Page 40

Emmie

Three Weeks Later

The morning sun streams through the kitchen windows of the main house, warming me as I sit cross-legged in my favorite pajamas on the floor.

I'm sorting through wedding magazines. It's become my new obsession—not because I'm in any rush to get married, but because planning something beautiful and hopeful feels like the perfect antidote to everything that came before.

"This one," I announce, holding up a photo of an outdoor ceremony with string lights and wildflowers. "This is exactly what I want."

Beck looks up from his laptop where he's been working through emails, his reading glasses perched on his nose in a way that makes him look intelligent but impossibly handsome.

"Including the fairy lights?"

"All of it. The lights, the flowers, the way it looks so natural and romantic." I turn the magazine toward Eli and Jude, who are sharing the couch nearby. "What do you think?"

Eli abandons his book to study the image seriously. "It's beautiful, sunshine. Very you."

"The setting reminds me of the back gardens," Jude adds, looking up from the paper on Aurora Omegas he is reading. "We could definitely create something similar on the estate."

The casual way they discuss our wedding—not if, but when and how —still makes my heart flutter with happiness.

Five weeks ago, I wasn't sure I'd live to see another sunset. Now I'm planning a ceremony that will bind me legally and spiritually to the three men who've become my entire world. And afterward, I want each man to claim me and I’m going to claim them.

I hope.

"Your mom called while you were in the shower," Beck says, closing his laptop and giving me his full attention. "She wants to know if you'd like her to reach out to your sisters about the wedding."

The mention of my sisters sends a familiar pang through my chest. "Did she say anything about Lottie? About how she's doing?"

Beck's expression grows gentle. "She's safe, baby girl. Carlos isn't Blake, and from what I've learned, he's actually been quite understanding about...everything."

The fertility issues Blake mentioned. The cruel way he dismissed my sister as "defective" when she couldn't get pregnant. I've been carrying that knowledge like a stone that rested on my heart, knowing Lottie is probably blaming herself for something completely beyond her control.

"I want to call her," I say impulsively. "I know it might not be safe yet, but I need her to know that I'm okay. That Blake is gone and can't hurt any of us anymore."

"We can arrange a secure line," Eli offers immediately. "Dmitri's people have ways of making calls that can't be tracked or monitored."

The casual mention of their Russian connection doesn't even make me flinch anymore.

I've accepted that Beck's methods for rescuing me involved crossing lines that can't be uncrossed.

I don't remember the sound of gunfire, or the sight of Blake's lifeless eyes staring at nothing, but I do remember what he planned to do to me, what he'd already done to my sisters.

For that reason, I can't bring myself to feel guilty about his death. I'm actually glad he is gone.

"I'd like that," I tell Eli. "Maybe this afternoon?"

"Consider it done."

Jude sets aside his papers and moves to the floor beside me, gathering me into his arms with such tenderness that it still makes my pulse quicken. "How are you feeling about everything? Really?"

It's a question he asks regularly. Our soul bond gets stronger every day and with that, he sees every one of my emotional states, and I see his.

But as Jude watches me more closely for signs of trauma or delayed stress reactions.

What he doesn't seem to understand is that being here with them, planning our future together, is the best therapy possible.

"Happy," I say honestly, settling against his chest and breathing in his familiar scent of books and coffee. "Scared sometimes, when I think about everything that could have gone wrong. But mostly just...grateful."

"Grateful?" Beck raises an eyebrow, moving from his chair to join us on the floor.

"That I found you. All of you." I reach out to touch his face. "I thought my life was over. Now I can't imagine wanting anything different from this."

"Even when we're being overprotective?" Eli asks with a smile. "Because I know we've been hovering."

It's true—none of them have let me out of their sight for more than a few hours since the rescue.

Someone always volunteers to drive me to town, to accompany me on walks around the estate, to check on me when I've been quiet for too long.

Months ago, it might have felt suffocating. Now it feels like love.

"Even then," I assure him. "Though I might start taking advantage of the hovering if you're not careful."

"How so?" Beck asks, his voice dropping to that low rumble that means he's intrigued.

I grin and hold up another magazine page—this one showing an elaborate multi-tiered cake covered in sugar flowers. "I was thinking we might need to sample a lot of different cake flavors. You know, for research purposes."

"Research," Jude repeats solemnly. "Very important for proper wedding planning."

"Absolutely essential," Eli agrees. "Though I could think of something much more…naughty. We could probably start this afternoon. Right after your call with Lottie."

"Naughty, eh?" I grin at Eli. "Any thoughts on how naughty?"

"I thought we could fill all your holes and you can relay to Jude everything you're feeling."

I laugh. "Well, it has been a while."

"You were recovering." Jude presses a kiss against my temple.

My smile is wide. I love the way they indulge my every whim, and treat my happiness like their personal mission. It still takes my breath away sometimes.

For so many years, I believed love meant sacrifice and compromise, settling for less than what I truly wanted. But being cherished by three incredible men who see my joy as their greatest achievement feels like nothing I ever thought I would feel.

"There's something else," Beck says, his tone shifting slightly. "Something we've been discussing while you've been recovering."

I tense slightly, old habits making me expect bad news. "What kind of something?"

"The kind that involves making this arrangement official in every possible way," Jude says, stroking my hair soothingly. "Not only legal, but spiritual."

My heart beats faster, but with excitement rather than fear. "Yeah."

"But before we claim you, we want you to see a specialist to make sure your body can accept our bonds," Eli explains gently. "We're ready, but only when you're sure, and only when we know it's safe for you."

The thought of bearing their marks, of being connected to them in the deepest way possible, sends warmth flooding through my entire body. "I don't need a specialist. I was going to ask the three of you to do it once we're married."

Beck's smile turns distinctly predatory. "We still want to ensure the Alpha bonds don't conflict with your link to Jude, because that would be a tragedy."

I look between the three of them—my two Alphas and my Omega—my everything, and feel that familiar surge of absolute certainty that this is where I belong. "I don't want that either. When do I see the specialist?" I ask simply.

"Whenever you're ready," Beck promises. "There's no rush, no pressure. We have all the time in the world."

"But if you wanted to think about it," Eli says with studied casualness, "the new moon is supposed to be auspicious for pack to bond."

"Which is next weekend," Jude adds helpfully.

"That's for wolves, not humans." But I laugh at their transparent eagerness. "Next weekend sounds perfect."

The smile that spreads across Beck's face is brilliant enough to rival the morning sun. "Perfect. I'll get a specialist here tomorrow to make sure you'll be fine."

I'm getting married to my pack.

No longer am I the girl I was. The scared, alone girl who was convinced she'd never be worthy of genuine happiness.

That girl couldn't have imagined this. She couldn't have dreamed that running away from one nightmare would lead her straight into her very own fairy tale.

But here I am, planning a wedding to make us legal and afterward I'll bond with my pack mates.

At last I have a future that looks nothing like the life I thought I could only wish for.

And I did it my way.