by Amira Rain
With his dark brown eyes twinkling, Jason cleared his throat. “Well, maybe you’re not sure, Celeste, and I wasn’t going to say this in an elevator, but I’m sure. I’m in love with you. And there you have it.”
With all traces of amusement gone from her face, she just stared at him for a long moment before bursting into tears, eyes in hands. “I’m in love with you, too. And I think maybe I have been for only the past year.”
Mouth twitching, Jason pulled her into his arms, and I studied the elevator buttons, wanting to give them a little privacy.
After checking in with Dr. Moore, who gave me a clean bill of health other than the bruise on my cheek, Irene and Celeste took me up to my apartment and settled me in on the couch with an ice pack. They both wanted to stay with me, but I assured them I was really okay and just wanted some quiet time alone, which was the truth. Considering all that had recently happened to me, I was sure my head would be spinning for days. Waiting for Jackson in the quiet of my apartment, even if I waited all day, sounded perfect.
I ended up waiting all day and into the evening. Jackson finally arrived around midnight, and this time, I really did launch myself into his arms, and immediately.
“Are you okay? Are all your men okay? The lions and the bears, too?”
He squeezed me tight, pressing a hard kiss to my forehead. “Everyone’s just fine. Some injuries, but all will make it.”
“Good. Thank God. And… Dan. Is he—?”
“He’s dead. I killed him myself, and my men took out thousands of his own. Some, but not many, fled. All Gorgolian territory is now under temporary command of the UFS, and the people are safe. We’ll help them set up their own government with a new leader, a human man or woman, whoever the people elect, and hopefully, our two nations will be able to coexist in peace, as neighbors. Some of my advisers are urging me to claim all their land for our own nation, but that’s not the way I want to do things. Most Gorgolian people are truly good at heart, and they have their own ways, and their own customs, and they should be able to govern themselves and keep their national identity, though under a new leader who wants peace like we do.”
Nodding, I returned my head to his chest, but then soon had a thought and lifted it again. “There was a girl named Anna there at the house, a few years younger than me, maybe. She seemed to have been brainwashed or something. Blonde, curly hair, brown eyes, really thin. Do you know if she made it okay? Do you know if she was hurt during the battle?”
Jackson kissed my forehead again, pulling me even tighter to his chest. “She made it just fine and was reunited with her parents shortly afterward. They said they hadn’t seen her in seven years. They thought she was dead.”
I exhaled in a rush. “Oh, I’m so glad they were reunited with her.”
“I am, too. But right now, I want to hear more about how you’re doing. Dr. Moore says you’re fine, other than that bruise. Which devastates me to the point I can hardly look at it. Maybe we should put some more ice on it right this—”
“Don’t worry about my face. I just want to tell you something. Two things, actually. The first thing is that I love you. The second is that I might be pregnant. I got sick this morning, and I’m a day late for my period. And maybe I got sick just because of the stress of being taken captive, but... Jackson, I’m starting to get a feeling. I really think I might be pregnant. I didn’t say anything to Dr. Moore or anyone else, because I just wanted to tell you first. It might have happened the first night we spent together. And I think... I think I’m happy about it. I think I want to be pregnant with your baby right now. I love you, and I think I want to be pregnant.”
After Jackson told me he loved me, too, with a little frog in his throat, the two of us headed down to the hospital for a late-night pregnancy test. Which turned out positive.
We embraced; I cried; and Jackson got a frog in his throat that lasted for about an hour.
A few months later, he got a frog in his voice again when we found out I was carrying twins.
That evening, in his arms in bed, which was our bed now in his penthouse, I spoke near his ear just as he was dozing off. “Jackson.”
He opened his eyes, mouth curving in a sleepy grin. “What?”
“I’m so happy right now.”
His grin got a lot bigger but then faded, and in the dim light from a small nightstand lamp, his expression became one of seriousness. “This, Vivian—you carrying my heirs, us being in love—it’s all made me so incredibly, unbelievably happy. I can barely even describe it.”
With his serious, tender expression inexplicably becoming replaced by a frown, he paused. “But it’s not enough. I don’t want you to be just the mother of my heirs. I don’t want you to be just my ‘significant other.’ I want you to be my wife. I want us to make a commitment to each other that we’re going to stay together for the rest of our lives, no matter what.”
Suddenly, he sat up with a sigh, though grinning a bit, running his hands over his face. “I planned to do this at the very most top of The Arch, in our private gardens above us. There was going to be candles, and a fancy dinner, and violins, all with a view of the twinkling city lights beneath us, and I still will do that if you still want me to, but... well, here we are, and I just have to know right now.” While I sat up and watched, astonished, he rolled out of bed, took something out of the nightstand drawer, and got down on one knee beside the bed, looking deeply into my eyes. “Vivian Jane Mason, will you marry me? Will you make me the happiest man alive?”
I could only nod at first, and then cry, but eventually, I managed to say yes. At least ten different times.
Later that night, after our second round of lovemaking of the evening, I decided to tell Jackson about an idea I’d been having.
“I want to build a Detroit Tigers museum here in D.C. A place I can go to whenever I’m feeling a little nostalgic, and a place where I can show other people a few things that were so special about my home. I want to plan it, and design it, and collect all the other artifacts for it. I want to give tours myself, and I want it to be my special thing. I want to take our children there, and teach them about baseball, and the Tigers, and show them where I come from.”
Grinning, Jackson said that sounded like a wonderful plan. We broke ground on the new museum a few months later, in a spot directly across from Celeste’s new archery range, where she wanted to teach non-shifter men and women, but especially women, how to shoot a bow and arrow, so that any who might want to help defend the city against any foes in the future could do so.
In one corner of the sales building, where bows and arrows were going to be sold, Celeste had hung a framed piece of needlepoint that Irene had made, pink lettering on pale yellow cloth. Proud of you, granddaughter, it read, with tiny pink roses surrounding the words. And beneath the roses, a stitched date, and more words. The day a woman battled dragons.
After Irene had given Celeste this gift, making her bury her face in her hands, shoulders shaking, for about a solid minute, Irene had apologized to me, saying that technically, she should have stitched, The day two women battled dragons. Smiling, I said I didn’t mind at all, and of course, I didn’t. I knew this needlepoint celebrating Celeste’s years of archery practice, skill, and bravery had been a long time in coming, and I thought it was fitting and perfect that it celebrated only her.
Jackson and I were married in October, in a very private, though very lavish, ceremony in the rooftop gardens above the penthouse. After the wedding, bells rang all over the city for a solid hour. Our twins were born on New Year’s Day, a boy just a single minute before a girl, both of them healthy and perfect.
When Jackson held the babies, one in each arm, he not only got a frog in his throat, but his eyes became decidedly shiny and pink as well. After kissing the babies on the tops of their tiny heads, he leaned over the bed rail and gave me a kiss on the mouth, still shiny-eyed when he pulled away.
“I promise you this, Vivian. I’ll always make sure you and these p
recious children are happy, and I’ll keep the three of you safe and protected for the rest of my life, no matter what.”
Knowing that he always would, I smiled, blinking back tears of my own, unable to remember a time when I’d ever felt such complete and total joy.
THE END
Message From The Author:
Thanks so much for reading all the way to the end, I really hope you enjoyed it.
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