Epilogue
Noah
I park my rental car in front of my apartment in Brooklyn Heights and lead Aster, Liora, and Oriana up to my quiet two-bedroom.
I’ve lived beneath my means since working at Moon Co, despite the generous salary Brick pays me as a member of the executive team because I never knew how long it would last. I have money saved if Aster wants to buy or build a house somewhere with more land.
We enter the building and walk up the stairs. As we approach the door, Liora freezes, catching the scent of a she-wolf.
Nan.
I video-called her from the Berkshires to let her know I succeeded in getting Liora and Oriana out, and they wished to go to live with her in Kentucky.
She found the first flight out, insisting on accompanying them back.
Oriana’s never been on a plane, and your mom hasn’t mingled with humans in thirty years.
There’s no way I’m letting them fly out here alone, she’d signed.
I touch my mother’s back to reassure her as I unlock the door.
Nan comes flying out of my kitchen, where apparently she was deep-cleaning my cupboards.
Liora stands frozen in the doorway, rooted to the ground.
Nan throws her arms wide. “Come here, my baby. I’m so glad to see you.” She rushes toward Liora, who bursts into tears and falls into her arms.
Our grandmother, I sign to Oriana, who also tears up. She gives the best hugs.
I tuck Aster by my side as we let them have their reunion.
Liora finally lifts her head from Nan’s shoulder, wiping her eyes. “This is your granddaughter, Oriana.”
“Come here, child.” Nan envelops Oriana in a hug, then pulls back and surveys her. “Oh, aren’t you beautiful? I’ll bet you’re as smart as your brother, too.” She glances at me and starts signing as she speaks. “And strong.”
Liora reaches for my hand. “Thank you for raising my son.” She’s still crying.
Nan comes over to me. “He’s turned out to be such a fine boy,” she says and signs then hugs me.
Liora wipes her face and also signs as she speaks. “He did, better than I could’ve imagined.”
Nan envelopes Aster in a hug. “Welcome to the family, my dear Aster.” She looks at me and signs, Beautiful. What a prize.
I know, I sign back. I’m beyond lucky.
“Can we tell them?” I ask Aster.
This morning she told me that the Grandmothers had shown her that she is, indeed, pregnant with a boy pup.
She smiles and nods.
Nan gasps, already guessing at our news. Liora catches on, eyes wide and hopeful. “No…”
Oriana looks confused.
I wrap my arms around Aster from behind, drinking her scent in. Aster’s pregnant, I sign.
Judging by my mom’s wide-open mouth, she’s screaming. Nan, Liora, and Oriana all pile in for a group hug, and we laugh as our bodies jostle together in the joyful pile of love.
I’m so happy, Liora signs. So happy for both of you.
Me too, Oriana signs. I’m going to be an aunt.
I’m going to be a great-grandmother! Nan signs.
By afternoon, Nan, Oriana, and Liora are on a plane. It feels like a sudden rupture to let them go, but we all agreed that staying in New York and delaying their transition to their new life would just make things harder. Aster and I promised to visit next month.
I take Aster shopping to start her new wardrobe, and as we walk back to my building, she stops in front of a yoga studio, looking through the glass at a class taking place.
“I want to try yoga,” she says.
“Yes.” I pull her against me. “Anything you want to try, you should. There are so many things you haven’t had the opportunity to taste. I think you could just spend the next year trying new things. Finding out what lights you up.”
She lifts her beautiful face to mine. “Well, maybe not the whole next year…” She smiles.
My brows drop in confusion.
“Maybe just nine months.” Her smile grows wider.
A fresh explosion of happiness bursts inside me. “That’s right. You’ll be very busy in nine months. We’ll be busy.” I hold her close, swaying slightly on my feet, slow-dancing with her in the middle of the sidewalk. “You’re going to be the most amazing mother.”
She lifts her light blue eyes to mine, and I see a streak of uncertainty. “Will I? I never even had a mother. I was raised by a cult.”
“I know you’ll be perfect. Your love will guide you.”
She searches my face, as if she’s not sure whether to believe me.
“Your love saved me, Aster. I’m not the same wolf as I was before we met. Because of you, I’ve found my family and my pack. You showed me the importance of connection. You made me realize what’s important.”
Her pretty lips part on a breath, and I lean down to slide mine over hers.
“You’re perfect, Aster. You will guide our family with your beautiful heart and your powerful magic.”
Her eyes grow bright with tears.
“I can’t wait to walk through life with you at my side. It feels like I just started living.”
She reaches up on tiptoe and loops her arms around my neck, kissing me back. She says something against my lips that I can’t quite read, but I feel certain that her sentiment was that she feels that way, too.
Day and night, he sits on his throne. No fire, no luxury, just the shadows passing over the cold flagstones.
No Seeress, either. He lost her. Not that she was any use to him before. Her disobedience led to betrayal.
He will do anything to make sure it will never happen again. Aiden Adalwulf doesn't lose. Failure is weakness, and weakness is death. He learned that lesson over and over in this very throne room.
The sound of marching boots heralds the arrival of his wolves. The doors slam open, and Brutus leads a squadron of enforcers to stand before Aiden's throne. Half are human, and half are in wolf form. Every one of them has a red sheen to their eyes.
“Alpha.” Brutus stands at attention, fixing his gaze to the wall beyond Aiden to give his report. “We've collected the strongest pups from our vassals, as ordered. The pups are secured in the barracks. Dr. Osborne has administered sedatives. Training starts tomorrow.”
Finally, something's gone right. “Did the vassals behave?”
“They were honored to have their pups chosen to become part of the pack's elite forces. The few who would reject the honor are now in custody, slated to be re-educated.”
“Excellent.” Aiden's methods of re-educating disloyal wolves was more gentle than his father, but far more effective. And long-lasting. As the Warden and any wolf who dared question the purity of Aiden's bloodline after the Blood Moon were finding out.
“Osborne is considering testing a strain of Lupercalium on the pups," Brutus says. “He asks permission to select fifteen of the strongest pups–”
"No." Aiden's voice echoes through the massive room. "Give it to the weakest."
Brutus tilts his head slightly, showing the barest sliver of his throat in obedience. If he has any moral qualms about testing a drug on the pack's youngest and most vulnerable, he says nothing. Perhaps he realizes what the drug will do. It will either kill them or make them stronger.
Aiden knows that this is kindness. He’s giving them a chance to be stronger. His father would’ve just killed them.
In this world, the weak die, and the strong survive. Aiden is the strongest of all. He cannot be weak.
He clenches his fist and lets the pain wrack his body. It hurts like his bones are being pried apart, but no sound escapes from behind his clenched teeth.
Brutus lifts his head, sniffing the air as if he's caught a strange smell. There's no scent but the stench of fear and iron. Aiden had the throne room scrubbed when he became Alpha, but the scents of the violence of the past still linger in this place.
At times, Aiden thinks he can hear the moaning of past prisoners.
The begging of the condemned. It's distant, like it's coming from the dungeons, but that's impossible.
The Warden is in a soundproof room to better hide his tortured screams. The rest of the wolves in the dungeons have had their tongues cut out, for daring to ask questions about the wolf with no ears.
They're lucky Aiden allows them to live.
Brutus sniffs the air again. Automatically scenting for weakness.
“Is that all?” Aiden snarls, ready for this audience to be over. Brutus' eyes flare red, as if his wolf is ready to do violence, but the light dies as quickly as it came.
“There's one more message from the doctor: The humans have been procured. Operation Romulus is ready to expand.”
“Tell Osborne to get on with it.” Aiden's already assigned a squadron of enforcers to the lab to assist with the experiments and keep an eye on the scheming doctor. “Trust no one. And lockdown our borders. No one gets in or out."
“It will be done, Alpha.” Brutus tips his head to the right to signal submission, then straightens and thumps his fist against his chest. “Romulus rules.”
“Romulus rules,” the rest of the enforcers shout, striking their chest with a fist.
The echoes of their shout linger long after they've stomped away. But all too soon, the silence advances. The longer the shadows in the corner grow, the more the ghostly whispers rise.
Stupid pup. Stupid and weak.
The voice sounds like Odin. His father.
But Odin is long dead. A ghost.
And ghosts aren't real. Right?
It's probably just the wind. Yes, that's it. The wind, moaning around the corners, fading into a plaintive whine that sounds like a young pup crying for his mother.
His mother is dead too, murdered by Odin. There's no help coming for that crying pup.
No, the pup isn't real. It's just the wind.
He has to remember that. It's been hard, though, ever since the shadow wolf attacked him that night. The night he lost the Seeress and gained a curse.
But when he turns his arm over and stares at the black poison spreading through his veins, he remembers. And he goes back to his plotting, his plans.
It's only a matter of time until the poison spreads up his arm, and to his heart. He's in a race against death.
He will win.
And when he does... he will make the Adalwulf pack whole. One leader, one mandate. Operation Romulus will be realized, not just for his pack but for all packs. And one day, the whole world.
And his enemies?
They will live long enough to know that he is the greatest wolf who ever lived. The Alpha of all Alphas. He will allow them to grovel before him, and then he will slit their throats and let their blood be the wellspring from which a new race is born.
Romulus Rules.
And soon the whole world will know.
Thank you so much for reading Big Bad Betrayal!
For a special bonus epilogue where you can meet Brick and Madi’s baby, Sabrina Joy, click here.
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