159- A Wedding for Lunara
POV Edric Eldoria:
When I arrived home, startling Lyris, Celindra, and Nicoleta, who were waiting for us, I laid Lunara on the couch and injected the drug produced by Valmorin. Then I stayed at her side for two days, watching the color return to her face little by little and the pup’s heart throb as powerfully as a bird’s wings. Only then was I finally able to rest.
Someone, someday, would find the burned, abandoned village, and speculation would be made about the disaster that had happened. But until then, they would sink into oblivion and be nothing more than a bad memory.
“Lunara has seen a lot of people die in recent months, witnessed a lot of cruelty. It’s not in her nature to be cruel, so she suffered for others. She’ll get through it, but it’ll take time. One day at a time. When I wasn’t with her, I left her in the company of Lyris, Celindra, or Nicoleta. She liked the she-wolves a lot; she felt happy and comfortable by their side.”
I noticed how she avoided being alone, always searching for someone’s company. When she shifted at night, tormented by nightmares, I wrapped my arms around her body and she calmed down.
She needed time to get past everything, to understand that Alessio would never come back, that no one else would try to take her life. And, little by little, to grow accustomed to the death of those she loved and watched depart.
I was turning one of the guest rooms in my house into a library for her. I wanted it to be a place where she felt safe, well, and where she loved every detail. Once, I promised she would have whatever she wanted, that she would get many books. And I would keep that promise.
“And if you did something to distract her?” he asked, after a while in silence.
I looked at him, curious and completely interested in the subject.
“What do you mean?” He shrugged.
“How about a wedding?”
“A wedding?” He agreed with a nod.
“You haven’t had a very good experience with weddings.” He winked. “Catalina died days before. And Lunara hasn’t either, being rejected, humiliated, and watching her parents be killed on what was supposed to be the most important day for her.”
I drew my eyebrows together and rested my elbow on the arm of the chair, propping my chin on my hand.
“So you think we should get married?”
He pulled his chair closer and sat down, as if he couldn’t control the anxiety brought on by the wild idea forming in his head.
“Exactly! Lunara deserves a little lightness in her life, especially after everything that happened.” He leaned in, resting his elbows on the edge of the table. “Think about it: you’re already mated, she’s already the queen of the Eldoria, and that’s an undeniable fact. A wedding would just be something symbolic for the two of you. And besides, I think our people deserve a celebration after these hard times.”
In a way, he was right.
I didn’t care about a wedding; Lunara was already mine, and no one would challenge that. But she had been ready to marry Alessio—maybe, for her, it mattered. And if it mattered to my she-wolf, then it mattered to me.
And, besides, the celebration would serve to distract us and bring a little lightness to the pack.
“All right,” I agreed. “But I want it to be a surprise for her.”
“Are you sure?” he mocked, lifting an eyebrow. “What if she decides to run into the forest in the middle of the ceremony when she realizes what a terrible mistake it is to have to spend the rest of her days at your side?”
I rolled my eyes.
“She hasn’t had a choice about that for a long time.” He laughed.
“And neither have you! Since she crossed your path, you’ve never been the same.”
“I hope that’s a good thing,” I muttered.
“It is. I’m just saying neither of you had a choice, from the moment you crossed each other’s path.”
I reflected for a second.
In fact, we hadn’t. Of all the places in the world, of all the directions in the forest Lunara could have gone, she came straight to me.
Because we belonged to each other, and this meeting had already been written into our fate.
I smiled and nodded.
“Tell everyone a wedding will happen and they need to prepare. I want it to be the most special day of Lunara’s life—or at least among the best of them.”
“With pleasure,” he agreed, rising from the chair in one smooth motion. “We’re going to make this day more than special.”
The mating ritual stood above everything and anything, including a wedding ceremony. But Andrei was right—Lunara deserved good memories, and I would replace each of the bad ones she carried, beginning with the wedding.
For the next years of my life, which I would have with her by my side, I would dedicate myself to making her happy, until the past was nothing more than a mere bad memory.