Epilogue
Mason
I leaned against the doorframe and watched my mate typing furiously. The clacking of the keys filled the tiny office that Luke and I had added to my workshop for her. We’d lost five years together, and I think we both were trying to make up time.
Brooke had finished her computer science degree and worked freelance jobs when she wasn’t helping with the ranch’s tech. She’d upgraded all the software Declan used to manage everything, as well as the gallery’s systems.
A soft cry had me turning to the crib in the corner. I crossed the office to pick up our son, Aaron, who was named after the bravest man I had ever known.
“Smells like someone needs a diaper change.”
Brooke twisted in her chair to watch us. “You can hand him to me after. He’s probably ready to eat.”
I laid him on the changing table we’d crammed into the space. We should have built the office bigger, but we weren’t thinking about babies when we designed it. Aaron had been a surprise, and the best one I’d ever had, second only to the surprise of fate giving me Brooke.
“It’s a stinky one today.” Diaper time always made me regret my shifter senses. I slipped a wipe inside his diaper to prevent him from peeing on me. A lesson Luke had taught me. I was thankful he didn’t leave me to learn on my own.
After changing his diaper, I picked Aaron up and held his soft body to my chest. I inhaled his clean baby scent and walked over to Brooke. I dropped a kiss on his head before laying him in her arms and dropping another on her waiting lips, which curved beneath mine.
She opened her shirt and bra and held him to her breast. He latched on quickly with a contented sigh.
I loved watching my mate and son like this and was thankful every day that she hadn’t given up on me. I’d walked away from her once, thinking I had no choice, but her determination had brought us back together, and her love helped make me whole again.
There were still days that guilt threatened to overcome me, but they were becoming rarer, and focusing on Brooke and Aaron helped to steady me again.
“Are you done for the day?” she asked as she switched Aaron to the other side.
“Not quite.” I crouched next to them and let Aaron wrap his tiny hand around my finger. My heart warmed at the contact. “I needed my afternoon fix of you two.”
She chuckled. “You were just here half an hour ago.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t longer?” My brow furrowed. “I would swear it’s been hours.”
“I noted the time. This morning you came in every fifteen minutes.” She leaned her head against my shoulder. “I don’t mind. I need my fix too.”
We stayed in our bubble for a few more minutes until Aaron was ready for me to burp him. I draped a cloth over myself and took him, patting him gently on the back before putting him back in the crib.
Brooke came to stand beside me to watch as he fell asleep. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, and she slid hers around my waist.
She whispered softly, “Look at what we made.”
“He’s perfect.” I kissed the side of her forehead. “You gave me everything when you gave me you.”
“It goes both ways.” She tilted her head to rest on my chest. “I spent so many years focused only on my brother and what happened to him. Finding you opened my world again.”
I held her tighter. “I wish he could be here.”
“Maybe he is.” She rubbed her cheek against my shirt. “Maybe he’s been watching us, helping fate bring us together.”
“Sounds like something he would do.”
Eventually, I let Brooke get back to her keyboard and returned to the engine I was repairing.
I would always wish her brother Aaron had survived that final mission, and that she could have had both of us.
Life had taken him from us too soon. But without his sacrifice, I wouldn’t have survived that mission, I wouldn’t have Brooke, and I wouldn’t have my son.
The least I could do was live like I deserved his gift.
While my family had always been the most important thing in my life, it now included the two most precious people in the world to me. And because I knew life without them, I promised myself every morning that I wouldn’t take them for granted. They were the reason I was able to live again.
And that was something I would never forget.