Epilogue Two
Ifixed my diamond studs onto my ears, taking a breath and checking myself once more in the dressing room mirror.
I pushed open the door and made my way to the second-floor bar just before open. Only, I stopped in my tracks at the obscenely handsome image of Zed Maverick in a dark, well fitted suit, leaning arrogantly against the bar. Which was odd, because it was still fifteen minutes until open.
Uh. My eyes narrowed. That was my bar. I hadn’t been here in months. Why was he touching my bar before me? He grinned as he adjusted his cuffs, looking me up and down dramatically as if he hadn’t driven me here in this outfit.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked. He’d offered to drop me off, not come in.
“I got a job,” he declared.
“You what?” I asked.
“I get paid to follow you around.” He looked so fucking pleased with himself as he adjusted his collar. I narrowed my eyes. Ah. Shit. That was one of the security outfits.
“No way that’s your job.”
“Travis doesn’t really care what I do, as long as there’s the same number of bartending omegas at the end of the night as there was at the start. Apparently, a load of you have gone missing recently”—he cleared his throat.—“can’t imagine why. But he’s paying for extra shadows.”
“You’re joking.”
“I certainly am not.”
“And he didn’t mind the face tattoos?” I asked, a little surprised at that.
“I like to think they look rather classy with the uniform,” Zed said, affronted.
“He’s right, you know.” That was Tallow’s voice behind me. I spun to see him sliding onto a barstool, but he’d only got halfway on before I’d thrown my arms around him.
“Damn, the scent match thawed you a little, Ice Queen.” He chuckled, drawing me into a hug back. And to my relief, I didn’t even flinch as his hand brushed the fabric over my scars.
“You know?”
“Well. None of us did until Roger spilled.”
Ah. Right. Nothing stayed secret that long at the High Roller.
I let Tallow fill me in on the rest of the drama I’d missed while I got ready for the shift.
It had taken a while, after my heat, to recover. Not just from the heat, but from everything. One thing in my life I realised I’d loved was the High Roller.
But my first shift back was different.
I found it easier to talk to the patrons, Tallow, and Jade, who was back with her own pack, who seemed head over heels for her.
True to his word, Zed dogged me all night. He was quite good at keeping out of the clients’ way, though he’d have to work on his facial expressions when packs hit on me, because that was just part of the job.
When I slipped into the passenger seat for the ride home, I noticed Zed giving me a funny look.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“You were just… glowing in there.”
I snorted. “My cheeks hurt.”
“Yeh, I don’t think I’ve seen you smile that much in my life—I didn’t even know you could, Little Devil.”
When we got home, I was still smiling, clutching Zed’s hand as we walked through the main warehouse, where the huge graffiti wall had the words ‘Sweet Oasis’ with a crown beside it.
Both Kyan and Knight were waiting in my nest with snacks, and a movie running. My new nest was the old cell, but the guys had insisted on knocking a wall down and expanding it.
And renovating it.
And getting hot water to the shower—finally. But no one touched the little box of dead rose stems that sat on my vanity.
I tugged off my dress and heels, slipping into an oversized nest T-Shirt with all their scents on it, and burrowed beneath the piles of blankets until I was cuddled up between all three of my alphas. And of course, just like she always did at the scent of the full pack together, Lucy came rushing in, trampled over Knight, Kyan, and Zed, to curl up at my side.
“How was the evening?” Knight asked.
“Amazing.”
“And you?” Knight prodded Zed. I was leaning forward in bed like a kid at Christmas, enjoying the sight of him unbuttoning his uniform, as Kyan tugged me into his arms.
“I missed you,” he breathed. I giggled.
“Well,” Zed said. “I learned that Glade is very proficient at pouring drinks.”
“Really?” Knight asked.
“And the flirting?” Kyan had a grin on his face.
“Flirting?” I asked.
“We have bets.”
“On what?”
“How long Zed will last at a job where he has to watch other alphas flirt with you.”
“Turns out I think our omega is infinitely more sexy when the whole world gets to see…” He dropped down right between me and Kyan, dragging me against his chest, teeth grazing my neck. “...But not touch.”
His palm brushed the claim along my back. The one with his name.
I loved it when he did that.
I was theirs, and they were mine.
A new page.
A new life.
I felt his hand brush my back, running along scars I now knew would never haunt me again, because for the first time in a long while, I could try for a little normal. Popcorn, and movies, and dates beneath the stars, and?—
“Forever and always, Oasis,” Kyan breathed. “You’re our queen.”