Page 83 of Reaper Razed

“Goodbye, Alice!” I whisper as I hold my heart, and a tear rolls down my face. Then, strong arms band around me and hold me while I sob. When I look up at her, I’m drained. I’m covered in every bodily fluid imaginable. But all I can do is smile.

“I’m so fucking proud of you right now. You are a warrior. When someone tells you you can’t do something, I want you to remember this moment, not him, but this. You are a phoenix reborn from the ashes. Tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of your life. I love you, but you fucking stink, so let’s go shower and go to bed.”

I laugh and hug her again. “I love you. Thank you for everything!” As we head out the door, I ask. “What about all that?” I gesture at the mess I’ve left.

“It’s already gone!” She winks at me, and that makes me smile as I walk out of that room and into the barn. The air smells fresher, the night sharper, the stars brighter and my future full of possibilities. As we step out of the barn, I stand staring at the sky. A deep rumble of a voice barks out across the night.

“What the fuck happened to you?” Then there’s heavy pounding as someone runs towards me as I look over at the love of my life, my husband-to-be. I smile.

“I’ve vanquished all my demons. I’m free!”

Ray

There’s hammering on my bedroom door, and I so want to stay in my warm bed, cocooned by the smell of my husband even though he’s not here, but then the door flings open, and a frantic Skye comes bolting through it and dives up onto my bed jumping and starts shouting, “I’m getting fucking married today!” over and over again. She’s followed in by an extremely excited Rottie, who also dives up, licking at my face while bouncing around like a looney.

I’m the motherfucking Reaper, and this is what my life has become. I try to shove the slobbering dog off me as I push up to my feet and start bouncing, too. You know what they say, if you can’t kill ‘em, join ‘em, or something like that. The dog starts jumping up and down, and there’s slobber flying everywhere as the front door opens, and Skye squeals and runs into the living room. Demi, Scar and Beauty are there with boxes of shit.

I step into the room. “What the fuck’s all this?” I scrub at my sleep-deprived eyes.

“Hair and makeup.” Demi shrugs like I’m an idiot. Ah, yep, that makes sense.

I walk over and slap Skye on the arse. “Shower now!” She runs off as I step into the kitchen and start making breakfast.

Steel and I are going to the courthouse as witnesses, and the rest are going to finish setting up the coffee shop. Most of it’s done as they went there last night while we were playing in the fires of hell, and Skye was being reborn.

When we emerged from the bowels of Hell, Tank swept her into his arms and told her she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

What is it about our fucked up men that love us covered in someone else’s blood? I shrug to myself as fuck, I missed my man last night. All I wanted to do was crawl into his soul and light us both on fire.

Once Skye emerges from the bathroom, we all sit and have breakfast, and the girls go to town on Skye while I shower.

We pull up at the courthouse, and I reach into the back and grab the bouquet of flowers we got for Skye. We also hired a photographer to take pictures of everything, and she took Skye and us up to the woods and back fields for some pictures before we left.

She pulls up behind us and gets out, taking pictures as Skye climbs down from the truck. She straightens her dress and walks around to me. I take her arm.

“Are you ready? It’s not too late to back out.”

She gasps in horror. “What the fuck, Ray?” It makes me chuckle. She doesn’t swear much, but it makes an impact when she does. “I’m marrying your brother!” It’s a strong statement, and I smile. They really do love each other. “I don’t see their bikes. Do you think he has cold feet after last night, you know, the whole…” she trails off as if she doesn’t know what to say to describe the fucked up state he found us in.

“Ares dropped them off so we can all drive back together.” I grin, and she relaxes. “Come on, let's get you married. We have a party to get to.”

Tank

I’m pacing back and forth in the waiting area as Steel chuckles to himself. “Calm down, Brother! She’ll be here!”

“She’s late!” I grumble.

“Tank, the clock hit twelve like three seconds ago! She will be… wow!” Steel stops mid-way through what he’s saying as Ray steps to the top of the stairs. She’s got her hair down in soft flowing curls and a little makeup, which she doesn’t normally wear. She’s wearing a flowery dress, which obviously isn’t hers, and she has her badass biker boots on, too, which makes me think someone made her wear the dress, and this is her rebellion.

I smile at her, but that soon drops away from my face. As Skye steps up behind her, there’s a big window behind them, and the sun beams onto them. Skye is a vision of beauty. Another woman rushes past them and starts taking photos, but I can’t take my eyes off her.

She’s wearing an off-white, fifties-style tea-length dress. It’s got a poofy underskirt which flows out from just under her boobs, hiding our bump. It has a sweetheart neckline, a lace-over dress, and three-quarter-length sleeves. I feel like a fish out of water. She's taken my breath away. Her brown hair cascades in soft waves like Ray’s and is pinned to one side with some small white flowers! She’s perfect.

As she steps forward, her hand comes up and rests over my heart. I'm sure she can feel it pounding out of my chest as she holds it there for a few seconds before sliding it up over my chest up my neck to cup my face.

She looks up at me, and she smiles. “Fancy getting married?”

“Fuck yeah!” I whisper out as she presses a chaste kiss to my cheek, but my eyes flutter shut, and just the feel of her so close has my mind spinning. I’m addicted to her touch, to her scent, to her perfect smile, and to those eyes. I could dream my life away lost in those eyes.

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