Epilogue
SEVEN MONTHS LATER
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to waking up next to Ivy.
I know I’ll never get used to Dair’s snoring.
On the other side of our soon-to-be queen, Asher sighs. I feel his pang of annoyance through our bond and answer with a thud of dry amusement, Still have the guillotine around here somewhere?
Asher smirks. Not sure it would help. Pretty sure his head would just keep on snoring.
I slant my gaze over to Ivy’s sleeping face, bathed in the soft light from the early winter morning. Dair’s snore hitches, and our bride snuggles closer to his chest, scent-marking his inked pectoral in her sleep. Look how happy he makes her .
Asher’s adoration swells to match my own as he watches our omega. He’s not a total pain in the ass , he thinks. He handled the healthcare overhaul by himself .
He did manage to push that through Parliament with shocking ease. And well before our post-bonding ceremony last month… and today’s event.
True , I muse. I only got like eighteen blackmail complaints?
Asher chuckles out loud. We’ll take it .
Groggy awareness creeps into the bond, along with Dair’s raspy internal voice. It was sixteen , assholes .
I can’t help my grin. This camaraderie? It’s the reason I always wanted a pack.
I’m not the only one fighting to hold us together anymore. Now, they work alongside me. And we all do our best to build the strongest family we can for our girl every day.
Ivy’s giggle tells us she’s likely been awake this whole time, listening to us without making a peep. She likes to do that, my naughty little angel. Still eavesdropping on us like a maid with a crush.
Except now, she’s officially ours in every way.
Our princess. Our mate. And our wife .
The four-carat oval diamond on her finger glitters in the early-morning sunlight. She slants her big crystal eyes up at Asher. I see the knowing look in them and grin—our girl has finally learned that the prince lives to fulfill her requests.
“Ash,” she says, smiling sweetly. “Can you open the shades?”
Asher drops a kiss to her forehead, hauling himself upright immediately. “Of course, darling.”
We all feel how happy doing something so simple makes him. Dair nuzzles a smile into the crook of our mate’s neck, kissing the fingertip bruises he left there last night. “You okay, baby? Feeling good?”
Got give it to the former duke. He may be the roughest of us by a mile, but his aftercare is unparalleled. It always extends well into the following morning. Sometimes, it lasts for days.
I have a feeling our post-coronation vacation will be one long cycle of him fucking her every chance and way he gets, followed by him doting on her endlessly.
I send Ivy that thought and she gives me my favorite look—half innocent angel, half witty tease. Oh dear , she replies. Whatever will I do?
I hide my smirk in her hair, stretching over to balance my forearm on her pillow and steal her lips briefly. When I let her go, she beams up at me but strokes Dair’s hair, answering him, “I feel perfect today.”
Asher pulls the shades, revealing the misty garden Ivy’s remodeled around her gift from him. Their alcove is barely visible through all the dormant flowering plants and our Crenmore fog—but that’s the way they like it. A perfect little hiding spot.
When the almost-king collapses back into bed, he chooses the place between Ivy’s legs instead of demanding I give his spot back.
Smart bastard. I should have done that .
Asher flashes a rare grin over at me, then drops his face to our wife’s thigh. He bites the creamy skin, sucking his own mark over the one I left there during our last round.
“Rude!” I huff.
Ivy titters, turning to kiss my bare chest. “You can make a new one anywhere you want, my lord.”
My gaze softens when it catches hers. I can’t help the way that happens whenever I look at her—and she loves it. Joy flutters from her body to mine, the warm tingles spreading through my veins.
I hope you never stop calling me that , I tell her, keeping the admission between us. Even after the coronation today.
Her smile turns into the shy, true one we all adore. I’ll never stop , she vows. Promise, my lord .
I offer her my pinky, and she wraps hers around it, bouncing back to the grin that steals my breath. Her pretty eyes take on my favorite sly quality. Think we can get the grumps to let us have coronation cake for breakfast?
I’ve been a baron, a sex symbol, a prince, and, soon, a king.
But being Ivy’s partner-in-crime will always be my favorite role.
I’ve got a plan , I tell her. But you’re going to have to take off those panties…
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to letting a strip of fabric garrote me.
It’s called a tie, Dair , Asher’s calm, wry voice chimes.
Scowling, I yank the square knot at my collar, muttering as I train my eyes on the horizon. It’s a nice day for all of this, and I guess I’m glad. Our girl deserves a nice day.
For all her eavesdropping, Ivy is absolutely terrible at sneaking up on me. Even if I couldn’t feel her through our bond, the swish of her skirts is a dead giveaway. I’m grinning to myself by the time her hands slide around my waist.
When I don’t flinch, she sighs. “You heard me again ?”
I chuckle darkly. “I always know where you are, baby.”
“Mm. Guess I can’t be surprised. You are a stalker.”
I start to flash her a smile, but I can’t even turn my head with this noose around my neck. When my face drops into a glower, she smirks, quirking those petal-pink lips to the side.
“This thing giving you trouble?” she guesses, smoothing a hand over the black-and-silver stripes.
I grumble, tugging at the starchy shirt underneath. “Little fucker is trying to strangle me.”
Her eyes are so incredibly blue. And so smart . It blows me away, how brilliant our mate is. So fucking good and kind and full of love and just beautiful ?—
The curve of her lips softens when she senses the bent of my thoughts. Her scent sweetens, and some of the tension falls off my shoulders. With a deep exhale, I lean my forehead against hers. Letting her in. The way I did the first time I told her I loved her, through our bond.
I’m fucking terrified.
She hums, stepping into my body and winding her arms around my waist. Why?
It’s a good question. We’ve known this day was coming for more than a decade. I never liked the idea, but it didn’t scare me.
Lately, though, whenever I think about taking this mantel… becoming a king … I can’t breathe.
Why?
Images flit through my mind. Bast and Ivy laughing while she chases him through the yard. Asher curled up with her on the couch, reading the papers to her each morning. Our mate gazing over at me from across every room, feeling my eyes and finally knowing she’s allowed to stare back.
A true family .
I don’t want to screw this up , I realize. I want to be… good at this. All of it .
The king stuff, the pack. It’s all so goddamn important to me now. Because she is.
Ivy looks into my eyes, reading all my half-baked thoughts and fully formed feelings. Her arms hug me closer as trepidation fills her features. I… really understand .
I know she does. Bast and Asher were bred for this shit. Ivy and I weren’t. As her heart thrums against my chest, though, I get an odd inkling she isn’t talking about the crown or the coronation.
But I think , she adds, a pulse of excited determination rushing through her, we need to get used to the idea . Especially now .
I wait for her to show me what she means because somehow I know— I know —she isn’t talking about some throne. An instinctual jolt of concern flares inside me, but she answers it with a soft, trembly smile.
And when she shows me a mental picture, it isn’t anything like I imagined. It’s—it’s ? —
“Yours,” she whispers.
In her mind, there’s a small monitor. Black and white whoosh in patterns I don’t understand until… I hear a rhythm.
A beat.
A heart beat.
“Ivy,” I breathe, blinking down at her face. “Baby, what?—"
She steps back and catches my hand, pressing the palm to her belly. “I mean, obviously, it will be all of ours,” she goes on, blushing, “but I’m almost certain it’s yours. Dr. Grant seems to think it happened right after my last heat, when Bast caught the flu… Asher was called away for that summit in Prague… and you and I…”
It was the first warm week of spring, so I took her out for a ride on my bike and brought her home to her starry nest. We wound up staying in there for two days, having food brought up. I told the guys I was trying to keep her from catching whatever Bast had, but really, it was like our own little honeymoon.
And it made— we made ? —
“Our baby,” she whispers. Azure eyes swim as they scan my face. “I-is that okay?”
My chest feels like it will cave in and overflow all at once. “Okay?” I repeat, my fingers cupping her belly with more purpose. “Ivy, it’s fucking everything .”
I kiss her until we’re both breathless, panting against one another’s lips. Ivy smiles shyly, her eyes spilling over. “You’re really happy?” she whispers. “I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about producing the first royal heir.”
Goddamn, she’s right . This baby will be our pack’s first. So it will also be…
The next king or queen , she finishes internally—and I feel her holding the air in her lungs, waiting for me to react. After today, the next coronation will be… theirs .
It’s somehow everything I ever feared, yet exactly what I need to hear.
I might never feel like I was meant to be a king… but I love Ivy and the guys. If being a good ruler means keeping the seat warm for our children? Shaping a better world for them to inherit?
“I can do this,” I realize out loud. A shocked jolt of laughter tumbles out of me. “Ivy—I really think I can do this.”
Our omega giggles, too. A watery, wonderful sound that I file away, wanting to remember it—and her gorgeous tear-stained face—forever. “I know you can, Dair,” she tells me.
The princess looks down at my hand, spread across her stomach. At the wildflower with too many thorns. The place she claimed for her own.
She puts her palm over it, pressing her bond mark to mine. Holding me and our baby. Offering one final gift when she amends, “I know you will .”
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to not caring.
I’ve spent my whole life smothered by expectations. Duties. And all the dread that came along with them.
Yet today, as I stood in full royal regalia, about to take my father’s crown…
And I didn’t care about anyone other than the three people next to me.
It didn’t matter what the press said or how the scads of titled observers felt. I couldn’t even bring myself to look over at the crowd. As they placed the Everhart crown on top of my head and handed me a scepter that’s older than the country itself, Ivy’s glowing eyes were all I saw.
It’s the same an hour later as we gather on the second-story balcony at Everdeen. The front gates are open to allow the public to celebrate our coronation. Thousands anxiously await our official presentation, teeming below the bower of spring wildflowers strung along the front of the palace.
Despite dozens of attendants and advisers milling about the “presentation suite,” I still only have eyes for Ivy. Remembering the words she whispered to me last night before we fell asleep.
“You know what I think?” she’d murmured, glancing at Bast and Dair and then to me.
I’d tucked her hair behind her ear with a hum. “Hmm?”
“I think this couldn’t have happened any other way,” she told me. “If we’d figured out what we were meant to be back then, you might never have formed a pack with Bast and Dair. You might have just bonded with me alone, like your parents.”
The simple truth of that sank in, and my awe brought her shy smile to the fore, the soft curve warming my chest as her joy sparkled into the bond . “So maybe we had to lose each other,” she whispered. “To find them.”
Bast and Dair still, listening to me replay the memory. Thick emotion wells in the middle of our pack bond as we all turn to watch our omega.
My mother fusses over the royal-blue sash pinned across our new queen’s cream gown, smiling as she adjusts the gold-dusted lace demurely draped off Ivy’s shoulders. They whisper and laugh, which warms my heart even further and puts a lump in Dair’s throat.
My darling girl feels us watching. When she slants her focus across the room and meets my gaze, the pride and softness buried in her blue irises match the emotions she pours into our bond.
Normally, we’re evenly matched. But today? She could never compete with the strength of my joy. With the way it feels to look at her and know she’s carrying the next heir to our kingdom. Bringing us together in yet another way that only she could.
Beside me, Bast is doing everything he can not to give in to the tears tingling behind the bridge of his nose. I don’t blame him—we barely got ourselves together after Ivy’s news this morning.
Ivy hears that thought, sending me another burst of affection as she squeezes Maman’s hand and crosses the room to me. Midday sunshine glows around her, filling the hollows under her peachy cheekbones and her lovely silver-blonde hair. Her new crown sparkles—brilliant diamonds, sapphires, and aquamarines set in the lightest gold.
When she gets over to us, we all grin at one another, practically bursting with the secret we’ve decided not to share just yet. Ivy wants to wait a while before word gets out, and—just like we had no trouble waiting several extra months before today’s celebrations to let her get her bearings—we’re all committed to making sure that happens.
Still, I can’t help but bend to kiss her softly. The rest of the room be damned.
Because I don’t care what anyone thinks except for my queen. And my packmates.
Bast smiles at the adviser who approaches. “Is it time for our big moment?” he teases, smirking at us. Dair grumbles under his breath, but stands up straighter, casting Ivy a quick eye-roll for good measure.
The grin that spreads over our omega’s face is utter perfection. I sweep her into one more kiss, pulling back to meet her eyes. Sliding into our own little bubble. “Ready, goose?”
She nods, her smile turning tremulous in the best way. “As I’ll ever be.”
Dair skirts his hand at her hip a bit lower, surreptitiously grazing it along her barely-there bump. He quickly nips his bond mark and mumbles something in her ear that leaves her perfuming as he smiles crookedly.
Bast snorts at him, framing Ivy’s cheeks and scent-marking her forehead. “You look gorgeous, angel. Let’s go wave to your adoring fans.”
He always knows how to bloom her little smirks into full-blown grins. I send him a beat of gratitude that he returns with a clap to my back. “Come on, Your Majesty ,” he chips. “Move your ass.”
We’re all still laughing when we emerge onto the wide stone balcony. The crowd below erupts in raucous cheers, the noise deafening. Luckily, we can still hear each other inside the bond.
They love you, baby, Dair says to Ivy.
Best queen ever , Bast agrees, as if it’s obvious. To us, it is.
But Ivy giggles. I’ve been the queen for about forty-five minutes .
Yeah , Bast replies, and they’re already cheering for you. Iconic.
Ignoring the flash of cameras, I step into Ivy’s back and wrap an arm around her waist. Gesturing with my other hand. “Go on,” I murmur directly into your ear. “You’re the one they all want to see.”
It’s true. The people adore Ivy—a fact that’s undeniable as she floats to the flower-wrapped railing and waves. The crowd goes wild, chanting, “Long live the queen.”
Ivy smiles demurely, but her sly voice sneaks into the bond. I wonder if they’d still approve if they knew I’m not wearing any panties .
We all freeze. And I’m sure the guys’ eyes drop to her backside at the same moment mine do. Ivy shoots us a grin. More cameras snap photos. And the thought of them capturing this moment—our mate, teasing us, here . Now . All of us gaping …
I laugh out loud, shaking my head.
This was always going to be the biggest day of my life.
But now, because of her, it’s also the happiest.
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to receiving presents for every single occasion.
But I’m definitely not complaining.
A construction crew started working on this coronation day gift three weeks ago—and Dair’s been breathing down their necks each day to ensure it was finished for tonight.
The balcony is a lovely addition to our suite and an ideal spot for my second favorite gift, which arrived this morning, from Jasmine:
A pumpkin vine in a big gold trough. Along with a note that said, Just in case, babe .
I smirk at the seedling, shaking my head. I’m pretty sure I won’t need a runaway carriage anytime soon, but it will be fun to make the guys get their hands dirty in the garden when it’s time to plant it. In the meantime, I think it will do well out here in the sun.
The balcony will also be a special place for Asher and I to have our breakfasts, me and Bast to keep an eye on our animal friends, and the ideal star-gazing spot to share with Dair.
Dair is one of your daddies , I tell the little life inside me. He’s the one who will make sure you’re always safe .
That’s what my inked-up alpha is doing right now, actually. Walking the corridors in our wing one final time, ensuring all the security is in place while he makes his way back to our suite. I tune in to his mental checklist for a moment, smiling to myself.
The grin only grows when Bast’s thoughts intrude. Always the loudest, of course, and most colorful. He’s firing off a string of internal curses at the moment. Annoyed that Asher beat him at chess. Again.
Sebastian will be the fun one , I go on. He’ll have you outside, running and swimming and rowing and riding horses. I bet if we team up, we can even get another pony out of this .
The thrill of Asher’s victory fades quickly from his mind. He starts to think of his mile-long to-do list but actively halts himself and re-centers, choosing instead to focus on his mild impatience. It matches the others’—they’re all anxious for me to come inside so we can get in bed and celebrate our monumental day.
They’d probably be even more worked up if they knew about my third favorite coronation gift—a very on-brand pair of pearl-trimmed panties from Gracie and Tanya. Which are currently hiding under this gown…
But I know my alphas will wait as long as they need to. For me.
For both of us , I whisper to our baby. Your other daddy, Asher, will move heaven and earth for you. He’ll be the most thoughtful, patient person you know. And he’s the best listener there is .
My king proves my point when his warm voice winds into my body. Are you talking about us, goose?
The suite’s door clicks open as Dair returns, adding his own beat of fond amusement. Spilling all our secrets already?
What ‘secrets?’ Bast asks. As if me getting our prince or princess a pony was ever in question.
Laughing, I wave them all off. Leave me be! I’ll come inside in a minute.
They all grumble, turning their attention to getting out of their suits and unmaking our bed. I smile and spin back to the balcony’s rail, leaning over it and gazing upward.
My mother taught me to wish on stars , I finally say, promising, I’ll teach you, too, little one .
The first star I see winks low on the horizon. And I could swear it’s the same one I glimpsed from the apartment window so many months ago.
My hand automatically floats up to grasp my locket, fisting it tightly. I close my eyes, searching through all my joy and gratitude and hope.
Plucking up another wish to whisper to the universe.
Thank you for reading Once Upon A Pack!
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