Epilogue
AIDEN
“Please tell me you didn’t lose the ring,” Casey all but shouted as he tore into our closet. “Both rings? Did you actually lose both fucking rings?”
I leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, as I watched the love of my life throw a temper tantrum.
One of the loves of my life, I should say.
I still couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to have two.
He turned to look at me, and I almost felt bad when I saw the genuine fear and worry crawling through his features.
Key word being almost.
“Aiden!” he barked. “What the fuck?”
I rolled my eyes before straightening and walking toward him.
We had planned our engagement to our pretty girl thoroughly.
Down to the minuscule details of floral decor in the forest that started everything.
Of course I didn’t lose the fucking rings.
“Would you calm the fuck down, love?” I asked as I walked toward the bookshelf in the corner of our bedroom.
It was full to the brim of romance and romantasy books, as Rory called them.
I shook my head every time another package arrived at our door, but it made her happy, and therefore it made us equally as happy.
“She was doing our laundry this morning. I didn’t want her to see the boxes when putting our shirts up, so I moved them to the bookshelf since she doesn’t actually read them. They’re her shelf trophies, remember?”
Casey went silent. “Oh.”
I laughed. “Oh? That’s all?”
He sniffed. “A text message or heads up would have been nice, you know.”
A snort left my throat at his petulant tone. “Ah, yes. Because that’s so smart for a throuple who uses whatever phone is closest to them at any given point. My apologies.”
“You’re such a dick.”
I turned to him with a smirk. “I love you, too, baby boy.”
Just like that, a blush marred his skin.
I snorted. He was so easy to melt into putty.
I reached behind the highest row of books—where our darling girl couldn’t even reach without a ladder and asked us to put books, anyway—and grabbed the rings.
One from me, and one from Casey.
The one from me was simple. A basic, diamond-encrusted band. Though, to personalize it as much as possible, Casey and I had decided to engrave the day we downloaded Preyless into the underside of the ring.
Because if this had all failed, there was no other prey we would have wanted.
Casey’s ring, however, easily stole the show: a silver band molded into the shape of leaves, with a diamond on each side. One diamond was clear and sharp, while the other diamond was black as coal.
Tied together through the representation of life.
It was more than fitting.
We were her diamonds, but she was our life.
I turned toward Casey and shook the box lightly. “See? We’re fine. We should head to the hotel, though. She’s going to be getting off soon, and we don’t want to fuck this up. John can only distract her for so long.”
It was yet another trait I adored about our girl.
We had told her time and time again that she didn’t have to work. Yet, she continued to go to the hotel on the days that John was there to keep him company.
It was made even better by the fact that John actually liked us.
And so, we never protested.
Casey took a big, deep breath before nodding nervously.
It was go-time.
Rory stumbled as we walked her toward the pathway of the tree line. The October air felt warmer than normal, and I couldn’t have been more grateful for it. She whined. “Can you just tell me where we’re going? I don’t like surprises!”
Casey laughed. “We know.”
“And why are you both so dressy? For a beach?”
I laughed next. “So full of questions tonight, pretty girl.”
She huffed. “So lacking in answers, scary man.”
Casey turned to me with a bemused smile as I shook my head.
She was lucky I was completely and utterly in love with her.
That, and I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.
She would have been slung over my shoulder otherwise.
Finally, after another five minutes of walking, we made it to the exact location.
The night when everything started officially.
String lights sparkled amongst the trees, lit up from battery packs, with hundreds of pink flowers mixed in between and shoved throughout the foliage.
A forest that would otherwise be dead, we had brought to life.
Just like she had brought us to life.
I nodded to Casey as I got down on one knee, and seconds later, he untied the bandana from around Rory’s head before dropping to his knee behind her, too.
We watched as she blinked against the light, only to take everything in seconds later.
Her head swiveled around in confusion and awe before she turned to us.
She gasped when she saw us both down on one knee.
And then tears filled her eyes.
“Rory Vale,” I started. “Two years ago, Casey and I knew that we were missing something completely and utterly vital to us. We were happy, but we were also lacking. And then, we saw you.”
Casey cut in. “And to say that the last two years has been the best of our lives is a complete and utter understatement. You’ve given us the hope and completion we needed. You’ve changed us, and we can only hope we’ve changed you, too.”
I took over again. “So, would you do us the extraordinary honor of letting us call you our wife? We know we can’t actually get married with the law…but we want to call you our wife, and we want you until death do us part.”
She stared down at us with smeared mascara and a hand covering her mouth.
Seconds passed as the tears continued.
My stomach was beginning to sink the longer she stared at us in silence.
Right as my head began to lower, though, she dropped her hand from her face and reached into her back pocket. Casey and I turned to look at each other before she held a stick in front of the both of us.
A pregnancy stick.
A pregnancy stick with two clearly solid lines.
Positive.
My head shot up to look her in the eyes once realization dawned on me. We were both frozen in place, absorbing the information before us.
She had told us that she was going off birth control, but that was only a month ago.
Did it really happen that quickly?
Casey spoke with a shake in his voice. “Darlin’?”
Finally, she sniffled the words we both needed to hear. “I do, if you do.”