Page 244 of What We Become

“I’ll keep the rest short, because I can see Sage is approximately thirty seconds from crying off her mascara.”

I laugh and dab at the corners of my eyes. “She’s not wrong.”

“So.” Gloria straightens. “Vows.”

Micah steps forward first.

He takes my hands. His are warm and steady and slightly calloused and I know every line of them because these are the hands that held me first, under the jetty, when I was shaking too hard to hold myself.

“Baby girl,” he starts, voice soft. “I vow to hold you when you need holding and to let go when you need space. I vow to feed you when you forget to eat and to listen when you need to talk and to be quiet when you don’t. I vow to love every version of you—the brave one, the scared one, the one who eats sandwiches from the middle out.” His mouth curves. “I vow to be your home. Not the building. The feeling.”

He kisses my hands and steps back.

Knox steps forward and takes my hands. His engulf mine entirely.

“Fury.” He pauses. “I vow to protect you. To stand between you and anything that tries to take you from me. And to build you whatever you need—a gym, an arch, a life.” He looks at me. “Yours. Always.”

I’m already crying when he leans in and kisses the top of my head.

Holden steps up. Adjusts his cuffs. Meets my eyes.

“Sage Adams—wildcat. I vow to always come when you call. To tell you the truth, even when it makes me look like an asshole. To let you help me when I’d rather pretend I don’t need it.” His voice drops. “I vow to watch the door so you never have to. And to tell the whole world to fuck off just to be here with you. You get my life, wildcat. All of it.”

He lifts my hands and presses a lingering kiss to my knuckles. I melt.

Eli.

He stands in front of me and doesn’t speak for a long moment. Long enough that Milo shifts nervously. Long enough that the silence fills with birdsong.

“I vow to never push you away again.” His voice is rough. “I vow to let you see the monster and trust that you’ll stay. To tell you when I’m struggling, even when every instinct says to shut my fucking mouth.” He swallows. “And I vow to keep finding things for us to look forward to. Books. Trips. A weekend at the cabin where we get absolutely nothing done. I want a whole life with you, Sage. In all shades of dark and light.”

He leans forward. Presses his forehead to mine. Breathes.

“My little savage,” he whispers. “I caught you. You’re mine. I’m yours.”

He steps back. I wipe my face with both hands. Someone passes me a tissue.

Milo.

He bounces on his heels. Cracks his knuckles. Takes a breath that’s more performance than necessity—and then drops every wall he has.

“Kitten. I vow to make you laugh every single day. Even the bad ones. Especially the bad ones. I vow to always have a plan, a backup plan, and a backup-backup plan that involves a submarine.” He grins, but his eyes are wet. “I vow to build you systems that keep you safe and annoy you with my genius and never, ever stop being the most exhausting person you’ve ever loved. I vow to be the chaos to your calm and the calm to your chaos, depending on the day. And I vow—” His voice cracks. He clears his throat. “I vow to wear my ring like the smug, married bastard I’m about to become. And when things get hard, I vow to stay close enough for you to reach me. I waited months to ask you for forever, kitten. I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing you how fucking glad I am that you said yes.”

Gloria dabs her eye with the corner of her sleeve.

Dennis is openly weeping.

Gene has gone through three handkerchiefs.

Ray is staring at the sky, jaw tight, refusing to crack.

At the back of the yard, Loki’s smile trembles. Thor takes his hand, and Odin moves closer, his gaze staying on the six of us.

My turn.

I look at all five of them. These men who found me when I was broken and didn’t try to fix me. Who patched me up and put a knife within reach. Who loved me in a language the world hasn’t built a dictionary for.

“I vow to choose all of you,” I say. “Every day. Not because it’s easy—God knows it’s not easy—but because the hard parts are the parts that prove it’s real.” I take a breath. “I vow to fight for this family the way I fight for everything—stubbornly, recklessly, and with a knife if necessary. I vow to let you hold me when I need it and to hold you when you won’t admit you do. I vow to never run. Even when my brain tells me to. Even when the bricks come back.”