Epilogue - Caelan #2
“I know,” I tell him. “I love you, too.”
He leans down and kisses me. It’s soft and sweet and full of promise, and I sink into it without reservation. His hands slide up my back, pulling me closer, and I let the rest of the world fall away. There’s just him. Just us. Just this moment.
A polite cough interrupts us.
We break apart to find my mother standing a few feet away.
Maude Thornwick looks older than she did a year ago.
The stress of everything that happened has left its mark on her face, and there’s a sadness in her eyes that never quite goes away.
Losing her husband to treachery, watching her daughters enter into marriages that started in chaos, and trying to rebuild relationships with children she spent decades keeping at arm’s length have all taken a toll.
But she’s here, living in Grayhide, and she’s trying. That counts for something.
I step back from Patrick but keep my hand in his. “I didn’t know you were coming, Mom.”
“Sera mentioned you’d be here. I wanted to see you.” Her gaze drops to my stomach. “Both of you.”
“The news travels fast.”
“It’s a small territory. Good news travels faster.” Maude attempts a smile. “May I?”
I nod, and she crosses the distance between us to place her hand gently on my still-flat stomach. Her eyes glisten with unshed tears.
“Another grandchild,” she muses. “It’s just as exciting as when your sister had little Elara.”
The curse robbed her of so much. The ability to feel joy.
The capacity to connect with her own children.
She held me as a baby and felt nothing. She watched me grow up and felt nothing.
All those years, all those milestones, and she experienced them through a veil of magical numbness.
Now she’s trying to make up for lost time, and every new milestone becomes a reminder of what she missed.
“Have you heard anything?” I ask. “About Dad?”
The hope in her eyes dims. “Nothing new. Oren’s scouts tracked him to the edge of the unclaimed territories three months ago, but the trail went cold after that. Mordaunt’s people are good at disappearing. They’ve had years of practice.”
I nod. It’s the same answer she’s given me every time I’ve asked over the past year.
Jordan Thornwick is still out there somewhere, hiding with the remnants of Thornridge’s loyal forces.
Still a traitor. Still my father. The two truths exist side by side, and I’ve learned to carry both of them.
Some nights I dream about him, about the man he was before the curse broke, reserved and distant, but still my father.
About the man he became after, bitter and resentful and willing to sell out his own family.
I wake up from those dreams with tears on my face and Patrick’s arms around me, and I let him hold me until the pain fades.
“He’ll face justice eventually,” Patrick states. “They both will.”
“I know.” Maude withdraws her hand from my stomach and straightens her spine. “But that’s not why I came. I wanted to tell you that Matriarch Lydia has stopped pushing for the annulment.”
I blink. “She has?”
“Ash spoke with her again last week and confirmed that the mate bond is genuine and unbreakable. Lydia is many things, but she’s not foolish enough to fight against fate itself. She’s agreed to recognize your marriage officially. There won’t be any more challenges.”
Matriarch Lydia may never fully accept the choices I’ve made, but it’s progress. A year ago, she was threatening to exile me from Llewelyn territory entirely. Now she’s willing to acknowledge my marriage and welcome my child into the pack. I’ll take it.
“Thank you for telling me,” I say.
“You’re my daughter.” Maude reaches out and squeezes my hand. “Whatever happens, that hasn’t changed. It never will.”
She leaves a few minutes later with promises to visit again soon. I watch her go and feel something loosen in my chest. The relationship between us is still fragile. We’re both learning how to be mother and daughter without the curse numbing everything between us. But we’re trying.
Patrick wraps his arm around my shoulders. “You okay?”
“I think so.” I lean into him. “It’s strange. A year ago, I thought my life was over. I was married to an enemy, cut off from my family, trapped in a situation I never asked for.”
“And now?”
I look around the Cultural Center. Warriors from the three packs are training together.
My sister is studying ancient history with her mate.
My mother is reaching out despite her pain.
Jonas is building a new life in a territory that used to be enemy ground.
Trenton is sparring near the back of the room.
The scar on his chest is a jagged reminder of how close we came to losing him.
The healers worked on him for three days before they were certain he would survive.
Now he trains harder than anyone, like he’s determined to prove his second chance wasn’t wasted.
“Now I have everything.” I place my hand on my stomach again. “A mate who loves me. A family that’s learning to heal. A child who will grow up in a world where packs work together instead of tearing each other apart.”
Patrick takes my face, and his eyes hold so much love that it makes my chest ache. I rise up on my toes and kiss him as hard and as tenderly as I can, both at the same time.
The curse taught me that the life you’re raised to expect isn’t always the one you’re meant to live. I was supposed to be a dutiful Llewelyn daughter, bound by traditions I didn’t choose. Instead, I fell for a Thornridge wolf and broke every rule my pack ever taught me.
I don’t regret it. Not a single moment.
Patrick takes my hand and leads me out of the Cultural Center into the afternoon sun. The territory stretches out before us, familiar now in ways it wasn’t a year ago. This is home. Not just the land, but the life we’ve built on it. The family we’ve chosen. The future growing inside me.
*****
THE END