Epilogue
Vaela
Sixteen years later…
It still shocks me every time I jump into the Blood River. It’s not the cold that shocks me. It’s the fact that the frigid temperature no longer bothers me.
For my first three months in Varkhar, Cassius and Tovik had the castle servants draw me warm baths.
They even had a ceramic tub brought in from Aurevale.
But then one day I saw how much trouble the staff was going through to fill it, lugging buckets of water in, heating them on the kitchen stoves, and then carrying them up the long, spiral staircase to my room, and I decided to put them out of their misery and bathe in the Blood River like everyone else.
It took some getting used to, especially over the first winter, but now I love it. I went to visit Mother and Father in Aurevale last spring and I couldn’t bear the warm bath. I felt like I was being boiled alive.
I dive under the water and feel that energizing cold waking every part of my body up.
When I emerge, my nine-year-old daughter Bellara is standing in front of me, the water up to her waist. My six wolf shifter children never had a warm bath in their lives.
They don’t even flinch while jumping into the river during the coldest winter days.
They’re all true Varkharian wolf shifters to their cores.
“When is Pop-pop arriving with the horses?” Bellara asks.
“He arrives when he arrives,” I say, floating on my back and letting the sun wash over my face.
“But when?”
“In five minutes.”
“Really?” she asks, perking up.
“No,” I say with a chuckle. “I don’t know. You’re just going to have to wait.”
She grunts and runs to join her sisters at the shore.
We’re raising our children in Varkhar, but I still want them to know their human, Aurevalian roots, so my father is bringing over some horses and they’re going to learn how to ride and take care of them. Bellara is extremely excited.
The repairs on the great Wilderwall are complete.
It took twelve years, hundreds of carpenters, and a few wizards from Keldmoor Island to rebind the magic keeping it safe, but it’s done now.
The agreement is over, although Aurevale and Varkhar have remained friends.
I’ve made sure of that, and the trade between the two kingdoms has increased.
Occasionally, I’ll see fine silks from Greyvale or dresses from Fallowhaven ripped to shreds on the ground where a wolf shifter phased and then took off.
Garrick has been named as the heir to Aurevale. My parents are getting old, and I think they’d like to retire, so Garrick will be the next king. It’s a good choice. I’m happy for him and I know with him on the throne, our two kingdoms will both be healthy and prosperous for a long time to come.
“Bellara!” my second oldest son Fenrik shouts from the wall of the castle. “They’re here!”
I smile when I see my four girls bursting out of the water, phasing into their wolves mid-stride, and taking off like a hungry Hollowborn is on their tails.
“Don’t approach the horses as wolves!” I shout after them.
They don’t turn around. Those poor horses are going to have the fright of their lives. Just like I did when I arrived.
But luckily, I had my two mates waiting for me, which turned my nightmare into a dream.
I smile as I remember how fresh and inexperienced I was with my pink dress and silk slippers. I’ve come a long way since then.
The past decade and a half with Cassius and Tovik by my side has been magical. I feel like I’m living in a fairy tale whenever I see the possessive way they look at me.
I start to get a tingling heat down there, and that’s something only the Blood Alphas of Varkhar can take care of, so I wipe myself off, get dressed, and head back to the castle.
My arousal is a full-on inferno as I walk into the Kings’ room and see them both hunched over the large map.
Cassius, who undoes me with nothing but a sly look and a wicked grin, who still makes my breath catch after all these years.
Tovik, whose strong hands on my skin feel like coming home every single time, whose growl I will never, ever get tired of hearing.
My kings. My mates. My whole heart, split perfectly in two.
Somehow, impossibly, these beautiful Wolf Kings belong to me.
“Princess,” Cassius says with a grin when he sees me slipping into the room.
I’m the queen, but when it’s just the three of us, he still likes to call me that.
I never tell him, but I like it too. It takes me back to being a young, inexperienced virgin when they showed me what it meant to be their mate. “Just the person we want to see.”
“You’re not sick of me yet?” I ask with a grin.
Tovik shakes his head fiercely. “Never, my mate. Never.”
I grin as the fire in my belly burns hotter. They can sense my arousal and it sparks their own. I can see it in their flaring nostrils and heated eyes.
I close the door and secure the lock.
The Kings are in a lustful mood.
This is going to be fun.
The End