Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
I don’t know. I look at him in confusion. “What else?”
He spanks my ass again, but lightly. “Live happily ever after, of course.”
“Oh!” I giggle. “Sorry. I forgot.”
“Don’t let it happen again,” he says, mock growling at me.
And I don’t.
EPILOGUE
Seven months later…
Tabby
My belly is swollen with pups. I waddle about the palace with a small retinue of ladies who are similarly resident. I never had friends in my pack. I had family, but that’s not the same thing. I’ve learned that friends hardly ever organize you to be pawned off to the nearest three warriors.
“You have three mates? How does that work?” Terri says. She’s a mate to one of the king’s favorite guards, and that gives her a certain amount of gravitas. She’s very nice, though. Everyone is very nice.
I shrug. “I don’t know. They just share me. It works somehow.”
“You must have favorites, though.” Liz nudges me.
“It would be nice to have three mates,” another lady, Lenora, says. “That way, when I’m angry at one of them, I can have two others to also get angry at.”
Everyone laughs at that.
The conversation continues. I’m partway aware of it, half concerned with the sensations in my belly. The pups are not far away from being born. There will be three, two boys and a girl. We know all about this because there have been all kinds of tests and things. I am well looked after here, and have access to wonders that simply did not exist where I come from.
There is peace in this palace, a peace I never thought I would know. I used to imagine my life would be comprised of birthing a few pups I might never be able to raise, and losing them or myself to the mountains. Here, the expectations for a life are so different. Here, the other wolves talk about getting old, retiring. There is no retirement on a mountain full of horrors.
I am enjoying myself. I am enjoying the recreation, the relaxation, but there is something missing. From time to time, I wonder if I am still truly myself. Did the girl who left the mountains die in the leaving? Is there anything left of the animal I once was?
Something moves in the shadows, flits over the roof, then drops into the hall. I see a glint in the figure’s hand. A silver knife.
In an instant, every old instinct returns.
I know instantly that the palace is under attack. It’s said that the wolf king has his enemies. There are the humans who loathe wolves, there are other wolf factions, and of course there are vampires. This is probably not a vampire, but it could be either of the other two. The politics of the palace have not interested me until now. It has been months since I experienced any kind of fear. Strangely, it does not feel bad. It feels like an old friend returning to me after a long absence.
The dark figure moves toward us at a sprint. The others haven’t truly recognized the threat at the moment I first notice it, but as the attacker turns its energies toward us, they react. Someone screams and drops back, dresses billow as finely dressed pretty palace ladies shift from their painted human forms and flow into glossy wolves.
I do not take my wolf form. I rely on my old instincts, the ones that kept me safe in the world from which I came. I forget that I no longer have my magic, and that means the attacker is almost on me when my hand makes the short jabbing motion that in the past would have ensured my protection.
Boom!
Lightning strikes, a single bolt from the heavens, straight and true. The attacker is instantly rendered no longer a person. They are a charred husk. The silver blade lies in their ash, rendered useless.
The screams of the other ladies ring in my ears, and soldiers and guards descend upon our position. There is chaos for a time, as the palace is secured and everyone is questioned as to what happened. My delicate condition ensures that I am taken deeper into the palace to ensure my safety. Krall and Thorn come to ensure that I am okay, then are called to take up defenses.
I am left in our chambers, trying to come to terms with all that just happened. It’s not possible… is it? Do I still have my powers? Did they come back? Is it to do with the babies?
“So.” Skor’s voice comes to me from the shadows. I jump a little. I didn’t hear him approach. I didn’t know he was in the room. He’s a sneaky guy. Or maybe it’s just a secret skill all middle children are taught.
“Yes?”
“I heard a lightning bolt incinerated an attacker on an otherwise clear day,” he says, walking around to stand over me. He slides his fingers under my chin and lifts my face to his.