Kissed By The Moon

EPILOGUE: Filling in the Gaps

Dear Readers,

Thank you for following this story.  I have included this epilogue just to fill in some gaps from the 2 week time jump.  I know it felt a little rushed so I've added some details.  I wont have an epilogue that shows the future because I hope to write a second book to this series that will have updates on Amari and Charlotte's lives.  Can you guess who the couple will be?  I'm excited about it and I'm already brainstorming!  The next updates will just be pictures of characters as drawn by me, so they will be a long time coming and I'll mark this book as complete in the meantime.

Thank you all again, please vote and comment!

xxMoonshine

*****

As I stand in this grand hall again, surrounded by my pack, my friends and all our allies including the crown prince and his mate, and I can't help but think about what it took for us to be here. My mate stands beside me, smiling her gorgeous smile as her green eyes reflect a light that gives me hope and I feel peace. Finally.

It was only a few weeks ago that Brie and Dr D had found me holding my mate outside that wretched cabin. I've had it bulldozed and erased now. I was covered in Goddess knows whose blood. Everyone's probably, holding her like my life depended on it. I didn't cry then. I couldn't. I just held her and waited. We couldn't wait inside because of what I'd done to the people who'd done this to her, but I knew it would be discovered and I didn't care.

Dr D injected Char with the anecdote and I wish I could say something miraculous happened, but that was not the case. Her heartbeat remained slow, and she remained unconscious. I looked at the doctor confused, and he had just sighed and told me that the poison had been in her for a long time so it will take a few days for her wolf to recover, and when her wolf recovered, her body would recover. I wanted to ask if there was a chance she would not recover, but I couldn't bring myself to ask a question where any answer that wasn't "no" would devastate me, so I let it go and told myself she would recover in the nick of time.

I waited with my mate for an ambulance to arrive to take her to the hospital and while I waited, forgetting the massacre in the cabin, allowed myself to relax. It only lasted a second because that's when Brie came out of the cabin, her aura reading terrified, asking me what the hell happened in there. I don't remember what I actually said, but it seemed to terrify her more. I've known Brie my whole life, she has been scared of me before, but she'd never backed away. That day, she backed away. Shaken and likely disturbed, and I guess that should have crushed me or something, but I just remember thinking 'I wish I had taken more time to hurt them before I killed them'. Because then maybe holding the limp body of my mate would have made me less angry.

I wanted to be a good Alpha. This war that was started because of me saw 37 of my pack members die. It's not a lot compared to the rogues we killed, but given that 3 days ago, these people were alive and well, it's too much. I remember making the rounds to all the families of the deceased. Honouring their loved ones for their sacrifices and giving them medals of Valour whilst the bereaved wept and told me stories of happier times. I hadn't known what to say then, but still, I did not cry. I felt like I didn't deserve to. Although these were my people who died for me, I felt I didn't deserve to grieve them, so I held back.

I also held back because I felt if I started, I would not be able to stop. Because I blamed myself. Because I knew if I had not returned none of this would have happened. Because if I had not rescued Denzel 17 years ago, this would not have happened. Because had I not lost control 6 years ago, James would not have lost his mind. Or maybe I should have not looked for my true mate. I should have let myself be mated to the Prince. We were good friends after all, and he would have let me keep my pack; he had said so when we opened negotiations. Then Charlotte would have never been harmed.