Epilogue
Jess
The last of the boxes lands directly in front of me, a cloud of dust blowing up from the hardwood floors and bursting in the air around me. Both me and Kito burst into a coughing fit, wafting at the air in front of our faces in the hope we don’t accidentally inhale a cobweb.
“I thought you said you had a lady coming in to clean once a week?” Kito asks, brow furrowed.
I shrug, looking around at the torn wallpaper and dirty surroundings. “So did I.” Turns out whoever I’d been paying either didn’t show up to clean at all or they’re just really fucking bad at their job.
Still, the house is in decent condition, almost exactly how I left it after my dad died. Minus several layers of dust, of course.
“I like it,” Adair sing-songs as he walks through the glass doors leading into the garden and surveys all the outside space. The vegetable garden is overgrown and it’ll take a hell of a lot of work to get back to where it used to be, but I’m ready for the challenge. As a child I watched my mum and dad build this place back up from a broken-down farmhouse, so a little TLC here and there doesn’t seem like too much work for the perfect pack house. Or should I say, home .
“I like it too,” Orion adds, setting down one of the four computers on the dining room table. “It’s a hell of a lot bigger than the cottage.” He shoots me a wolfish grin, flashing white teeth and dimples at the side of his mouth. It’s a dangerous glance, one that’s gotten us into all sorts of trouble in the last couple of months.
It hasn’t been easy. After our time all together at the cottage during my heat, the boys did eventually have to return to their own lives. At least temporarily. Straight away they began making arrangements to move out here. In classic computer nerd style, they all have work-from-home jobs based around IT and only need to make their appearance known in the office once or twice a month.
Kito and Orion put their places on the market straight away, Adair’s was a lease so all he had to do was give his notice and the deal was done. At first, we figured we’d stay at the fisherman’s cottage with all of its good memories, but the place definitely wasn’t fit to house three strapping alphas. When I suggested moving into my old family home, it was a unanimous and resounding yes from everyone.
It’s bittersweet since I know I’d much rather be bringing the boys back here to visit my dad. He would’ve loved them. He’d have found Kito’s sense of humour endearing. He’d have loved Orion’s gruff strength and his ability to protect me. I think he and Adair would’ve gotten on the best, with their strong, silent nature and dislike for small talk.
“What are you thinking about?” Orion asks as he moves behind me, wrapping his thick arms around my middle and laying his chin on my shoulder.
“How much my dad would love that we’re here,” I reply quietly, gazing through the large bay window looking out over the front garden, with its little blue picket fence and overgrown rose bushes. “He always said it was meant to be a family home. Even when it was just the two of us, that’s how it felt.”
“And that’s what it’ll be,” Kito adds, dusting muck from the front of his shirt. His sleeve slips up, showing the shiny silver half-moon scar written across his skin, just below his thumb. Our bonding mark.
Me marking the boys had been a surprise even I didn’t see coming, but the happiness I feel in knowing we belong to each other overrides any panic I might have felt initially. I can’t even express the joy I feel at knowing that these three men are mine, forever.
“Come on, I wanna show you something,” Adair says as he enters back into the house from the garden. He takes my hand in his and holds it tight. He’s gotten so much more confident in the last few weeks. The a/b/o regression symptoms have almost disappeared, although he does require a little more attention than Orion and Kito. Just enough to make the doubts in his mind quieten for a while.
He leads me up the stairs as the other two follow, our footsteps setting off a song of creaks from the old staircase. We pass my old bedroom, which we’ll happily be using as our room. Then we pass the bathroom and my dad’s old room, which we’re planning on using as a work and games room when the time comes to set up all of our computers. I still don’t know how we’re going to find an internet supplier in this part of Scotland with enough bandwidth to handle us.
Adair stops in front of a closed door, his hand poised over the handle. It used to be my mum’s old hobby room but it’s been empty now for years. Cleared out of all her old books and sewing equipment when my dad couldn’t handle looking at it anymore. It’s one of the only regrets he had—not keeping more of her stuff.
The sadness that passes over me doesn’t last long, not when Adair opens up the door and shows me a taste of what they’re planning. Inside, the place is clean and clear, the floor newly carpeted and the windows draped with thick velvet curtains in a dark berry pink. There’s not much to see yet, but I know exactly what they have planned.
“We started making it into a nest while you were packing up the cottage,” Adair says nervously, toying with his long, elegant fingers. “The carpet is one hundred percent sheep’s wool and underlined so it stays warm in here.”
Orion steps forward, moving to walk through the room. “I’ve got the wood to start making you some bookshelves for the far wall and we have a mattress ordered, a big one.”
“It’ll take up most of the floor space,” Kito adds, walking past Orion and stretching out his arms in an attempt to show me where the mattress is going to go.
“You can choose whatever soft furnishings you want,” Adair continues, the top of his cheeks blushing light pink. “What do you think?”
“I hope you don’t feel like we just came into your house and started fucking with shit,” Kito adds with a grimace.
“Fucking with shit?” Orion laughs. “How eloquent of you.”
“Shut up,” Kito snaps playfully. Seconds later and Orion leaps at him, capturing Kito’s head in his arm and rubbing at his scalp until he’s begging for mercy.
I laugh, but it’s Adair’s beautiful face I lock eyes on. “It’s perfect.”
The two boys stop fighting, their movements stalling.
“You like it?” Orion and Kito ask in unison, flashing each other a glance that says they’ll finish their play fighting later.
“I love it,” I reply, running over to Adair and leaping into his arms. To my relief he doesn’t buckle under the weight, instead allowing me to wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.
“Let me get some of that,” Orion murmurs, pushing in at my side to press a chaste kiss to my lips.
“What am I, chopped liver?” Kito adds. “It was my idea too!”
Without hesitating, I hop down and walk over to Kito, wrapping my arms around his bare middle, his classic crop top fashion statement allowing me to toy with the naked skin on his toned back. I peer up at him through thick lashes and grin. “Thank you. All of you. This’ll be the best nest a girl could ask for. I just wish…”
“Wish what, princess?” Orion asks with genuine concern.
“I wish there was already a bed,” I pout playfully. “Guess you’ll just have to fuck me on the one hundred per cent sheep’s wool carpet.”
Kito’s face erupts in a wide smile, “Oh, fucking gladly .”
These three turning up on my doorstep is the best thing that ever happened to me. I guess we have a whole life ahead of us.
So much for game over .