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He gave me life, but didn’t know it yet.

Looking back at the path I’d walked, I couldn’t believe the woman I’d become, but she

was someone I could be proud of. This whole journey was like watching a movie on the big screen.

I sat on the couch with Cali and Katya, relaxing for the final weeks before our lives turned chaotic again.

Across the room, stood a man straight out of the darkest of nightmares, and in his arms was a small bundle wrapped in pink. She was our key source of happiness it seemed, a temporary stress reliever to hold onto for a few moments.

He looked up at me with joy in his eyes as he gently handed her to Cobra. Romero, the bulldog of a dad he was, stood hovering over their shoulders’.

I wasn’t sure of the precise moment this gorgeous man had come to mean so much to me. I think he had had me at the first choke-hold. It just took some time to get the wind in our sails.

He was an angry gray cloud, hovering over my head, just out of a reach. And then the drizzle started, but I didn’t think much of it, because a little rain wasn’t that big a deal.

Before I knew it, he was a thunderstorm that was rapidly becoming something more.

He was as lethal to me as he was alluring—He was my Tartarus hurricane.

I don’t know what gave him the right to sweep in and wreak havoc on my fuckin soul, but I was so glad he had, because he’d destroyed me in the most beautiful way possible.

He showed me how beautiful hell could be and all the wicked delight to be found in the dark. What seemed like a tragedy at first, wound up being a blessing in disguise.

In this world, I was forced to change, enter uncharted territory to find my true strength and authentic self.

What survived may not be kind, but it was me. As my eyes came to rest on Cobra, I knew that for the best.

It was going to take a helluva lot of bloodshed to make this right.

I had a feelin in the pit of my stomach that his journey would be the one that pushed all of us to the breaking point, and exposed everything.

We would win the war, but there was no guarantee we would all be amongst the living when it was over.

Bonus Epilogue

I had an empire.

I had my own personal hell right outside my door.

I had an army at my beck and call ready to annihilate anyone who fucked with me.

I had two brothers, a family that would do anything for me.

None of that shit mattered.

It couldn’t touch what was right in front of me.

My beautiful, dark fucking queen was the best thing that ever happened to me. In her arms was my best motherfucking achievement.

Adelaide Deville came into this world six days early, on the sixth day of May, at six sixteen in the morning. Her hair was dark blonde, her eyes still newborn blue. She was quiet and calculating, already as beautiful as her mother and as lethal as her father.

There may have been an accident where the doctor ended up dead, but Uncle Cobra and a nurse got her out just fine while Arlen stood by as doula.

It was almost as if she was aware we were a week away from going to war, and needed to be present right fucking now.

Cali knew I was standing in the doorway, just watching the two of them, probably thinking I was there to collect my extra limb. She’d just finished feeding, now fast asleep on her chest.

Her hypnotic blue eyes met mine, and she smiled.