Chapter 13

Moon — Elara, let me go with you to her grave, I'll take flowers, I'll —"

"She has no grave, Damon. You gave her to the Rogues. There is no body. The stone you raised last year is empty. You know that."

He did not know how to answer.

"Take me to the cemetery anyway. I want you to say what you should have said three years ago."

We drove up into the hills. The Pack cemetery was quiet under thin winter sun. Damon knelt in front of the empty stone with Nora's name carved on it and he wept. For the first time he remembered her — the small hands, the hiding games, the way she had begged every time they took her down. The way he had forced himself not to listen.

"Nora, forgive me. Forgive me. Next life. Let me be your father next life. I'll do better."

"Knowing you were wrong," I said quietly, "doesn't mean you don't pay."

He looked up. His face changed. Four Pack Enforcers stepped out from behind the surrounding stones with iron cuffs.

The trial was broadcast to every Pack in the Alliance. Serena and Damon in the dock together. The photographs I had smuggled out — verified. Nora's scent markers — recovered from the Sterling cellar by Council Enforcers. Serena spat on the floor and confessed everything and threw Damon under the train for good measure.

Damon said nothing. Damon did not look at Serena. Damon looked at the Alpha sitting with his arm around my waist in the second row.

Ryder leaned down to my ear. "You alright?"

"I'm alright."

"You're going to tell me if any of this hurts."

"I'll tell you."

Damon finally understood the boyfriend had been real all along. I watched him understand. I watched him fold in on himself in the witness dock.

"Ryder. Go handle your council business. I'll finish here."

"Elara —"

"Go. I'm not going to soft-hand him. I want you to know I'm not."

He kissed my temple. He left.

The verdict was unanimous. Murder of a Pack Heir. Conspiracy. Torture of a Luna. Both of them — Council custody, sentencing pending.

I walked out of the Council Hall with snow on my coat. The crowd parted. The cameras rolled. Serena broke away from her escort. She had a sharpened stone in her fist. She lunged at me across the courthouse steps.

I closed my eyes. The pain didn't come. A body hit mine instead — hard, shielding — and a sharp wet crack sounded against bone above my ear.

Damon. He had broken his cuffs somehow. He had put himself between us. The stone struck him in the temple. "Elara — this time — this time I protected you —"

He fell. Enforcers swarmed Serena. I was on my knees in the snow with blood running down his face onto the white.

He dreamed, later in the Pack Infirmary, of our wedding. Of vowing to love me for the rest of his life. Of me laughing and teasing that if he ever hurt me he should be locked up forever. Him laughing back — agreed.

He woke once. I was at the edge of the bed.

"Elara. If I'd never driven Nora to it —"

"There's no if in this world, Damon."

"I'm grateful you came."

"I came because you saved me. Nothing more. Spend the rest of your life paying."

He nodded. He closed his eyes. He did not open them again. Pack Infirmary reported a self-inflicted end by dawn.

Months later Ryder flew in with his grandfather to visit Celeste. He and I slipped out to walk the frozen lake.

"By the way," Ryder said, mock-casual, "I heard Damon Sterling died in the Infirmary. A pity. Now you have nowhere to put your leftover hate."

"Ryder."

"I'm jealous, Elara. I will always be jealous. I want you to know this about me now, so there are no surprises."

I laughed at him. "You're ridiculous."

"I am a possessive Alpha. Yes."

He told me Julian was in Council custody — they couldn't prove he had ordered Nora's bleeding, only that he'd known, so his Counselor credentials were revoked and his case was ongoing. He kept asking to see me. To apologize.

"I won't see him yet," I said. "For Mother's sake I'll respect the verdict. That's all I owe him."

Ryder nodded. He turned me by the shoulders. The snow caught in his ash-blond hair. "Elara. Marry me."

"We only —"

"Elara Ashford." My full name, clean, like a command.

"Yes."

That night I dreamed of Nora one last time. She was holding the hands of several smaller pups — the ones I had never carried to term — and leading them toward a pale, warm light. She turned back at the edge. "Mama. Be happy. Alright?"

"I'll be happy, baby."

"Promise me."

"I promise."

She smiled. Then the light took them. I woke crying. Ryder was already awake, one arm around me, steady.

"I'm alright," I whispered.

"I know. I know, love."

I pressed my forehead to his shoulder. Outside, over Redwood Territory, the first light of morning was starting to break across the bay.

A new Pack. A new Mate. A promise made to a daughter I would never stop loving. I would keep it.