Page 102 of The Devils' Darling

The students whistle, and some clap.

“Hey,” Tino says, grabbing the mic. “The best is last.”

He lifts his t-shirt too, but then pulls his pants low on his narrow hips. The audience whoops and whistles, some encouraging him to reveal more. Low down on his groin, between those glorious V-Muscles on either side, is the word ‘Duchess.’

“This is for you, sweet girl. I went for having you above my cock,” he says with that patented, devastating grin of his, “though I was tempted to have your name on it, since it’s all yours now.”

Dom takes the mic again, and they close in together, facing me. As one, they all drop to one knee in front of me.

“Mackenzie,” Dom says, “we know it can’t be legally binding, but Verona Falls is a world within a world. A place of its own rules and customs. We want you to be our wife. We want you to belong to all three of us in the eyes of our community here. Do you say yes?”

Kirill produces a box from his pocket and passes it to Tino, who pops it open. Inside is a sparkling, massive solitaire.

From the audience, a female voice yells, “This is fucking bullshit,” and there’s a flurry of movement as the person the voice belongs to storms out. It barely registers that it’s Verity who’s left. I’m far too occupied to care about her.

I stare at the ring, and, with tears streaming down my cheeks, I nod.

“Yes,” I shout. “Yes, yes, yes. All the yeses.”

Camile hollers and whoops and jumps up and down clapping. Kirill takes the ring out of the box and places it on my finger, and Dom takes my hand and kisses the back of it.

My heart overflows with happiness.

“Did we make up for all the shit, Duchess?” Tino asks softly. “At least a little? It’s only the start. We’ll spend forever making it right.”

“It’s the best start I can imagine,” I say happily.

“Free bar all night, on us, in the college pub,” Dom shouts into the mic.

The students cheer and clap and begin to file out of the hall, all ready to go and party.

“Thought we could maybe just go for one drink and then head back,” Dom says. “Spend the night in the den, watching a movie?”

“And other stuff,” Kirill adds.

I laugh. “And other stuff, of course. That sounds perfect.”

We walk out together—me, flanked by my three men.

In the hallway, we see Zane. He’s standing back, one leg bent at the knee, leaning against the wall. He stares at us as we walk by, and his gaze crawls all over me as his smirk tells me exactly what he thinks of me.

“What are you staring at, fucker?” Tino growls.

Zane doesn’t answer or give any sort of response. He just keeps watching me, that smirk on his lips, and then we’re gone, turning the corner.

The men are surrounding me, cocooning me and making me feel safe, and even though I’m nervous about facing all the students in the bar, I know I can do it with them at my side.

Chapter 46

Mackenzie

I’m feeling fat.

I know it’s not fat, it’s baby, but it doesn’t change the way I feel. Three months have passed since I first discovered I’m pregnant, and I’m starting to show. My belly is still small, just a tiny bump if you look closely, but my boobs feel massive. My face is fuller, and I’m gaining weight around my hips too.

I’ve been under the best medical care with my new consultant, and she’s reassured me every step of the way that everything is fine. I still feel guilty that I haven’t been able to stop taking my meds while being pregnant, but that option simply isn’t open to me. If my seizures had been under control for the last couple of years, I’d have considered it, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.

I have had a couple of scans now, though, and everything is fine. We decided not to find out the sex of the baby. So few things are really a surprise these days, and we’re looking forward to finding out when he or she is born.

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