Page 54

Kylie

Today was the day. Everything would change after today.

The way my body vibrated as the nerves built up inside me was not something I thought I’d feel.

This was bigger than finding out I was having a baby.

Even bigger after knowing my lycan had grown strong enough for me to shift.

This was the day I would be brought into the pack as their luna and into the kingdom as the queen.

Being the queen was a huge responsibility.

There were thousands of lycans I would be overseeing by Maximus’s side.

He would be doing most of the heavy lifting, but I planned on sharing every burden I could to lighten his load.

After we came home and I saw the pack open their arms to me, I knew things would be different.

Everything was falling into place now, and I just needed to take deep breaths.

Moving forward could be handled one step at a time.

I wasn’t doing any of this alone, either.

I had Maximus.

In the mirror, I could see how I looked in a soft blue dress that was fit for a queen.

Amara had spent hours at far too many stores to help me find the perfect one.

This one made me feel like I would command the room when I put it on.

The tulle straps held up the sweetheart neckline, and the bodice hugged my curves.

As it reached the waist, it fanned out just enough with more tulle to give me the elegant ballgown look.

The tulle on the bottom was more ivory than blue, and there were pearl beads sewn into the shapes of crescent moons.

It was stunning.

“Gods, look at how beautiful you are. We couldn’t have found a more beautiful dress, Ky!” Amara gushed over me and fanned out the bottom of the dress in the back. “I swear, if Max doesn’t look at you like he wants to tear this off you, I might kick him in the balls.”

I laughed so hard it made Titan jump in his crib. Amara ran over to him and picked him up, rocking back and forth while patting his butt to help him go back to sleep. “I’m so sorry, Titan. Auntie Amara didn’t mean to make Mommy laugh so hard. Go back to sleep. Shhhh…”

A knock at the door made me jump. Recovering quickly, I told whoever knocked to come in.

It was still hard to adjust to having so many people around now.

It used to just be me, Charlotte, and Nathaniel.

Now, I was in a house with at least thirty people, so more often than not, there was someone knocking on my door.

In walked Charlotte with a box in her hand.

Just like Amara, she was in a dark blue dress to match the colors I chose for our bonding ceremony.

Most went with silver and blues, but instead of the light colors, I asked for dark.

It was to remind myself that even in dark times, there were amazing moments I needed to hold on to.

Charlotte’s mouth dropped open when she took in my look. “Oh, honey, there are no words to describe your beauty!”

My cheeks reddened at her words. “Stop it. You’re gonna give me an ego. I keep telling myself how gorgeous I look.”

Amara scoffed. “Damn straight you are telling yourself you are gorgeous. You are !”

Another knock at the door, and Eli yelled out from the other side. “Everyone decent?”

“What do you want, mate?” Amara growled playfully.

Eli poked his head in, and his mouth fell open. “Holy shit, do you look beautiful, Luna.”

It made me shudder to hear such a formality come from Eli. We’d been home for a month, and no matter how many times I told him to knock off the luna crap when it was just us, he wouldn’t listen. Something told me he thought Maximus would hit him if he didn’t show me respect with the title.

I just wasn’t used to it yet.

“Thank you, Eli. What’s up?”

“I think if you don’t hurry up and get out there, Max will come up here and drag you out. He is losing patience.”

I rolled my eyes and growled. “It’s not even time yet!”

Eli chuckled. “You think that has stopped Max? He wasn’t the most patient man even before you took off on him.”

Amara and Charlotte growled this time and kicked him out of the room for that one. I giggled because I knew he was right. I didn’t mind, though. That was in the past, and we were further along in our relationship to be bothered by a comment like that.

Charlotte and Nathaniel didn’t come back with us, but they agreed to attend the bonding ceremony.

Maximus invited them to return to the kingdom and either join an existing pack or form one of their own with the rogues.

They declined the offer but requested the opportunity for rogues to enter the kingdom for resources.

It shouldn’t have surprised me to find out that Maximus had already begun making arrangements to provide as many resources as possible to the small territory for rogues to live a full life.

The borders would be open for them to come into the kingdom to find jobs and access all the resources they could use to improve their territory.

This was especially for those who didn’t want to join a pack in the kingdom.

After Eli left, Charlotte walked over and held out a box to me. I opened it to see a crown sparkling in the light. My eyes burned as tears threatened to fall. It was more beautiful than the dress. I could see moonstones as the gems, and I had always loved how they looked. They were my favorite gem.

“Max had this made for you. He said he wanted to see you in it while walking down the aisle.”

Maximus… He remembered something I had told him in passing before I ran off. A smile stretched across my face, and Charlotte beamed at me as she took it out of the box and placed it on my head. When I looked at myself in the mirror again, I finally felt like royalty.

Everything after seeing myself in the mirror happened in a blur.

Nathaniel escorted me down the aisle and silently threatened Maximus with a look when we reached him.

I couldn’t tell what transpired there, but it still made me laugh.

Nathaniel had stepped into the father role after we met, so I knew he would do this in some way today.

Then, he took on the role of officiant. He opened the ceremony with a heartfelt speech, but I barely heard it as I stared into Maximus’s eyes.

So much had changed, but one thing hadn’t: the way he looked at me… how I was his future and he would kill anyone who dared to step in our way. It wasn’t until it came to the part about us saying our vows that I realized we had words to say.

“I, Kylie Blackthorne, promise to embrace your wild spirit and nurture the gentleness inside you. Together, we will howl at the moon, run through the forests, and face life’s challenges as one.

Through the darkness of the night and the light of the day, I will be by your side until my heart stops beating.

I will be your anchor, your shelter, and your home.

Until our dying day, I am yours and pledge my life to you. ”

I felt the magic of the pack bonds seeping into me. Every one of the lycans in our kingdom was connected to me, filling me with a new level of power I never thought I would feel. My lycan howled inside me, and I knew when this was over, we would need to go for a run.

Then, it was Maximus’s turn. “I, Maximus Morgrave, promise to embrace your wild spirit and nurture the gentleness inside you. Together, we will howl at the moon, run through the forests, and face life’s challenges as one.

Through the darkness of the night and the light of the day, I will be by your side until my heart stops beating.

I will be your anchor, your shelter, and your home.

Until our dying day, I am yours and pledge my life to you. ”

It felt amazing to hear him say those words.

Normally, after this moment, the couple would race off to their room to complete the bonding, but this wasn’t necessary for us.

Maximus and I had already completed the bond, so this was our time to spend with our pack and those who wanted to be here for us.

But something caught my eye off to the side.

We were in the backyard of the pack house, and we had acres of land all around us so we could run as lycans without having to deal with humans getting in the way.

At the tree line, I thought I saw something.

When I looked over, nothing was there, but then I felt Maximus stiffen next to me.

I followed his gaze to see the tall, black-haired beauty who was the cause of all our problems.

Zephyrine stood in the tree line, leaning against the trunk in skin-tight black clothes.

Her blue eyes nearly glowed like our lycans, illuminated by the moonlight.

I felt rooted to my spot upon seeing her here.

This couldn’t be a good thing, right? Maybe she wanted to cast a new curse on us since we had broken the last one.

Maximus pulled on my hand to walk toward the witch. My heart pounded in my throat as we approached her. I didn’t think this was a good idea. The woman had cursed us, for crying out loud!

When we stood in front of her, I felt her magic swell around her.

It made my lycan come to the surface, letting me know she was there if I needed her.

If it came down to having to shift to fight this female off, we would.

However, I really hoped this wouldn’t turn into a moment of fighting her.

How the hell could we even kill a witch, anyway?

Everything I had ever heard about them was that they were tough as hell to kill.

Maximus growled when the magic hit him, but I suppressed mine, not wanting her to think we were threatening her—especially if she hadn’t made a move yet.

“I come in peace, guys. My magic is just something you will feel in my presence.”

My eyes widened upon hearing that. I didn’t expect that one bit. “Then why are you here?”

She looked down and noticed Maximus still holding my hand.

The corners of her mouth twitched up as she looked at me first. “Checking in. You know, when I placed that curse on your pretty head…” She gazed at Maximus, and I growled.

It made her give me a toothy grin, but it didn’t seem like she took offense to it.

“I didn’t think you would break it. You weren’t the one I thought could love someone through the good, the bad, and the ugly. ”

“Looks like I proved you wrong on that one.” Maximus let go of my hand to put his arm around my shoulder.

Feeling the heat of his body against mine made me snuggle closer to him.

This made Zephyrine’s smile grow. For someone who I thought wouldn’t like seeing us this happy, she looked genuinely pleased.

“You did. It brings me great pleasure seeing someone break a curse like that, actually. It’s not an easy one to break. The magic is binding to the point where it infects every part of you. It’s why it seeped into your child.”

This time, I growled and stepped toward her. “Watch how you speak about that, witch. You almost killed him.”

“Not my intention, Mama Lycan. I thought it would break before you fell pregnant. I was wrong about that, too, which I apologize for.”

Maximus sighed while pulling me back against him. “There is so much I need to apologize for to you, Zeph.”

It annoyed me to hear him use a nickname for her, but I kept it to myself. Now wasn’t the time for me to show jealousy.

“No, you don’t, Max. I wasn’t yours, and you weren’t mine.

Someday, I will find my mate and know what it is like to have what you now have.

I’m glad you have found Kylie. She is everything I wouldn’t have been as a mate to you.

This is who you were meant to be with. It’s why the curse broke in the first place. ”

It brought me too much joy to hear those words come out of the witch’s mouth. But something still gnawed at me. “What made the spell break anyway?”

Zephyrine’s smile looked more genuine than I had ever seen. “It was how you chose to work through everything in your darkest moments. That’s what love is, and the spell needed you to be the light against that darkness by loving each other through it.”

When we looked at each other, I felt exactly what those words meant.

It was because of each other that we survived the darkest moment of our lives.

Maximus leaned in and kissed my forehead.

In that moment, I felt Zephyrine’s presence disappear.

As much as I wanted to say goodbye to her, I chose instead to rise and capture Maximus’s lips with mine.

“Yo, love pups! Get your asses over here and celebrate with us!” I heard Eli yell out to us.

Maximus let out a throaty chuckle before grabbing my hands and leading me back toward the party.

When we got there, he scooped Titan out of Amara’s arms and nuzzled him.

The way my heart swelled with happiness was not something I thought I would feel after everything I had gone through in my life.

There were no more people trying to tear me down or beat me into submission.

When I looked out into the crowd around us, they were all beaming with pride toward their king, queen, and prince.

The acceptance I felt through the bonds alone had my eyes stinging from the tears about to spill down my cheeks.

For the first time in my life, I was home.

And no one could take it away from me.

THE END