Epilogue #2
“Thank Lassiter,” Al murmured. “Can I get you anything? Or get anything for them?”
With his words lingering in the air between them, she touched his smoothly shaven face and brushed the outside of his ear.
Thinking about how they had met, she had to shake her head.
Fate was fucking weird. The good and the bad weaving together through people’s lives, deliberate choices made and chance encounters equally important in the grand scheme of things.
“Have I mentioned I’m sorry I shot you?” she murmured.
His smile was slow. “It’s come up a time or two.”
“Thank God I’m good with a gun.”
“Amen to that.” He kissed her. “You’re good with a lot of things.”
So was he. Taking a deep breath, she stepped fully into him, drawing on the warmth of his body—and his heart. Then she gave him a hearty squeeze.
“How about I introduce you to your in-laws?” she said.
As Denne grinned up at Allhan, he felt a stab of holy-crap hit his stomach. He was beyond grateful that her parents had done so well and now rallied to the point that they were concious. He was also swimming in all kinds of thank-God that the Brotherhood and his father were okay—
Mahmen and Father were all right.
Man, that had such a nice ring to it.
But first-impression land, here he came, he thought.
“I would love to meet them.” When she took his hand, he glanced at his cigarette. “Wait, I should put this out.”
“Oh, it’s okay. They won’t mind—”
“No, I want to put it—”
“Ashtray, sire?” From out of nowhere, Fritz, the butler, appeared, his wrinkled hands cupping a heavy crystal basin. “If you wish?”
“Oh, wow. Thank you so much.”
While he stabbed out the cigarette, the doggen looked like diamonds were being pressed into his palms. Allhan was never going to quite understand the special level of devotion Fritz gave to his masters, but he was not about to argue with it.
The next thing he knew, Denne was leading him through the door, and it was so good to see that her parents’ beds had been raised, and that the Queen and her Prince Consort were smiling at something Vishous had said.
They were obviously both weak, but very alert, and he had a thought as he glanced at them, and then his parents along with Denne’s uncle—and aunt, who’d just arrived—that a whole new family unit was being born.
Created by his and Denne’s love.
“Mama, Father,” she said as she stepped into his side. “I would like you to meet Al.”
He took a quick look toward Vishous and Jane, and the pride on both their faces was something he couldn’t quite comprehend. Or maybe it was more like he was still coming to terms with how lucky he was to have them.
Then he was all about the male and female who were smiling up at him.
iAm reached his hand out. “Come here, son. Let me get a good look at you.”
“Sir,” he said as he went over and put his palm into the male’s. “It is an honor. And I want you to know that I love your daughter very, very much.”
Allhan looked over at the Queen. When she, too, moved her hand forward, he found himself tethered between the two most important people in Denne’s life. And with the lump in his throat, he couldn’t find the words for how grateful he was that they’d put his beloved on the planet.
“Welcome to our family,” the Queen said. “We are so glad to have you.”
Allhan bowed very low. He had no idea what to do, what was protocol. For all his family’s position in the glymera, he wasn’t totally sure how to greet royalty, much less under these circumstances. He must have done something right, though, because the Shadows squeezed his hands at the same time.
“So when’s the mating,” Vishous asked. “Fritz is ready to get planning, or we can do it at the Territory?”
There was a sudden burst of laughter in the room, and Allhan looked at his love. Denne was beaming.
“Whenever she’ll have me,” he said.
“Let’s do it,” she answered as she threw her arms around him. “I’ll mate you anywhere, anytime.”
As they embraced and a round of cheering filled the air with shared joy, he knew there was only one more person they needed to make everything complete for him—and Carmen would have been there if she weren’t asleep from exhaustion in the room next door.
He and his sister had spent hours reconnecting, and he was shocked at how easy it was to talk to the female.
He had also learned all about the way she’d ended things with Theothore, as the male had been a way out instead of a way forward for her life, something that ultimately would have been unfair for both of them.
She’d also told him that after she’d gotten over the shock of what he’d done to their father, she’d felt a relief from fear that she’d never known before.
But she still had a long way to go to recover from what had been done to her.
He was going to be there to help her. For sure.
As mating plans started swirling around, and the decision was made that there would be two ceremonies, one in the s’Hisbe and one in Caldwell, he and Denne snuck back out into the hall. That massive guard, s’Ex, had gone off somewhere, maybe to eat, finally. So they had a little privacy.
“Those two fallen stars,” Denne murmured. “They were so right.”
“They sure knew what they were doing.” Allhan pulled her in close again and kissed her, lingering on her lips. “I’ll always think of them when I look at the night sky.”
“Me, too.”
The sense that all was right in the world made him feel like they’d reached a destination after long travel, and he released the last of the tension in his body as he exhaled.
But then Denne frowned.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Well, I have a favor to ask you.”
“Anything.”
She chuckled. “Among the things I love about you is how you’re always ready for anything.”
Too right, he thought. And given the way his blood was heating in his veins as he put his hands on her waist, he was on the verge of being very ready for something very specific. Now was hardly the time for that, however.
“What do you need?” he prompted.
“Will you be my plus-one for a wedding?” As his brows popped, Denne put her palms on his pecs. “It’s two friends of mine, and they invited me, and I hate crowds of people, and I know this is a big ask given that it’s humans—”
Allhan cut off the tumble of words by kissing his female again. And after he deepened things by licking his way into her mouth, he had to stop himself.
“I’m your plus-one for life,” he murmured. “Where you go, I go.”
As his female’s eyes swam with tears, he brushed her cheek.
“And I’m the same for you,” she said roughly. “For life.”
When they kissed once more, it was with reverence. Which was what you felt when you’d been granted a miracle.
That had been written in the stars.