Page 68 of Unforgivable Fate

“Me too.” She pulled him close and kissed him, “Me too.”

Bonus Epilogue – 10 Years Later

It seemed, Nova thought as she sat in a rocking chair on Rafe and Zoey’s back porch, that both everything and nothing had changed since the first time they held a party here with all of the family in attendance. There were far more members of the family, that was certain, but at its core it was the same family gathering they’d been having for years upon years now. Since there were so many of them these days there was never a lack of birthdays, births or anniversaries to commemorate. But today was special and for more reasons than one.

They were gathered today to celebrate Violet’s return to Noir. The shy little girl who had shown up with her Uncle Zander, in a beat-up old Bronco a dozen years ago was virtually unrecognizable from the woman who stood with a glass of wine in her hand and a bright smile on her face in the yard now.

Like so many of them, Violet had lived through a traumatic childhood marked by the loss of her mother, but in Noir she had found more family than she could ever need. Not just her biological Aunt and Uncle in Zoey and Zander, but also everyone else in the family. She might have kept the last name Leery but she was just as much a Hudson and a DeLuca as the rest of them and they had all welcomed her with open arms.

Aunts and Uncles, cousins and friends, were all crowding her now to offer their congratulations for her college graduation and to celebrate her decision to return to Noir instead of staying in Baton Rouge. She had plans to open a veterinary clinic which, Nova thought, was pure genius considering a good majority of the town’s inhabitants turned into animals at least once a month. It was a good move for Violet and a necessary step towards the future that Nova had seen for her in a long ago vision, one that involved a fated mate of her own… but that was still a year or two away.

Zoey and Rafe, though clearly proud of their niece, were distracted at the moment with their eldest daughter, Gabby. At eighteen, she was gorgeous, headstrong and as stubborn as a mule. Nova guessed, since the three were too far away for her to listen in on, that they were once again arguing about Gabby’s choice to go to university all the way out in Washington State. Nova had tried to tell them all that there was no reason to worry, she hadn’t seen any visions of Gabby facing trouble but Rafe was worried about her shifting alone in another pack’s territory and Zoey was nervous that her daughter would spend all her time with her head crammed in her books and miss meeting her fated mate here in Noir. While Nova understood their concerns as parents, she also knew this was one argument they weren’t going to win and that in winning it, Gabby would gain far more from her time away from the pack and their family than she ever could have if she stayed just to reassure her parents.

Nova lost interest in their squabble quickly and smiled when she realized that Rafe and Zoey would have better spent their time hovering over Mickey. Their middle daughter was in the swimming pool and clearly flirting with a boy who had come as Leo’s guest since he was visiting the Crescent Pack. He was nineteen to Mickey’s seventeen if she remembered correctly from their introduction and no doubt when Rafe caught sight of his middle daughter in her bikini on the boy’s shoulders there would be hell to pay.

Watching Rafe losing his mind over his teenage daughters being interested in boys was one of Nova’s new favorite hobbies.

Luckily, or not, it was Darius that told the teenagers to separate themselves and they groaned but complied under his stern, watchful gaze. Nova smiled to herself, remembering the weight of his authority when she herself had been a teenager. He’d been a good guardian to her and he was a great father to Neal, the son that he and Leo had adopted. The boy had been eight when he came into their lives, fleeing a pack that saw him as nothing but trouble, and they’d taken him in. He’d never left again and now, at almost eighteen, she knew Leo was having a tough time with the idea that he might want to go out in the world on his own for a while. She’d told him it would be okay but she hadn’t shared any of her visions about the boy’s future, not yet. She didn’t want to accidentally change anything.

Darius returned to a picnic table set up in the yard, sliding in next to Leo and kissing his cheek. Across from them Michael and Luna were talking animatedly. She knew the four of them had been thinking of expanding the alliance that Leo had formed nearly a decade ago and assumed that was their topic of conversation as per usual these days.

The Alliance had gotten off to a rocky start after what happened to Tyrell since he was last seen visiting their land, but with a lot of hard work and trips around the country to visit new packs and talk to them in person, Leo and Darius had finally seen their dream become a reality. The Alliance now consisted of over a dozen wolf packs. Their Alpha’s met quarterly in a neutral location to exchange information that might be relevant to the others. In between those meetings, they had phone calls and were always available to one another to send aid if need be. It was an incredible step in the right direction for their kind, a step towards acceptance and cohabitation, but Leo wasn’t done yet.

He wanted to expand to other types of shifters too and she knew her own mate had played a role in that idea. She still wasn’t sure she believed in raccoon shifters, since they’d been gone from the area when Leo and Darius traveled north to try and find them, but she knew for a fact bear shifters existed and she wasn’t sure she wanted them anywhere near her family. Leo had a lot of work ahead of him if he wanted the packs to accept bear shifters into the mix.

And speaking of bear shifters, Maya stood from her spot next to her brother and walked away with a shake of her head. Zander made an apologetic face but also got up to follow his wife. They spoke quietly but didn’t return to the table, instead moving towards the group of smaller children on a picnic blanket in the grass a good distance from the pool.

Nova followed their path, looking for the youngest of Rafe and Zoey’s daughters and finally caught sight of her sitting in the grass with a group of other pre-teens. Maya and Zander’s daughter, Carmen, was beside her, whispering in her ear and making Nora laugh. Nova didn’t like to play favorites with her nieces and nephews but she could admit, at least to herself, that Leonora, named for her own brother and Rafe’s oldest friend, Leo, was the one whose future she knew without even looking, was going to be full of excitement and adventure.

Also in the little group having a makeshift picnic were Luna’s ten year old twin girls, Serena and Simone, and Maya’s ten year old daughter, Daria, named for Darius.

Nova loved that they were all such good friends. They were cousins after all. It was sweet seeing them play together and nice that they would get to grow up together, knowing that there were always friends just around the bend for them to have fun with. Nova had loved having three older siblings to rely on and while the group of ten to twelve year old’s on the blanket all had older siblings as well, the five of them were like an inseparable little pack unto themselves.

Sometimes, seeing her sisters’ daughters together like this, Nova wished that she hadn’t waited two years after mating with Griffin to get pregnant. It would have been sweet to see her own children among their little pack. But then she thought of all the fun she and Griffin had experienced traveling and and growing over those first two years together and she knew that the babies had come when they were meant to and not a day before.

Of course, they weren’t babies anymore either.

She turned her head and saw Griffin playing touch football with their twin boys, eight year old Lucas and Marcus. They looked so much like their father it made her heart swell with pride. She could remember a time when his looks, though handsome, had worried her, but that was all long since forgotten. Now her heart raced at the sight of him and when he caught her watching and grinned, everything inside of her still ached to reach out for him.

Kobe and Kyler, now sixteen and growing into their full height and build as Alpha wolves, were her own twin sons heroes. They were good boys too, even if they were still rambunctious and constantly breaking things because they forgot about how big they’d grown. They were good sports with their younger nephews though and played with them as Griffin tossed the football over. Kyler caught it and ran in circles around Lucas, making him giggle. Marcus came to his brother’s defense, kicking Kyler in the shin. Kobe caught him up and tucked him under his arm like a football, running around with him until all four boys were laughing.

Griffin climbed the porch steps slowly and his smile was so big Nova couldn’t help but smile back at him. God she loved this man. Loved him more with every passing year. The visions she’d had of them on their wedding day had only been the start of their incredible life together. And there was still so much more of it to share.

“Is she asleep?” Griffin kept his voice quiet as he approached and Nova nodded.

“Out like a light.”

She was holding their two year old daughter, Ivy, in her arms. The toddler was asleep now after indulging in too much fun in the sun and in the pool with her cousins earlier and Nova didn’t want to risk waking her by trying to get out of the chair. Especially because her belly was swollen to the point that she had to strain to get upright out of a normal chair. She was bound to tip over the rocking chair if she attempted to rise with her daughter in her arms.

“Want me to take her?”

“Nah. She’ll wake up if we try to move her and then there’ll be hell to pay.”

“True. She has a temper, just like her mama.” Griffin winked playfully, taking the rocking chair beside her. “She’s beautiful like her too. Especially when she’s peacefully sleeping.”

“Ha-ha.” Nova mock laughed. “Very funny.”

“Can I get you anything since you’re stuck here for a bit?” He offered. “You should drink some water. It’s a hot day.”

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