Moira

Epilogue

I think walking away was the hardest part.

Closure is a funny thing. We are all searching for it. Some get it, and some people have to find a way to live without it. It is something we think we could live without until we experience it first hand.

I always wondered what closure meant for me. Was it accepting that Ace loved another and that he chose someone who wasn't his mate? Was it forgiving Ace for causing me pain, but never forget the hell he put me through?

I don't think closure is anything other than a state of mind. It is moving on from the past. It is finally learning to move on from the thing holding you back.

Closure is freedom in the sense that you are not tied to the one thing you needed closure from. In my case, it was Ace. Ace is my ex-mate.

The thought in its self was freeing. I was no longer tied to him by a bond set by someone who did not see the pain and damage a bond could do to two people. I was free to choose who to love and what I was to become.

I gripped the wheel of Ryan's car as I drove away from the pack. I fix the rearview mirror as I looked at the Blood Moon pack for what felt like the last time, but I knew it wouldn't be.

I would come back one day. I would back as only the human head warrior of the Dark Pack. I would come back as Kathryn Steele, not as the ex-mate of Ace Midnight.

I hope that when I do come back, that it would be because I wanted to come with my pack. It wouldn't be to find closure or for the small hope to fix something that was always broken and never meant to be pieced together. I hope that I would be able to smile at potentially making new relationships for my pack instead of dreading being bounded with Ace's pack.

I wonder what would come from the future that I was driving towards. I wonder what would come of my growing bond with Ryan. I wonder what it would be like to be a permeant member of the Dark Park because somewhere in my mind it was only meant to be a temporary solution to a permeant problem that was my mateship.

Instead of crushing or overwhelming me, the unknown brought a sense of joy and excitement within me. The unknown meant that I had the choice to choose what I wanted for what felt like the first time in my life. I wasn't being guided by fate, destiny, or even the moon goddess.

In the werewolf world, you aren't given many choices, whether because of destiny or because of the moon goddess. Choices were powerful in this world. Never had I ever felt as powerful as I do now. I took my choices back from them, from the goddess and from Ace. I am now the maker of my own destiny.

My destiny was a new beginning for me in determining what path I was going to talk and those I would bring along for the ride. I thought about the people in my past, my present, and my future. All the people that made me who I was, the good and the bad. Each person taught me a lesson.

Ace taught me that pain is temporary. Vincent, Ace's beta, taught me that you have to stand up for what is right. Britney, although a bitch, taught me that the pain that we inflict on others is the pain we usually inflict on ourselves.

Evan, Ryan's beta, taught me loyalty towards the people you care for and care about. Victor, the other head warrior, taught me to think before I act and to love every part, the good and the bad, of those I was going to train and to eventually lead into battle. Ben and James taught me that laughter is the best remedy for the soul and that laughter is also a cover that we use to mask our pain.

The Dark Pack taught me that blood only determined who you were related to, and it is through your own choice and your actions that determine who your family is. Ryan taught me that love was a choice and an action, and love is a decision you make each and every day. Alex, Ryan's wolf taught me that you are at your strongest, only when you can show someone yourself at your weakest.