The Luna

Forty-eight

Epilogue - Two Years Later

I stand alone, staring at the small stones that line the ground. Usually, Austin comes out here with me, sitting patiently with me until I'm ready to go back, but today is different.

I can't even say just today really. The last week or two, he's been acting differently. He's coming to bed later than usual and is up and gone before I wake up. I can't place my finger on it, so instead of asking him to come with me, I just left, hoping the fresh air would help clear my head.

It never fails though, even after two years, I never really know what to do or say when I get here. Still, I come out here especially when I need to think.

Before we left Lotus pack for the last time, I had asked Austin to help me search the grounds for any type of graveyard or memorial for the previous Luna's. If they had been so important to the pack, surely they would have been given a proper burial but we found nothing. Not even a hint that those women had been here at all.

I will never understand how there was no trace of them but no one who survived that day had any answers. They all told the council the same thing, Once the sacrifice was made, the pack was dismissed home and the alpha waited there for the Goddess to retrieve her prize. The answer to the question I wonder most, Atticus took to his grave.

However, the more days that passed after coming back home, the more the guilt weighed on me. There was no resolution for them. They are just some cold missing person case that the world has forgotten about.

But they deserve more than that. I may not know what came of their bodies but I could still give them a place of peace. The stones aren't fancy, chiseled names in large stones that sit in a half-circle under a willow tree I loved at first sight.

I thought that everyone would think I was crazy when the idea came to me, but to my surprise, they were nothing but encouraging. Even going so far as to help with something to bring it to reality.

Axe and Austin scoured the woods, finding stones large and smooth enough to work for my vision. Harper and Emily helped me chisel the names in the stones (which was harder than I thought it would be) thanks to Malachi who was able to find the book I described from Lotus before it was demolished. And all three guys carried the stones from the packhouse to the tree, helping me arrange them just right.

My fingers trail the delicate necklace, the only thing from the Lotus pack that I took with me. I don't know why I kept it, but when I'm here, it helps me feel like they're here with me.

I sit gently facing the stones, humming Let it be by the Beatles to myself. I love being here as the sun begins to set. The colors that filter through the leaves of the willow make it seem almost magical here.

"I thought I'd find you here," I turn slightly to see Jax walking up to me, a small box in his hands, as he nods to the stones in respect, "We've been looking for you,"

"I'm sorry, I just needed some fresh air," I shrug, stretching my legs out in front of me.

"No apologies necessary," he sits next to me in one fluid motion, "Austin has been a little anxious though. I'll tell him I found you," his eyes get a faraway look in them.

I stare at him, still fascinated with the whole mind linking thing. At first, I'll admit it was hard to believe but now I just get more frustrated that everyone can just talk in their heads and I'm the last to know.

"I shouldn't be surprised that he didn't come out here looking," I say when I notice Jax blink, the telltale sign that the conversation is over in his head.

"He's been a little preoccupied -" I shoot Jax a look telling him without words to save his breath.

I don't want excuses, I want the truth that Austin promised me long ago. He swore no more secrets and lately I can't help but think he's keeping one from me.