Piece Us Together (Monstrous Survivors #3)

39. Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Hunter

Somehow, I didn’t wake up to Maison sneaking into the bed with us. I wake up to the nightmare, though. So does Nolan.

“Do you think this means it went bad with Carter?” he whispers as we watch Maison’s chest rise and fall in heaving, terrified gasps.

“I don’t know, darling…”

“He has to quit, Hunter.”

“I know.”

“He has to.”

“Shh.” I kiss the top of his head. “I know.”

I hold him as we wait for the ending to come. Wait for the desperate I’m sorrys . But that’s not what happens.

Maison jerks awake, eyes wide, his breath sucked in as a gasp. He looks around him before landing on us.

“Hey, sweetheart.”

“Hey.” His voice is hoarse. Thick. He looks at Nolan. “I woke you guys up.”

“We don’t mind,” Nolan promises.

I put my free hand out toward him, only halfway. It’s a question. An offer. Sometimes he doesn’t want to be touched after nightmares. Sometimes he’s desperate for it.

He closes the gap, taking my wrist and guiding it toward himself. I take over from there, fingers wrapping around the side of his neck, warm against his cool skin. He didn’t work up a sweat like he usually does with his nightmares. He’s not as shaky, either. Not as unsettled. He leans into the touch, releasing a sigh of relief.

“Nightmare?” I ask.

He laughs, something strange about it. Something that doesn’t quite fit with a nightmare. “Actually, no.”

“No?”

He looks at each of us, a smile growing on his face. It doesn’t stop until it’s wide. Bright. Him smiling like that, with the way the moonlight is casting over him, makes my chest hurt. I love him so much. The both of them.

He laughs again. Stronger this time. I finally place the something strange—it’s relief. He sounds so fucking relieved. “Turns out, it was a dream.”

“A dream?” Nolan asks carefully.

“Yeah.” He puts a hand on each of our cheeks. “Turns out, it’s the happiest fucking dream of my life.”

I smile despite my sheer confusion. “That’s…good. I’m glad.”

“I quit,” he blurts. I feel Nolan stiffen against me. Maison doesn’t give either of us a chance to respond. “And Carter and I are going to work on our relationship. He wants to be brothers again. Like we were before. He even—” He laughs, softer this time, incredulous. “He even apologized . And I got us more Christmas decorations. Bags full of them. And I want to put them up together, the three of us. And I want to keep having dreams in your bed, Hunter. Even the nightmares. I want to always wake up to both of you, and I want quiet breakfasts and movie marathons on the couch. I want to teach you guys how to build a fucking fire. I want to finish the snowman outside. I want Nolan to organize your kitchen how he likes, because he can’t fucking stand where your silverware drawer is and he thinks it’s absolutely ridiculous that the canned food is in the cabinet above the oven.” He takes a sharp breath. “I want you to make the world go quiet for me, and I want to figure out how we can make it go quiet for you too.”

All I can manage to say is, “Oh, Maison,” because the sheer joy and relief surging through me is overwhelming.

He tugs Nolan away from me, settling him in his lap. They both look at me with big eyes full of hope. With tentative smiles.

“What do you say, Hunter?” Maison asks. “All cards on the table.”

“All cards on the table,” Nolan agrees. “We want forever with you.”

Is this what it feels like for your dreams to come true? When something even better than your dreams, even better than you could have possibly imagined, comes true?

I blink away tears.

I say, “Forever sounds perfect.”