Delicate

Epilogue 2

Four years later

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(A/N - before you guys freak out about Aiden and Julian dying or some shit, werewolves in my books live long, to like 120, they still got lots of time. Relax)

For those who like music, I wrote this epilogue to Right Back Where we Started by Maxine Nightingale, it was always the song /vibes I had in mind for this last epilogue.

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William's P.O.V

Stockings stuffed with candy and toys, check.

All gifts waiting under the tree, wrapped and sparkly, check

An absurd amount of lights on all around and inside the house, check.

A loaded up Christmas playlist of songs I'd hate until the day I die, check and check.

Spinning around the room, I finish off the last bits of my mental checklist one last time before I finally fix my gaze upon Sassy and Blaze.

The pair blink up at me with unimpressed expressions of betrayal that actually cut right through me because I knew how much this hurt.

"I'm sorry," I whisper as I crouch down, "I can't believe I'm doing this either, but things change."

They both look away from me and a piece of my heart breaks.

For years, it'd been the three of us against Damon and his demented obsession with Christmas. None of us liked the stupid holiday but we'd put up with it because it made Damon so adorably happy. 

But then, Damon had infected the girls with his Christmas obsession and I literally couldn't hate something my kids loved so much, so now... we were here. 

In a reality where I, William Calderon, actually liked Christmas.

A part of me was disgusted with myself, but the rest of me was deliriously happy.

"Look, we'll get through this together," I say as I take the antlers off the counter and fix them onto Sassy's head. 

Once they're settled behind her ears, I give her a shitload of hugs and kiss to soothe her. The last thing I needed was for her to start throwing a fuss that would wake everyone up.

Surprising your family on Christmas was one thing. Surprising your werewolf family when you were a blind human was an entirely different ballpark of 'hard as fuck'.

It was like trying to pull off a heist without blueprints. Next to impossible! 

But I was doing it by putting together this special wake-up call even though I was usually the 'Grinch Dad'. Not today though, today, everyone would wake up and find Sassy, Blaze and I waiting with smiles instead of our usual attitude. 

That was the plan and I wasn't about to fuck it up now with the pets.

Thankfully, Sassy doesn't bark at me or try to scratch off her antlers, she just gives me another unimpressed look that I pretend I don't see as I move on to the chunky bastard next to her.

Picking up the sparkly green bowtie with Blaze's name all over it, I shake it between my fingers as I crouch down slowly, not wanting the chunky fuck to make a hop for it.