Epilogue Ares
SIX MONTHS LATER…
“Conference call’s done,” Orion said, ending the video meeting with our attorneys. “Insurance settlement came through. Full coverage for the fire damage, plus punitive damages from the conspiracy lawsuit.”
“And the Gaming Commission?” said Leo.
I barely heard what Orion said next. My mind had drifted to the morning, the four of us waking up together in the humongous bed that Leo had commissioned for us from a specialty mattress company. It had arrived only two weeks ago, and we were having fun trying out all the ways we could use it.
Tashi had been different this morning, somehow softer and more welcoming. Gone was the ferocity of our earlier lovemaking, which I was beginning to miss. She’d snuggled up next to me while my brothers slept.
“Shh,” she whispered as she fondled my cock with her soft hands. It didn’t take me long to get going, especially when she raked the tips of her nails across my balls. The woman knew what I liked.
“Oh, fuck,” I said.
“Shh,” she said more fiercely. “No noise. This is our time.”
“Wait,” I whispered back. “Is this what you do every morning with whoever wakes first?”
“Maybe,” she whispered playfully in my ear.
Note to self. Wake first every morning.
I was getting into what Tashi was doing to me, and I was thinking I wanted her to get on top of me and ride me hard, and just the thought made me moan.
“What’s going on?” said Orion sleepily.
“Nothing. Go back to sleep,” I said.
“Uh-uh,” said Leo, stirring next to me. “I know what’s going on, and I want in on the action.”
Damn it.
Tashi smiled and straddled me, spearing herself with my cock and yet reaching out to my brothers, one on either side. I gasped as her heat surrounded me. I would never tire of this.
“Closer, boys,” she said.
“I don’t need to hear anything else,” said Leo.
He got on his knees facing us, and Tashi reached for his dick, and Orion did the same on the opposite side.
She rocked on me, my mind spinning with the incredible softness of her channel and her body moving on top of me, and damn it, I was about to blow already.
Tashi made whimpering noises as I pinched her nipples, which seemed fuller than before. She gasped. “More, Ares.” She picked up the pace, rising and falling on me, and I was half out of my mind with how good she felt.
“Come on, baby,” I said. “Come for me.”
Tashi shuddered around me and cried out, pulsing hard, and I couldn’t hold back anymore. I shot deep inside her, letting go of everything I had to give her, flying high. On either side of me, my brothers let loose too.
We fell together in a sweaty, breathless, sticky mess that I was getting used to.
“That was intense. Who’s up for a shower?” Leo said with a wicked smile.
“Oh, no,” said Tashi. “Not again. I’ve got errands.”
“What kind of errands?” I asked.
“I have super-secret errands,” she had replied while untangling herself from us.
That had been hours ago…
Leo snapped his fingers in my face. “You here, Ares?”
“Yeah.”
“Final approval came yesterday,” Orion said. “We’re fully cleared. No restrictions. Kurt Wilder’s license was permanently revoked.”
Six months since the gala. It had been six months since Marcus’s failed bombing attempt, which was stopped because I recognized the vent shaft configuration from Kandahar, allowing us to catch him the moment his helicopter touched down.
It had been six months since Henri was arrested alongside Wilder, and both were facing federal conspiracy charges.
It had been six months since we won back with everything we had lost.
“Meeting with the new investors is at four,” Orion continued, checking his schedule. “They want to tour the renovated ballroom.”
“And I have the spring marketing campaign ready to present,” Leo added. “Tashi approved the final designs this morning before she—” He stopped mid-sentence.
“Before she what?” I asked.
“Before she disappeared with Marta.” Leo frowned. “Said she had errands to run. But she’s been gone for three hours.”
Something in my gut tightened. Tashi had been different lately. Quieter. More careful about what she ate. She’d canceled our gym sessions two weeks ago, claiming she was tired.
And this morning, I’d caught her staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror with an expression I couldn’t quite read.
“Where is she now?” Orion asked.
Leo checked his phone. “Her suite. With Marta.”
“Let’s go check on her,” I said, already moving toward the door.
“Ares—” Orion started.
“Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”
My brothers exchanged looks but followed without argument. We’d learned to trust each other’s instincts over the past few months. Especially mine, regarding threats.
And right now, every tactical sense I had was screaming that something had changed.
We took the elevator to the executive floor—our floor, the four suites on this floor now merged into one apartment. The living room was quiet, afternoon sun streaming through the windows.
I knocked on Tashi’s door. Actually, it was our door, as we had all been sleeping there more nights than not.
“Come in,” Tashi called out.
I opened the door and stopped dead.
Suitcases lay open on the bed. Clothes folded neatly inside. Marta stood by the dresser with an armful of sundresses.
“You’re leaving,” Orion said, his voice tight.
Tashi looked up from where she was folding a swimsuit. “Yes. But before I do, I want you to know that you can sign the papers or not. Your choice.”
Dread crept over me. Was she leaving us?
“Papers? What papers?” I asked.
“First—” She took a breath, and I caught the nervousness in her eyes. “I want you all to know that I’m changing my last name to Kolykos. Unless you have objections.”
The world stopped.
Tashi Kolykos.
She wanted to share our family name, the one we had diligently fought to safeguard.
“We don’t have objections,” Orion said, his voice rough. “But what is this about? What papers?”
Tashi pulled a folder from her bag and handed it to him.
“Well, poly marriages aren’t legal yet, so I went for the next best thing—without competition.
I’ll change my name, so our little family all have the same one.
The papers ensure that you all have parental rights.
The laws were meant for gay couples, but they work just as well for a situation like ours. ”
Parental rights.
My brain stuttered over the words, trying to make them make sense.
“Parental rights?” Leo’s voice came out strangled.
“Well, you don’t expect me to raise children without financial support, do you?” Tashi’s tone was light and teasing, but her hands were shaking. “Because if you do, I’ve made some bad choices.”
Children.
Raise children.
“Tashi,” Orion said carefully, like he was defusing a bomb. “Are you—?”
“Yes.” She met my eyes first, then Orion’s, then Leo’s. “I’m pregnant.”
The floor dropped out from under me.
Pregnant.
Tashi was pregnant with our child.
I reached for the dresser to steady myself, my mind racing through tactical assessments—threats, vulnerabilities, and protective measures we’d need to implement immediately.
“Is there any point in asking who the father is?” I heard myself say.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Marta interjected. “You’re identical triplets. It doesn’t matter.”
She was right. DNA wouldn’t tell us anything. And it didn’t matter.
We were all the father.
Orion was reading the legal documents with the intensity he usually reserved for hostile takeover attempts. Leo had moved to Tashi’s side, his hand finding hers.
“These are parental rights agreements,” Orion said. “For all three of us. Joint custody, financial responsibility, medical decision-making authority… Tashi, this is—”
“Necessary,” she finished. “Because legally, only one of you can be listed as the father. But this way, all three of you have equal rights, responsibility—everything.”
Smart. She’d thought this through and covered every angle.
“You’ve been planning this,” Leo said softly.
“For two weeks. Since I found out.”
Two weeks. She’d known for two weeks and hadn’t told us.
“And you didn’t tell us?” I asked, hearing the edge in my voice.
“I wanted to have everything figured out first. I wanted to make sure you had options. That you could choose—” Her voice caught. “To participate in this. Or not.”
Choose?
She was pregnant with our child. And she’d thought—for even one second—that we might not want that?
I crossed the room before I could think about it, pulling her into my arms. “Are you insane? Of course we’re choosing this. We’re choosing you.”
“All of us,” Leo added, wrapping around her from behind.
Orion set the papers down and completed the circle, his hand finding her stomach. Still flat. There was no visible evidence yet of life growing inside her.
Our life.
“I’ll sign the papers,” Orion said. “We all will. But Tashi—” His hand pressed gently against her abdomen. “Why are you leaving?”
She sighed, leaning into us. “You don’t expect me to carry triplets without a babymoon, do you?”
Triplets.
The word hit like a flash-bang.
“Triplets?” Leo’s voice cracked.
“Yes.” Tashi was smiling now, radiant. “I understand it runs in the family.”
Three babies.
Three.
My brothers and I had been a unit our entire lives, united against the world in running this hotel, now in love with the same woman.
And now three more.
“Oh my God,” Orion breathed.
“Three babies,” I said, testing the words. Making them real. “Three.”
“Your family does everything in threes, apparently,” Marta said cheerfully. “Might as well keep the tradition going.”
“We’re having triplets,” Leo repeated, then started laughing. That uncontrolled, overwhelmed laugh meant his brain had short-circuited. “We’re having triplets.”
Orion had gone into planning mode, firing questions at Tashi about doctors, due dates, and risk factors. She answered patiently, her hand over his on her stomach.
Ten weeks pregnant. High-risk multiples. Everything looked good so far.