EPILOGUE 1 #2
Tiger snatches up the biggest gift bag before him and skips over to our Bonded.
He’s buzzing with excitement, and a sudden grin overtakes Havoc’s face that has my knees weakening and everyone’s eyes searing into it obsessively.
“You are cute, Tiger,” she tells him, bringing a hand up to brush her thumb over his cheek when he reaches her.
Stunned, he stands there, unnaturally speechless and unmoving.
Then his head whips all over the place, spinning in a three-sixty around his neck.
“Oh my god! Did you hear that?! Ezzy just called me cute,” he hisses as if we didn’t just witness the moment ourselves.
The stars in his wide blue eyes are so bright he might as well be called a human glow stick, especially when paired with the green Avri all over his suit.
His head whips back around when Ezla’s hands find the bag in his own.
“Oh! Yes! This one’s from me, Wifey!” he exclaims as he pushes it into her hold eagerly.
Taking it, she peeks inside before lowering to her knees. Sitting back on her heels, her brows lower in concentration as she places the gift bag before her, and the way she always gives anything to do with us so much attention destroys me so fucking sweetly.
Tiger and Scotty shoot down in record time so that they’re not above her.
Even though I’m over here, I’m about to do the same when her eyes flick up as she pauses. After a beat, she says, “You do not have to do that anymore, I do not think. I admittedly like you on your knees for me, but I know you now. I know you would never look down on me.”
Chest constricting, I crouch down to collect a few of the gifts I chose out of the billions we bought in the city’s biggest shopping centre before heading over. Cooper and Alby follow my lead, and when I reach her, I settle on my knees beside her. “We never just do it for that, Havoc.”
“We do it because we want to, Vengeance,” Cooper adds as he finds his own place on the floor.
Tiger puts in enthusiastically, “Because you’ve always been our queen.”
The smile that can’t seem to leave Scotty’s face widens. “And now our empress.”
“I—I like being on my knees for you. I’m not ashamed to show you how I feel about you,” Alby whispers with his shy flush.
Looking around at the five of us slowly, Ezla says, “I no longer see you below me. I have not in a while. Despite my upbringing, it was quickly clear to me that you were not weak and pathetic as I had been led to believe all Evots were. You are the exception to everything.” Her voice drops lower.
“When you bow before me, I want you to know that I see you as equals, even if I do not see any others that way.” Then her head tips to the side slightly.
“However, that does not mean I do not believe I deserve such treatment. The way you kneel before me in every way will never be wrong behaviour.”
The corner of Cooper’s lips tips up. “Noted, HC.”
Tiger nods eagerly before flicking his eyes back to the large black gift bag, unable to contain his anticipation. “Will you open it now?”
“Of course, Puppy.”
He melts like ice on the hottest summer day.
Reaching her hand inside the bag, the rustling of tissue paper meets my ears. My own heartbeat picks up even though it’s not my gift or one of our joint ones that she’s opening yet.
She pulls out a large rectangular gift wrapped in black-and-red striped wrapping paper—yes, we did, in fact, have to wrap everything in the shopping centre before squeezing the humungous collection into a van a delivery driver followed our Avri cars in, because those cars are definitely not designed to carry more than our bodies, and even with two seats manifested, there wouldn’t have been enough room—and everyone holds their breath as she scans it slowly.
“Is there a specific way I must open this?” she asks as she turns it over in her hands.
“I have never been given a gift I have to unwrap.”
A pinch of sadness that’s felt in all of us momentarily has Tiger’s smile faltering, but he quickly rights it and grins even wider than before.
“Oh, no, Ezzy! You just tear it open.” Then he quickly amends after his eyes dart all over our gorgeously vicious Bonded, “Maybe not too aggressively, though.”
Havoc dips her chin, and she seems to be taking this extremely seriously. “I just did not want to accidentally ruin anything.”
Scotty places a hand on her back and moves his palm up and down soothingly. “You won’t ruin anything, Love. It’s just wrapping that you tear off and there’s a box beneath.”
Tiger rushes to say, “But if you want, next time I can make it more fancy—”
“No,” Havoc cuts him off firmly, and he freezes with his mouth open, eagerly waiting for whatever she has to say along with the rest of us. “This is perfect.”
His eyes go all glittery and gooey again.
Propping the gift up on her knees, the sound of paper tearing glides through the now-quiet room, and I lean forwards to get a better look at Havoc’s face to see her reaction as the box underneath is revealed.
It’s black cardboard, so she can’t see what’s in it yet, but the moment she opens the top of it, Tiger blurts, stare larger than ever, “Do you like them?”
Cooper snorts. “Give her a chance. She hasn’t even seen them properly yet.”
A dramatic pout is sent his way before Tiger’s gaze whips back to Ezla as she reaches inside and pulls out a long boot.
Buzzing with nerves and excitement, he starts talking again in an instant.
“Like us, you don’t have casual clothing, right?
I only saw pyjamas, your Avri suit, and a bunch of posh stuff when .
. .” He trails off, a shadow coming over his eyes that he quickly shoves off, not wanting to dwell on the memories of that penthouse.
None of us can right now. Those sickening images, especially those of that bedroom, are all too fresh, and this day even more than every other is all about Ezla and the start of her new life with us, not those horrors.
“So I thought you might like some comfier things!” he explains brightly.
“I got you a whole bunch—” He gasps, slapping his hands over his mouth.
“Spoilers! Sorry!” The words are muffled.
Ezla’s lips twitch, but other than that, her face is pretty unreadable.
I want to poke around in her mind a bit, and I know I can simply reach for what she’s thinking, but even I understand the concept of privacy in a moment like this.
This is a huge day for my Havoc, and she no doubt has a lot of thoughts and feelings surrounding this situation, one of which is too strong not to reach me when she’s always got the bond open:
Warmth spills over from her. Happiness and love.
Shoving my groan of contentment back down my throat, I don’t manage to stop my eyes from closing or my head from tipping back slightly as I inhale deeply like I could absorb all of that into me. Her happiness is the best kind of drug.
My vision zooms back in on her in a flash when she takes the second combat boot out of the box and says, voice quieter than usual, “I love them. They are perfect. We must get some comfier clothes and shoes for you too soon so that you do not have to wear your pyjamas and Avri suits forever.”
“Another day,” I grunt as Tiger makes goo-goo eyes at her, elated by her words and the truth of them that’s radiating from her. Then I yank down the neck of my Avri suit.
Cooper scrubs a hand over his face. “You did not.”
I grin, biting my lip as I stare into Havoc.
Scotty shakes his head, amused. “When you said you were going to get another tattoo earlier, I knew it would be Ezla-related, but I didn’t expect . . . that.”
Havoc’s eyes sparkle, and I’m in paradise. “That is my bite mark,” she states.
Alby stares, open-mouthed. “That’s why you wanted her to bite you this morning?”
Ezla hums a yes for me before another fucking glorious grin takes over her face. “I love it.”
I grunt, dick that’s permanently hard around her twitching as she leans my way and nips at my jawline, and my arms snap out, unable to keep themselves from her.
Crushing her to me, I plant a firm kiss to her forehead, and I can feel her delight as she gets a better look at the tattoo in this position.
“Can I give you my second one now?” Tiger’s eager voice pierces through the moment.
“Hang on a minute,” Cooper huffs, reaching for the present before him. “It’s my turn. And then Alby’s and Scotty’s.”
“Ohhh yeah.” His hands clap together, unbothered by the denial as his eyes zip to the gift in our brother’s hands. “This is a good one, Ezzy!”
“They’re all good ones,” I mutter, tracking Havoc’s every move as I begrudgingly allow her to pull away and take the present.
Tiger’s head bobs up and down with lightning-fast speed.
“Of course. We thought out everything with maximum care. In every spare moment, I was thinking about this and—” Eyes wide, he cuts himself off as Alby waves his hands all over the place without the subtlety he was going for, evidently as alarmed as the rest of us.
“And . . . cupcakes,” Tiger finishes, then puts on that signature grin of his.
Muttering under his breath, Cooper buries his face in his hands.
Humming, Ezla makes no comment on that, schooling her features into a neutral expression. But I know she’s far from oblivious to what we’ve been planning. How could she be when she’s constantly in our minds and we refuse to block her out?
Tiger shoots all of us quick apologetic glances, but I don’t think anyone’s really mad at him.
When he’s excited about something, I’ve learned it’s next to impossible for him to keep that in—he just wants the entire world to know, unable to keep it all inside him.
Besides, all I can feel from Ezla is a steady warmth and love and increased fondness after Tiger’s almost slip-up, and anything that makes my Havoc feel good gets a big yes from me.