Misty
The royal temple in Crescent Falls is the shining star of the city–the center of the capital of my kingdom. My parents got married here. I attended services and funerals here. I’ve always been in awe of the craftsmanship that went into building this place. Every inch of the temple is detailed. Depictions of great battles, of central characters in the Goddess’ narrative, sweep across the walls as I travel down a quiet corridor toward the small group of people taking refuge in an alcove.
Kenna looks solemn as she scrunches the fabric of her dress between her fingers. Evander’s hand rests on her waist as he watches memorial goers leaving the temple.
Mom and Dad stand at the temple entrance nearby, shaking hands and accepting condolences.
Sydney sighs heavily, watching our parents. “Just family back at the castle for the luncheon, right?”
“That’s what Mom said,” Ryan replies.
It’s been ages since I’ve seen Ryan in a suit. He looks stuffy and uncomfortable as he slides his hand over his jacket front, adjusting his tie. Aviva glows in her black midi-dress, the first hints of her pregnancy beginning to show.
I smooth my hand over my belly in reflex. Flat. It’s probably–definitely too early for a bump. I’m kind of excited for it, honestly.
“I’m going to go walk around for a bit,” I say to the group. I haven’t been able to sit still all morning. The memorial service was lengthy but beautiful with several speakers standing at the podium, going on and on about my grandparents in a formal fashion that had my head bobbing and brain exiting my skull within the first thirty minutes… but then friends and family started to speak instead of Alphas who’d ruled alongside my grandparents.
Grandma Isla is remembered as being gracious, brave, and headstrong. Her kindness was legendary, but so was her fierceness. Grandpa Maddox is remembered for being stoic and level-headed, a firm ruler. A strong, able king. I couldn’t do more than stare at the portrait Ella painted of them–over two decades ago now–which was nestled just in front of the podium and surrounded by flowers.
I turn from my family and walk back down the corridor. I have no direction in mind. I just can’t stand here and feel sorry for myself anymore. The past month was busy enough to numb the grief of losing them, but now that Cole and I are back in Crescent Falls trying to piece together a new life, the grief hits hard.
Cole disappeared as the memorial drew to an end. I haven’t seen him in at least twenty minutes, so I take a quick jaunt through the temple and out onto the veranda overlooking the lake, and the city beyond.
Snow blankets the rolling hills leading down to the lake. A few people walk on the bike trail, stopping to peer at the crowd leaving the temple. In the wake of the war and the news of my grandparents’ death, the public began laying flowers at the base of the temple. Now wilted, frozen roses–my grandma’s favorite–lift in a brisk breeze, scattered by the wind, like drops of blood against a blanket of white.
I spot Cole standing beside one of the many statues of the Moon Goddess situated around the temple. He’s watching little specks skate across the frozen lake, his hands tucked in his pockets. Gray daylight dances across his profile as he turns to me, giving me a half-cocked smile, but his eyes are heavy, and dark.
I pace toward him, hugging my thick, wool trench coat around my middle. “What are you doing out here?”
He shrugs a bit guiltily. “I needed a moment. I–I didn’t get to do this for my dad.”
I nod, but my heart aches for him as he walks to a nearby bench and sits, leaning back and lifting his face to the single pocket of sunshine breaking through the clouds.
Getting to know Cole has been… the best month of my life. When it’s just the two of us, we can talk for hours, finding out the little details we missed that didn’t matter during the fight of our lives…. It helped us heal in a way.
But there was one thing he never spoke about. Not until right now.
“What happened to him?” I ask quietly.
Cole knows I’m not asking if he killed his father, because that’s clear enough. I lost my grandparents, but it hadn’t been by my hand, no.
“The curse was tearing him to shreds,” Cole admits, shaking his head. “He was like the other’s that’d been cursed early on. Silently pacing, staring into an abyss under the yoke of Richard’s spells. Whenever that magic lifted, for whatever reason, he’d either have moments of lucidity or be totally, completely feral.”
“Orion’s mate, Lacey… she was in chains.”
He heaves a breath. “Orion did that to keep her contained so he could try to save her, to treat her.”
“But your dad was beyond that?”
“My dad was being used as Richard’s main puppet as a means to control the kingdom. His source of the curse. Richard could make my dad do anything. He made him invite the Alpha’s of Tarsian to a ball held at the castle before I came back. Most of those who attended never ended up leaving the castle… and if they did leave, they passed on the curse to their entire packs. It’s how he built his army.” He pauses, picking at his sleeves. “My dad wasn’t the one who called me back to Tarsian. It was Richard. Punishment, I suppose, for my dad’s quick thinking in getting my mom and Annabel out of Tarsian before the curse took him over completely.”
Cole stretches out his legs. I’m still standing, gripping the top of the bench for support.
“My dad had a single moment of lucidity shortly after I arrived.” He goes to explain those first days back in Tarsian. Orion and Lavender had their family locked away in the castle, far out of Richard’s clutches. Cole stormed in and learned the order–the fraternity he once loved–had taken over his home.
“Adrian and I started planning,” he says. “Orion kept shooting us down, and rightfully so. We were just wolves against a man with a magic book who was selling his soul to say his spells. Richard had nothing to lose, but we did. Adrian, especially. He had a family–a baby to think about.”
So Cole decided the only way to stop Richard was to befriend the enemy, to get close.
To become the Alpha King, and stand at Richard’s side while he unraveled Richard’s plans from within.
“Dad was beyond help. That night everything changed–when Adrian and Elsbeth were killed… that was the same night I killed him. He begged me to do it. He was lucid, then. Begging and pleading with me to end his suffering and take over, to take back our Kingdom. He told me about the Book of Whispers and how Richard was devising a plot to kidnap the princess of Crescent Falls and use her powers for the book. The Gate wasn’t his original plan. He wanted to raise the forges and use them to turn our world into his playground.”
“The gate was his escape plan if that failed.”
“Yes.” He looks at me while I continue to grip the bench. “The attack on TU was already in motion, and I thought finding you, the princess, and getting you out would be easy, but… I saw you for the first time, and the bond snapped into place for me–immediately. I’d had inklings of the mate bond for about a year, but we hadn’t been close enough for me to feel it fully until that moment and I… couldn’t handle what he did to you. He knew, I think. About our bond.”
“It’s over now,” I tell him softly, gently, my voice barely above a whisper.
He rises and steps toward me. I take his hand, squeezing.
“Would you be willing to go visit my mom and my sister? Possibly within the next few days?”
“Of course.”
“They live on one of the islands off the northern coasts. We’ll have to take a ferry.”
“That’s okay, Cole. We’ll make a road trip out of it. You start your residency again in two weeks, anyway.”
He ropes his arm around my shoulder. Instead of meeting back up with my family to finish saying goodbyes to the memorial guests, we get a head start on the short drive to the castle where everyone from our family, our friends, our royal households, are gathering to hold a different kind of memorial.
One where the stories are quiet and laced with laughter.
Because we knew them. We loved them. To us, they weren’t just an Alpha King and Luna Queen.
The castle is silent when we arrive and park near the front gate. Wind whispers through the massive, decades old rose garden my grandma adored.
A strange feeling steps over me as we cross through the gate. Cole’s talking about grabbing a drink with Ryan and Sydney later while my mom helps me go through my closet and pack in preparation to fill Cole’s tiny apartment with my things, but I pause on the front walkway, the diamond on my finger flaring with light.
I raise my hand and let my powers flow in gentle, curling puffs of white mist.
Grandma Isla walks up the steps with a suitcase in her hands, wearing a skirt and blouse. She pauses to look over her shoulder at me, winking, her face shockingly young and nearly identical to my own.
She whirls back to the door without a hint of hesitation, without a sliver of doubt, and waits.
Once, a long time ago, she walked up those same steps not knowing how this arrangement could possibly help her family pay their debts. She had no idea that she’d become the Alpha King’s breeder, or that the man waiting within the castle would be her mate.
A single tear slides down my cheek. This vision isn’t how their story went, but it’s how they imagined it would have gone, had they had the ability to turn back time and try again.
A young grandpa Maddox opens the door and pulls her into his arms, spinning her in a circle before lowering her to the ground and kissing her.
They fade like specks of stars, swept away by the wind.
A feeling of utter, complete peace passes through me, erasing every pang of grief.
I look at Cole, giving him a weak smile that he returns. He extends his hand to me. “Ready?”
“For what?” I laugh, taking his hand and allowing him to lead me to the door, which opens for us, a warrior stepping aside to let us through.
“To show me your old room, seeing as you spent most of the night rifling through my apartment.”
I throw him a playful frown. “Fine. I hope you like the color pink because, once my things are packed, that’s going to be the main color scheme at our apartment.”
“We won’t be living there for long.” He follows me upstairs, taking his time to peer at the portraits and shadowed hallways leading to various wings of the castle. “I actually wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Oh?” I open my bedroom door wide, ushering him inside.
“Wow,” he says, looking slightly impressed. “Bubble gum pink. I wouldn’t have guessed.”
I narrow my eyes as he paces toward the window overlooking the back garden.
“What did you want to talk about?”
“Sydney has an offer for us I think we should consider. He needs a new clinic in Shadowcrest, and he wants me to run it. I don’t have a pack anymore and…”
“And Sydney has some really nice houses in Shadowcrest,” I finish for him, regardless of if that was what he was going to say or not.
“That’s not the reason,” he says, sitting on the edge of the bed. “But the safety of living in Shadowcrest is appealing.”
“Do you want Sydney to be your Alpha?” I ask in earnest.
“I want you to have a home and a community when the baby’s born,” he says.
I sit down beside him. “You’d have your own clinic.”
“I would.”
“And I’d be able to start working for my dad, officially.”
“This could be our life, Misty. But it’s up to you. Hell, I’d live in one of the tribal territories if–”
“It’s going to be a while before I step foot in Eastonia again,” I say under my breath, but I meet his gaze, my eyes bright with happiness. “Let’s move to Shadowcrest.”