Chapter 150

Olivia POV

Three months after we saw the humans off with their furious but quite effectively chained captive, I sat on a bench watching the groundskeepers put the finishing flourishes on the labyrinth at the end of the meditation walk.

The air was redolent with freshly tilled soil and shorn grass. New flowers, not yet blooming, had been planted in their circle slightly outside the ring of benches, and I saw some honey bees were flying over them expectantly. They would need to wait a bit longer.

I pushed away a little nudge of motherly guilt. I was doing nothing wrong, thought I was, I confess, taking a brief break from my pup, who was finally sleeping in her crib. I had a well-referenced nanny keeping an eye on her, and I had taken my somewhat sore nipples outside for some fresh air.

Well, fresh air for my lungs, not my nipples.

Out of a caution I completely agreed with, Elroy had asked that two Stormhowl representatives accompany the humans back to Albsraca so they could report on Emma’s trial. Yesterday, we’d heard an extensive accounting of her testimony, all disproven by expert witnesses, along with that of her victims.

Finally, she’d been told her life would be spared if she confessed, and she had in such detail that it was clear she’d been enjoying herself, using the moment to inflict just a little more pain on those around her.

It had been more than a little sickening. The humans had managed to suffer more from her magic than we wolves had. I was glad we’d given her back to them.

In the end, she was sentenced not only to a life in prison but to a cell with no window and a thick glass wall instead of bars. Her tattoos had been disfigured, and though there had been some consideration of cutting out her tongue, mercy had prevailed, and she was simply put into a face mask that did not allow her to speak. I supposed it was removed so she could eat, but I found I didn’t really care.

“Leave her to the humans,” Elroy had said when the report was done. “They helped create her. They can tend to her.”

Last night before I joined Elroy in bed, I’d talked with Iris, who assured me that she had someone in place at the human prison to keep an eye on things. I was sure Elroy and Claudia had someone like that as well.

Without Emma’s influence in wolf territory, the Ravencrest ex-Packmembers had gotten accustomed to being Stormhowl again as well as the other wolves had. It would take years, if not generations, for full Pack healing, but things were more peaceful than they had been in living memory, and I was supremely proud of my Pack.

As Luna, I had overseen a number of marriages between members of those bygone Packs, so many that I suspected they had been together in secret before that.

Many emblems, flags, and other symbols of the Eclipse, Moonshadow, Ravencrest and other Packs had been taken from public squares, parks, and buildings and resurrected in museums to be appreciated in a proper context.

The new Stormhowl council had been elected and installed. It was unsurprisingly made up of former Pack Alphas and their betas, though there were some new faces in the chamber. Several elders had taken the opportunity to retire, including Elder Thornton and Councilwoman Hayes, much to my unexpressed pleasure.

The council hadn’t done much yet. There would be time for all their demands and suggestions in the years ahead. I was free for now just to enjoy the new world Elroy and I had helped make with our families.

New partnerships were flourishing as social boundaries were coming down. My favorite pairing was Orlando and Jordan, who had somehow started something under my nose at the inn that night. They were still in the dating stage, but considering how they looked at each other, I thought it wouldn’t be long before we would be standing together at the temple.

My favorite renewed partnership had been done as publicly as possible as Ines made a show of being “unchained” from Emma’s thrall. I went along with it, and together we shaped the compromised White Paw Initiative into the Omega Council, which heard grievances from omegas of any ex-Pack. We were still negotiating just what powers the OC would have to address those grievances, but we didn’t want to rush things.

I smiled as I watched the wolves lay down the labyrinth’s stone path. It was so nice outside, and I would hear Diane if she woke. I could just sit here and do nothing for a moment, bless the Goddess.

“You look too content to disturb.”

“And yet you disturb me,” I told my husband as he walked around the bench and into my view.

“I should hope so,” he said in a deep voice, and I laughed.

“How about I join you instead of disturbing you?” he asked and then sat beside me on the bench. I took in a deep sample of my mate’s scent and discovered he’d been holding our daughter.

“Diane slept through your picking her up?” I asked.

“She did indeed. She’ll be crawling soon.”

“Let her stay in the crib a little while before you start teaching her to dominate all the other pups in the room.”

I could feel the smug satisfaction sitting beside me. “Can’t help it if she’s alpha from head to toe.”

I snorted.

“I never thought we’d make it to here,” Elroy said.

I looked at him, puzzled. “Here?”

Elroy nodded to the workers before waving his hand slightly. “Being here with you in the sunshine. ‘Content and warm shines the morn.’”

I smiled, recognizing the old nursery rhyme. “‘Well fed and well led.’”

“‘Kissed twice and put to bed.’” He smiled at me and stretched with a wolf-like yawn. “Speaking of which . . .”

I laughed. I’d recovered enough from childbirth for a spirited romp in the sack, so long as he was careful about those sore nipples.

“Let’s check on our pup first,” I said.

“Agreed.”

We rose slowly from our bench and joined hands before walking back up the meditation path to the temple. I tugged on his arm to guide him inside, and once there, I laid a hand on the Orb of the Goddess and closed my eyes.

Thank you for this, I told her. Watch over our family as it grows. Watch over our Pack as it flourishes. Watch over your Luna so I may help both family and Pack.

Opening my eyes, I nodded, smiled at my husband, and walked back with him to our Palace and then inside to the nursery where our pup miraculously still lay sleeping.

After a nod to the nanny, we stood staring down at our child, her tiny pink lips pursed and her brow smooth in slumber.

“Sleep for just a bit longer, Diane,” Elroy whispered. “I’ve got a wife to ravish.”

I laughed so loudly I was worried I’d wake the baby, but she slept on, and I was well and truly, deliciously ravished.

I knew the Goddess was pleased.

THE END