The officiant took out the rings.
“Reese,” the officiant said, “place this ring on Axel’s finger and repeat after me.”
Reese slid the ring onto his finger. “Axel, I choose you as my husband. I promise to love you, stay with you, and build my life with you.”
Then Axel took her ring.
“Axel,” the officiant said, “place this ring on Reese’s finger and repeat after me.”
Axel held her hand carefully and slid the ring over her finger.
“Reese, I choose you as my wife,” he said. “I promise to love you, stay with you, and build my life with you.”
The officiant smiled. “By the authority vested in me by the State of Oregon, and with everyone here as witness, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Reese smiled before he moved.
“You may kiss your bride.”
Axel stepped closer, set one hand lightly at Reese’s waist, and kissed her.
Axel stepped back with Reese’s hand in his while they turned to face everyone. The pack was on its feet. Dom stood with Valeria and Adrian, watching with quiet satisfaction. Stella wiped her face with one hand while Blaze held Rory against his chest. Heath and Rosa were smiling. Gabriel clapped beside them. Ryder was making too much noise, and Nell elbowed him without looking away from the riser.
Axel looked at all of them, then down at Reese, his wife.
Reese laughed softly as she cupped her full belly. Axel put his hand over hers, feeling the small movement through the ivory fabric of her dress.
For most of his life, family had been something other people had. Something he watched from a distance. Something he protected for someone else. Now Reese stood beside him in front of everyone, carrying their daughter under her heart. This was his family. His wife. His child. His pack. His home.
Chapter
Thirty
Reese satat one of the tables inside Steel Protection with Elsie tucked against her chest in a sling. The main room had been cleared for the Christmas party. Desks had been pushed against the walls.
The conference table was covered in food, Santa Claus paper plates, Rudolph napkins, serving spoons, and trays of cookies. Colored lights ran along the equipment racks. Garlands hung over the dark monitors. Someone had set one screen to a fireplace and another to falling snow.
A Christmas tree stood in the corner where maps and case boards usually sat. The first time Reese had walked into this building, she’d stood near the front desk with fear sitting in her throat. She came in because she couldn’t keep running from Wade’s shadow.
Now she sat in the same building with her husband across the room getting her a plate, her newborn daughter asleep against her chest, and the whole place full of voices, food, babies, and Christmas lights. Elsie made a small sound in the sling. Reese looked down and touched one finger to the baby’s cheek.
Elsie was only a few weeks old, dressed in a 0–3 month holiday sleeper that still bunched at her wrists and ankles. She was warm and heavy with sleep, tucked close enough that Reese could feel every small breath. The red-and-white striped cuffs covered her hands, and the tiny embroidered reindeer sat off-center on her chest where the sling had twisted the fabric.
Reese was tired all the way through her bones. Her body still ached in places she had not known could ache. She had slept in pieces since Elsie was born, never long enough to feel fully awake and never deeply enough to forget she was listening for the baby.
This exhaustion came from nursing, rocking, diapers, and learning which little sounds meant hunger and which meant comfort. It came from being needed completely. It wasn’t the old fatigue of running, hiding, and staying ready to leave.
Elsie’s mouth moved in her sleep, and Reese caressed her cheek again. This child had once been the reason she ran. Now Elsie was the reason she had found home.
Across the room, Ryder crouched in front of Adrian and made a face so ridiculous that Adrian squealed and slapped Ryder’s shoulder.
“Ryder,” Valeria said, reaching down to steady him. “Don’t wind him up.”
Ryder straightened with both hands raised. “I was providing holiday enrichment.”
Dom took Adrian under the arms and lifted him before he could launch himself at Ryder again. Adrian immediately grabbed a fistful of Dom’s shirt and tried to chew the collar.
Hunter stood near the food table with Brie beside him, Colette asleep against his shoulder. Brie balanced a plate in one hand and adjusted the tiny Christmas hat sliding over Colette’s eyebrow with the other.
