Epilogue
SAVVY
Everyone was celebrating. Not just my brother and Elodie’s nearest and dearest friends, but everyone, everyone. The castle was once again overflowing with people, this time with music, food, and alcohol.
But despite being happy for my brother and new sister-in-law, I somehow didn’t feel the joyful spirit everyone else was riding high on.
We’d only had the memorial service for the ones who’d died in the second omega war last week.
Some were still being found. They’d only freed the supes who’d been forced to create the collars a few days before, locked away in a basement deep in pixie territory.
Apparently, one of them was the missing gnome, Sandrine.
The pack was helping him find a new hearthstone to replace the one that had been shattered.
After all, if he hadn’t added that reversal spell on the collars, things could have gone very differently.
I trailed through the empty amphitheater, remembering the fallen.
We’d lost so many. Friends, family, allies.
Dakota, who’d been a new friend, but I still missed.
I thought about Henrik and Patty, and little Bence.
That loss hurt the most because I knew Bence’s pain so well.
It was almost like going through it again myself.
He was already tucked in bed, and I’d kissed him good night before leaving him with Leigh and wandering out here.
It might have been morbid, but for some reason, I needed to be here where the battle happened to process it all.
My life had up and changed what felt like overnight, though, realistically, it had been a few months. My brother, who’d raised me, was bonded now. A real, married old fogey. I was about to turn thirty in a few days.
While my friends who’d survived were all partying it up at the castle like they had a new lease on life, I… couldn’t. It was their first brush with death, while for my family, it wasn’t.
I’d already lost core people.
Tonight, even though I was happy, I felt a little like I was losing my brother too. It was stupid to be sad, though, when he was so happy, and I was happy for him. So I walked rather than bring the celebration down.
I’d always hated being alone before. But here I was, avoiding the people who’d help me numb my feelings. Who was I, anymore?
I didn’t want to party or hook up with a hot alpha with anger issues. I was tired of numbing my feelings with meaningless sex and alcohol. Valens had found real happiness, which made everything I was doing look… cheap. Because it was.
Damn it, I wanted more. The next phase, whatever that looked like.
It wasn’t like I could snap my fingers and find my mate, though past me might have said yes to the four-way that Finn, Dax, and Hudson had suggested before I’d escaped the party.
The Kodiaks were hot, but my wolf wasn’t interested in their bears.
Still… maybe I could go to college, start studying for a real career. Brielle was a doctor, after all. And while that sounded like it involved a lot of gross stuff I wasn’t interested in, I could be something else.
A lawyer or, heck, a concert musician. Wolves lived a long time. I could be great eventually.
Okay, I had no musical talent whatsoever. Musician was out too. But I could find something I was passionate about and build a real life for myself.
That was my next step.
I stopped and stared up at the velvety sky, the big, full moon shining down on me, as if the Moon Goddess herself was smiling on her daughter.
Do you know where my mate is? I asked, knowing there would be no response. Still, sometimes it felt good to ask anyway.
A dark blot covered the moon, and I frowned. What the heck was that?
The thing swooped by again, closer this time, and I started to backpedal, nearly tripping over my dress.
A big, black claw swooped out of the darkness, snatching me into the sky.
I screamed, but there was no one to hear me.
Thank you so much for reading Fated to the Wolf Maiden!