Lords of Mayhem #1: Lachlan and Elowyn

Epilogue (Lachlan): Your Version Of Love

Years later...

Growing up, life was uncertain, painful. I was always on guard, ready to move at a moment's notice. Life was a fucking rollercoaster, and I knew at any moment, I could go plunging down a steep drop or be whipped around a tight corner with dizzying speed.

That tension, that being poised on the balls of your feet to be able to move at any moment felt normal when I joined the Mayhem. I understood it, was comfortable with it. I'd brought that same expectation of the bottom dropping out to my relationship with Elowyn, and I'd counteracted it in the most horrible way possible.

But I'd fought back. I'd taken a look at myself and looked at everything about the man I was that I needed to change and fucking changed it. I needed to be better for myself and for Elowyn because I didn't want to live without her.

So I needed to deserve her.

And somehow, she found forgiveness within her and forgave the unforgiveable. The day she told me it's definitely happening, I got on my knees in front of her and pressed my head against her belly and threw my arms around her waist.

"You will never regret this," I vowed to her. "I would give every last drop of my blood to ensure I never hurt you again."

She stroked my hair and said, "I know. I know, Lachlan."

I kept that promise to her until my dying day.

We didn't live together for another year, and Elowyn joked she wasn't moving in until my kitchen and bathroom got an overhaul, but that wasn't really the reason for the delay.

She was waiting for the needle to move one more time, from it's definitely happening to it's a fact, Jack. I was on probation still, and that was fine because I was a work in progress. Just like I was renovating my kitchen and both bathrooms, I was renovating myself. Wyn was also working on herself with her friend Roberta, who became a close friend for both of us.

And when she was ready, in her typical, understated Elowyn way, she let me know the needle had moved one final time. We were having dinner at my place, Gypsy asleep in my living room, when Wyn looked at me across the table.

"The truck will be here tomorrow around one, they estimate."

I'd looked at her blankly.

"The moving truck."

That hadn't helped much.

She'd started grinning. "The needle has moved to it's a fact, Jack," she said. "I'm moving in, Lach."

For a minute, I could only stare, not quite comprehending, but trying to absorb this unexpected news.

"Wyn," I croaked, and fuck me if my eyes didn't fill with tears.

Getting out of my chair, I'd walked over to her, pulled her up and just held her in my arms, my tears sliding into her hair.

"Men have said it before, but no one's ever meant it more: you've made me the happiest fucking man alive." I had to breathe in and out a few times before I could whisper, "Thank you, Wyn."

The next day, Elowyn moved in, and I had three of the prospects at our house to make unloading faster.

The new Mayhem chapter was growing, and we'd had about twenty brothers from the original chapter move to join us. Not one brother had protested when I, as the president of the chapter, told them there would never be any club girls here, and Butcher had also instituted a no club girls policy at the mother chapter. Our businesses were flourishing and the once-dying town was coming back to life and attracting more people to the area with the number of jobs and opportunities we'd created.