I bite my bottom lip. “Kinda. Haven’t told the guys yet.”
“What is it?”
“Daisy’s Haven…” I say.
He nods. “I love it,” he says and hands me the file back. “Get everything in order, so we can set it up.”
I blink. “We?”
He smiles. “Here, you’re family. Whatever you need, just ask.”
Afamily.“Thank you.”
He smiles and gets up. “Oh, before I forget. I know Jaxon isn’t a kleptomaniac, but—”
Oh dammit. “I know, he just wanted me to be safe. He won’t break into her office again.”
He chuckles. “Good.”
As he walks out, I see Knox lurking, leaning against the doorframe.
He stares at me, checking if I’m really okay, and I nod.
My monsters… Mysaviors.
“Ready to go home, sweetheart?” Knox’s voice rumbles softly.
Home. My home, with them.
“Always,” I say and close off my computer and grab my stuff.
No more bruises mark my skin, no more cuts. My body is healed, my soul… almost. Or maybe never. But that’s okay.
I’ve found my place, I’ve found happiness, my light in the darkness.
I think I finally know the meaning of love.
It’s not easy, or soft. Love isn’t some Hallmark movie full of smiles and endless joy. It’s real, hurtful, and honest.
I think of the way Dimitri’s hands are so gentle when he touches me, like he’s always afraid he’s going to hurt me. How he watches me eat, how I feel when we cook together. I think of the way Jaxon can’t sit still, his body always on the edge of violence or laughter, how he holds me tightly at night to keep the nightmares away. How even though I know I hurt him, he’ll never let me go. Then Knox, the way his voice darkens and his body tenses whenever I’m in pain and how he’d kill to protect me. They all have and will, and I for them.
Love isn’t the absence of monsters. It’s about learning to survive with them, to find solace in the thorny tangle of their arms and hunger, to see them and see home. It’s waking up every day and choosing to stay, not because I’m needed or I need them, but because I want to. For the first time, I want nothing more than to be the center of these men’s brutal, messy universes.
That’s what love is, for me. Ugly and wild and so beautiful it tears my chest open with every single breath.
I lace my fingers with Knox’s, and my heart skips. He smiles down at me and heat simmers in my stomach. He doesn’t say anything, just leads us out of the building, down the steps. Outside, Dimitri and Jaxon are already waiting by the car, arguing about the best route home like it matters, but they just like to… banter.
I smile at them, leaning closer to Knox.
Jax opens the back door and bows, making a big show of it. “Your chariot, m’lady.”
I roll my eyes with a scoff and climb in. He slides in after me, pressing me up against the window, his thigh warm againstmine. He leans in and, for a second, I think he’s going to make a joke, but he just kisses my temple. Soft, gentle.
Dimitri catches my gaze in the rearview mirror, his mouth twitching up at one corner.
Knox drives. I watch his knuckles flex on the wheel, the way his jaw tightens and relaxes every time he glances back to check on us. I rest my head on Jaxon’s shoulder and let myself drift. We don’t say it, but we’re all thinking of the cabin. About Dimitri’s dad and what will happen to us. We haven’t heard anything, not a single whisper.
“I found a name,” I say, needing my mind straight again. Of course, I told them about my plan too, to build something bigger than us, in recognition of us, to help or prevent or support. I lift my head and meet Jaxon’s stare. “Daisy’s Haven.”
