Epilogue Mary
Two and half years later
It was the morning of our civil ceremony, and I was in the bridal suite of the Harcourts Hotel in Oxford. My son, Rain Rye, stood in the middle of the room wearing one sock, no pants. He was like his fathers and was currently practicing for an all-you-can-eat cake challenge.
“Cake,” he announced as it crumbled on the floor.
“Yes, darling. I can see that. The cleaning staff will not be happy with you.”
Violet Blackberry, his twin sister, sat on the rug in a cloud of pale blue tulle, clutching the little bouquet Maeve had brought her, and glaring at the world because her aunt had touched her hair.
Violet had my eyes, Hudson’s devastating lashes, and the dainty menace of a woman who would one day either run a country or refuse to leave a sweet shop until everyone around her surrendered to one of her tantrums.
“No like hair,” Violet said, pushing her fingers into the braid.
“The hair has to stay pretty,” I told her.
“No pretty.”
“A compelling argument, but your aunt Maeve is somewhere close, and she braided it.”
Violet considered this. Maeve, unlike me, had acquired a reputation as someone who couldn’t be negotiated with by toddlers, dogs, alphas, or visiting Russian relatives.
“Aunt Maeve is scary,” Rain said.
“Aunt Maeve is efficient.”
Rain nodded. “Scary.”
The door opened behind me, and I caught the scent of rain, Irish whiskey, sugared blackberry, and wild violet before I saw them.
Hudson came in first, already dressed in a dark suit that made him look unfairly composed for a man whose son had smeared cream on his shoes. His black hair was threaded with a few more strands of silver at the temples now, and it suited him in a way that made me resent both time and genetics.
Lincoln followed, broader, still bearded and gorgeous, and also holding two tiny pairs of shoes in one large hand.
“You’re not supposed to see me before the wedding.”
My alphas stopped at the sight of me, and that never got old.
Underneath the robe, I wore ivory, because Maeve had said white was too harsh for my skin tone and I respected honesty.
The dress was simple, soft through the waist, with sleeves that fell off my shoulders and a skirt that moved when I did.
My hair was down in dark waves. My rings sat on my finger, the violet stone and the curved band with two diamonds.
Today, a registrar, two lawyers, and a truly alarming amount of paperwork were going to agree with me.
“We’re never letting you go, so luck doesn’t come into it.” Lincoln moved behind me and kissed the claim mark on the left side of my neck.
“You look...” Hudson came to the right and touched his thumb lightly beneath his mark.
“If either of you makes me cry now I have mascara on,” I said, “I’ll keep you waiting at the altar.”
Hudson’s mouth curved. “That would be cruel.”
“I’ve been training.”
Lincoln looked at my shoe. “Is that cake on the silk?”
“Your son is eating all the catering before the guests get to it.”
Rain beamed. “Just cake.”
Lincoln nodded. “Excellent initiative. Poor execution, son.”
Violet held up her bouquet. “Mine.”
“Yes, love,” Hudson said. “That’s yours.”
She looked suspicious. “No take.”
“No one will take it.”
Rain immediately reached for it.
Violet screamed.
Lincoln caught Rain under one arm before the bouquet could become a weapon. Hudson lifted Violet with the calm of a man who had learned that twin toddlers could smell weakness through walls.
I watched them for a second, my two beautiful, ridiculous alphas. One holding a furious daughter in tulle. One holding a son with cake crumbs on his chin. Both of them looked at me as if the girl who had once lied about her age in a Boston hotel bar was still the miracle of their lives.
She would never have believed this.
That girl had ordered Irish whiskey with a shaking hand and pretended she worked in New York. She thought nobody wanted her unless she was useful, quiet, obedient, or convenient. She had been wrong about almost everything.
Being wrong remained one of my greatest achievements.
“Mary,” Hudson said softly.
I blinked.
“You went somewhere.”
“Boston,” I admitted.
Lincoln’s expression gentled.
I reached for him first. He came at once, Rain still tucked under his arm like a parcel with legs. Hudson stepped in too, Violet between us, her small hand patting my necklace.
“I was thinking she would be pleased,” I said.
“Who?” Hudson asked.
“The girl in the bar.”
Lincoln kissed my forehead. “She’d be smug.”
“She wouldn’t. She was deeply dignified.”
“She came to our room with three dildos,” Hudson said.
I pointed at him. “And a plan.”
“Aye,” Lincoln said, laughing. “A very Mary plan.”
A knock came at the door.
Maeve opened it without waiting. “If anyone is naked, that’s your own fault for not locking the door.”
“Good morning to you too,” I said.
Lincoln and Hudson gave me a kiss and left the room.
Maeve swept in wearing blue, and behind her came Presley in rose pink, all bright eyes and northern delight. She was holding a small emergency bag that probably contained snacks, wipes, lipstick, and a legal weapon.
“Oh,” Presley said, stopping dead. “Look at you.”
“Don’t,” I warned.
Her eyes filled. “You look loved.”
That was much worse than pretty. I pressed my lips together.
Maeve’s face softened. “You really do.”
“I hate all of you.”
“No, you don’t,” Maeve said.
“I could grow into it.”
Maeve rolled her eyes. “You haven’t got the attention span.”
“You’re even sarcastic on my wedding day.”
“I have a reputation to upload. Now it’s time to get you married.”
Maeve straightened my sleeve, businesslike suddenly.
“Before I forget. Artem asked me to tell you, so you wouldn’t have to wonder about it today of all days.
Callum’s channels are still quiet so whatever Artem and Ivan arranged, it worked.
He can no longer reach. You’re bonded anyway, but once you’re married it’s over anyway.
Artem checked this morning, because Artem checks everything. ”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing,” Maeve said. “But you have your weapon on you, don’t you?”
I lift the dress, showing her the small gun Artem gave me when I said I didn’t want to hide away for the rest of my life.”
“Good. And you’ve been practicing?”
I laughed. “Callum taught us to shoot guns from kids, I think I know how to use a gun.”
She sighed. “Pax thinks that once you’re married he’s finished anyway. You’ll be a bonded, married omega and can’t be contracted to anyone. There’s nothing left for him to sell, so there’s nothing left for him to want. You can walk down those stairs and not carry him with you.”
I hadn’t realized how much room he’d still been taking up until I felt the space he left behind.
The ceremony was held in the garden of the hotel, because Hudson had suggested a registry office and Maeve had looked at him as if he had proposed a duel in a car park.
Artem’s security team had quietly turned the hotel estate into a fortress with roses, which was very on brand.
White flowers lined the lawn in low arrangements, deliberately toddler-proofed after Rain had attempted to eat a rose that morning.
The hotel owners were alphas and understood the importance of the day.
It wasn’t a traditional wedding. Nothing about us had ever been tidy enough for tradition.
Hudson and Lincoln waited at the altar. Pax and Mat, the best men beside them.
Pax had the same dangerous cheekbones as his brother, Hudson, but he had a colder beauty, dark blond hair, sharp blue-gray eyes. Mateus stood beside him, tall, dark, and amused, wearing a navy suit and the look of a man who had read every document twice.
Mac stood in front of Maeve and me at the end row.
He was with the twins, having appointed himself child supervisor and he was taking pride in the role.
He was older now, tall for his age, dark hair falling into his eyes, still calling his fathers Daddy A, Daddy I, and Daddy G, and now treating the family joke about his own superpowers as simple fact.
Mila stood beside him holding Violet’s hand, bossing both twins in a whisper so fierce that Rain blinked and Violet nodded solemnly. She was just like her mother.
Fergus lay under the front row wearing a black bowtie and resting his chin on Gregor’s shoe as he glanced at the children.
Duchess, the estate Doberman who had apparently come because Mac said she was family, lay beside Fergus with a floral clip fastened proudly to her collar. She nuzzled the smaller dog whenever Fergus looked too pleased with himself, which meant she nuzzled him often.
Maeve caught me staring.
“Don’t ask,” she said.
“I wouldn’t dare.”
I waved at Sienna who sat in the back row, wearing a dress she had complained about twice but looked extremely well in, despite now refusing to remove her coat. She had also refused to explain why she kept checking her phone.
The music started.
“Ready,” Maeve whispered, offering me her elbow.
“More than ever.” I took my first step to my alphas.
We made vows, but not the old kind. We had written them ourselves because no template could cover us without sounding as if it had panicked halfway through.
Hudson went first.
He took my hand, his thumb brushing my rings.
“Mary,” he said, voice steady and full. “I promise to love you. I promise to protect you without building a cage around you. I promise to stand beside you, behind you, and occasionally in front of you when you’re about to argue with men who might fly helicopters. ”
Laughter moved through the room.
I glanced at Artem. I wondered what he really had done or said to Callum McCarthy. Whatever it was, he looked completely unrepentant.
Hudson’s hand tightened. “I promise to choose you, every day, in every room, under every law we can bend toward us. You are my omega, my partner, my family, and the best unexpected thing that ever walked into my life and demanded whiskey.”
My eyes filled.
Then Lincoln took my other hand. He didn’t try to hide his tears.
“Love,” he said, rough and soft at once.
“I promise you warmth, food, laughter, and my hand in yours when the world gets too loud. I promise our children will know their mother is adored. I promise no one will make you smaller in this house. You’ll not fear anyone. ”
My breath caught.
Lincoln smiled, his thumb moving over my knuckles. “I promise that when you forget, I will remind you that you were wanted before the babies, after the babies, and in every life I can imagine.”
My world blurred. I’d planned vows, written them down, and even rehearsed them with Presley, who had cried so dramatically the first time that I had accused her of undermining the rehearsal process.
Still, when I looked at Hudson and Lincoln, I forgot the first line.
Then Violet sneezed.
Rain said, “Bless you.”
Everyone laughed.
And I was back. “I used to think being chosen was something that happened to other women,” I said. “Women who were easier, warmer, and sensible enough not to knock on strangers’ hotel doors with emergency equipment.”
Hudson laughed.
“I thought love had conditions,” I continued. “Be useful. Be quiet. Be grateful. Don’t ask for too much. Don’t be too much. Then I met both of you, and you ruined my belief system.”
Lincoln’s mouth trembled.
“You made room for all of me, the frightened parts, the ridiculous parts, and the part that wants to paint instead of doing something respectable with a law degree. You gave me a home where my children can be loud, where my sister can arrive with her many opinions, where dogs can have complicated romantic lives, and where I can be loved without disappearing.”
I looked from Hudson to Lincoln.
“I choose you. Both of you. I choose this pack, this family, this life. I still refuse to choose which one of you is more mine.”
“Good,” Hudson whispered.
Lincoln lifted my hand and kissed it.
The registrar pronounced us legally bound under the civil pack partnership and family registration provisions Pax had bullied into submission.
That was probably not the official phrasing. It was mine.
Hudson kissed me first, Lincoln kissed me second, and then both my children shouted, “Mama!” and ran into my legs so hard I nearly took out the table.