Epilogue May Your Reign Begin
EPILOGUE: MAY YOUR REIGN BEGIN
~SERENITY~
F IVE DAYS LATER…
It had been five days since Serenity's first heat broke.
The cabin—secluded deep in the evergreens of Mordan’s northern forest—had become their sanctuary. The air smelled like pine and snow, the sun barely peeking through the overcast sky, and inside the high-end modern safehouse, it smelled like them.
Musk. Bond. Sex. Home.
The heat had left its mark—not just in scent, but bruises. Marks of teeth and nails and knots. Serenity’s body still hummed from the memory of it. Her Alphas? Wrecked in the best ways.
“You think she’ll ever let us recover?” Ronan muttered, leaning against the marble kitchen counter shirtless, abs faintly bruised, bite marks peppering his throat and shoulder.
“She marked you like a damn trophy,” Lucian said with a smirk, limping slightly as he sipped his coffee. “You should’ve seen your face during round… what was it, nine?”
“Twelve,” Darius corrected, adjusting the ice pack on his thigh. “And she nearly snapped my wrist when she flipped me over that last time.”
“I couldn’t have been that bad,” Serenity said from the couch, where she sat wrapped in one of Ronan’s oversized hoodies, legs curled beneath her. Her voice held disbelief… and a hint of pride.
All three men turned to look at her like she’d sprouted horns.
“You made Ronan beg,” Lucian deadpanned.
“I don’t beg,” Ronan snapped.
“She made you whimper.”
Darius, ever composed, just lifted his brow.
“My left thigh may never walk the same.”
Serenity flushed.
“Oh gods.”
Lucian grinned like the devil.
“You cried out my name like I’d saved you from drowning.”
“I did not!” she groaned, burying her face in her hands.
“Pretty sure you did,” Darius murmured.
“She screamed all three of ours in the same breath at one point,” Ronan added, eyes twinkling.
She let out a mortified squeak.
Then—
The doorbell rang.
All four of them froze.
In the middle of nowhere, with all security systems on, no one should be here.
Serenity sat up slowly, eyes narrowing.
“Are we expecting someone?”
Lucian shrugged lazily.
“Must be the cake delivery.”
Her brow furrowed.
“Cake?”
“For you,” Ronan said with a grin.
“Why would you order a cake for me?”
“First heat cake,” Lucian replied, smirking.
She groaned.
“That’s not a thing.”
“It is now,” Ronan said. “We called ahead.”
Serenity rolled her eyes.
“You guys are ridiculous.”
Darius leaned in from the fridge, cool and calm. “It’s also the first.”
She blinked. “The first what?”
“The first of the year,” Lucian said. “Happy birthday, princess.”
Her jaw dropped.
“It’s my birthday?”
Ronan held up his phone.
“Calendar confirms. Also checked the camera feed. Delivery’s legit.”
Serenity blinked once, then again.
Her birthday.
In all the chaos, the heat, the survival—it had completely slipped her mind.
A soft smile spread across her lips.
“I could use something sweet.”
She pushed off the couch and padded barefoot to the door, hoodie swishing at her thighs. The boys murmured behind her, their low chuckles following her.
She flung the door open with a playful grin.
Then froze.
There, on the porch, holding a box with “Happy Heat Day” in cursive frosting script, was a man she hadn’t seen in years. Silver streaked his dark hair now, but his eyes were the same— sharp, kind, and haunted.
“Happy New Year,” he said, a grin cracking across his face.
Serenity’s breath caught.
“Pa… Papa?”
He barely managed to set the cake down before she threw herself into his arms.
He grunted, hugging her close.
“Haven’t been hugged like this since you were eight.”
Tears spilled silently from her eyes as she gripped him, fingers curling into the back of his coat.
“I thought you were dead,” she whispered.
“I had to disappear,” he murmured back. “Had to let them think I was gone. I couldn’t risk them taking you.”
He pulled back, cupping her face. “I’m sorry, Serenity. For all of it. For making you think you weren’t the diamond I spent my life searching for in a field of coal.”
Her lips quivered. “I missed you.”
Behind her, the door opened wider. Darius stepped forward, taking the cake with a nod of thanks. Ronan and Lucian followed, flanking her.
Her father raised a brow.
“These your Alphas?”
Serenity wiped her eyes and nodded.
Lucian grinned.
“In the flesh.”
Ronan held the door.
“Welcome back to the land of the living.”
Her father chuckled, stepping inside.
“It’s been peaceful being dead. But I think it’s time we take the Syndicate down. Once and for all.”
He turned to Serenity.
“Starting with your reign.”
She sucked in a breath.
Reign.
Her eyes drifted to her mates, one by one.
The trials. The Hunt. The sabotage.
The conspiracy.
All of it had been a gauntlet.
A test.
She hadn’t just survived her first heat. She’d claimed her power, her people, her throne.
Her fingers tightened around Ronan’s hand.
“You planned this.”
Lucian’s smirk turned soft.
“We guided the path. But you chose to walk it.”
Darius nodded once.
“And now you’re ready.”
Serenity turned toward the window, where the woods stretched endlessly, the future unwritten beyond the frost-covered trees.
She wasn’t the broken girl of whispers and bloodlines anymore.
She was the heir.
The ruler.
The knot that would bind a crumbling empire back together — with fire, grace, and vengeance.
She was Serenity Vale.
And the era of the Knot Heirs had only just begun.
F.I.N.