Epilogue
“ A lright, everyone!” Mariah clapped her hands together, hushing the excited crowd. Her loud, deep voice had always been useful for gathering a large group’s attention, especially during meetings at town hall.
But tonight, we weren’t in town hall. There was no meeting.
Instead, nearly half of Wisteria Grove was crammed into the café, occupying every bench, chair, and couch in the warm, dimly-lit space.
The walls were decorated with silver tinsel and paper snowflakes, and mugs of coffee, tea, and hot cocoa were strewn on every available surface.
“One minute until countdown!” Mariah shouted, which elicited a small chorus of cheers from the packed café. The party had been buzzing for hours, but now that it was nearly midnight, the excitement hung heavy in the air. It was as palpable as static electricity.
“Alice! Give that back!”
Abbey chased after my sister, hands outstretched into claws as she wove through the partygoers, eager to retrieve the plastic party blower that her twin had stolen.
The girls were in their human forms, but they were still as rambunctious as wolf pups, bumping into two of my cousins and Rowena’s half-brother as they fiddled with their own party blowers. The toys’ low, whistle-like honking sound echoed through the café as the kids played.
But once my sisters nearly knocked over Rowena, who was carrying a tray of frosted cookies, my mother finally stepped in.
“Alice! Abbey!” she snapped, setting her cup of coffee down on the counter next to the register.
She wore a beautiful sapphire-blue dress, one with a low neckline and long, flowy sleeves.
She still had the wrinkles and lines around her eyes and mouth, but her face looked brighter and less tired than it had two months earlier on Halloween.
I spun around, searching for my father. I finally found him in the corner, chatting with both Adrian and an older male witch I didn’t recognize.
I wanted to bark at him that our mother needed help, but she seemed to have the situation under control, and I didn’t want to interrupt my father’s conversation.
Mainly because it was so heartwarming to see them, two witches and a werewolf, happily fraternizing as if their kind weren’t mortal enemies.
The werewolves of both Hollenboro and Mount Desert Island had been frequent visitors to Wisteria Grove since Halloween.
Rowena and I split my time between all three locations, working at the café during the week and visiting family on our days off.
My father, uncles, and several other werewolves from Hollenboro had even renovated the cottage next to Rowena’s so I would have a proper place to stay.
Gone were the rotting countertops and broken, rusted bed frame.
I now had proper furniture, a full kitchen, and even some photos and other family heirlooms to hang on the walls.
And of course, a brand new lock on my front door. My father was always concerned about my safety now that I lived away from Hollenboro.
My mother, father, and sisters visited Wisteria Grove frequently, and they usually stayed in my cottage. Since it was a small place and I wanted them to have plenty of room, I would sleep at Rowena’s house during their visits.
Not like I didn’t already sleep in Rowena’s bed several times a week.
With everything that happened, it didn’t take long for my father to come around to Rowena and I’s relationship.
However, with his traditional mindset, he still pressured us to undergo a bonding ceremony as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t proper for an unmarried couple to be spending so much time in each other’s domiciles. Even for two women.
Now that Rowena and I had a few months to settle into our new lives, I was certain she was the one. My future mate. I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else. But we were in no rush to solidify our union. I was only twenty-one, and Rowena wasn’t much older than I was. We wanted to take our time.
After all, we still had a whole lifetime to look forward to together.
“Keep an eye on your unruly little pups,” my mother uttered to my father as she walked past him. There was a scolding undertone to her voice, but I saw a playful smile on her lips. “I think they’re far too hopped up on sugar.”
“And caffeine,” I noted, lifting my own coffee cup.
“ What? ” My mother raised her bright red eyebrows. “Who gave them coffee?”
I didn’t respond, but my eyes flicked in my grandfather’s direction. Alden simply chuckled, in the way that mischievous older folks did, hiding his smile behind a large mug with little moose painted on it.
My mother’s wolf ears popped out as she scowled, but she quickly brushed the feeling away, patting the top of her head until her ears disappeared.
She and I made trips up to Bangor once a week to meet with Melanie, the empath witch who worked as a therapist for magical beings. It had only been two months, but we’d already made a lot of progress not only on understanding our powers, but on mending our mother-daughter relationship.
Melanie had given me the courage to express – in a healthy manner – how much my mother’s disappearance hurt me and my sisters.
And in turn, Melanie helped me better understand my mother’s illness and that she never meant to hurt us.
My mother was human, like the rest of us, and humans made mistakes.
I knew how deeply sorry my mother was. And in one exercise, where I imagined myself as my mother and had to ponder how I’d react in her situation, I realized just how easy it was to run away from such a complex problem. How easy it was to feel like there was no other option.
And I told her I loved her. Many times. My mother expressed how much she loved all of us, and announced that once she’d made more progress, she wanted my father and sisters to join our therapy sessions as well.
My father agreed that it was a great idea. Especially since Alice and Abbey were nearly adults, and we all wanted to be prepared for when they came into their own powers.
As for my parent’s relationship, they didn’t get back together.
My mother’s primary residence was still the Mount Desert Island pack, and my father had his duties as Alpha on Hollenboro.
My sisters were disappointed, but I completely understood.
My mother even confessed to me that her and my father worked far better as friends and co-parents than as mates.
And I was happy for them. Even if they weren’t mates anymore, they spent so much time together caring for us girls that it didn’t matter. They loved us, and in their own, non-romantic way, they also loved each other.
“It’s tiiiime!” Mariah called out in a loud, singsong tone, which attracted everyone’s attention as they began shouting the countdown.
“Ten!’
“Nine!”
“Darius, stop pushing me!”
I turned my head and chuckled as Rowena scolded her two half-siblings, gently bopping the younger one on the head with an empty teacup.
“Eight!”
“Seven!”
Abbey blew into her party blower so hard that it flew out of her mouth and across the room.
“Six!”
“Five!”
Abbey ran to retrieve the blower, nearly knocking over our grandfather in the process.
“Four!”
“Three!”
My grandfather fetched the party blower off the ground, and like a perfectly mature seventy-something werewolf Alpha, he engaged in a game of keep-away with my little sister.
“Two!”
I shook my head at my silly family. I loved them. All of them.
“One!”
“Happy New Year!”
The whole café erupted in chaos. The kids blew on their party blowers so hard they started wheezing, one of the witches popped a bottle of champagne, and every couple was locked in a sweet embrace, complete with a kiss.
Including me. Rowena cupped my cheek in her hand as she pressed her lips to mine. Ever since Halloween, she’d made no effort to hide our affections in public. It made me blush, but it also made me smile. She wanted the whole world to know we were together.
That I was hers.
She even grabbed my hip, so briefly it could’ve been an accidental brush if not for the amorous smile on her lips as she walked away.
I sighed, my whole body flooding with warmth.
I adored that woman.
The party lasted for another hour, with patrons slowly filtering out the door now that it was past midnight and the new year was upon us. By one thirty in the morning, it was just me, Rowena, my parents, and my sisters.
Although after we’d thrown away most of the trash left behind, my father announced it was time for Alice and Abbey to head for bed. They both whined and protested, but my father sternly reminded them if they hadn’t each downed two cups of coffee, they wouldn’t be so wired.
After some back and forth, he agreed to let them go for a brief run to let out their energy. I chuckled as I watched the three of them take off for my cottage, shifting into their wolf forms once they were nearly out of sight of the café.
But once we made it back inside, a heavy groan fell over me. The café was free of trash, but we still had to wipe down the countertops and sweep the floors. It couldn’t wait until tomorrow.
Not when we had a trip to prepare for.
“You two head out and get some rest,” my mother insisted as she wiped down the café tables with an old cloth.
“Mom, I’m not–”
“I’m fine,” she replied curtly. “You two have to be up early tomorrow.”
I opened my mouth, ready to remind my mother that 8 a.m. was not early, considering that I woke up well before then most mornings to bake for the café. I hadn’t been a usual werewolf night owl in several months, and my body was now used to 3 a.m. wake-up calls.
But Rowena cut me off. “Thank you very much, Amelia. We really appreciate it.”
I attempted to stutter a reply, but it didn’t fully come out until Rowena and I were already out the door and on our way back to her cottage.
“Is something wrong?” I asked her. She had that worrying, contemplative look on her face.