Epilogue
T he water danced, its song sending a wave of peace through those gathered around her. The droplets were sent from high above, falling into a pool lined with luminescent blue and green mushrooms. Fairies with blue, purple, and orange wings fluttered from mushroom to mushroom, touching the round pads and tiny dots upon the surface of the glowing fungus.
No one quite knew what the fairies did nor why they were always found where bioluminescent mushrooms grew. But it was known that should the fairies disappear, so would the mushrooms.
Much as Source was the essence of all things, so too did all things work together to provide a habitable and even noteworthy existence upon the face of the planet. Source was what caused the sun to rise and the moon to share her light. Source was what gave of herself to provide a home for all creatures.
Nymphs dove into the depths of the pool, their faces coming up to grin at us before submerging once more. The boy nymph who I nearly killed splashed and played with the children of Ahhanhi and Anna’s children.
"Curo, what's with the hair? You never wear it down. You look old," Jess said, curling up her adorable little nose as she ran to me, gently pulling at my long, brown hair Shen liked to play with. She heard Brandt call me Curo and had since found it amusing, much to my lack of amusement .
Shen turned to me with a smile. "Curo?" he asked after hearing my little niece call me that.
My cheeks heated. “Don’t you dare, cur,” she hissed.
“Oh, yes I dare , Curo ,” he said with a dragon-eating grin, humor coating the bond as he tucked that name away for future use. I glowered at him.
Ran roared from overhead, flinging out her wings to catch the air as she gently alighted on the ground. Jacob fell from her back, landing on his butt with a shrill scream.
"I'm never doing that again," he declared. He picked up his glasses that had tumbled from his face during the fall and stumbled over to a tree where a book lay.
He’ll be a dragon rider yet, Ran said, pride in her voice as she arched her neck and gave a shrill battle cry.
I raised a skeptical eyebrow but said nothing.
Fenbutt streaked from the water, coming to a halt before Anna. "Fenbutt, don't you dare—" She shrieked as Fenbutt shook his head first and then the rest of his body, splattering Anna and my parents with a load of water from his fur.
Brandt ducked behind a tree to escape the shower. But when he peaked his head around, Fenbutt shook again, bathing Brandt’s face and making him sputter.
I chuckled, my cheeks hurting from the smile that wouldn't leave my face.
“Fenbutt? Who named a hellhound fenbutt ?” Brandt said, blinking rapidly to clear the water from his face as he stood guard over my sister. I'd assigned him to her personal guard, as he had been so gentle with her even when everyone else was calling for our deaths.
“The same person who named their horse Ran,” Shen replied, helpfully.
I snorted. “Says the one who named his werewolf Wolf ,” I replied.
Brandt stared at us for a moment. He gagged. "You two—" He gagged again as words just wouldn't come. He walked away shaking his head, muttering about crazy lovebirds.
“What does Fenbutt mean?” Jess asked.
My cheeks heated.
“To pass a gas so extreme, it causes one to gag.” Everyone turned to stare at Jacob, who lifted his gaze from the book he was studying and adjusted his glasses. “What?” he said as Jess giggled.
“Fenbutt, Fenbutt, Fenbutt!” Fina cried, much to the delight of the puppy dancing about in the water before her with his tongue hanging out as he chased fairies and nymphs and my nieces.
I looked up at Shen, who was already staring down at me with a gentleness in his eye that made my insides melt.
“I love you, my brave, murderous Red,” he whispered into my ear. The strength of it came over the bond, wrapping around my soul like a purring kitten.
I leaned back against him, watching my family play in the pool, lounge on the sides, and, in Mom and Dad’s case, hold hands as they smiled into each other’s eyes with tears running down their faces to match mine.
Once upon a time, I wasn’t sure we all would make it here. So many times I’d thought we’d lost it all.
But the only time you lose everything is when you stop fighting for it.
Here we were. Happy. Alive. Living. And most of all, healing.
I’d learned to delegate, to take time for myself and enjoy things without putting others’ needs before my own. Shen was growing into himself, figuring out how to be who he wanted to be instead of what others had pushed on him. Anna was learning how to use her Gift to help me weed out those who would harm our family from within. Jacob was… Jacob. Still picking locks and finding out secrets no one wanted him to know, but his heart was in the right place.
Mom and Dad were enjoying retirement, spoiling their grandkids, and supporting me as two more members of my council. They had so many great ideas, and the people of the tribe really looked up to them as the best warriors of their generation.
My tribe was… adjusting. Shen and I were taking them on different kinds of hunts. Most times there was still magic involved, but not to the extent of before. Now we took down evil others ignored. Powerful leaders who abused their partners or children, smugglers who took advantage of orphans, and fighting rings with supernatural creatures forced into death matches.
And it was working. My Reds were happy. Content that they were still making a difference. My biggest problem wasn’t my Reds, but the civilians who were having to get used to living alongside the werewolves from Shen’s pack who were moving in as their Alpha spent more time in my tribe. That and the creatures who came with needs and then didn’t want to leave. Like the sphinx and her little one. They had found a cavern nearby and often visited the city for playdates with unicorn foals.
Shen gave the ruling title to his sister after his mother’s pack had become his. Said he didn’t want it and would rather stay by my side. So Beatrice became the ruling princess after their mother. Shen had given many of his werewolves who came to help us the choice: they could be transferred to his sister or remain under his leadership. The pack was split, but then Beatrice did something unexpected.
She submitted to Shen.
That meant, technically, Shen was over them all, but Beatrice just kinda ruled in his stead.
That was an entire week and a half of craziness that I do not want to relive. Shen nearly killed his sister a few more times before he realized that being the leader she’d always wanted would be a worse punishment, and that I wouldn’t let him kill her.
Beatrice might’ve almost— Almost? Shen hissed into my mind, and I blew a raspberry at him for listening to my thoughts—killed me, but she was still his sister. And she was in a good place to make a difference, if she so chose.
Then there was the matter of the creatures with needs. They still came, being drawn to me. And I still helped them. We had lookouts who would bring them in from the woods, address their needs , and then send them home. And we had mages now. Some of the black mages had returned after the battle, seeking succor and a place to live a meaningful life. We put them to work helping those they’d harmed most of their lives.
Most of the unicorns went back into the woods after the battle, but a few chose to remain in the city. And they didn’t murder humans anymore, so that was a positive. One time I saw Ran with one, and the unicorn nodded as if conversing with her. She wouldn’t say anything except she was talking with an old friend when I asked.
Life wasn’t perfect, but it was imperfectly beautiful.
I held out my arm with the mate mark. The purple hue of its mountainous land with the moon and willow tree.
Shen held out his left arm and where our forearms touched, it made a complete circle. The top half of the willow tree on one side matched with the roots of a willow on his side. And on his side was a sun shining down on an arid desert. If you looked just so, it was almost as if the sun’s rays created the wings of a butterfly. The mark was beautiful, but it was only made whole with both of us.
When our marks met in the middle, one of light and one of dark, they created just what was needed for the trees to grow.
“It takes both rain and sunshine for a tree to grow,” Shen whispered.
I smiled up at him, tilting my head to kiss his chin. He spun so I caught his lips instead. He chuckled as I gasped, his lips closing over mine in a sweet peck that went beyond the mere physical plane and zapped my soul. He pulled back, but I reached up and grabbed his doublet, pulling him down for more than a mere peck.
Anna cheered, Brian groaned, and my cheeks grew red even as I lost myself in Shen’s arms.
A chuckle rose from my lips, and Shen broke the kiss. He was breathing hard, his breath tickling my forehead as I leaned against him.
“What are you laughing about?” he asked, his voice amused and bemused all at once.
“Would you ever have imagine this? That we’d end up here .” I gestured around us, to the joy and happiness, then to our wrists where the Mate Bond lay. “I freakin’ kidnapped a prince who happened to be the man I wanted to kill?—“
His grin was dragon-eating as he nuzzled my neck. “Too bad you fell for the werewolf you were destined to kill. Now you get to live with me,” he said. But he turned serious at my look. “I am thankful, Little Red. For all the trials. You may not have known I was Hood, but in any other circumstance, one of us would have died. But you were too stubborn to kill just any old werewolf, and I was too intrigued to kill the little werewolf killer who showed compassion in every bone of her body, even if you did stab me.” I poked his ribs and he chuckled, grabbing my hand before I reached for a blade. “Worry not, Little Red, I’ve loved you from the moment you stabbed me.”
“My blade stole your heart?” I teased.
He winced. “Painfully.”
I elbowed him even as my shoulders shook with laughter I tried to contain. He kissed my forehead and I smiled, snuggling back against the werewolf I loved.
This isn’t exactly a happily ever after. It’s not a fairytale, after all. It’s a tale of two people who came together and learned how to put up with each other and that life was better with the family they chose.
Legend says the Curo Duo were still roaming the streets of Mongolia’s cities terrorizing criminals and arguing about who had sharper blades.
They’d become legends, but legends were easy to pass away as fairytales that would later be altered so much they would become an entirely dissimilar legend.
Little Red Riding Hood lived on in our hearts, and so Alia and Shen would live on, just as they had back in those days: together, in each other’s arms, until the end of time.