Secret Sister

Epilogue

Flynn held me tight to his chest as I stood over my family's graves. Today marks the three year anniversary of my birth pack being killed by the tornado. The tornado's path traveled directly over the pack house and the surrounding neighborhood, where not everyone had time to get inside, or their walls collapsed. That day, the day that I ran from my brothers, was the last day that I saw them breathing. The image of me leaving in a cloud of dust haunts me. The fact that everyone and everything I had ever known was torn apart in a matter of thirty minutes kills me. I cried every night for five months, until I realized that my family sacrificed a lot for me to live, and now that they were gone, I had better damn well live my life for them. Nervously I spun the platinum band around my left hand ring-finger.

Flynn had asked me to marry him a week after I graduated high school. Our wedding was beautiful, but my heart broke when neither my biological father nor Papa was there to walk me down the aisle. Flynn's father graciously offered to walk me down the aisle but it wasn't the same. Nevertheless, that day was magical. I was also announced as Luna, and I began a daycare business for the pack's mothers. It was nice to help the families in Moonbeam who were struggling and needed a safe place for their pups to play while they were working. I developed strong bonds with the pack and Flynn's brothers' mates. Nobody could replace Gemma, but it was nice to have girlfriends to talk to again.

I made sure that we established a support group in our pack for those who had lost family members in accidents, rogue attacks or things like that. I wasn't the same after the tornado, but every day I got a little better. Every day I was returning to feeling like myself.

"Momma, why are you sad?" Flynn and I discovered that we were expecting a year after we married, and had a beautiful baby girl. We named her Soleil, because she was the sunshine in our life. She gave me a bigger purpose. As if he knew what I was thinking, Flynn's hands dropped to my round middle, to feel a little kick.

"Momma just misses her Mommy and Daddy and her brothers," I told Soleil in a gentle voice as she latched onto my fingers. Flynn kissed my head and I felt him grin, looking at his little princess in green froggy rain boots, a yellow dress and a purple tiara.

"I got brothers," Soleil tells us excitedly, with a big smile. She lets go of my fingers to reach up to my belly to give it a kiss. Soleil smiles sweetly at us as Flynn picks her up. "One, two."

"That's right princess," Flynn rubbed his nose against Soleil's as she giggled. "Wait two more weeks and then Mommy and Daddy will bring your brothers home."

"My go to Gams soon?" Soleil asked about Flynn's mom. Soleil was going to Flynn's parents' house when I went into labour. Soleil was over the moon when we told her that she would have a sleepover at her Grams and then we will pick her up when have her little brothers.

"Very soon baby," I cooed before covering her face with kisses. "Go with Daddy to the car, Mommy will come soon."

Flynn gazed at me with concern so I smiled at him before he turned around. I watched as Flynn made his way to the truck with our baby girl. Those two people were my whole world, and my world was about to grow. Soleil was giggling at something Flynn must have said. Slowly I knelt at Papa's grave.

"I miss you Papa, I wasn't ready for you to leave me yet. But I figured out how to survive without you; I didn't want to, but I did. It wasn't fair and it still isn't that you were taken away from me. You hadn't even gone on your cruise yet." Tears were running down my cheeks. "I'm sorry for my rebellious years, and that you had to put up with them. I'm also sorry that I wasn't there to say goodbye or that I loved you. I still love you, you know? I'll always be your little girl."

As I stood, I kissed the headstone. Then I made my way over to Gemma's grave. I felt horrible, she had no one but me to visit her. Her parents died with her and she had never met her mate. I felt another tear make its way down my face.

"Hey jackass," I began while holding back a sob. "I've missed you. I wanted you beside me at my wedding, you know, holding my bouquet as I said my vows, groaning about wanting to find your mate, teasing me about looking horrible when I wake up and then warning Flynn that I look like a beast in the morning so he's not scared. I had wanted you to be here with me when I was pregnant so you could yell at Flynn when I had my cravings. Man, you would have loved that. I wanted you to be the godmother of my daughter. But it doesn't matter now. It doesn't matter because I know that you were there and you're still here, probably making fun of me because I can't hear you. I just wanted you to know, you were my sister and I wanted to thank you for the short time you gave me."

I had to take a deep breath as I walked over to my brothers' graves. This would be where I fell apart. I screwed up so badly and I would never be able to fix it.

"Hi, I don't know if you're angry with me. I just wanted to mention that, I was a complete and total b-word to you guys, and um, I'm sorry. I know that you were only thinking of me and stuff. It just hurt, to find out that, I always had blood relatives and that I was alone still. I thought that you didn't want me as a sister, or that our father didn't want me. I felt like a screw up, and then I made myself into one." I cried and sat down onto the grass. "I've tried to fix it, but it was like putting a band-aid on a gaping hole. I can only hope that you forgive me, but I don't really deserve it. Whatever you guys think of me, know that I think the best of you now. I know what it's like to not care about the consequences and just do whatever you can to protect someone. I think the thing that hurts most.... Is that my children won't know their amazing uncles who did everything they could to protect their little sister. I love you."

Tears were cascading down my face and I sobbed. I sobbed for my family who was dead -but in a better place- and I sobbed for my children not having any maternal family. I steeled my courage after a couple minutes and then walked back to the car. I had lost so much, but I was gaining so much more. I got into the truck and buckled my seat belt. With one last look back, we left; looking forward into the future, and leaving our past to our memories.