Page 62 of Unbelievable Faith
Epilogue
Michael stoodin the middle of a huge circle of his family, friends and pack members. There was a large arch made of tree branches and vines, decorated with multi-colored flowers. He was wearing a suit for the first time in his life, and what he also hoped would be the last. But it was totally and completely worth it and not just because in a few moments the love of his life would appear and become not just his mate but his wife. He was getting a real kick out of seeing his older brother tugging at his own suit as he stood next to him, shoulder to shoulder, sweating like he was in his own personal version ofhell.
“Breathe.” He whispered to Rafe as his brother fidgeted with the collar of his button down for the millionthtime.
“I can’t, that’s the fucking problem.” Rafe hissed back at him, “This thing is cutting off my airsupply.”
“No, It’s not. You’re just nervous.” Michael held back a chuckle because he wasn’t certain his brother wouldn’t hit him if he thought he was being laughed at right now. “Calm down. Breathe. In a few minutes, you’ll forget all about the monkey suit because Zoey is going to walk through this crowd and straight toyou.”
“Zoey.” Rafe whispered his mate’s name like a prayer, his eyes shutting as he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “This is what Zoey wants,right?”
“Yeah, this is what shewants.”
“Then I can do it.” His brother opened his eyes and took another calming breath, “I can do it forher.”
“I know you can.” Michael clapped him on the shoulder as his heart swelled with a love that he’d never thought he would experienceagain.
He loved his brother. He’d always loved him. Even when he also kind of hated him for leaving him alone with the responsibility of a pack to run all by himself when he’d barely been more than a kid. But since Rafe had returned to the pack, Michael had also found that he respected the hell out of his brothertoo.
Rafe had only ever done what he thought was best for the people he loved. Even leaving had been his way of protecting Michael. He’d come home to help Leo when he’d found out the Crescent pack was in trouble. And when he’d scented Zoey as his mate, he’d put up one hell of a fight to claim her and he’d dedicated his every breath since to making her the happiest woman on the fact of theplanet.
He would do anything for Zoey. Walk through fire. Throw himself in front of a train. Even put on a suit and tie and stand in front of the entire pack, the center of attention, because Zoey wanted a real, true mating ceremony. Whatever she wanted, that’s what Rafe gave her and though at times, as the Pack Alpha, and as the brother-in-law, Michael wanted to roll his eyes and curse his brother for turning his best friend into a werewolf that thought she could do whatever she wanted and get away with it, he understood the kind of love that Rafe and Zoey sharednow.
Because that’s what he had withLuna.
A love that transcended all things. No argument was too big. No compromise was too great. He would hand her the world on a silver platter if he could but knowing his generous mate, she’d just divide it up and hand it out to those that she felt needed itmore.
She was perfect for him. Perfect in ways that he’d never imagined his mate would be. She’d grown up in a pack and understood the inner workings better than anyone else ever could have. She was strong and fierce. She was unafraid to stand up to the pack or even to him. She wasn’t the quiet type that would sit idly by and watch him lead and back him up without question. She supported him and encouraged him and when needed she helped steer him to the right answer to whatever problem the pack was having. She was his perfect mate in everyway.
Everything he’d never known he needed in a mate, Luna was all that andmore.
“They’re coming.” Rafe sucked in a breath beside him and Michael shot his brother a look, but sure enough only a second later he felt Luna’s presence grow closer aswell.
All around them, the Moirae pack went down on bended knee, as was the custom, and when they did, the two women at the back of the crowd were revealed. Michael’s heart stopped in his chest. Rafe made a low growling sound deep in his chest and Michael couldn’t even blame his brother for his possessiveness. He narrowed his eyes as he stared up the small opening in the circle the crowd had made for them and tried to figure out what was goingon.
Luna was on the wrong side. Zoey was standing on his side. They were backwards and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit and clearly neither did his brother. Rafe started to take a step forward, no doubt to go and claim his mate, but Michael shot a hand out and grabbed him by the wrist, stopping him when Zoey smirked and winked atthem.
“Just wait.” Michael kept his voice calm as Rafe turned his intense glare on him. “Your mate is up to something. Don’t ruin it forher.”
His brother grumbled something but Michael knew he’d played the situation right when Rafe settled in beside him again. Rafe wouldn’t ruin Zoey’s big day. He’d stand there like a good boy and wait for his mate to come to him, even if he might spank her ass until it was red later for whatever trick she was playing onthem.
Michael didn’t care what order they walked down the aisle in. He knew which woman was his. He smiled as Luna met his gaze and when she returned it with a soft smile of her own his heart finally started beatingagain.
She looked beautiful. They both did. But standing here now, waiting for Luna to come to him, seeing her standing beside Zoey, he knew that fate had gotten itright.
All those years he’d wished for Zoey to be his but fate had known better. Fate had known that Rafe needed her more than he ever could. She calmed his brother, settled him and gave him a home. She was his anchor just as she’d been Michael’s after his parents died, but he hadn’t needed her that way in a long time. Rafe still did and always would. They were a matchedset.
Just like Luna was the perfect mate for him. Zoey had been human until Rafe turned her. She’d never have understood the pack politics that went along with being his mate. The way she ignored the rules in favor of doing what she wanted was proof of that and more. She never could have been his Queen, even if he’d loved her and she would always be his bestfriend.
Luna was his true mate. His soulmate. The other half of him that he’d been searching for his entire life. She completed him and he knew now that fate had planned this allalong.
They’d all walked through hell to get to thispoint.
Zoey had been in foster care, bounced around house to house before losing touch with her biological siblings when she’d been adopted by her werewolf parents. Michael had lost so much that day in the woods when his parents and older brother Gabe had been slaughtered by hunters. Rafe had lost his mind that day, lost control of his wolf, and he’d fled the pack to protect Michael but also to punish himself. And Luna, his sweet, gentle Luna, had been forced to watch as her parents were brutally murdered and then she’d been held hostage and tortured by not one but twopsychopaths.
They all had past pains and hurts. They had issues they’d spend the rest of their lives dealing with. But they also had each other. Everything they’d been through had brought them to this point, to each other, and now they would never have to deal with their problems alone everagain.
They werefamily.
