Claiming Her Innocence: Alpha Ever After (Book 1)

by Kelli Walker

  He trails off, and he pauses to gather himself. I can’t remember a time in my life when I have ever seen Lux with an inch of insecurity about him. Which means that whatever he is about to say, it is going to be serious. And I am so excited to hear it, I can hardly wait.

  “But when I heard at the hospital about what happened to you,” he goes on, and he takes a step forward, planting a hand on my stomach. “When I heard about the attack, I knew that I was in love with you. Because I couldn’t care that much about someone who I wasn’t already totally crazy about.

  “And what I said to you when you were there, I meant it,” he continues. “I meant every word that I said. I hadn’t had time to think about how I wanted to say them to you, and I know it was a mess, but...”

  “It was perfect,” I breathe to him, and I mean it. Because any declaration of love from him, whether it came with writing in the sky or a note in scrawled handwriting, it is everything to me. They are from him, and that is all that I care about. That he feels that way about me, and that I love him back.

  “Well, I was hoping that you might give me a chance to do it right this time around,” he tells me, and, before I can react, he sinks to one knee in front of me. And I feel my heart swell because I knew that this was coming, the moment I saw him standing there in the garden waiting for me. I have known all this time that we are meant to be together.

  “I love you, Vanessa,” he tells me. “And I know that I want to spend my life with you. When I heard about the baby, I’m not going to lie, I was freaked out at first, but I want to raise a family with you. I want to do everything with you. Anything you need, I want you to know that you have me to turn to provide it for you. And I don’t want to spend another moment of my life pretending anything different.”

  He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small box, blue velvet, which he pops open to reveal a shimmering diamond ring inside. I gasp. I have no idea how he could afford it, and frankly, I don’t care.

  “Vanessa,” he murmurs my name. “Will you marry me?”

  “Yes,” I reply, at once, hardly able to keep the smile off my face. “Yes, of course, I will. You know, I will.”

  He rises to his feet, plucks the ring from the box, and slips it on to my finger. Winding his arms around me, he plants his lips against mine, and I sink into his embrace like it is the only thing that I’ve been missing in my life.

  And, as he kisses me, I feel everything begin to slip into place. This is where I belong. With him. Even though I couldn’t have planned for any of this, I know that it is right. The feel of his body against mine, the softness of his lips as if they part my own, and the sureness that I am never going to have to hide this from anyone again.

  I could never have guessed, back when I was in high school, that I would feel this way about Lux. I would have laughed, like he said, if you told me that I would fall so hopelessly and head-over-heels in love with him. But we both changed, we both grew, we both became whole new versions of ourselves.

  And there is still so much growing to do before all of this is over. We have our entire lives to learn about each other now, to figure out how we best fit into one another, and I don’t want to miss a moment of it.

  I pull back and look him in the eyes, feeling a smile trace up my lips. I can’t contain it. How can I when he is the only thing I want, and he is the only thing that I have?

  “I love you,” I murmur to him, and he brushes his lips against my cheek once more and smiles.

  “I love you, too,” he replies. “And I’m going to love our baby so much I don’t know how I’m going to stand it.”

  “Tell me about it,” I laugh. “I can’t believe that we’re really doing this.”

  “Me neither,” he replies. “And I can’t believe that your brother helped me plan it.”

  “I’m sorry, what did you just say?” I exclaim. Out of everything that I had been ready to hear come from his mouth, that had been about the last that I expected.

  “Yeah, I guess your cover’s blown,” Gavin’s voice comes from behind us, and I spin around on one foot and see my mother and Gavin standing behind us.

  “Oh my God, you guys!” I exclaim, and I burst out laughing. “Did you really...?”

  “We really did,” Mom replies. “Why did you think I was taking so long to walk back? I was worried that they weren’t going to have everything set up by the time that I got you here...”

  “Hey, we run on military time, everything gets done to order,” Gavin protests, and I go over to him and give him a huge hug. I know what a big deal this is for him to have come to terms with the fact that I am actually with someone now. With the last person he ever would have chosen for me to be with, fair enough, but a person I love, who loves me.

  “Hmm, I’m not sure about that, judging by how late you were for high school,” Mom teases, and I laugh. I feel so giddy as if I could just lift off the ground and float around the yard. All the people I love are here around me right now. And I can’t think of any sweeter feeling in the world than being able to enjoy their company and know that I am going to be able to keep enjoying them for as long as we are all together.

  Lux

  “Hey, are you sure you can handle this?” Vanessa asks me, furrowing her brow with concern as I carry in another plank of wood, trying to make sure that I don’t take a chunk out of the paint on the wall as I go.

  “I told you, I’ve been practicing with this stuff,” I remind her. “That’s why our place is looking so good, right?”

  “Right,” she giggles, and I raise an eyebrow at her.

  “And what exactly is so funny about that?” I demand. She shakes her head, planting a hand on her swollen stomach.

  “Nothing, nothing,” she replies with a grin. “Just...well, I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s all done.”

  “And trust me, my love, you’re going to be blown away when you see it,” I assure her, and I lean over to plant a kiss on her lips as I prop the plank up against the wall.

  “Are you two going to stop being all soppy and actually help me get the job done, or what?” Gavin calls to us, and I pull back from Vanessa and pull an apologetic face.

  “Well, I guess we can pick this up later,” I reply. “What are you doing here, anyway? I thought that you were supposed to be resting up...”

  “I’ve come to supervise,” she replies. “I want to make sure the two of you don’t make a total mess out of Mom’s house.”

  “They’re not going to do that!” their mom calls through to us. I can hear her clattering around in the kitchen. No doubt she’s cooking up something for dinner; she always likes to feed us when we’re around, and I have become a big fan of her cooking. She got a job at the diner a few months before, and I think that it’s been helping her improve her outlook. Not to mention all the new friends that she has made there. She is so bright and so happy compared to the woman I met when I came back into their lives a few months before.

  “Well, better that I keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t,” Vanessa calls back, and she leans against the wall.

  “I think you should sit down,” I tell her. “You’re pregnant. You’re going to pop if you’re not careful...”

  “I still have another month left yet,” she reminds me, and I lean down and plant a kiss on her big pregnant tummy.

  “Yeah, another month until I get to meet my daughter,” I reply. “I don’t know how I’m going to be able to wait that long.”

  “Tell me about it,” she replies, and she slides her hands over her bump and smiles.

  It’s hard to believe that it has been seven months since the day that we found out that she was pregnant. I can still remember the shock I felt at the knowledge, and I realized that I was going to be a father and that the woman I had gotten pregnant was one who I couldn’t even share my love for because of my best friend. Things had been such a mess back then. I am still surprised that we were able to find a way out of it without losing our minds.

/>   But we have. And, in the middle of it, the four of us, soon to be five, have managed to put together something that looks a hell of a lot like a family. I know that I will never get over the loss of my father. I think about him often, especially when I imagine the day that our daughter is born. I wish that he could have been around to meet her. I am sure that he would have been the sweetest grandfather, even if he could be a hardass with me. He would have adored her the same way that I am going to, I am certain of it.

  But that doesn’t mean that I am not grateful for what Vanessa has given to me. The warmth, the protection, the love. Everything that I am sure I will spend the rest of my life giving to her and our daughter.

  That’s why I have been so committed to building our home from scratch; I want it to be something that belongs to us and just us. I purchased the plot of land a few months ago, and since then, I have been using every moment of my spare time to build it from the ground up.

  And I’ve had a hell of a lot of that spare time since I promoted Gavin to be the manager of The Last Call. After he found out that he was going to be an uncle, he changed his mind about wanting to go back out and fight, and I don’t blame him. It’s amazing how just the thought of a kid can be enough to shift so much of your perspective, even if you had been sure that it was set in stone. But, in staying, I knew he was going to need something to do. And I found the perfect thing for him by asking him to manage the bar.

  I wasn’t sure that he could do it at first, but it didn’t take long until he had totally proven himself; he seemed built to take care of the bar, to run security, to look after the girls who worked there. And I am pretty sure that he enjoys the attention that he gets from them, too. Maybe he’s even been enjoying it a little more than was strictly professional with one or two of them, now that I think of it, but hey, I wasn’t going to go judging him. I hardly have a leg to stand on, given that I’ve fallen in love with someone that worked for me there.

  And now that life has slowed down for me a whole hell of a lot, it’s given me time to see just how lucky I am. How blessed I am. I have worked so hard for this life that I get to call my own now, and nothing is going to turn me away from enjoying every second of it with her by my side.

  Which is exactly why I am down here to help her mother with the mess that is her house right now. Ever since we decided to move in together officially, Vanessa has been fretting about leaving her mother in this falling-down place when she was gone. She has been trying to do a little work here and there, mostly online, to earn money to fix it up, until Gavin and I intervened and said that we would take it over to make sure that everything got taken care of.

  And that’s why we’re in the middle of trying to patch up the hole in her ceiling and make sure that everything was as it needed to be as soon as I had the house ready to move into. I paid for all of the materials, despite the protests of both Vanessa and her brother, and I have put aside the whole weekend to patch it back up and make sure that it is looking perfect once more.

  Because this is the home that we’re going to let our daughter spend a hell of a lot of time in. The home that is going to be a safe place for her, somewhere she can come when she has skinned her knee and needs it patched up, or gotten a great score on a test wants to share it with someone other than us.

  The plot of land that I purchased for our house is just a few hundred feet down the road, and I am glad that we are still so close together. Gavin is living here now, and I know that he’s searching for a place of his own, but I can tell he secretly likes being back with his family once more. I get it. After so long out of this real world, it’s a strange and somewhat wonderful thing to be back where we belong, back home, to start over. The military is where we became men, but this is where we are going to become fathers, uncles, husbands—everything that defines a man as an adult, everything that gives him the legacy that he needs.

  Speaking of husbands. It’s not long until the wedding. We have been planning it over the last few months, a low-key affair that’s really just to confirm us as a family by the time that our kid comes into the world. We thought about waiting a little while longer until she is old enough to be our bridesmaid, but I’m not willing to wait any longer than I already have. I can’t wait to be able to call her my wife, instead of just my fiancé. And hey, with the bar still under my name, at least we know where we’ll be able to hold the reception, right?

  “You sure you don’t need a hand with that?” Vanessa asks me, and I shoo her away from the doorway.

  “You need to sit down and get some damn rest,” I warn her. “I don’t want you over-exerting yourself.”

  “You don’t have to fuss over me like this, you know,” she laughs, but she backs off into the living room, holding her hands up, knowing that there is no point in arguing with me. I have made my mind up, and I’m not going to let her anywhere near any of this building work. I want her as safe as she can possibly be. Call it a hangover from the day that I ran to her in the hospital, but I am always going to be more protective of her than I strictly need to be. I think that’s something any husband should do, though, and I know I’m going to be just the same with my daughter when she comes along.

  Vanessa darts forward and steals a kiss before she closes the door and leaves the two of us to our work at last. And I can’t keep the smile off my face. Because I know that I have everything I could ever have asked for: a woman I love, a house I can’t wait to live in, a child I can hardly hold back my excitement about meeting for the first time. When I first saw her walk into The Last Call, I would never have believed that we would end up here. But looking back, it seems almost like fate. As though my father, in leaving me that bar, has given me the perfect pitch on which to meet the woman I needed to meet.

  And for that, I am eternally grateful to him. And to Vanessa, for loving me back just the way she does.

  Epilogue

  Epilogue: Vanessa

  I look at myself in the mirror, tuck a strand of hair back behind my ear, and smile. It has been a long time since I have had an excuse to get all dressed up, and damn, does it feel good.

  “You look lovely, sis,” Gavin tells me. I look over my shoulder at him and smile.

  “Yeah, but you have to say that, you’re my brother,” I point out, and he laughs.

  “Hey, in all fairness, you know there was a time when I would have pretended that you looked terrible, just to make sure you didn’t go out and pick up guys,” he reminds me. I giggle, turning back to my reflection in the mirror.

  “Yeah, you have a point,” I reply, and I rise from my seat and plant myself down on the floor where Gavin is playing with Aria.

  My little daughter reaches up, pressing her hand into my knee for support, and touches the fancy silver earrings that I have put on for the evening. I dip my head down so that she can reach them, and Gavin chuckles.

  “You know, I think you’re meant to keep them for yourself,” he remarks to me, and I shrug.

  “And you know that when you have a kid, nothing belongs to you anymore,” I point out.

  “And that’s exactly why I’m never going to have any of my own,” he replies, and he scoops Aria on to his lap. “I’m happy with my little niece. She’s more than enough for me.”

  “I think she’s more than enough for all of us,” I laugh, and I drop a kiss on top of her head and rise to my feet. I know that I’m going to have a hard time getting out the door, but that’s just the way it is when you’ve got a little one you’re so in love with. Even a fun night out seems heart-wrenching when you’re going to be away from them for a few hours.

  “Go, get out of here,” Gavin tells me, and I am sure that he can see inside my brain right now; he spends so much time around here, and has since his niece came into the world, that it wouldn’t surprise me if that turns out to be the truth.

  I still can’t quite believe how well Gavin has adapted to being an uncle. Before Aria was born, I wondered if he would actually be up to the job. He talked a big game
, of course, but it might be totally different when it actually came to having her around. But, from the moment he held her in his arms for the first time, I saw utter adoration for her written all over his face. As he said, he isn’t in a rush to have any of his own, but he is willing to lavish all that excess energy on to her instead. And she seems more than happy to take it.

  My mom has been just the most incredible help since the very day that Aria came along. She is the best grandmother that I could have asked for, and given that she is the only real grandparent that Aria has, she has to make up for a whole lot of missed space. But she is always glad to take on the task, working her ass off to make sure that our little one never feels as though she is missing out on anything at all. I know that when Aria grows up a little, she’s going to see all the work her grandmother puts into raising her, and she’s going to be so grateful for it. Though I’m confident that even if she never so much as glanced in my mom’s direction again, Mom would do everything she could to make sure that Aria has the best life she could ever ask for.

  With her little mop of dark hair and those beautiful eyes, there is one person I see above any other when I look at our daughter. And that is Lux. He is the one who made this all possible; he is the one who built the house that I am standing in right now. And sometimes, I am so grateful to him that it feels as though I will never be able to fully express that. I know that he has worked so hard to provide for us. He took some time off from the bar when I was pregnant, but ever since Aria was born, he’s been working overtime to make sure he can support the two of us.

  And he built this house, this home that I am standing in, from the ground up. It’s small— two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen—but it’s ours, and I love every inch of it. It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been here for a couple of years. It feels as though this has been my home my entire life. Maybe because this is the home that I’ve been waiting for all this time. The home that I can build my family in.