Epilogue—Elijah

Usually, like everything in his life, Elijah Wilder fought with a kind of single-minded focus that could only be described as machine-like. The kind which assured that unless he or his opponent surrendered the brawl would continue and he welcomed that.

It was the same killer instinct that ensured he always got what he wanted, irrespective of whether or not his disorder posed any challenges. Rather than a fight, he chose to see this as a chance to blow off some steam, if anything. It wouldn’t win him any favors to beat the shit out of a man he knew Aurora still cared about even though the thought of her with him sent cold spikes of jealousy through him.

Elijah hated having to—but he held back for her sake.

With every step he took sharp pinpricks of agony shot up the length of his broken nose, but this didn’t stop the sinister, blood-red grin that crept across his face as the fight waned on. At first it had appeared as if they were evenly matched, with David standing slightly taller than him and having a longer reach, but as the fight waned on it soon became evident that he would be the one coming out of this victorious.

He closed in once more, deftly side-stepping a blow to deliver one of his own, a punch to the stomach which he followed up with an uppercut to the jaw that sent the other man blindly staggering away, and vaguely, it registered in his brain that someone was screaming.

His focus fractured as soon as it dawned on him that the sound was coming from Aurora. He turned to face her, registered her flushed, wet face as her voice strained, pleading with the both of them to cut it out.

If she didn’t stop soon, she’d shout herself ragged and surely that wouldn’t be good for her… or the baby.

His mind ground to a halt.

The baby—his if Aurora was to be believed. He didn’t doubt it. As soon as she blurted it out in the diner Elijah had combed through his memories of their stay in Paris until he came upon that one time they had sex without protection.

It was a novel concept, the fact that he was going to be a father, but to Elijah’s surprise it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant one, especially when he considered what this could mean as per his relationship with Aurora.

He’d rushed straight to her apartment after calling things off with Isla earlier that evening with no set plan and was surprised to be greeted by a smiling man whose features immediately shuttered as soon as they landed on his, who by some twist of fate he now found himself fighting with.

Once more, David attempted another careless swipe, this even more pathetic and easy to project than all the others that’d come before it put together, and Elijah dodged it fluidly, his lips curling in a faint show of distaste as once again he found himself holding back, though he managed a kick to the shin which sent the other man crumpling to the floor.

It would be better for everyone if he ended this as quickly and as cleanly as possible.

Unable to stop the instinct, he turned to look at Aurora again and this time when their gazes locked it took every bit of will power on his part to remain standing (though this may have had something to do with the blow to his head that David managed to land earlier—maybe he was concussed.)

Be that as it may, it would’ve been ingenuine to ignore the sense of rightness thoughts of her evoked in him. Elijah had never felt this way about another person in his life, of this was sure.

Earlier, she’d asked if he loved her. It was a question that’d caught him off-guard, one he still didn’t know the answer to, though if he was sure of one thing it was that she loved him, and he wanted her love all to himself while he figured things out even if that made him out to be some kind of greedy bastard.

He was addicted and wanted more of her even if it killed him: Body and soul—wanted to be her one just as much as he was sure that she was his and didn’t care what it was he would have to sacrifice if it meant a lifetime of waking up to the looks she reserved for him, eyes liquid with desire and some other emotion he couldn’t quite bring himself to put a name to, at least not yet. But soon.

Aurora would be his, of this Elijah was sure, and a good way to ensure this would be to start with an apology.

Or even propose a marriage, maybe.

The thought appeared fully-formed out of his subconscious, and as soon as it did he felt that familiar sense of rightness envelope him once more, so that he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he for the second time in his life he would be proposing to a woman, who from the expression she wore probably thought he was some kind of monster, except he wasn’t—or at least he hoped so.

A sigh escaped him, and he noticed in his peripheral vision a slight disturbance that brought to his attention the fact that David was trying to get up again.

He had to give it to the man, Aurora’s ex did not know when to quit, and so Elijah made the decision for him, feeling like a cat playing with its mouse as he watched David right himself slowly and draw his hands into fists.

With predatory grace, Elijah closed the distance between them, ignoring the sense of slight discomfort which threatened to unfurl in him as he pulled his arm back for one final blow, then he let his fist fly right into the face of the other man, effectively knocking him out as the goal from the very start had been to ensure that David was down for the count in every sense of the word.

Shaking out his hands to ease the tension off his knuckles, Elijah looked down at the unconscious man and fought back an urge to smile as he realized he could now preoccupy himself with thoughts on how to win Aurora back.

No doubt, he would bear the blame for this too even if he hadn’t been the initiator of the fight, but he wasn’t too worried because Aurora loved him, and with less he’d managed to convince entire boardrooms comprising mostly of cynics.

It would be the biggest challenge of his life, turning the tables to make her his again in every way, but he was ready to see it through even if it was the last thing he did, because by the end of it she would agree to be Mrs. Wilder, and he’d be lying if he claimed that didn’t have a nice ring to it.