The Royal Alpha, & Loyal Luna

Epilogue: Je t'aime, Maman .

Her funeral was beautiful.

Especially beautiful compared to the destruction that made her coffin the focal point of adornment and beauty. In the blood-soaked field of the Royal House, we lay my mother's body out for her services. Her coffin, the color of the countless blood she'd spilled, the flowers that weren't accompanied with blood, ornamented around it. Big, gigantic flowers, with stems as long as fully grown adults, organized in patterns that shaped her resting place.

Lights and lanterns had been strung from the still standing trees and a bed of petals led up to view her coffin. As I walked what seemed like miles to see her one last time, I stopped, becoming fully aware of the petals beneath my bare feet.

She was beautiful. Dressed in a long, flowy gown that was made to match the color of her eyes, since I would never see them again. Her hair was how I'd remembered it before I'd lost her the first time, like mine. Sun-kissed hair, soft and long and beautiful.

My breath hitched in my throat. "Je t'aime, Maman." I leaned down and a tear fell to her cheek, sliding down as if she herself was crying. And that was all it took for me to break. As much as I had tried to hold myself together in the days that had followed the battle, looking at my father, at what was left of my mother's pack.. had only weighed on me.

Grey had told me the day after, that I had rampaged and slaughter a great dent of the wolves that were left in her court. What I'd only heard, was that I had killed innocent. Families. Young. Old. I had killed out of sheer rage and had the audacity to not remember. The audacity to want to blame it on the wulphed, the Goddess—both who had been so quiet since Minette—yet, I knew it was all me. I may have not remembered, but my hands could still feel the blood soaked on them.

Don't let what happened define you.

Eyes wide as her words pierced me, I looked to her face. Hearing her voice as if she were still alive and speaking to me right now, I felt my body shudder.

Nova, I love you.

I would carry her words with me forever.

"Je t'aime, Maman." It was all I had left to say to her. It was all I had left of her, my love.

A hand touched my shoulder, and when I turned to see my father with tears in his eyes, I hugged him to me. Tightly. Never wanting to see him go, never wanting to let him go like we had to let her go.

"I'm sorry, Daddy.." I shook, crying into his bear-like embrace and thanking the Goddess that he didn't let go. I couldn't feel the ground under my feet anymore as my legs gave way and he caught me, supporting me and all my weight.

"You don't have to be sorry for a thing, princess, enough.. you've fought for your family more than enough. Rest now." I closed my eyes, but the tears continued to fall.

"I'm so sorry.." It was the only thing I could say to him. "I'm so sorry, Dad, I'm so sorry.." I cried.

"I love you, Nova." I stiffened at his words, as he kissed the crown of my head. "And it's okay that we'll always love her."

Was it okay? Was it right to love the person who had damaged so many people beyond repair? The many lives she had a hand in destroying, the many choices she made that resulted in this..

"Grey," I heard my father but I couldn't open my eyes. I was so weak, so tired that my body could only lay there in his arms and cry. "Take her inside, I'd like a moment alone with.. my wife."

My heart constricted and I felt like I was having a stroke. My body felt numb and pained all at once, still at odds, but now with entirely different reasons than just the wulphed and Goddess combatting with one another within me. If they still were.

Apart from guilt, anger, and sadness.. it was quiet within me. And strangely, that ached.. I longed to not feel this emptiness. I almost prayed to feel the Goddess with me again, even the wulphed. But then there was a part of me that relished in the torture of loneliness and loss. Because it was what I deserved.

"Baby," I sighed out a breath that had been building behind my walls when he spoke to me. The walls I had formed to keep everyone, including Grey, out of my head. Everything was spinning in it, haywire, I feared it would cause him concern over my mental wellbeing all over again. "Sweetheart," His voice was so soft as he spoke to me as if I'd crumble like delicate glass in his hold, as my father placed me in his arms.

"..Grey?" It barely came out, but he'd heard me.

"I'm right here, I'll always be right here." He squeezed me to him.

"Promise me.."

He leaned his head down to show me I'd had his full attention.

"Promise me you'll never let me go. You'll never let me leave and become-"

"Oh, pet." He brought me up to face him. "Let you go? You can never get rid of me. No matter what. I'll always find you, I'll always come for you, always. I'll always protect you, need you. I'll always love you. And if you ever needed someone to bring you back down to size, just remember, I'm Alpha Greyden Krem of Aureate Moon.. I'd go through hell for what is mine. And Nova.." He wound his fingers around my hand and brought it to his lips, kissing the skin just before my wolven. "You are mine."

I wrapped my arms around him. "I love you."

"I love you more." He kissed me. "Marry me, Nova. And let's spend our days reminding each other of that for the rest of our lives."

"Yes." I cried into his kiss. The kiss that always seemed to bring me back. Those beautiful pale brown eyes that always knew where to look. "I'll marry you, wolf boy."

Everything seemed to be exploding in my head, but when he smiled, oh.. that smile, everything in my head went quiet in absolute awe of his beauty. Of his wolf that was so strong and persistent and loyal and loving.

"I have to stay." I looked back and forth between those pale brown eyes. "You know that, don't you?"

He closed his eyes, kissing the hand that lay closest to his face. "We, Nova. We have to stay. I know there's a lot you feel responsible for, but you won't feel that alone. We'll make this right together, we'll find a way to merge the packs, fix the damaged, crown you officially."

I started to protest, but then I remembered not so long ago when I wanted Grey to treat me as his equal, when I wanted a say in changing things for the better. Maybe this was that opportunity to properly do so. As the Princess of the East, royal blood of the Absolon wolf-line, it was surely in my right. Not just because of my blood, but because.. I deserved something, if I couldn't get peace. And this.. this would be it. The Royal House was mine and it was time to make it worth its title.

"I can't do this alone." Every time I closed my eyes, I could seen her, them.. all of the blood. The way her neck felt in my arms just before that twist, watching helplessly as he bled out from his bullet wound on the floor, my Gamma's cries for her lost loved one, her echoing wails of pain as I took the life of someone she held almost more dear than my own.. everything just seemed to run together every time I closed my eyes.

"You'll never be alone, pet. I'll always be here. Your family. Your alpha. And soon, your husband."

Crying was all I could manage lately. "Mālama, Alpha Krem."

"Mālama, Princess Luna Nova Du Val." His eyes reflected with pride.

"And soon, Krem."

The End of Book II .