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EPILOGUE

ALANNA

“Happy Birwthday, Momma,” Charlotte screams, running into the room. Her little feet bring her right to the side of the bed, and she scrambles onto it. “Cy and me decided to makes you a breakwast this morning.”

“You did?” I smile, thinking about how nothing seems to phase my daughter. Everything she’s been through, she’s still going.

Yesterday had been a nightmare, and still, she’s proving to be just as special as I’ve known her always to be, and her innocence shines in my direction. Unfortunately, where she was able to get past what happened, I wasn’t. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forget.

“Yes.” Charlotte laughs and bobs her head up and down.

“Lots, darlin’, you gotta calm down so we can put the tray down on the bed.” Cy chuckles, coming closer, a tray in both hands.

“Otay,” she says, not calming down in the least.

After Cy returned yesterday, I didn’t know what to expect, but he’d been all about Charlotte and me. He didn’t let either of us leave his sight. It took about an hour after we got back to the clubhouse for whatever Dragon gave me to take effect, but when it did, I couldn’t be more grateful to be able to move. To hold my little girl close and soothe her pains and fears.

It wasn’t until she caught sight of Cy again that she stopped shaking. He’d taken her in his arms and held her close to him. I saw the look in his eyes as he did this, and it melted any residue of restraint I might have had about him being with us. I knew for a fact my heart was his. He laid destruction to my walls, and I didn’t want to ever be without him.

He’d taken us both to his room where we all curled up in his bed and for Charlotte we put Frozen on. I didn’t ask questions, and he didn’t volunteer answers. We just left it alone. Honestly, I didn’t want to know what happened. I heard enough stories about how the men of the club handle problems. It didn’t matter to me so long as the danger was gone. I just didn’t want to know about it. For me it was over.

“Happy birthday, Short Stuff,” he remarks, pulling me out of my thoughts as he places the tray down on the bed.

I glance down to see three plates. Two of them had normal-sized pancakes, several slithers of bacon, and some fruit, while the third plate had tiny pancakes, a piece of bacon several pieces of fruit along with a dollop of whipped cream in the middle. There were even three mugs of hot cocoa.

I can’t help but smile. It was perfect—all of it.

“Thank you,” I whisper and lift my gaze to his as he comes to sit by me. “It’s perfect.” I couldn’t keep that part to myself because I didn’t want to hide what it meant to me that he would do this for me.

“Every birthday, baby,” he says it like a promise, one I knew he meant to keep. “Now, eat up ‘cause we’ve got plans today.”

“What are those?” I ask, taking one of the three mugs to sip from.

“You and Charlotte are moving home where you belong.”

Oh my God.

“We’re both going to have our own rwooms, Momma,” Charlotte announces. “And Cy’s going to be my daddy.”

Oh. My. God.

My heart leaps right out of my chest for the briefest second before I smile at her. “Yeah, Lots, we’ll both have our own room.”

“Yeah, but you’s got to share weth Cy, cause he’s your knight and shining armor.”

Smiling, I reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear. “Yeah, he’s definitely that,” I whisper and look at him.

Cy grins and leans into me. “Eat up so I can get both of you where you’ve always belonged.”

Who knew after all that I’ve been through in my life that I’d find a man I could not only trust but love as much as I do Cy? We still have things between us that we have to work out, but I know we can do it.

I also know that with him by my side, I’ll be able to get to know my family, as I’ve never known them before. Who knows, with Cy, my family could possibly even grow. I surely wouldn’t mind.