Chapter 130

The rogues won.

Andrew smiled as he placed the tattered letter inside his stylish jacket for safekeeping. It would make for a good memento once he did the deed and ended the war for good, branding Daniel as a power-mad despot who had tried to rally the greedy Alpha Kings against the honorable Gold Nation.

The rogue leader Karthen had even mentioned it might be possible to frame it as Daniel attacking the combined forces of Iron and Bronze, with Gold Nation coming to the rescue. After all, Alpha Matthew Catii was the only survivor, and he was so weak it would be no trouble bending him to his will.

Now all Andrew had to do was meet with Karthen, collect the heads, and this stupid pretend war would be over.

"I think I'll go in ceremony," he announced to his Beta. "Gather the troops just in case since we might be stabbed in the back by the rogues... Well, either way we would have turned on them next. It's almost over, friend. You've served me well."

"It's an honor to be with you at the moment of victory, Alpha King Andrew."

Alpha King Andrew. He liked the sound of that. His father was lurking in prison purely so Andrew could keep him alive until his official coronation as the Grand Alpha King once all the nations were under his control, but Wyatt was as good as dead. The moment the new crown touched Andrew's forehead, he would have Wyatt executed like a poor little lamb.

"Time to go," he said. "My victory awaits."

***

The blood was nearly gone, all traces of it lost in the snow. Only the trees retained the crimson smears, able to escape the fresh blanket that concealed everything below. Andrew sighed as he and his men approached the site on foot, keeping to their human forms to preserve their dignity.

"What a shame," he said. "So many strong werewolves dead when they could have been of use to us. You can smell how many there are. Or were, rather."

"Yes, sir. If they had paid attention and acknowledged your authority, they could have escaped this fate. As it is... I can't even count how many different scents there are here. It must be thousands who fought."

"Still fresh, so much so they still smell alive." Andrew shook his head. "The rogues' forces are shaved down more, though. That's good for us, though. We'll take the silver lining. Tragic, but convenient."

"Yes, sir."

"Reminds me of last year. What about you? When we ambushed the Heether pack. Quite some bloodshed then, too."

"Tell me more, Andrew Troy. I was going to interrogate you about that, but your lips are loose enough that I won't need to, it seems."

Andre froze, and his bodyguards swarmed around him, footsteps stomping through the snow. He braced himself to prepare to shift, just like his men, but his blood ran so cold he didn't know if he would be quick enough.

He knew that voice.

That voice belonged to someone who was supposed to be dead.

Daniel Heether stepped out from a thick copse of trees, smiling. One by one, others rose from the snow where they had buried themselves to hide in between corpses. Not men, but wolves. They were already...

"Attack at will," Daniel said, and there was an almost maniacal amusement in his voice. "But save Andrew Troy for me. He's mine."

***

Andrew tried to run. He had never had to escape anything before, always calculating so precisely he ended up on the victor's side every time. Until now. Now he ran for his life, covered in blood and wounds so numerous he couldn't even maintain his wolf shape. Naked and panting, he stumbled through the snow, the cold seeping into him at last past the panic of the carnage he had just escaped.

How could this be happening! How! He was supposed to be the victor! He had come to collect his crown, to finalize his conquest, to--

He went flying forward. He didn't realize something had crashed into him from behind until he was already facedown in the snow. By then, it was too late.

"Andrew Troy. There you are. This appearance suits you, naked and terrified. Do you want to run away a little farther before I kill you?"

Andrew rolled over, frozen snow sticking to his naked form. Behind him several feet away, Daniel too had shifted back to human shape, and he sat on a fallen log with his elbows propped on his knees. His hands, dripping crimson with the blood of fallen Gold Nation werewolves, dangled almost playfully.

"For an Alpha, you're weak," said Daniel. "I was able to kill at least a hunded of your men before I lost count, and I still caught up to you in less than a couple of hours. Has it even been that long?"

"Wait. Daniel. We can come to an arrangement. Karthen, if he's still alive then we can kill him, and we'll take control of his rogues so we can force the other nations to yield. He must be alive. You captured him and used him to forge that message to me, right? We'll make this work--"

"Nothing you say matters, Andrew Troy. You killed my brothers. You hurt Beth. And I even heard you were going to sell her to the rogues."

"Daniel... Surely you understand. I like her, she's a marvelous specimen. But power! One woman in return for all the power in the world. Grand Alpha Kings! Both of us! Think about it, Daniel. Together, you and I can--"

Daniel stood, and a frigid terror colder than the winter snow washed over Andrew as the man approached. He scrambled to shift into wolf form again as Daniel smoothly did the same, and seconds later, he stared at the massive black wolf that loomed over him.

I killed Karthen for what he wanted to do to Beth, Daniel said, his voice echoing cruelly through the mind-link. And I'm going to kill you for what you did to her. Do you understand that?

Andrew had less than two seconds to ponder his life and all of his wasted efforts, before claws and fangs tore through him and ripped every last one away. Forever.

***

Beth collapsed. They were still too far away to know who had won, but even from here she could see the crimson blood that stained the snow for kilometers. This... No... Her nightmares, her nightmares had all come true...

She had forced the Delta to turn around halfway to Iron Nation and find horses at a trading post. There had to be some in order to transport supplies, after all, even if most werewolves didn't need horses to actually travel anywhere themselves. On those horses, they had raced for days to the front.

She simply couldn't abandon Daniel. She had promised. She had said she would always be with him.

She was no longer the woman she used to be. She was no longer afraid of love, of giving herself to someone else. She had already placed her heart in his hands and he had changed her soul, down to the very roots of it.

She couldn't lose him.

She couldn't live without him.

She needed him, their baby needed him.

She needed Daniel to be alive, for both of them.

"Elizabeth! Elizabeth! Just a little farther, if you collapse here it's dangerous!"

She didn't know how she made it. The edge of the battlefield, corpses of so many werewolves, all the blood, all the residual terror and violence, all of the suffering...

And from the center of it, in this silent necropolis full of the dead who would never speak again, a shape came toward her.

"Daniel," she whispered, and when he came to her, covered in blood but so, so gentle, she collapsed into his arms.

"You shouldn't have come. If you had been any earlier, you would have been in danger."

"I'll never leave you. Don't ever try to make me do it again."

He held her tight, and she didn't give a damn who saw.

***

"So? What's the plan now?" Matthew Catii pressed his lips together as he straightened his suit jacket. "You could pick up where he left off, you know. It's been almost four months since news spread of what Andrew tried to do. Alpha King Wyatt's return and testimony was the linchpin on top of all the proof Beth dug up. If you want, you could declare yourself Grand Alpha King, no one could stop you at this point."

"Not interested."

"Really? No dictatorial urges rising? I was expecting something like that..."

Daniel glared. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason. Maybe experience."

"Experience?"

"Forget it." Matt stood. "It's time. My condolences about your father, but it was past time for you to officially take up the mantle of Alpha King. Silver Nation needs your leadership."

"I know it does. Everything I've done is to keep my people safe." Daniel looked out past the open doors to the balcony of the sitting room, where thousands had congregated in the city outside the Heether estate's gates. "You've given up on Beth, I trust."

"Well. I'll always be around as the new Alpha King of Bronze Nation should she ever change her mind. Treat her right, Alpha King Daniel. Don't ever take her for granted."

"Only an idiot would ever do that. Beth is a miracle. No one would take her for granted."

Matthew paused, and a strangely heavy look entered his eyes. "Yeah. I suppose. Anyway, it's time. William and Wyatt are right outside."

On cue, the two older men stepped inside from the hallway and nodded at them both. "We're all here," said William. "Our mates are already waiting for us outside. Annalise helped Beth get down so everyone is waiting on us for the ceremony."

A joint ceremony, one that would begin with Daniel's official coronation as Alpha King of Silver Nation, and end with the all four Alpha Kings signing a new treaty that would disband the Union Court once and for all, implementing an equal voting body between all four nations as well as the minor countries. Gold Nation's supremacy would be no more.

Alpha King Wyatt had had an epiphany while imprisoned by his son, it seemed. No longer was he a greedy tyrant, mistrustful of all. Probably because his sister Melinda Troy had finally come out of the shadows to announce she was done watching the pack destroy itself. Daniel would have to find her after the ceremony to privately thank her for all she had done. The woman was a fearsome juggernaut behind her elegant facade. She and Beth indeed made good friends, having exchanged constant letters ever since the war's end.

"Congratulations," Matt said quietly as they moved down the hallway toward the manor's entrance. "You're being blessed by the Moon Goddess with one celebration after another."

"So is Beth," said Daniel. "She deserves it."

"Yes. She does."

***

The night Beth went into labor, she was wracked with agony so intense she fell unconscious. Despite the best attempts of everyone around her, she drifted off, floating through nothingness...

Until she came face to face with a familiar figure once again.

And suddenly, she remembered.

"Goddess. The last time we met, you told me my life would be the price for Daniel's safety," she said quietly. "I'll go if that's the cost of keeping him safe, but I want my baby to live. My child deserves to live."

The Moon Goddess smiled at her from where she sat across the fire, draped in a lovely silk dress that faded in and out of existence.

"I did say the cost was you," said the ethereal woman. "But I never said it was your life."

"I'm sorry?"

"The price was high. The toll to pass through the gate, and to test your worthiness, was you. And you paid it in full. You are no longer the woman you once were, isn't that right? Betrayal closed your heart. You opened it, and gave yourself to a love that was far greater than the one you had before. You delivered yourself whole-souled to change who you were, down to the beginning and the end of your soul, your spirit, all parts of you that have ever existed and will ever exist."

Beth kneeled on the other side of the fire, heart beating a steady rhythm, reverberating in her chest.

"You... gave me the chance to learn something better. Something more than..."

"There's no need for gratitude." The goddess tilted her head. "Sometimes, the price of happiness is only to open your heart to it. You said you never wanted a mate again. But you changed who you were, and accepted someone into your heart, and let it change you even more. You are strong, Elizabeth. You are brave, and full of love, and you deserve it all. Do you understand that?"

"My baby... will it be safe?"

"As much as you love and protect her."

"Then she'll be safe to the end of her days," said Beth, and then she realized what the goddess had just said. "Her? A daughter?"

The woman smiled, and tears sprang to Beth's eyes. "It's her, isn't it. You're giving me Caroline back. You're giving her back to me."

"I'm giving her to you, but yes, it's her. Your daughter is going to be a very, very special young woman... Guide her well so she will be prepared when the time comes."

"All my days," Beth vowed. "To the very end."

***

Raucous cheering filled the air. Beth blushed as Daniel kissed her over and over again in front of thousands, their baby cradled between them as they waved down from the balcony of the estate.

It had only been a month since their little girl Caroline had been born, but her clear green eyes peered up at them with a strange clarity, like an old soul.

And she hadn't cried even once today, all throughout the wedding.

"Daniel," she whispered. "She's marvelous, isn't she?"

Daniel held her tight to his side and adjusted Caroline's wrap. Below, Annalise was frantically trying to keep the crowd under control so they didn't swarm the manor, while at the high table on the temporary platform set up in the courtyard, William and Dahlia beamed up at them. Though the Alpha King and Luna of Iron Nation were terribly busy these days, their lead ambassador and younger daughter Annalise had lifted the burden so much they could afford to visit for an entire week for the wedding.

Alpha King of Bronze Nation Matthew had also done more than his fair share of keeping the peace. He sat with them at the table, smiling softly at them as well.

Even Alpha King Wyatt and his lead adviser Melinda had come to help celebrate the nuptials.

In such good company, the residual grumpiness from naysayers like Teo weren't even a speck against the overflowing joy. After all, Elizabeth Heether-Rokley had turned out to be a marvelous Luna in training, with full approval from the dowager Luna Margaretta who waved at them with a serene smile.

"This is incredible," Beth whispered. "I feel like I'm in a dream. Am I dreaming, Daniel? Is this real?"

He kissed her, lovingly, worshipfully, to the sounds of the continued cheering and celebration.

"There's nothing in the world more real than you," he said. "I promise. You, me, Caroline. Everyone who loves us. Everyone who cares about us. I'm going to make you so happy, Beth."

"Daniel, I love you. I'm already happy. I--"

Before she could finish, he interrupted her with another kiss as Caroline cooed in her arms, reaching for the sun.

It was the best interruption she could ever wish for.

She prayed for thousands more like it.