Epilogue II
Malory
Home sweet home.
As much as I enjoyed visiting every National Park and secluded Beach along the West Coast of the United States, there isn’t a more beautiful and peaceful place on earth than our cabin.
After spending the last three months on the road, we decided to head back before winter and make this our permanent home.
Our base for anything the future might hold for us.
With the threat posed by my late father resolved, we’re finally free, able to live wherever we see fit.
Nonetheless, we’ve decided to stay here where it all began.
Living remotely and surrounded by nature. Free to fuck against a three down by the creek.
It’s the perfect fit for us.
With our penchant for the darker side of things, this is where we feel most like ourselves.
Especially considering Tyson’s intense possessiveness over me combined with my own need for a more solitary lifestyle.
I’m still not ready to change than about myself. I don’t think I ever will be, but that’s okay.
I’ve come to accept it as part of who I am, love it even.
The constant presence of others just overwhelms me, with one exception in form of an unfeeling hitman whose care takes my breath away.
For some reason, Tyson has always been different.
Since the first moment our eyes locked I’ve been drawn to him.
And with time and persistence, he’s become the one person I cannot live without.
From what I heard from Rafe since Tyson has gotten me a phone with his and my brother’s numbers on it, they’ve been at war with the Bratva ever since our attack.
Despite Tyson’s reassurances that it’s nothing they can’t handle, in the back of my mind, I can’t rid myself of the incessant anxiety for my newfound brother’s safety.
Deep down, I feel equal parts guilty and grateful that they’re leaving Ty out of the fighting since he has officially retired now. If that’s something hitmen can do.
After being discharged from the hospital, he wanted to focus wholly on building our lives together.
Refusing to let me out of his sight and I couldn’t be more glad for it.
I have yet to meet Dante and honestly, I’m more than nervous about facing the famously ruthless Capo.
Though if my relationship with Raffaele is anything to go by, I should have nothing to worry about. I really hope so.
I couldn’t be more fortunate to have them in my life now that my father is dead.
In the end, I never asked how he died. Our relationship ceased to mean anything the day he almost took away the one person who matters the most.
And I haven’t asked who’s done it either.
I just know that it wasn’t Tyson because he hasn’t left my side since waking up in the hospital.
Just like he promised.
All the while my mother continues to live comfortably, her lavish lifestyle being funded by my father’s inheritance.
That day Rafe and I left her restrained in the kitchen has been the last time I’ve seen her.
And that won’t ever change.
I’ve found my own little family alongside Tyson and Nero.
One that accepts and loves me wholly and unconditionally for who I am.
And I love them.
So much that sometimes I wonder how I don’t combust from how full my heart is.
Turning over, I expect to bury myself into Tyson’s warm body, but no .
His side of the bed is cold and empty.
We always sleep wrapped up in each other’s arms, so how come that I didn’t notice him getting up.
Immediately my heartbeat kicks into overdrive, thinking back to the last time I woke up alone in the middle of the night with him gone.
No, that’s my anxiety taking over.
He vowed that it’d never happen again.
And I trust him irrevocably.
The man is probably just downstairs making breakfast.
No need to panic.
Scrambling out of the tangled sheets, I barely stop to put on one of his oversized shirts that reaches down to my knees.
“Ouch!” I yelp as my foot gets twisted in the comforter.
I go down hard, the commotion disrupting Nero’s peaceful sleep at the foot of the bed.
In an instant the dog jumps on top of me, paws digging into my stomach as he licks my face, slobbering all over me.
“I’m okay, big boy.” I pant between giggles as I do my best to get up without further damage.
“Come on, let’s go find your daddy.” With that we head downstairs, Nero dashing past me and straight to his bowl filled with food.
Meaning Tyson must be around here somewhere.
Not in the cabin though.
Before dread has a chance to settle in my stomach, I see it .
It’s dawn, maybe a few minutes before sunrise, yet there’s a dim glow streaming in through the kitchen windows.
Padding softly towards the entrance to investigate, I crack open the front door only to stop dead at the threshold.
The apple three that’s now covered in a colorful array of fall leaves is glowing .
String lights wrapped around each branch, illuminating it in the near darkness.
And beneath it, there’s him.
On one knee.
His black, burning gaze locked on mine.
Waiting.
A broken sob tears from my throat as I cover my mouth with a trembling hand.
“Come here, baby girl.” Tyson’s deep voice carries through the silent morning woods.
This can’t be…
Something in me snaps and I rush to him on bare feet, falling to my knees in front of my man.
My arms wrapping around his neck as I hide my tear-streaked face in the crook of his neck.
“I thought I told you no more tears, little one.” He mumbles against my temple before placing a gentle kiss to my flushed skin.
“I have Nero’s slobber all over my face.” I choke out.
“And I couldn’t care less.” He rasps against my forehead. “You’re perfect, my love.”
Pulling back, Tyson takes my face between his large palms, covering my cheeks as he swipes his thumbs underneath my eyes.
“There was nothing before you. There will be nothing after you, baby.” He gazes down at me with the softest look in his eyes. “You’re everywhere. In my every thought, in my every desire, in my every dream.”
Sealing our foreheads, Tyson goes on as we breathe as one.
“You broke me, Malory. You tore through my empty darkness, only to fill all the cracks. From the first time I laid my eyes on you, years before you even knew I was at your side all along, you made feel what wasn’t there before. What I didn’t think myself capable of. Love .”
A strangled sob rumbles from his heaving chest as he lays himself bare before me.
“I love you, little blossom. With my whole dead heart, I love you.”
“I love you too.” I whimper, kissing away the single tear gathering at the corner of his eye.
Cradling my face in his hands, Tyson’s black eyes bore into mine.
“I promise you the world, little one. We can travel, get more dogs so Nero has company while I fuck you senseless for the rest of our lives.” Tyson’s expression turns adoring, almost pleading as he goes on.
“We can expand the cabin to make space for our family, have as many babies as you’ll allow me to put in you. Anything you want, baby girl, as long as it’s with me.”
He pauses, taking a deep breath while I quiver in his arms, barely able to see him through the steady stream of tears.
“Be mine. Marry me.”
His lips brush mine as he speaks the words against my mouth. Not a question, but a demand.
“I’ve always been yours.” My voice cracks.
But before I can say more, the man seals our lips in a searing, never ending kiss.
Only when we’re both out of breath, lips swollen and with no more tears left to cry, do we break apart.
With me still in his lap, wrapped up in his embrace, Tyson picks up a black velvet box I haven’t realized he’s been holding when I threw myself at him.
Taking my left hand in his much bigger one, he tenderly kisses each of my knuckles before slipping the ring onto my finger.
Onyx.
A tear shaped black stone nestled atop of a dainty golden band.
The exact shade of his eyes, of our shared darkness. Custom made just for us.
“It fits perfectly.” I breathe in awe
Unable to believe how far we’ve both come.
“What kind of stalker would I be if I didn’t know your exact ring size.”
The End