Page 64 of Jayce

“I don’t see them. Hopefully, they’re outside waiting for us. If not, they’ll forgive us for sneaking off,” Jayce says with a kiss on my forehead.

My parents are heavy drinkers at weddings. Otherwise, I’d feel remorse over not telling them goodbye, only I know they won’t remember if I did or not. I blow Cill a kiss on my way out the door with Jayce.

We’ve made love nearly every day, sometimes twice a day, since I discovered my vagina therapy worked.

My need for him grows, and he’s happy to accommodate my greedy pussy now that she knows what she’s been missing all these years.

Jayce buckles me into his truck before racing to his side. He cracks the engine and pulls away from Damian and Nikolaos just as they finished tying coke cans to the bumper.

Jayce pokes his head out the window and blows a kiss in their direction.

I laugh. I love this man. No matter where life takes us.

Epilogue

Damian

Forty years ago

“There’s no greater heartache than the ache of hearing your mate's call to have it snuffed out without warning.” ~Damian

“Which one of us do you think will lose his balls to a heifer first?” Jayce asks with jest in his tone, but underneath, the longing is unmistakable.

It matters not that we’ve only recently become adults. We may bust each other’s balls over who’s going to hear our heifer’s mating call first, but we all desire to find our one and only more than our next breath.

Nikolaos bounces a ball against the wall of our favorite hideout in Chackbay. It’s an old, abandoned shack that he swears he’ll turn into a bar one day.

I try to imagine a time when the outside of this old girl, as we like to call her, looked vibrant. I see only faded boards and peeled paint—no matter how much I try visualizing something else.

The wooden floorboards we’re standing on creak beneath our feet with the slightest movement.

The amount of grime covering the windows keeps the sunlight from shining through.

Dust-covered tables and chairs lay scattered about with cobwebs hanging from the rafters above. I’m glad I don’t have a fear of spiders.

Nikolaos can’t contain his hunger to make something out of the old girl whenever we visit her. “Can’t you feel the charm in this place? The untapped potential waiting for me to unleash it. Everyone from the herd and other herds will come here to unwind, have a burger and a beer, or shoot some pool.”

Our patérs are pressuring each of us to pick our first careers. With our studies over, we must decide if we’re going to further our education or work. “Do whatever makes your heart happy. You don’t have to earn a million dollars, but you can’t sit on your ass and watch your life pass by.” My patér’s been saying this to me every evening over dinner for the last two years.

In our herd, living a life that brings joy and not one that adds to the stresses beyond our control is always our dream. The members of our herd will do anything to support us and make sure we never settle out of some misguided sense of duty to the herd or our mate or our children.

There’s a fine line between living a completely selfish lifestyle and prioritizing self-care so that you have all the tools needed to take care of those you love.

It’s why even though I roll my eyes over Nikolaos’ dream about a bar in a run-down hole, I know we’ll help make it happen for him.

No dream is ridiculous or impossible because I have my cousins, Anjal, Nikolaos, and Jayce, by my side. Not to mention my dozen sisters and parents.

Lucky me. I’m one of thirteen. And I’m literally smack dab in the middle with six older sisters and six younger sisters.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

Mate, my bull chimes in.

Like I don’t know what that burning urge is churning in my soul.

Not sure why I’m embarrassed. Maybe I’m not ready to hear my cousins make fun of the Fates gift to me, as I sneak out the door without saying goodbye.

I slip my helmet on before starting my Suzuki Katana. It’s terribly uncomfortable for the long journey I might endure to find her. Leaning forward for hours toward my destination will leave me with a backache, or maybe I’ll get lucky and she’s not far.

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