Page 83 of Hunter

Hunter

I’ve spent the afternoon on the balcony watching my friends from above. They all arrived here over the past few days with their families in tow. The villa has been filled with childish laughter, female gossip, and roaring men ever since. It’s been as wonderful as it has been overwhelming.

Isabella sits surrounded by three women she can call friends. They laugh and joke together as if they can read each other’s minds. One stops speaking and another begins, every few minutes punctuated by sweet laughter.

Since our reunion just under a year ago, I’ve seen my wife transform before my eyes. Not only is she now the confident, independent woman she should always have been, but she has people around her she can count on like she always deserved to have. Her fitness-influencer career is booming, at the moment focused on pregnancy health as her body changes. She’s lost the mask and is embracing her talents for what they are bold and beautiful on the world stage. I am so fucking proud of her.

My child sits nestled within her, safe and already loved bone deep. To me, Isabella was always the most stunning woman in the room, but now she glows in a way I can’t take my eyes off of. I’m always watching, even though she doesn’t see it. She is my entire world, she and the children we will create together.

Harrison sits at the poolside, new son Theo in his arms. Violet begins to gather their belongings, packing up, ready to head back to their room to freshen up before dinner. It was him and his undying love for his wife that proved to me love can be all enduring. That fatherhood is something to strive for, not a situation that can just be expected to come when you want it. There is no perfect timing in love. You have to live it as it appears.

My friends all pair off, one couple or throuple at a time, each collecting their respective children and disappearing from the garden. Russell has had one too many and staggers in front of Samantha and Connor as they all head in the same direction. I never thought their relationship would survive, but they proved me wrong. The last addition I ever thought they would have is a child, but once again I’ve been corrected. Madmen settled by finding love—maybe that’s all it takes.

Samantha’s pregnancy couldn’t have come at a better time. At first, I was concerned her news would take the shine away from Bella, but the result has been a much needed friendship created in my wife’s life, one built on trust, love, and understanding. Two women from different backgrounds who have found strength in one another.

Damon throws his daughter up on his shoulders, his arm securely wrapped around Emma’s waist as he guides them away from the poolside. He’s probably the most complex of our bunch, besides myself. So much pain and loss, but proof that a man so cold can be softened by the right family.

We’ve all come so far. From blood-soaked rooms, vengeance taken, and broken vows to this. A villa, a family, a future. We didn’t just survive the war. We built something together out of shards. Many would say we’re not good men—dangerous, at the least. I don’t pretend to be anything else. But we protect our own and keep doing what’s right, whether it’s legal or not.

As my thoughts turn over again and again, all the considerations of what my life looks like now at the forefront of my mine, Isabella opens the balcony doors and comes to join me. The sun is beginning to set over the ocean, peaceful and signaling the end of another beautiful day.

She steps up beside me, and I move behind her, wrapping my arms around her and placing my hands over her bump. Our baby kicks, and she winces a little. We both giggle with the announcement of their presence, as if deliberately reminding us they’re here.

“Boy or girl?” she whispers, like she has a hundred times before.

“Boy.” My answer hasn’t changed—my gut tells me my son lies in her womb. She chuckles softly, and I know she doesn’t agree. She insists a Spanish fire is burning inside her, one she recognizes in herself.

“You owe me a first edition if you’re wrong,” she reminds me. We placed a bet, and if I’m wrong, I have to find her a rare edition of her favorite children’s book,Peter Pan. She tells me I remind her of him, a lost boy who fought for what’s right. What she doesn’t know is there’s a 1911 first edition in our safe for her, waiting patiently to be read to our son or daughter. She will win either way.

“Do you ever think about it?” I ask her, knowing I’m diverting the conversation off course.

“What, the book?”

“No, our arrangement. You gave me one year, then I was to release you into the world. You only have a few more weeks to make your choice.”

She laughs, the sweet sound echoing into the evening sunset. “Are you telling me my time is up, husband?”

“If that’s what you choose.”

“No, it will never be my choice. You are my past, present, and future. You always have been. The time apart in the middle was just that, a passage of time.”

I stand, holding the woman I’ve always loved, and the child she carries. My child. My family, here with me now under the Spanish sun. It’s a life I never imagined I would have, and I know the world I live in will never change. Not in the near future anyway, but somewhere between the control and chaos, we will find a balance.

Let the world spin. Let the lawmakers change and our enemies gather. Everyone I love is here. My blade is sharp. My oath is made.

I will protect what’s mine.

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Do you want to know what happens next in The Level Series?

Turn the page to read Chapter one ofGreyson, A Level Series Novella.

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