Epilogue
MERRI
Approximately Five Years Later
“Nox Belladonna, you turn him back right now!” Moira shouted at her four-year-old son. He turned around from where he was playing in the wading pool with a guilty look on his face and a struggling toad in his hand.
Sunday laughed as her son appeared where the toad had been, his little face scrunched in an angry scowl.
“He took my ball!” Nox wailed.
“You took it fwom me fiwst!”
“Boys, don’t make us separate you,” Sunday called.
Kingston bounded over with Eden perched on his shoulders. “What’s all this shouting about?”
“We need a little distraction, babe,” Sunday said.
The wolf shifter winked and scooped their little boy up as Eden squealed and held on for dear life. “Time to play launch the rocket!”
“He’s so good with them,” Dahlia said from her place on the lounger. She was the only one of us currently in the shade, a floppy beach hat on her head and her youngest baby happily feeding at her breast.
“He was born to be a dad,” Sunday said with a soft smile.
Dahlia’s other two sons raced toward Kingston, shouting that they wanted to play too.
“I swear they’re growing like weeds,” I said with a slight shake of my head. Her oldest was the same technical age as mine, and her middle son was only a year or two younger, but both boys already looked closer to eight-and nine-year-olds.
Dahlia chuckled. “It’s all the realm hopping. Time moves faster in Faerie and Novasgard. We’ve decided that until they’re all fully grown, none of them gets to go without the other. It’s too confusing otherwise.”
Hades appeared from around the corner, handing Dahlia a big glass of lemonade. “Here you go, babydoll. You need anything else?”
“No, I’m good. But I think Kingston might need some help.”
“I thought Cas was playing with them.”
I laughed and pointed at the pirate who was in an inflatable boat with my son, Grayson, and Sunday’s youngest little girl. She was all of two years old but already feistier than her brother and sister combined.
“Fastew!” she shouted.
“Avast, me hearties! Yo ho!” Cas crowed, using some of his power to create a fake breeze and make the little one believe they were speeding along.
We all laughed as the kids played together.
“This was a great idea,” I said, looking around at the beautiful resort Lucifer had created for us based on one of his favorites on Maui.
“I know, right?” he said, swanning over as if I’d summoned him. Unlike Grim, who looked so uncomfortably out of place in the sunshine, Lucifer was my golden god. His blond hair was nearly bleached white, and he rocked that Speedo like he’d been painted into it.
“What’s that in your hand, you handsome devil?” I teased, knowing he’d brought me a lava flow.
“You looked a little parched. Have you been careful with your suncream?”
“Yes, Dad,” I teased.
“I’m pretty sure I told you to call me Daddy.”
Moira made a gagging noise. “I thought we all agreed, no more daddy talk now that you’re all dads for real.”
“Pretty sure you’re the only one who agreed to that, babe,” Sunday said, blowing her bestie a kiss.
Sudden splashing had all of us turning back toward the pool and Caspian.
“What foul creature is this?” he cried, pointing at an obscenely large inflatable crocodile. From my seat, I could just make out the Nordson twins pushing it along under the water.
Caspian fell into the pool, his splash so large it soaked me, Sunday, and Rosie.
Rosie startled awake and let out a frustrated groan. “Seriously, boys? I’d just fallen asleep!”
“Sorry!” Alek said. “Won’t happen again.”
“I highly doubt that,” Dahlia said under her breath. “Those two are bigger troublemakers than our boys when they get together.”
“Come with me, petal. We’ll get you something new to wear,” Gavin said as he exited the cabana behind us and held out his hand for Rosie.
“Pretty sure that’s code for fucking,” Kiki said, popping up beside Dahlia.
“Everything is code for fucking in this group,” I agreed.
“That’s because we know how to do this whole life thing right,” Sin said, claiming the spot behind me and bracketing my legs with his. “Why are you sitting here instead of jumping all the way in?” he asked, brushing my hair over my shoulder so he could press a kiss to my neck.
“Because the water’s cold.”
He kicked his feet, sending little droplets flying. “Liar, it’s perfect.”
“If you push me in, you’ll be in time-out for the next month.”
Before he could respond, Chaos popped up in front of me, snatched me around the waist, and pulled me in. We came up spluttering. Well, I was spluttering. Chaos was laughing.
“Oh, you’re in trouble now,” Sin warned.
“I like it when she’s mad. There’s nothing like make-up sex,” he teased.
I splashed him right in the face, then stomped over to the stairs and got out.
“Oh, don’t be a spoilsport, Red. You’ll dry off in no time.”
“I just don’t like to reward bad behavior,” I called over my shoulder.
“That’s not what you said last night.”
Malice came up behind me with a towel and wrapped it around my shoulders. “He’s right. You let him be very bad last night. Me too, if memory serves.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“Yours, hellcat. Always yours.”
I grinned at him. “Good. I’d hate to put you in time-out as well.”
He laughed and swatted my butt. “You wouldn’t dare. You like that thing I do with my tongue too much.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“Hey, Sunshine! Watch what Eden learned to do,” Kingston called from the end of the pool where he and Thorne were waiting at the water slide.
“You’d better catch her,” Thorne warned.
“Daddy, here I come!” Eden crowed. “Watch me!”
She disappeared from view, then shot out of the slide and right into Kingston’s waiting hands.
Sunday clapped for her daughter while Thorne waded over to the edge of the pool so he could talk to her. “Come on, get in. I’ll catch you if you want to come down the slide too.”
“She can’t use that slide, Thorne. It’s not safe,” Caleb warned, appearing out of nowhere and scaring the crap out of me.
“Wait . . . why isn’t it safe for Sunday, but it’s safe for Eden?” Moira asked, voice heavy with suspicion. Then she jumped to her feet. “Sunday Amadeus Fallon, are you pregnant?”
Sunday’s cheeks turned pink. “Yes. I just found out this morning. I wasn’t ready to tell everyone yet, Caleb.”
“Too bad. You know the rules.”
She sighed and adjusted her hat. “Fine. But you’d better keep me in virgin daiquiris for the rest of this trip.”
“That I can do.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
“Help me! They’ve gone feral!” Remi shouted as he ran across the pool deck with two fluffy little wolf pups at his heels. “Ouch! OW! No! No bite. Do NOT bite Daddy!”
I pressed my hand to my mouth to keep my laugh from escaping.
Ben appeared around the corner. “W-what the h-hell is w-wrong with you? P-pick them up. Th-they’re smaller th-than y-you.”
“They’re fast and—ouch, fuck, shit—they have sharp teeth!”
“Fuck!” Dahlia’s oldest chirped. “Shit!”
“Language!” Kai bellowed from the hot tub. Then he turned to Remi. “Seriously, Mercer. You’ve got to watch your feckin’ mouth around my sons. They’re like little sponges.”
“You know, I wasn’t sure about this lazy river thing, but now that I see what’s happening out there, you had the right idea, brother,” Pan said as he and Asher came around the bend on their tandem inner tube, his tail acting as their rudder.
“When are you going to learn to trust me? I always have good ideas.” Asher clinked his glass with his brother’s and then took a drink of his cocktail.
“Always? That’s a bit of a stretch, don’t you think, Asher?” Tor called, climbing out of the pool and looking every inch the Viking demigod he was. Then his brother appeared behind him, and my mouth went dry. One of them was eye candy. The two together? A veritable feast.
“Did you forget you’re spoken for, wildflower?” Grim murmured as he came up behind me, his shadows wrapping around my hips while he tugged me into his hard chest.
“I’m a succubus, I can’t help it.”
“Mmm, I see. Perhaps I need to take you into the cabana and give you a little refresher.”
“I doubt it would be little.”
He grinned. “Good girl.”
Caspian must have recovered from his showdown with the crocodile because he swaggered over with two drinks in hand, one already mostly empty. “I can’t decide if I prefer the lava flow to the pina colada. On one hand, rum. On the other hand . . . Wait, I had another hand.”
“And I think that’s enough of those for you,” Dahlia called, gesturing for Kai to take the pirate’s drinks away.
“You know, I think I need another myself,” I said, looking to Grim.
He nodded, pressing a kiss to my lips. “I’ll be right back.”
Plopping myself back in my chair, I sighed as I took in the scene. All of us, happy, thriving, with families of our own. We’d bested the horsewomen, saved the world more times than we could count, and lived to tell the tale.
“Do you guys ever wish we didn’t remember everything that happened? You know, that the angels wiped our memories like they did with the humans?” I asked as our kids played with their dads.
Sunday shook her head. So did Dahlia.
“Remembering what we’ve been through is what makes this life so sweet,” Sunday said.
“We fought hard for our happy endings,” Dahlia added.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“It’s important that we make a point to celebrate it,” Sunday said.
“Celebrate what?” Rosie asked, rejoining us, Gavin giving her a kiss on the forehead before joining the rest of the guys.
“Our victory.”
“Fuck yes, it is.”
We all gasped at Rosie’s curse.
“Rosie. Wow. My ghasts are flabbered,” Moira said.
Kiki giggled. “Oh, don’t be so hard on her. Sometimes you just need a good fuck.”
“Hell yeah, you do,” I cheered, making the girls laugh harder.
Once we could come up for air, Sunday wiped a tear from her eye. “I mean it, though. We should make this a regular thing. Make a point to celebrate what we survived together.”
“I agree. So . . . same time next year?”
We all exchanged excited glances, smiles stretching widely across our faces.
“Looks like it’s a date.”
THE END…or is it? Keep reading for a sneak peek of what’s next in The Mate Game’s Universe.