Chapter 34
Sienna
Five years later
I stand on the bottom step of the estate house looking down the driveway. I know I’m early, but even after five years as Luna of Silvercrest Pack, I still get excited when my friends come visit.
My hand goes to my collarbone, looking for a mark that is no longer there. Sometimes, I feel the need to check.
The curse is still gone.
A small, wistful smile plays on my lips as I look around. Lucas kept his word. The mating ceremony in which he publicly claimed me was one of the grandest ever to be seen. He spared no expense. We waited a year because we had lost so many soldiers, but when he finally arranged it, it blew me away.
I walked toward him in white silk, wearing his mother’s pendant. We danced the night away. We made love for a week before I threw him out, my body unable to take any more.
The wind off the lawn is sharp at the back of my neck. I tug my cardigan tighter, keeping my eyes on the line of trees where the road comes through.
A small body barrels past my legs. “Mama, watch.”
Theo is three. He has my eyes, but otherwise, he is an exact copy of his father, right down to the serious frown on his face. Right now, he has a long stick in one fist and is brandishing it at a lavender bush with the focused outrage of a man defending his territory from a personal enemy.
“I’m watching, baby,” I assure him.
He stabs the lavender. The bush survives.
“Got it!” he announces.
“My brave boy,” I tell him.
He runs off to murder another shrub.
A door opens behind me. I know the sound of his boots coming down these steps better than I know my own pulse. The bond pulls warmly in my chest before his hand even finds my hip.
“Sienna.” His voice is low at my ear.
Lucas’s arm slides around my waist from behind, drawing me back into him. The wool of his sweater is soft under my cheek. His mouth presses to the side of my throat where the mating mark sits.
“Hi,” I murmur back.
He huffs a small laugh into my skin. “You smell like the garden.”
“Theo dragged me out at seven this morning. He wanted to see if the snails had moved.”
“Had they?”
I grin. “What do you think?”
I feel him smile against my neck. He does not lift his head for a moment. His chin settles on my shoulder, his arms tightening, and we watch our son threaten the lavender again.
“Can you believe we’re standing here like this?” I ask suddenly.
I feel his warm breath on my skin as he replies. “I still consider every day with you a gift, Sienna. I sometime wonder how things would have worked out if I hadn’t marked you.”
“You would have ended up mating Lydia.”
The mention of her makes him stiffen, and I sigh. Even after all this time, what she did still hurts him.
Lucas did grieve his friend, the one he spent his entire childhood with. A part of me believes that Lydia did care for him in a way, but her priorities were different. I have told my mate not to let her later actions taint his earlier memories of her. But it’s still hard for him at times.
“I would have stayed single,” he says quietly. “I was already madly in love with you. I would have watched you mate Ethan.”
The irritation in his voice makes me laugh. “You’re so petty. Ethan is mated now, by the way. And he’s head over heels for her. So, get over it.”
My mate’s voice turns petulant. “He liked you once. That’s enough for me to hate him.”
He kisses the place behind my ear and lets his mouth rest there, breathing me in.
The first car comes through the gate. Theo abandons his stick and sprints toward the gravel drive. Lucas’s hand tightens on my hip in pure paternal reflex before he lets me step forward.
The lead vehicle pulls up. Anne is out of the back seat almost before it stops, her dark hair longer than I remember. A boy who is taller than I am ready for slides out behind her, his hand still in hers.
“Auntie Sienna!”
Eli is five now. Two years older than Theo. He has Anne’s careful eyes and Kain’s straight, serious mouth. The moment he sees me, he lets go of his mother’s hand and walks the last few steps to me on his own. He lifts his arms.
“Come here, sweetheart.” I crouch and gather him in. He smells of pine soap and the long drive. He hugs me tightly around my neck. “Look at you! Look how big you’ve gotten.”
“I lost a tooth,” he tells me into my shoulder, very seriously.
“You did?”
“Two.”
“Two whole teeth!” I draw back to look at him. He opens his mouth to prove it. There is a pink gap on the bottom front and another on the side. “Now, did you lose them, or did somebody steal them?”
He grins. “No, silly. They fell out.”
Theo, who has been waiting with admirable patience, tugs at Eli’s coat.
“Come see,” he commands.
Eli looks at me for permission. I nod. He follows Theo off across the gravel with the resigned patience of an older cousin who is about to be shown something that is not, in fact, that interesting.
Anne reaches me, and her arms close around me in a warm embrace. “Sienna.”
“I missed you,” I whisper into her hair. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you more.”
We stand there for a long moment, her cheek against mine, my hand at the back of her head.
Kain unfolds from the driver’s side and meets Lucas on his way to the steps with that half handshake, half shoulder bump that means “hello” in male. The two of them have grown into easy company over the years.
A second car pulls up. Violet is out before Darius can come around to her door. Her belly precedes her by a noticeable margin. Her hand presses to the small of her back as she walks.
“I’m fine,” she says before Darius can speak. “Sienna, tell him to stop hovering over me like this. It’s a baby, not a bomb.”
“Violet!” I close the distance and very carefully gather her into my arms, my hands splayed across her shoulder blades, our bellies meeting at her round one. Her cheek presses against mine. “Look at you.”
“That’s one way of telling me I look fat.”
Darius sighs. “Ignore her. She’s been trying to get me to call her that since this morning. She’s in the mood for a fight.”
“Oh, so now you’re saying I pick fights?” Violet glares at her mate, and I quickly turn her back toward me.
“You’re glowing. Pregnancy suits you.” I grin at her.
My friend gives me a doubtful look. “Really?”
“You look beautiful, Violet,” I insist.
Her breath catches. “Don’t make me cry out here in the driveway.”
Darius shakes his head in exasperation and clasps Lucas’s hand, the two of them exchanging a quiet look that has years of partnership in it now.
“Thank you for having us,” Darius says to me.
“Always.”
His hand finds the small of Violet’s back, his palm settling protectively against the curve there. She leans into him without seeming to notice she’s doing it.
“Where is Lillian?” I ask.
Violet looks apologetic. “She wanted to come, Sienna. She really did.”
“What’s keeping her?”
“Ever since Meera and Fiona settled in Moonvale, Mom’s been organizing the classes Meera’s giving. The hybrid magic classes. She had three sessions this week. A dozen new arrivals coming in from the southern territories. She has basically been Meera’s chief of staff for the past couple of years.”
“Goddess! She must be in her element.”
“She is. She’s so happy, Sienna. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this lit up.”
“How are the classes going?”
“Beyond what we hoped for.” Violet glances at Darius. “Close to a hundred hybrids actively learning. Some of them are taking to it like water to a slope.”
Darius rolls his shoulder. The injury he took in the Covenant compound raid still bothers him in cold weather. “It’s leading them to ask other questions. They want their own community. The same as shifters and witches have.”
Lucas makes a small, thoughtful sound. “Not a bad idea.”
Darius’s brows lift. “No?”
“It’s coming whether we sanction it or not.” Lucas tucks his hand under my elbow, his thumb finding the inside of my arm. “Better it be done on good terms. With our backing. The alternative is they unite quietly, then we find out about it later.”
“That was my read of it, as well,” Kain chimes in.
“Office,” Lucas suggests. “We’ll talk it through properly. Let the women have their reunion.”
“I’d like that,” Darius agrees. He bends to press a kiss to the top of Violet’s head, his hand resting on her belly. “Come find me if you need anything. Even if you want to pick a fight.”
She tilts her head back and smooches him on the lips. “Nah, I’m good now.”
He chuckles.
Kain murmurs something to Anne, his palm cupping her elbow. She nods. He follows the other two up the steps, falling in beside Darius as they enter the estate house.
I turn back to my friends. “Let’s go to the garden,” I say eagerly. “I want to show you what I’ve done.”
Anne grins. “Lead the way, Luna.”
The path around the east side of the house is paved now, the gravel I never liked replaced last spring with smooth, pale stone. Theo and Eli have run ahead, Theo’s voice carrying back to us in excited bursts about the pond, the frogs, the new bench Papa let him help paint.
Violet’s arm is linked through my elbow. On my other side, Anne’s hand is warm in mine.
“Sienna…” Violet’s voice has gone soft. “You changed everything!”
I did. The first year I lived here, the gardens behind the estate were formal and beautiful and entirely uninviting—square hedges trimmed to within an inch of their lives, gravel paths designed to be taken quickly and not lingered on.
I have spent five years pulling the gardens apart.