Epilogue
JUNIPER
The summer breeze cooled the nervous sweat on my brow as I looked out at all the guests in attendance.
As I scanned the crowd, I tried to pick out the people I knew best. At the head of the aisle, Beatrice and Linnea were huddled together in whispered conversation.
My two best friends had become friends over the last several months.
Both were dressed in flowing dresses that accented my own, ready to support me as I officially became the alpha’s mate.
The alphas of the neighboring packs and their mates sat together, chatting and laughing quietly. My grandparents sat right up front, dressed in their finest. The entirety of Hidden Grove and Idlewild had turned out to see their alpha officially taking a mate.
A few faces were missing in the crowd, of course. Nearly all of Anders’ old buddies had packed up and left, choosing to find greener pastures in other packs. Those who had stayed kept their heads down and did their best to turn over new leaves.
Monica Burnell had left Idlewild as well.
After the deaths of Rafe and her son, the woman had been a broken shell.
The elders had let us know that she’d moved a thousand miles south to join a pack her cousin belonged to.
At times, I pitied her, but often, I simply tried to forget everything about her and her family.
Leaving the past in the past made life easier.
The future looked too fun to dwell on what had happened before.
Adjusting my dress, I tried to keep my mind off the anxious energy that was fluttering through my stomach. I hadn’t thought I’d be this nervous. Levi and I had decided to postpone our mating ceremony to the early summer to give the packs time to recover.
We’d taken the time to integrate Hidden Grove and Idlewild by creating a more permanent and accessible trail between the two.
Many in Hidden Grove had chosen to return to their original homes, as the alphas granted them forgiveness and clemency for anything they’d done to be banished.
Most had stayed though, choosing to continue their simple lives in the forest. In fact, a few Idlewild residents had chosen to move to Hidden Grove, and they were thriving.
Rainier was still Levi’s beta, but he spent most of his time in Hidden Grove, maintaining order there.
Things had come a long way. Now, with the trees green, and the sun warming the area, it was like a new world compared to the cold winter landscape in which Levi had originally found me.
I spotted him standing by Elder Douglas, looking devastatingly handsome.
Rainier stood beside him. He’d managed to bring his unruly beard under control for the occasion and looked rather handsome.
In fact, I’d noticed Beatrice giving him some interesting looks over the last several weeks.
Looks filled with longing and desire. Rainier didn’t seem to be too terribly upset about her attention.
Maybe we could see about that at some point down the road.
Music played from the band, cueing me to make my grand appearance.
I took a deep breath and stepped out into the aisle.
All conversation ceased, and everyone in attendance turned to look at me.
All that attention made me nervous, but I stayed composed.
I took my first step toward Levi, who gazed at me with more love than I had ever experienced in my life.
Unable to help myself, I grinned giddily at him.
Stepping up on the small stage to join Levi, he took my hands, his thumb brushing the backs of my knuckles.
“Hey, beautiful,” he whispered.
“Hi,” I said, my cheeks hurting from smiling.
Elder Douglas lifted his hand toward the crowd. “We gather as friends, as family, and as a pack, to witness as Leviathan Cross and Juniper Hollis pledge their lives to one another. Does anyone here, before we go further, have any reason that these two should not be mated to one another?”
Silence met his question, and he smiled at me and Levi.
“Let us begin…”
“Ladies, and gentlemen,” Rainier cried into the microphone. Guests stood, eagerly anticipating our first arrival as an official mated couple. “May I introduce Levi and Juniper Cross!”
As soon as he said those words, the music began, and Levi led me out to raucous applause. He swept me into his arms, and we danced across the floor. For a man who’d spent a hundred years running around the forest as a wolf, he was a great dancer.
“Well, Mrs. Cross,” he said as others joined in the dancing. “Do you still think it was a good idea to wait?”
“I do.” I nudged him with my shoulder. “Isn’t it nice to do this when it’s warm out?”
He nodded. “I suppose it is more pleasant this way.” He kissed me, then pulled me close, swishing me around the dancefloor so fast, I burst out in gales of laughter.
When he stopped, and we went back to dancing, I looked up at him, finally ready to tell him.
“Levi?”
“Yes, my dear?” he said with a faux British accent.
“Do you remember when I told you a few weeks ago that I’d gone to the doctor to have my birth control removed?”
Levi’s perfect and practiced dance steps faltered, and he nearly stumbled over his own feet. “I do,” he said.
“Well, it appears that you are even more virile than we thought. I know you don’t really like being called Demon Wolf, so I thought about a new nickname. What do you think about Daddy?”
The look on his face stole my breath. Tears flooded his eyes, and a smile unlike any I’d ever seen in my life burst across his face.
“Are you serious?”
Nodding quickly, I took his face in my hands. “I am. You’re going to be a dad.”
Tears slid down his cheeks, and he pulled me into a crushing embrace. I wrapped my arms around his back, holding him close.
A moment later, he lifted his face to the sky and shouted at the top of his lungs. “I’m going to be a dad!”
The entire party froze, every eye turning to us.
There was a single second of complete shocked silence, followed by a cheer so loud that the glasses on the tables rattled.
A few even toppled over. We were swarmed by people wanting to shake hands and hug.
It was the most love and excitement I’d ever experienced.
Levi pulled me close again, his eyes still moist. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I kissed him, long and hard, as all around us the party roared to life, fed by the joy of the news.