“Rook,” Jack muttered and I glared at him for going all one syllable on us at a time like this, but the bastardo still wouldn’t speak properly in front of Niall, even after all this time. I didn’t know if he was still enjoying the joke or if he just revelled in the way Niall treated him like a mindless heathen sent to do his bidding too much to change things.
A crash inside the house made my heart leap and before I could do anything to stop him, Niall had thrown the front door open and strode inside.
“Wait!” I hissed urgently, tossing the shovel away from me as I hurried to catch him, but it was too late. He was gone, heading straight to the front room and finding Brooklyn there, her cheeks flushed and the little blue pyjamas she’d worn to bed hanging from her hips in a way that instantly drew my eye.
“Morning, love,” Niall said brightly, walking towards her with the weird little dog in his arms. “Look at Brutus! He went and got himself reincarnated!”
“What?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at the dog in his arms and stalking closer to him. “That’s Brutus?”
“Yeah,” Niall said with a grin. “It was damn strange, one minute he was a big old beast, the next he was going all Phoenix and being reborn in another body, fresh and dandy and ready to tear throats out like he used ta.”
Brooklyn narrowed her eyes suspiciously and I held my breath, waiting for her to lose her shit as she realised the truth.
“Phoenixes can’t be reborn, Hellfire,” she said, clucking her tongue. “Everyone knows that’s nonsense, just like their tears can’t bring people back to life and their farts can’t set things on fire. Those are all just conspiracy theories made up by people who can’t bear the truth.”
“What is the truth, mi sol?” I asked carefully, stepping a little closer.
“That nothing is ever that easy,” she hissed, raising a hand towards the dog while my heart thrashed a million miles a minute.
New Brutus lunged at her as she drew close, his teeth snapping shut on air as she managed to shift her fingers aside with a flash of speed before squealing in delight and snatching him straight out of Niall’s arms.
“Oh Bruty, it is you!” she cooed. “And you wanna play snappy snaps, just like always!”
Niall gave me a smug grin and I released a slow breath as Brooklyn began to dance around the room with the dog who was working hard to try and bite her face before she placed him on his feet and ran from the room, calling back to him with promises of treats.
The weird little animal gave the three of us a calculating look and I arched a brow at it before it turned and scampered away on her heels.
“Go on,” Niall said proudly, turning to me and grinning like an arsehole. “Say it.”
I knew what he wanted me to say, but I wasn’t going to admit that he’d been right in picking that strange little mutt, so I just shrugged.
“Never, hijo de puta. Never.”
Niall started laughing as I headed away to take a shower and wash the grave dirt from my fingers. I found myself hiding a smile as I went. Not that I’d ever admit it, but I didn’t entirely hate that bastardo all the time like I used to.
ANNND ANOTHER TEN YEARS AFTER THAT
“O h my god, he’s perfect,” I cooed, staring down at the bundle of joy beneath me, unable to believe he was really ours. I hadn’t planned this. It hadn’t been on the cards at all, but now he was here, and I loved him more than I could put into words.
“Hey there, little fella.” Niall reached down to tickle him. “I’m ya Daddy.”
“How are you the father?” Mateo scoffed. “I made him.”
“I was the one who made ya make him,” Niall growled, throwing his shoulder into him. “And if anyone’s Daddy in our family, it’s me.”
“Hey, baby,” I cooed, lifting him into my arms and nestling him against my chest. “Come to Mommy.”
“Well, we can agree on that at least. She’s certainly his ma. Look, he’s even got the same glint about him,” Niall said, gazing at me with pride in his eyes as he slung an arm over Jack’s shoulders. “Aw, would ya look at that, they’re bonding. Have you decided on a name yet, Spider?”
“I think I’ll call him…Gabe,” I decided.
“Don’t call him Gabe,” Mateo said, shaking his head firmly.
“Alright, how about Glimmer?” I suggested.
“That’s a girl’s name. Besides, he looks far too like his Daddy to be a Glimmer. He’s made for killin’， slicing into flesh and leaving a trail of death in his wake,” Niall huffed while Jack moved closer to me to get a look at the new addition to our family.
“Creed,” Jack suggested and I looked up at him with a gasp, loving that name. It fit him perfectly. Our little Creed.
“Yes,” I said, tears brimming in my eyes as I hugged Creed tighter. “I love it. Open the window, Jack I want to shout his name to the world.” I followed him over to it and he swung it wide, the sea air washing around me and making my hair swirl. I looked across the glittering ocean ahead and smiled from ear to ear.
“His name is Creed!” I yelled, then thrust my hands into the air, holding Creed out the window and waving him at the sea.
“Careful! Ya’ll drop him, Spider!” Niall cried, lunging forward and knocking into me. Creed slipped from my grasp and I screamed as he tumbled away towards the ground.
The beautiful dagger slammed into the decking, sinking in deep and making a ringing noise as it wobbled there, carving a sizeable hole in the wood.
“For the love of fuck,” Saint’s angry man-voice carried from down there. He was one of Tatum’s men – my new sister-in-law. Or cousin-in-law. Or niece-in-law. I wasn’t really sure which. All I knew was I was married to Niall and she was married to Niall’s Kyan, so together we were linked, and that made us family.
“Oh, thank my tits.” I clasped my tits in my hands. “Creed’s okay.”
“Kyan!” Saint bellowed. “They’re at it again. I told you not to build a medieval forge in the backyard. Now they’ve gone and forged a dagger. It’s lodged in my cedar decking and one of the kids could have been-” his voice was lost as the door to the guest bedroom flew open and a young boy ran in with wayward dark hair growing down to his shoulders, roaring a battle cry.
“To the death!” Rowan leapt onto the bed and started beating our pillows with a baseball bat.
Brutus started yapping from his fancy little bed shaped like a throne – he’d become quite the princess since he’d been reincarnated. Like an angry, snappy princess who liked eating fingers for breakfast.
Caesar ran in next, Tatum’s kids all little warriors in their own right, and this one had an air of cunning about him too that made him a real little demon – in all the right ways of course. Rowan was an absolute savage and, as the oldest two of their four kids, they were always competing for position as top dog. I was pretty sure the two of them were around six and seven years old, but I wasn’t very good at judging kid’s ages. I’d thought the baby was three days old when I’d met him, but apparently he was nearly two or something.