Royal Elite Epilogue

AGE TWENTY-ONE

When Kim said she wanted to get married in this place, I thought she was joking.

But I should’ve known better. There’s no joking about such things with my Green.

I adjust the cuffs of my jacket as I wait for her to appear at the end of the aisle.

The wedding planner turned the small park where we used to play as kids into a piece cut from heaven. Lights fall over the trees and form a path on either side of where the attendees are sitting.

It’s cosy and small, and we only invited the people who actually mean a fuck to either of us. Needless to say, neither my mother nor Kim’s mother were invited.

Jeanine sent a congratulations card that Kim barely looked at before she pushed it to the middle of the endless wedding gifts we received.

We don’t need the toxicity of our mothers’ in our lives. Those women were never meant to give birth to children in the first place, and while I could get over that fact with time, Kim is different. She loves too deep and doesn’t hold grudges. Evidence? She forgave me when I shouldn’t have been forgiven.

She also forgave Silver, who’s currently standing with Elsa opposite Ronan and me. Not only has she picked up her friendship with Silver, but it’s like the years in between never existed. It took them some awkward moments during university, but they soon returned to being the two girls who barged in on Aiden, Cole, and me when we were young and demanded to play with us.

The Silver and Kim from those times were so tight and inseparable that I hated Silver sometimes.

What? Kim wasn’t the only one who was possessive about the other’s time. I didn’t like that she shared a connection with any other person. I still don’t, but I’m better at compromising right now — I think.

“Stop it!” Ronan whisper-yells in my ear. “You’re making me look like a loser best man with your fidgeting, connard.”

“Shut the fuck up, Ron. You’re already married.”

“That I am.” He winks at Teal, who’s standing beside Silver, and she shakes her head with a smile. It escapes me how she keeps up with this disaster of a man on a daily basis.

“You’re not supposed to be noisy at weddings,” Cole says from his position beside Ronan.

“You’re not supposed to be here in the first place, Cole,” I grumble, then shoot a glare at Aiden. “You either, King.”

“Nonsense,” he says. “If Elsa is here, I have the right to be here, too.”

“Besides.” Cole pokes Ronan. “If you only had Ronan, your wedding would be destined to fail before it even starts.”

“Hey —” Ronan opens his mouth, probably to curse him, but he stops mid-sentence when Kim appears, one hand laced through Calvin’s arm and the other through Kirian’s.

While both are wearing tuxedos, Kirian’s is white, like the colour of his sister’s dress. He’s just twelve, but he’s grown so much now, and he insisted that he’d be giving away Kim, too, because he’s her brother and protector.

That little guy isn’t so little anymore.

It takes me a few seconds to completely take Kimberly in. The way her brown hair with green highlights falls to her shoulders. The way her white dress has a green ribbon at the middle to match the bright colour of her eyes.

When her gaze meets mine, she bites her lower lip slightly before releasing it.

Fuck me.

That woman will be the death of me. It didn’t happen when we were kids, but it sure as fuck is going to now.

I wait for her to reach my side, then Calvin puts her hand in mine. My biological father and I exchange a look before he smiles and lets her go.

“You better take care of Kimmy, Xan.” Kirian narrows his eyes on me. “This is your first and only warning.”

Both Kim and I grin as I ruffle his hair. “Sure will, Superman.”

Seeming satisfied, he follows his father to where mine is sitting. Lewis’s eyes are bright and shining as he watches us together. He might be Kim’s biological father, but he always stayed as mine. Just like Calvin is hers.

Taking her hands in mine, I tug her close until I can smell her. Only, it’s not perfume that seeps into my bones. It’s the scent of summer — the grass and the pistachio gelato she was licking that day when we were six and she named me her knight.

It happened at this same park, under this same tree, when I knelt in front of her and she blessed me as her knight with a bamboo sword.

That’s why she wanted to get married here. Kim said this place reminds her of the time she really wanted to be with me for good. The time she knew she’d always be my Green and I would always be her knight.

There isn’t any better place for our eternal union.

My story with Kim might not have been the best. It could’ve gone differently, yes, but if it had, we wouldn’t have met halfway as if it was meant to be.

She wouldn’t have overcome her demons, the mental abuse by her mother, and the depression that ate away at her soul.

Likewise, I wouldn’t have been able to leave the shadow my mother left on my life or overcome my alcoholism issues. Today, I’m three years sober. Now and again, I drink diluted beverages and only when Kim is there, because she’s the compass that sets me straight every time. Just like she did when we were eighteen.

Kim used to tell me that souls are attracted to each other and that my soul completes hers.

She’s wrong. My soul doesn’t complete hers. If it weren’t for her, my soul would’ve been non-existent.

That’s how deeply she impacts my life. That’s how far gone I am for this woman.

Every day, I wake up and worship her body as a small show of how much she occupies my every waking and sleeping moment. She’s grown more confident in herself and her body over the years. She once told me that I’m the best thing that could’ve happened to her.

It’s the other way around.

Kimberly is the green of my life. The reason I’m standing right here without a fuckload of addictions hanging off my shoulders. If I hadn’t found her again, I would’ve ended up just like my mother, roaming somewhere on earth, scamming people and begging for a drop of alcohol.

Kim saved me, and now I’ll become her shield for the rest of our lives.

Still holding her hand in mine, I get on my knees. Murmurs break out amongst the crowd, but I ignore them. My sole attention is on the woman who’s watching me with tears in her eyes.

“When we were six, you named me your knight, and I’d be honoured if you’d repeat that again, Green.”

She grins, her eyes closing a little with her happiness as she releases one of my hands and taps me once on each shoulder. “You never stopped being my knight, Xan.”

“And you never stopped being my Green, Kim.”