Page 132 of Vengeful Mates

Heat swept across my cheeks. “Turn for what?”

Each of my men stood up and straightened their jackets.

Slade thrust out his palm for me to take. “Time to make an honest woman out of you, Nurse A.”

I cupped my cheek. Fuck. They surprised me with a shotgun wedding. This was not happening. Today was Locke’s day.

I batted Slade’s arm away and whisper-hissed, “I’m not hijacking Locke’s wedding.”

Locke put a hand on my back, forcing me out of the huddle of my men. “Oh, yes you are, girlfriend. This time, the Love goddess is officiating it.” She dragged me to the big-ass flower arrangement at the altar.

“Come on, Nurse A.” Slade beamed, sauntering up with me, the rest of my men trailing behind. “This isn’t an avatar wedding without throwing in a surprise hitch.”

Surprise, all right. My damn men never followed convention. They made up their own rules.

I swallowed the thickness in my throat and glanced at my dress. Not a wedding gown by any standards. Guess it would have to do. “I can’t say no to a Love goddess, can I?”

EPILOGUE

Aaliyah

Married woman now.Five children and four blissful mates. One very happy big sister and four infants catching their afternoon naps before Mom came over to stay the weekend.

I peeled back my shirt and stroked the stretch-marked skin on my belly, bathing in my daily dose of magick to slowly erase the lines. Pink milkiness from the streaks faded with each treatment.

Alaric stealthily crept up behind me to wrap me in his warm, protective embrace, rocking me gently with his hips and arms.

“Leave them,Hemet,” he murmured the ancient Egyptian term for wife low to not wake the slumbering babies in their cribs. “They’re beautiful. Proof of the beloved lives you birthed.” His palm lovingly worshipped my belly and tingles radiated to every corner of my body.

Isis hummed her agreement in my mind. Rings circled the fertility goddess’ belly like the inside of trees, symbolic of all the lives she birthed into existence.

Maddison, his little one, wriggled in her sleep, flicking Alaric’s overprotective mode into action. He stepped away to check the batteries in the baby monitor, the power cords and connections to the security cameras.

“Angel, check the barriers,” he whispered.

Anxiety buzzed at the base of Alaric’s bond, residual angst from my kidnapping and Colton’s perplexing last words to me.

I plucked the threads of magick Castor and I weaved across the windows and doorway to ease Alaric’s disquiet.

“It’s intact, and there are no magical imprints here,” I reassured my hawk that no one breached our defenses.

Almost eight months passed since I destroyed Colton Raine. Castor kept tabs on Faline and he hadn’t made contact. She never mentioned his name in communications with her soldiers for acquisitions of Raine’s underground casinos and clubs. Her team picked them off one by one, his team too weak to put up much resistance. That didn’t stop them from going down in one hell of a fight. Several appeared in the media and social media courtesy of patrons blabbing or posting video of the events.Thank you for the updates.

Satisfied, Alaric came to me, cocooning me in his arms. “Good girl for indulging your hawk.”

I basked at his praise, nudging my ass into his leg, rocking him into our little rhythm again.

His nose elongated into his beak, which nipped at my ear, and he licked at the sting with his coarse tongue. “I’m so happy, angel.”

“Me, too.” I sank into the comfort of his body, scent.

The tempo of soft clicks of his tongue and throat communicated his hawk’s contentment, drifting me into a fulfilled, happy daze.

I admired my beautiful babies, Jackson and Maddison in the first crib, Slade and Alaric’s biological infants. Belle and Abayad, Zethan’s baby girl and Castor’s little man in the second crib. Non-identical quadruplets sleeping peacefully. They all resembled their daddies. Same color hair, same eyes, except they all got my full lips and cheekbones.

Precious,Isis cooed in my mind.

Yes, they are,I replied, stretching over the cribs to stroke their soft tufts of hair. I chuckled, thinking of all the mischief and chaos Jack and Abayad would bring.

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