When Damien and I entered Kane’s apartment, it was silent. We both entered the sitting room, and all eyes fell on us. Everyone’s eyes locked on mine and Damien’s hands, and they all seemed to release a breath of relief when they saw our fingers threaded together. Before anyone spoke, my eyes landed on Alec. I let go of Damien and all but crashed into him, wrapping my arms around him so tight. I knew I had to be hurting him, but he didn’t complain. He put his arms around me, rested his cheek on my head, and hugged me back.
“I love you,” I said, my voice muffled against his chest. “So much, you cup obsessed bastard.”
Alec vibrated with laughter.
“I love you too, you cup destroying bitch. You’re getting me a new one, by the way. I’m going to be a nightmare until to do.”
When we separated, I wiped my eyes as I laughed. I noticed everyone was looking at the pair of us with grins. I barely had time to look at Bronagh before she embraced me just as tight as I wrapped myself around Alec.
“I love you so much,” she cried. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I told her. “Do not be sorry, I understand.”
I squeezed her and kissed her cheek.
“You’re me best friend, and I love you so much.”
She hugged me again, and when we separated, I looked around the room.
“I apologise to all of you,” I said, swallowing. “I understand why you all wanted to protect me from knowin’ about your past, and I’m so sorry I called you monsters. I hope you can forgive me.”
“Alannah,” Ryder said with a huff. “You were forgiven the second you said it, kid.”
I hugged him, and then everyone else in the room, before I returned to Damien’s side and slid my arm around his waist. Keela and Branna weren’t present, but I would reunite with them tomorrow and be sure to hug them just as hard.
“Me and Damien have talked, a lot, and he has told me everythin’ he needed to,” I said. “I wanted your stories to come from each of you, and I know you’re all willin’ to tell me, but as of right now, I don’t need to know anymore. If I do, I’ll ask. At this moment in time, I just want to leave the past in the past and focus on all of our futures.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself, Lana.”
I looked at Nico when he spoke and smiled.
“I just need you four to help me with somethin’,” I said, nodding to Ryder, Alec, Kane and Nico. “Somethin’ important.”
“Anything,” they replied.
“I need to you tell Damien not to blame himself for all the horrible things Marco and those other people involved have put you guys through because he blames himself and doesn’t believe me when I say otherwise. He doesn’t feel like he is truly a brother to you lads, and it breaks me heart that he feels that way.”
Damien tensed and looked down at me with his lips parted. I stepped away from him and nodded for him to talk.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I do,” Nico said, gaining his twin’s attention. “Say that you aren’t to blame, and that you’re my brother.”
“I am to blame, though,” Damien replied. “This happened, all of it, because of me. Every job you all had to do, every ounce of pain and worry your women went through, was because of me. I ruined everything.”
I was shocked when Nico crossed the room, grabbed Damien by the scruff of the neck, and got in his face.
“Whatever you have done, or whatever you do, you’re still my fucking brother! Realise that, and then fucking accept it. I love you to death, man. I wouldn’t change a thing about my life; it’s made me who I am and brought me to my family.”
“But your life—”
“Wouldn’t have turned out like this if our past didn’t happen. I’d have never met Bronagh, the woman I’m going to marry, and she would never have given me a beautiful baby girl or be pregnant with my second baby.”
Damien stared at his twin.
“But Dominic—”
“No!” Nico snapped and shook Damien. “You. Did. Not. Ruin. Our. Lives.”
“Dominic—”
“Damien!” Nico shouted, his chest rising and falling rapidly. “You did nothing to us. So many people are responsible for the bad shit that’s happened to us, but it was all because of one person and that person was Marco, not you.”
Damien remained silent.
“Acknowledge it,” Nico pressed. “Out loud.”
Damien squeezed his eyes shut. “I can’t.”
An expression of pure agony stretched over Nico’s features.
“Damien,” he said slowly. “Acknowledge. It. Out. Loud.”
I didn’t realise I was crying until a hiccup escaped my throat and an arm hooked around my waist. I knew it was Bronagh without having to look at her.
“Damien.” Alec spoke from behind us. “Say it because it’s the truth, bro. Everything that happened to us was not your fault. None of it.”
Hearing him say that after knowing what he had been through made me love the man even more.
“Say it, kid,” Kane urged. “You’re not to blame, for fucking any of it.”
Damien’s eyes blinked open, and he looked from Nico, to his brothers, who were standing around the room.
“Come on, Dame,” Ryder spoke last, his voice firm. “Say it. You didn’t ruin out lives, Marco did.”
Damien opened and closed his mouth twice before he licked his lips and said, “I ... I didn’t ruin our lives ... Marco did.”
I covered my mouth to conceal my whimper as Nico enveloped Damien into a bone-crushing hug that the other brothers quickly joined.
“Everyone has demons, Dame,” Kane said, clapping his hand against his brother’s back. “We just need to be meaner than them because you know what, bro? We deserve to be happy.”
When the brothers finished embracing, Damien turned his misty eyes on me.
“I love you,” I said for the first time, my body trembling. “I love you so much, Damien.”
He stood across the way, staring at me for a good ten seconds before he snapped out of his trance and crossed the room to me in two seconds flat. His body crashed into mine, and to avoid falling backwards, my arms instantly latched around his waist, while Damien’s hands gripped either side of my face. He stared down at me with such intensity it made my knees weak and knock together. I squeezed him and stared up into his big, grey eyes. A plethora of emotions burned within them, but one emotion stood out.
Love.
“I love you, Damien,” I repeated, my heart slamming against my chest. “I have never come close to lovin’ another person; it’s why I’ve always been so scared when it came to you. I have never loved another person the way that I love you. You are me heart, and if you’ll still have me, I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.”
I choked back a sob when tears spilled over the brims of his eyes and streamed down his cheeks, like a collapsed dam.
“Love, no,” I pleaded. “Please, don’t cry. Please.”
I leaned up and kissed his away his tears, pressing my lips all over his face, landing lastly on his plump lips.
“I love you,” I said, pressing chaste kisses to his mouth. “I love you; I love you; I love you.”
Damien’s forehead fell against mine, his hands dropped to my waist, and he hugged my body to him so tightly, it almost stole my breath. When he dropped to his knees before me, my heart stopped.
“What are you doin’?”
“Showing you I'm at your mercy. Always.”
“Damien.”
“I’m on my knees for you, freckles. Do you think just anyone can bring me to them?”
I dropped to mine a second later.
“You bring me to mine, too."
“Alannah,” Damien rasped, his eyes staring into mine. “I’ve loved you since we were kids.”
A sob tore free of my throat.
“Me too, and I've always known it deep down, but I've been so scared to accept it.” I sniffled. “I love you so much it terrifies me, Damien.”
“Don’t be scared,” he said. “I’ve got you. For as long as you’ll have me, I’ve got you.”
“How does forever sound?”
He squeezed me. “It sounds fucking heavenly, freckles.”
“Everythin’ about you, Jack Frost,” I told him, “is mine.”
“Jack Frost?”
“You’ve just been upgraded from snowflake. Congratulations.”
Damien’s smile was a true thing of beauty.
“I’m yours, Lana. Only yours.”
Only. Mine.
“I’ve never looked forward to the future as much in me life,” I declared. “You’re movin’ in with me, and we’re havin’ sex every single day at least three times. I want to have babies, five of them, ten of them. I don’t care how many. I just want babies with you. I want to get married, but you hav’ta ask me da first, otherwise he’ll kill you. When I want you, I’m havin’ you, and I don’t want to hear a feckin’ peep outta you on the matter. Are you clear on all of that?”
Damien leaned down and pressed his forehead against mine.
“Yes. Fucking. Ma’am.”
“Well,” Alec whooped. “It’s about fucking time!”
When we kissed, it was to the cheers, hooting, clapping, and laughter of our friends ... our family. It may as well have been kissing to fireworks at midnight on New Year’s Eve because it was just as sweet, just as tender, and just as perfectly perfect as a moment could be. It was the start of a beautiful forever.
Damien licked my lower lip. “Endgame, freckles?”
Joy filled me.
“Yeah, Jack Frost.” I answered, rubbing the tip of my nose against his. “We’re definitely endgame.”