Chapter 255
Elowen's POV
Ronan let me cry it out, patient and steady. When the sobs finally subsided to hiccups, he spoke again, and there was a dark edge to his voice I'd never heard before.
"You know," he said casually, "if you wanted, I could kill her."
I pulled back, blinking at him through tear-swollen eyes. "What?"
His expression was dead serious, but there was a glint of something—mischief? Menace?—in those amber eyes. "Sarah. I could make it look like an accident. Very tragic. No one would ever know."
For a second, I actually considered it. The mental image of Sarah just... gone... was tempting in a visceral, terrifying way.
But then I thought about the person I'd become if I said yes. The kind of monster I'd turn into if I let grief and anger make those decisions for me.
"No," I said quietly. "Thank you, but no."
I felt Ronan's disappointment through whatever weird sibling connection we had. His jaw tightened slightly before he gave a short nod.
"Your call," he said. "But the offer stands. Forever."
Despite everything, I almost smiled. Having a homicidal protective big brother was oddly comforting.
I took a deep, shaky breath, letting the cool air fill my lungs. The garden smelled like roses and fresh-cut grass, clean and simple. Around us, life continued—warriors training, young wolves laughing, the whole pack going about their day completely unaware that I was sitting here trying to piece my soul back together.
"I can't keep living in the past," I said, more to myself than Ronan. "I can't keep asking 'what if.' It's killing me."
"So what are you going to do instead?"
I looked out at the sprawling Ashborne lands again. Somewhere out there was my real family's history. The truth about who they were, why they died, what it meant that I carried Lycan King blood.
And inside me, two tiny lives depended on me to be strong enough to face whatever came next.
"I'm going to find out the truth," I said, feeling something shift in my chest. Not quite hope—not yet. But maybe the beginning of it. "About my family. About the Lycan bloodline. About everything they kept hidden from me."
One of the twins kicked again, and this time I smiled through the tears still drying on my cheeks.
"And I'm going to build a life for them," I continued, pressing both hands to my belly. "A real life. One where they're not used as pawns or bargaining chips. Where they're loved and protected and chosen."
Ronan's arm tightened around my shoulders. "Damn right they will be. You've got a whole pack of overprotective Alphas ready to destroy anyone who even looks at them wrong."
I laughed wetly. "Kade literally growled at a nurse yesterday because she suggested I eat more vegetables."
"See? You're covered." Ronan's tone turned more serious. "And Elowen? You're going to be an amazing mother. Better than Jessica ever was. Better than anyone who hurt you."
The certainty in his voice made something warm bloom in my chest. For the first time in months, I actually believed it might be true.
The sun was setting now, painting the sky in shades of pink and purple. The warriors were packing up their training equipment. The young wolves on the lawn gathered their things, still giggling as they headed inside.
And I sat there with my brother's arm around me, my hands on my belly, and something that felt almost like peace settling over my shoulders.
The past would always hurt. Casper and Cassian's betrayal would probably always be a scar on my heart.
But I wasn't alone anymore. I had Ronan, Kade, and Alaric. I had the truth waiting to be uncovered. And soon—so soon—I'd have my babies.
We're going to be okay, Juno whispered, and for once, I believed her.
"Yeah," I breathed into the cooling evening air. "We're going to be okay."
Ronan pressed a kiss to my temple. "Damn straight we are."
And sitting there in that beautiful garden, with the future uncertain but no longer quite so terrifying, I let myself cry one more time—not from grief, but from the fragile, tentative hope that maybe, just maybe, I could survive this after all.