Reign of Brayshaw (Brayshaw High 3)

I take a half a step forward only for the official to slide in front of me with his hands up.

“Please.” He smiles. “Stay.”

The boys jog up the hill without a word, both their eyes on Victoria as they pass her, but she doesn’t look up until she’s almost to me.

She nods, the corner of her mouth lifted as her eyes scan over me. “She was right.” She looks to me. “Nice suit.”

“Nice outfit.”

She shrugs, and steps to the side. “Not supposed to be the one in white, but it’s what the queen ordered, literally,” she jokes, running her hands over the satin top while she glares at the white skinny jeans. “How you guys got all this shit here overnight, I’ll never understand.”

“Get used to it.”

Her eyes find mine.

“It wasn’t only our lives that changed yesterday. Yours did too.”

She licks her lips, looking away in thought.

A moment later, Royce steps around the corner.

He points at me, slips his shades on, then gives me his back. Cap steps around next, pausing right beside him.

Royce holds a hand out.

It’s her fingers I see first, slipping into my brother’s. Then her wrist, but Cap slips to the left, blocking the rest of her.

I tilt my head, my eyes narrowing but it doesn’t help.

Right when I’m about to push forward, go get her my damn self, Cap moves aside, and there she fucking is.

My girl.

Black leather jacket unzipped, laying over a lacy, white dress that allows her skin tone to peep through, and cuts off at the knee. It’s tight, shaped to her hips and fucking perfect for her. Simple, easy, but damn if she doesn’t bring it to life.

Her hair is curled and down, laying all around her, a deep part in the center, and she’s got those red lips again, her black boots covering her feet.

Fucking perfect.

I force my eyes left, scanning across the three.

A solid, tight line. My brothers both hold a hand of hers, leading her right where she belongs.

Right to me.

My baby, or more, my babies.

We’re having a fucking baby.

If someone had asked me months ago if I wanted a kid, I’d have laughed in their face. My answer would have been a thoughtless, easy, never.

But now, knowing Raven has a part of me inside her, that the two of us will be linked on a deeper level, a level no one else will ever reach, no matter how hard they might try, I’m desperate for it.

Desperate for our little one.

And I’ll kill anyone who dares to threaten our future.

Our family.

My body grows warm, a calm spreading through me I haven’t felt in weeks, a purpose I’ve never known crawling up my muscles and settling into my bones.

My feet carry me to them, and the closer I get, the higher the corner of her lips rise.

I stop right in front of her, my hands landing on her hips, and I lower my forehead to hers.

Slowly, my brothers release her hands, patting my back as they walk by and Raven’s palms slide up my chest, fisting my jacket at the collar.

Her choppy breaths fan across my lips and I fight the urge to drop mine to hers.

Not yet.

“I don’t think this is how it’s supposed to go,” she whispers. “I’m pretty sure I was supposed to walk to you.”

“Yeah, well, we don’t do things the right way, baby. We do it our way.” My hands move up her ribs, under her jacket and squeeze. “And our way is how I like it.”

She nods against me. “Me, too.”

“You ready, baby?” I whisper. “Ready to belong to me?”

She pulls back, looking up at me. “Come on, Big Man,” she murmurs. “You know better than that.” She lets me go, stepping back and around me, so I slowly spin to keep facing her.

She walks backward, toward my brothers, toward her sister, and the reverend.

She smiles, holding her hands out, speaking for all of us to hear. “I’ve always belonged to you. Let’s make it official.”

I lick my lips, clenching my teeth together to keep myself in check when moisture threatens to surface in my eyes.

It’s been a helluva year, I’m ready for a helluva future.

I follow, stepping right beside her, pulling her into me as the reverend begins to speak, but I don’t catch a damn word.

I hear nothing but the pounding of my heart against hers.

Proving further we’re one in the same, Raven’s fingers plant themselves directly over my left pec, and she closes her eyes.

I hold her tighter.

Mine. Forever mine.“Kinda morbid, isn’t it?”

I look to Collins. “What?”

“You got married ten feet from here less than two hours ago, and here we are pouring our mothers’ ashes in a creek.”

I glance from the fancy marble ern in his hand to the wooden box the morgue gave me that holds my mother’s remains. I open it, unseal the plastic bag on the inside and dump it all out in one shot. “Yeah, I guess it is.”