Page 30 of Blade (Spartan Watchmen MC #5)

As Lily sipped her champagne, looking around at the faces of those who had become her family, she felt a sense of completion she'd never experienced before. Of belonging. Of rightness.

Beside her, Blade slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her close. "Happy?" he asked quietly.

She nodded, leaning into his solid warmth. "More than I ever thought possible," she admitted. "Though it still feels a little surreal."

"What part?" he asked, curious.

She gestured to the room, to the signed papers, to the life they'd built. "All of it," she replied honestly. "Six months ago, I was alone, terrified, being hunted by people who wanted to hurt me. And now..."

"And now you're mine," he finished simply. "Legally, officially, completely."

"Yours," she agreed, the word carrying none of the fear or hesitation it might once have held. Only certainty.

The celebration continued through the afternoon and into the evening.

Food was shared, stories were told, laughter filled the cabin that had once been so solitary and silent.

Through it all, Blade remained close to Lily's side, his presence a constant reassurance, a reminder of the bond they'd formalized but had felt long before any papers were signed.

Eventually, Lily found herself back on the porch, watching as the first stars appeared in the darkening sky. The October air had grown chilly with nightfall, but she didn't mind. The cold felt clean, purifying. A reminder that she was alive, something that, six months ago, wasn’t a certainty.

Footsteps behind her announced Blade's approach. Without a word, he draped a warm blanket around her shoulders, then moved to stand beside her, his gaze following hers to the stars above.

"I used to be afraid of the dark," she said softly. "After those men tried to attack my mother and I. Couldn't sleep without a light on for years."

He absorbed this information, giving it the consideration it deserved. "And now?"

She smiled, leaning into his side as his arm came around her. "Now I know the difference between darkness and danger," she replied. "And I know that not all monsters hide in the shadows."

"Some wear suits and run motorcycle clubs," he agreed wryly.

"And some monsters turn out not to be monsters at all," she continued. "Just men. Complicated, fierce, protective men who become the safest place in the world for a girl who never thought she'd feel safe again."

His arm tightened around her at those words, emotion darkening his eyes. "I'll always be that for you," he promised. "Your safe place. Your protector. Your Daddy. For as long as you want me."

"Forever, then," she said simply. "Because I'll always want you. Need you. Love you."

He bent to kiss her, soft and tender at first, then with deepening passion as she responded eagerly. When they finally parted, both slightly breathless, the first flickers of desire kindling between them, a comfortable silence settled around them.

Inside the cabin, they could hear the sounds of their chosen family. The conversation, laughter, the clink of glasses and plates.

"We should go back in," Lily said eventually, though she made no move to do so just yet. "Be proper hosts."

"They're fine," Blade assured her. "They understand."

And they did, she knew. Understood the preciousness of quiet moments like this. Understood the value of connection after chaos. Understood that what she and Blade had found together was rare and worth protecting, worth celebrating, worth giving space to grow.

"Thank you," she said suddenly, turning to face him fully.

"For what?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.

"For finding me," she replied. "For saving me. For seeing me—all of me—and loving what you saw."

His expression softened, one hand coming up to cup her cheek. "Thank you for being worth finding," he countered. "For fighting to survive. For letting me be what you needed, even when it scared you."

She turned her face to press a kiss into his palm. "We saved each other, I think."

"We did," he agreed. "And we'll keep doing that. Every day. In all the ways that matter."

As they stood together under the vast Colorado sky, the stars multiplying above them, the sounds of family surrounding them, Lily felt the rightness of it all settle deep in her bones. The journey had been brutal at times, painful and bloody and terrifying.

But it had led here. To this man. This life. This love.

To a place where she could be both strong and vulnerable. Both protector and protected. Both warrior and little girl.

To Blade, who cherished every facet of her being with equal devotion.

To home.

And in the end, that made every step of the difficult path worth traveling.

Every. Single. Step.

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“Be a good girl, Midnight ... and let Daddy take care of everything.”

Nicole Carmichael has spent the last year looking over her shoulder—dodging her obsessed ex and shielding her little girl, Kayleigh, from the chaos that threatens to tear their world apart. But when danger comes riding in on two wheels, it’s not the enemy at her door, it’s her salvation.

Slash, a gruff but golden-hearted former Delta Force operator, has one mission: protect Nicole and her daughter from the Rejects MC, and anyone else who dares lay a finger on them.

He doesn’t expect the single mom with haunted eyes and a backbone of quiet steel to gut him with one shy smile…

or to make him feel things he thought he’d buried in the sands of war.

He’s all rough edges, blunt commands, and brutal justice, but with Nicole, he’s something softer. Something deeper. Something dangerously close to hers . And when he sees how desperately she needs someone to take the weight off her shoulders… he realizes she doesn’t just need a protector.

She needs a Daddy.

While the Spartan Watchmen MC prepares for an all-out war with their deadliest rivals, Slash is fighting his own battle—to earn Nicole’s trust, keep Kayleigh safe, and prove he’s the only man who can give them the life they deserve.

But Nicole’s past isn’t done with her yet, and the clock is ticking.

This time, it’s not just about honor.

It’s personal.

And Slash doesn’t leave his girls behind.

A Daddy Dom MC romance filled with danger, devotion, and one battle-hardened biker who falls head over steel-toed boots for the one woman who brings him to his knees.