Royal Elite Epilogue (Royal Elite #7) by Rina Kent

“Looking good, little Cousin.” He approaches me and squeezes my shoulder in a hug, then releases me. “Ready to join the marriage train?”

Not really. This isn’t about marriage for me. It’s about being with Elsa for as long as possible. It’s about the life we’ll have together and the memories we’ll make in the future. It’s about becoming one.

Am I ready for that?

I smile in the mirror.

Abso-fucking-lutely.

Half an hour later, I’m standing in front of the aisle in Ethan’s house. That’s where Elsa wanted the wedding, and Jonathan wasn’t the least bit pleased about it, but he’ll live. This day isn’t about him, it’s about her.

Cole is on his best behaviour at my right, which has to do with the girl who’s sitting a few rows across from us with her parents. Silver smiles at him but quickly averts her gaze because they’re still at the stage where their relationship is a secret.

Teal is hanging on to Ronan’s arm as he whispers things in her ear, then grins like an idiot. Xan is sitting with Knox in the front row and sulking like an abandoned kid because Kimberly is standing opposite me as the maid of honour.

I’m focused on anyone but myself because my impatience is getting the better of me.

Just when I’m about to send Cole to look for Elsa, the music changes. I straighten as Ethan appears with the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.

It’s like a recurrence of those times when she first found me in that basement — when her eyes met mine, and she told me she’d save me.

She did in more ways than one.

Now, she’s doing it again.

Her full white dress outlines her soft curves and its hem sweeps the floor. She didn’t pull up her hair like I expected her to. Instead, the blonde strands are intertwined with flowers as they fall to the sides of her face. She has no veil, and her expression is bright, soft, and so alive, I want to run there and place my ear to her chest in order to listen to her heartbeat.

When her electric blue eyes meet mine, the world stops moving for a second.

It’s only the two of us, like when we were eight and she told me she’d marry me. When she made me promise her the same.

We’re both making that promise a reality, and because of that, today is another beginning of our lives together.

Elsa’s lips pull in a smile and I smile back.

She’s always been mine, when we were eight and when I reunited with her again at sixteen and when I finally got her at eighteen.

I was lucky to find her and I’ll spend the rest of my life making her feel like the queen she has always been.

Now and forever.





Xander





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.