Epilogue 2

Epilogue 2
ARIA

Ten Years Later

"Ready?"

Barty pulls a face and looks at me uncertainly before his gaze returns to his father. "I don't know..."

"It's easy. Come on."

He looks down at his skates, then his gaze sweeps across the ice rink. Ryder and I exchange a look. The corners of his eyes are crinkled and he looks more amused than he should be, considering this is the first time that Barty has agreed to skate. 

It seems he inherited my fear of the ice.

Wren, on the other hand, is practically a pro at skating. Who knows? Maybe a few years down the line, she'll play ice hockey. The tradition has never included women in the team, but a lot has changed since then. 

She's seated in the bleachers right now, watching the scene unfold. Barty tries to step forward and closes his eyes in fear. 

"I can't," he proclaims. "I don't want to!"

"Look," Ryder says, skating backward effortlessly. "All you have to do is focus on your balance and not think about it too much. There's not much to it. Just give me your hand and—"

"No. No way."

"Why not?"

He purses his lips and glances at Wren, who's clearly laughing at him behind her hand. His face reddens and he looks away from her sharply. "She'll laugh at me! She's doing it right now!"

"Who? Wren?"

"Who else?"

I shake my head at her and bring my hands together in a pleading motion. We've been here for the past half hour and we're not making much progress. In fact, things seem to be getting worse. 

"Honey," I tell him as I run my hands through his dark hair. He looks so much like Ryder, but Ryder always disagrees with me. He claims that our son looks more like me. He says he has my stubbornness, too. "It's okay to be scared. I was scared too my first time. But if you don't try it, you'll never know what it's like."

He folds his arms across his chest. "What if I fall?"

"You know how many times I fell? It's not about that." Ryder squats in front of him. "It's about how many times you pick yourself up. Just give it a try. Then, you can swear it off forever."

His eyes light up. "Can I swear it off now?"

Ryder bites his lower lip to suppress a smile. "If you want to. Do you?"

Again, he glances at Wren, who in turn shakes her head at him. "You're such a scaredy cat!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Ryder looks over at me helplessly. I decide it's my turn to step in. I step into the rink the same way I have since Ryder first brought me here. "Look. If I can do it, you can, too. See? It's not so bad."

Barty furrows his brows, then closes his eyes one more time before finally stepping onto the ice.

Ryder backs away quickly, giving him space. "That's it. Don't think about it. Skate toward me. Yep, just like that."

"You're doing it!" I exclaim, clapping enthusiastically. "Go, Barty, go!"

Wren decides it's her time to shine. She makes her way all around the rink and then steps in with us. Barty doesn't see her, but she becomes impossible to ignore when she shoves him lightly. "Scaredy cat!"

His face goes up in flames and he races right after her even though he's never done it before in skates. "Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Careful!" Ryder exclaims. "You wouldn't want to get hurt."

Barty isn't even listening to us anymore. Ryder comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. "He's just like you. He doesn't listen."

I scoff. "Like you're not as stubborn as a mule."

"Oh, definitely not like you." He looks over at the two of them distractedly, then smiles. "They're great kids. Really great."

"Yeah," I agree.

"Barty might not be cut out for this, though. Maybe he'll go into the healing arts like you."

"It's too soon to tell, I think. I'm sure he'll love ice hockey the way you do."

"Wren, though..."

I laugh. "She's all you. Oh, and she's starting to finally understand that she's his aunt and has some authority over him."

"It'll drive him nuts."

They're close, there's no doubt about it. And though it might seem like they hate each other, they're family at the end of the day, and they'll always stick up for each other. 

Wren...she's an amazing little girl. There's no doubt about it. Goddess, she's so strong and intelligent. Beautiful. We're all proud of her, that's for sure. 

Barty is skating effortlessly and honestly, any outsider wouldn't believe that this is his first time on the rink. Wren's laughing hysterically at his inability to catch her, and that's how we spend our afternoon. 

We always try to have some sort of activity going on. It's easy to get busy and lose ourselves in the hectic day-to-day that is managing a pack and dealing with any problem that might arise. Ryder and I are still part of the Nocturnal Council, so there's always much to do. 

We love doing it, though, and we're flourishing, all things considered.

Sure, there's always an Alpha who threatens to throw us right back into the old, exhausting, and inhumane regime, but we stand our ground and fight back. As for problematic Nocturns, we do come across the occasional one, too. But this is a part of life. This is to be expected. 

As long as we can deal with everything swiftly, we have nothing to worry about. 

Ryder presses a kiss to my jawline and says, "I'll grab a puck and see what we can make of this day. Whose team are you on?"

"Wren's."

He chortles. "Coward."

I slap his chest playfully. "You wanna ruin his day? I'll make us both lose."

Wren skates closer to me and wraps her arms around my waist. "Don't worry, Mom. I'll win us this match. It'll be girls against boys! You're gonna get crushed, Bartholomew." 

His eyes harden. "Don't call me that!"

"I can call you whatever I want, nephew! Ha! It even rhymes with your name!"

"No, it doesn't!"

Ryder and I exchange one last look before he heads into the back to grab the equipment we need. Honestly? I couldn't be happier. 

The fact that we're here at all, endless bantering or not, is a miracle in itself. 

And not a single day goes by that I'm not grateful for it.