The Wild Wolf Pup (Zoe's Rescue Zoo #9)(95)

“You two get hitched and didn’t tell anyone?”

“It was a spur of the moment thing,” Mike replies.

“We got married in prison in front of my father. We went to the courthouse yesterday to get our marriage certificate.”

“Bet you made your old man the happiest he’s been in a long time.” I wink at her. “How’s your mom doing?”

“She’s okay, hanging in there,” Nikki sighs, before smiling sadly. “Sits by the phone day and night.”

“Dad!”

I peel my eyes away from the newlyweds and turn to face my daughter.

“Hi everyone.” She waves before grabbing a hold of my arm. “Excuse us one minute,” she adds, dragging me off to the side.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Reina,” she huffs. My face must have dropped because she quickly adds that she was fine physically. “I think she has a case of wedding jitters—” I didn’t wait for Lacey to finish explaining. Leaving her in the common room with the guests I start for the stairs, superstitions be damned. Climbing the stairs two at a time I reach the door to my room and pushed it open.

“Sunshine?” I call, stepping inside the room, my eyes falling upon the wedding gown lying across my bed causing me to freeze in my tracks and imagine what she’s going to look like in it. Fucking beautiful. Stunning.

The bathroom door slams shut pulling me out of my trance.

“Jack! You can’t be in here. It’s bad luck to see me before the wedding.”

I walk to the door, leaning my forehead and splaying my palm against the wooden door I drink in her scent.

“Reina, what’s going on?” I question.

“Nothing, I’m getting dressed,” she answers in a high pitched tone.

“Open the door, Sunshine,” I coax. “I promise to keep my eyes closed, I want to feel you, touch you…”

“It’s not locked,” she whispers behind the door.

I turn the knob, closing my eyes as I promised and open the door.

“Where are you?” I ask, holding my hand out as I keep my eyes closed. She fits her hand into mine and I take a few steps further into the bathroom.

“Turn around,” I demand. “I want you facing the mirror.”

It wasn’t that long ago we stood in this very position. It was the night I claimed her to my club, the night I confessed all my sins to her and the night she gave me her scars. It was an act of self-control, keeping my eyes straight toward the mirror, not allowing them to travel across the body I worshiped as she undressed for me and exposed me to her secrets. I remember thinking she ruined me, then realized all she did was fix me and how badly I wanted to fix her.

Like now, whatever is bothering her, I want to fix.

“Are you facing the mirror, Sunshine?”

“Yes,” her voice cracks with the simple word.

My hands roamed the air searching for her. Finding her I drop them to her shoulders as I stand behind her.

“What do you see when you look in the mirror?” I probe, my voice husky against her ear.

“I see you,” she whispers. “I see me.”

“You and me.”

“Us.”

“Look lower,” I command gently, pressing my lips to her ear as I glide my hands down her sides and wrap them around her, splaying both hands against her bump. “Now what do you see?”

“I see love,” she whispers. “I see so much love.”

“What else?”

“The future. You, me, him or her. I see Christmas mornings and birthday parties. I see you standing behind our child waiting for him to blow out his candles on every cake you put in front of him. I see Lacey and Blackie, their wedding, their kids, their life we get to be a part of. I see visits to Jack, sharing with him all the stories he’s missing. I see rides, long rides to nowhere particular. Dinners with a table full of your brother’s, big family dinners.”

“I see all that too,” I admit, eyes still closed tightly as my lips trail down her neck. “It’s called forever, Sunshine.”

She places her hands over mine.

“You,” she whispers.

“Me,” I reply, brushing my lips across her shoulder. “Marry me, Reina. Let me spend the rest of my life seeing forever through your eyes.”

“You think I don’t want to marry you? Jack there is nothing, not a thing, I want more in this lifetime, in this crazy world than to marry you. I told you before I was scared and that’s no lie. I’m so scared of losing you. It was never a question of whether I want to be your wife, it’s a question of whether or not I’ll get to be. I have such a bad feeling that something will happen, something terrible and it’ll all be over before it began. Our perfect forever gone before we even get to say I do.”

I growl and something feral explodes from my mouth as frustration gnaws at me. I promised I’d keep my fucking eyes closed because all I want to do is spin her around, force her to look me in the eye when I tell her there isn’t a goddamn thing in this world that will stop this wedding from happening.

I may not know much.

Might not be worthy of anything at all.

But I know for sure that Reina was put on this planet to be Mrs. Jack Parrish. She was born to wear my patch, born to be my old lady.