Chapter Seventy

Fancy cars and trucks pulled up in front of the mansion, one after another, and slowly the pack members began to emerge. After I'd sent word of their safety, they had found their way to us over the course of a week or so.

Witnessing so many happy reunions was one of the sweetest, proudest moments of my life so far. Because these were Aimes’s pack members. The smart ones who hadn’t dared go to the wedding, and the ones who’d survived.

If we were going to unite, this was as good a time as any. This was the place we had to start, helping each other, rebuilding together.

Kind of like with me and Jenny and Sloan. When the invitations had gone out for this event, Jenny had called here to talk to me, but she seemed at a loss of what to say. After all we’d been through at the Full Moon Games and the wedding, I couldn’t really blame her. Maybe she was still too stunned that she’d survived.

To fill the silence, I’d said, “Hey, remember that time you asked me if I thought about going into editing and publishing since I like to read so much? Do you know much about that stuff?”

It turned out she did. We talked for two hours, and that easy conversation immediately made me reapply to college with some amount of academic direction. Go me.

Jenny and Sloan were among the first to RSVP for the party tonight, with Jenny writing at the bottom of hers I can’t wait to talk to you again! Sloan had put a little heart on hers. I’d take that to her mean-girl vibes any day.

Aimes’s adoptive mom, Jessa, joined us on the front steps, beaming. She looked healthier now, her face shining, without the shackles of her loveless marriage to Connolly.

“How are you feeling?” she asked Aimes, leaning in for a hug.

The relationship they had was beautiful to witness. Mothering him came so naturally to her, and he accepted it so willingly since he’d been starved of a mom for much of his life. Watching the two of them together always brought tears to my eyes.

For the most part, she'd been staying with us, the three of us catching up on lost time. Now, I considered her my third mom.

He embraced her until her high heels left the front porch steps, and she gave a happy squeal.

“A little overwhelmed,” he admitted, touching my back, “but good. Very good.”

She hugged me too, her eyes shining brightly with the secret I’d shared with her just this morning.

“I will never stop saying this, but I am so, so happy for you, Harlow,” she whispered, her voice cracking.

“Thank you.”

It was profound, the emotion that kept sweeping over me again and again. Because I’d wanted to see it, my two moms took me to where the Moon pack used to live. I couldn’t describe the feeling of my feet first touching the earth where generations of Moon wolves and witches had lived for so long.

And where so many had died. It was impossible to forget that, even if it was important to try to move beyond it. If we were going to rebuild, it was important to let go of the past.

Right now, nobody wallowed in what used to be. The energy fizzing around the mansion was warm, joyous. Full of hope and promise.

All kinds of promise, as it turned out.

Jessa winked at me before wandering down the steps into the April sunlight to greet the rest of our guests.

This was it. Now was the time to tell him.

“Hey.” I draped my arms around his neck. “You know I love you, right?”

“You know I do.” He pressed a kiss against my forehead before touching his head to mine.

I breathed deeply, inhaling him. “And we’re building all of this together. You and me.”

“You and me,” he agreed.

“So if there was ever a time I needed to step back for a little bit, you’d be able to stand in my place and handle things?”

His eyes opened wider as he pulled back, studying me. “What are you trying to say? Are you going somewhere? Back to the Moon pack?”

“No. I mean, I’ll visit, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” I took a deep breath…then removed one of his hands from my waist and placed it over my belly. “I might need a little downtime. I’ve always heard the first weeks are basically sleepless.”

He gasped as absolute joy lit his eyes. “A baby? You’re having a baby?”

Laughter and tears poured out of me all at once. “We’re having a baby. Are you happy?”

“Happy?” He lifted me into the air, laughing as he swung me in a circle. “That doesn’t even begin to describe it!”

When he set me on my feet, he took my face between his hands and kissed me deeply. In that kiss was everything I could’ve hoped for. Love, devotion, the promise of our future together.

A future that now included a baby.

“I love you so much,” he breathed once he came up for air.

“I love you too.” I leaned in, closing my eyes when he wrapped his arms around me.

I meant we loved him too. There were two of us now. Well, three if you counted my wolf. It was like a giant party inside me now. Weird visual but whatever.

I couldn’t be any happier.

For too long, there’d been nothing but pain and division. Loss and loneliness.

Now, there was nothing but hope ahead of us. Starting with this party, the wolf council’s official announcement of me as Alpha, and the news of our baby.

I used to dread what was coming next.

Now, it was time to start looking forward to the future.

The End.