was there, tears running down his face, grinning huge, kissing me until neither of us could breathe—but it was okay, because I don’t need oxygen when he’s around. He’s the only thing I need to live.
It took us a while to find our normal after the night he told me about his past. Not because I judge him for it, but because he’d never dared to believe he might get to let it go.
He still sometimes regresses to thinking he doesn’t deserve to be truly happy, but he’s working on it, and I will always be here to assure him he deserves everything.
“Second,” Raeulfr continues, “although it’s not actually second at all… Jared and I are getting married.”
For a split second, there’s complete silence. And then Eoin speaks. “Please tell me it’s not going to be a public ceremony.”
Dáithí elbows him hard. “Don’t be a dick,” he chides, but we’re all laughing, Jared and Raeulfr smiling at each other like they’ve got a special kind of secret, and if there was ever a perfect moment, it’s this one. Full of joy, full of life. Full of magic.
Elf magic.
Thanks for reading Falling for the Felid! I hope you loved Ari and Felix’s story as much as I do.