Page 87 of Heart Broken Mate

Then the rush came. It was different from the other rush I had gotten from Bonne’s concoction. This one was pure, and it felt like it came directly from the source of life itself. From earth, I felt it flow through me, filling me up with such an intense power that I thought it was going to break me. But I contained it.

I felt in total control of my being now. I wasn’t just a werewolf that might be overtaken by its power. The first thing I did when I got familiar with the stone's power was to change back to my werewolf form from the full wolf form. It would have been impossible to do that without the stone. Usually, the wolf form gets exhausted, and I pass out and wake up in my wolf form again. Now, I had control and all the power and more that I had in the wolf form was in my werewolf form.

I walked with Luke by my side towards The Twins. I understood what it felt like now to be royalty. The pureness of the blood in me. That was all the stone did. It reawakened the power of the royal blood that had been dormant inside us for a long time. I felt like a ruler. We both did, and the first thing these rulers would do was vanquish their enemy.

The Twins stood their ground and tried to fight, but things were different now. The stone would have been useless to them because they weren’t royalty. It was meant for Luke and me. Made for us so we could defeat them. The first Twin tried to swipe at me, but I moved his hand out of the way and grabbed him by the neck. He didn’t seem so worshipful to me anymore. He was just a mere werewolf now. I squeezed his neck, and his skin felt rubbery against my hand. I looked into his eyes as death slowly slipped out of him. This time, I didn’t get a sick feeling in me because I was killing a man.

This was justified. This was a man that had killed so many and put even more in pain. He shouldn’t be allowed to live. I dropped his lifeless body to the floor and turned to Luke, who had his claws in the throat of the other twin. That one dropped to the ground too.

We did it. We won the war.

I heard movement around me, and I turned back to see the members of the segregated clan charge through the woods. They were ready to continue the fight, but when they saw the Twin on the forest floor dead, they stopped. Ilad pushed his way through them until he was in front. He looked at me and then at the two men on the floor before he fell to his knees and bowed before Luke and me.

The other followed suit and bowed.

Chapter forty-two (Hayley)

I never thought a day would come when I would say I missed the woods, but that day was here. Standing there, underneath the cold breeze of the evening as we waited for the vines before us to open up and for the lost tribe to welcome us again, I closed my eyes and imagined what it had been like for the past months. It had been a wild journey, and things I would never have imagined happening for the life of me happened to me. The wild eye opener that there was a life beyond being just the Hayley that grew up on the street and got rescued by James. Now, I was the one that brought order back to the werewolf world, restored the royalty, and defeated an enemy to the peace of all the werewolves, who have reigned terror for far too long. I was now a queen or bound to be anyway, and my king was here beside me.

I squeezed Luke’s hand as the vines before us shifted, and two men came out of it. They looked very happy to see us and led us into the village. The lost tribe welcomed us again, and Merine was there with all smiles. They had prepared for us, and there was a little party going on already.

“Would you like to rest a bit, or do you want to do it now?” Merine asked as he led us to the same chamber they gave us the first time we were their guest.

“I think we would like to do it now,” Luke said and smiled. “There is nothing we would like more than to be bound together forever.”

Merine nodded and tapped our hands before starting out of the chamber. “Wait here for a while, and someone will come and get you,” he said and left us.

I was a bit anxious, but I didn’t let it show. Our friends and family had argued to be here with us on this day, but we didn’t know how many visitors Merine would allow, and he had been nothing but good to us, so we didn’t want to put him in a tough position. This was the best we could do, and it would have to be enough for all of them and for us too.

The chamber opened again, and Yola walked in, smiling at us. He didn’t have to talk as we knew it was time. We stepped out with him, and it was dark outside already. The streets were specially lit up by different lights than we’d seen here before, and from the chamber, there were people lined up on either side of the street, throwing flowers that smelled marvelous to the ground as we walked past. Someone was singing in the distance, and even though I didn’t know they had that, some sort of string instrument was playing along with the song. It was a beautiful moment, and with all that had happened so far in my life, I thought this was the one I would have the clearest memory of. I would remember the faces of everyone I walked past, the sweet and genuine smiles they had for us, and those in front who were eager to set their eyes on us. They had seen us leave with the stone, but the couple that came back was different. We were now their leaders, and there was a reverential aura in the air that I could sense from all of them. They looked up to us like we were lords. That was something I wasn’t so sure I would get used to.

We got to the front of the procession, which was at the same hilltop. Merine was there with two small werewolves dressed in fancy blue gowns and smiling. We stopped in front of him, and he asked us to kneel.

We did gladly. He collected a long rope made out of a plant string from one of the little werewolves and walked towards Luke and me. He picked up our hands and had us place them side by side in the air before putting the string on them.

“The tradition of marriage amongst our people is a sacred one,” he started, and as usual, his voice boomed through the crowd. “We make commitments to each other just like the earth has made its commitment to us, and like the earth, we strive never to go back on that commitment. Do you two promise to work together, to serve each other, to love each other, and to never rescind the commitment you make with each other today?”

“Yes, we do,” Luke and I answered together.

Merine moved one end of the rope from underneath our hands and over it, binding us lightly.

“May the earth bear witness to the promises you have made to it and each other today,” he said.

“And may she grant you the strength so desired,” the crowd replied.

He did the same for the other end of the rope.

“May the moon bear witness to the bond formed together,” he said.

“And may the strength of the bond never wane.”

He put his hands on our now bound hands and knelt before us.

“You are our King. You are our Queen. You are now the light through which peace shines on the land. You are our lords andour rulers. You are the cord that holds the unity on the land. Never break, never falter.”

He rose and then tapped us to rise too. “You are now married,” he said, and the crowd erupted.

Luke pulled me over and kissed me, but we barely had time for ourselves before the crowd overwhelmed us, and everyone came to say congratulations. I was happy, and for the first time, I didn’t feel overwhelmed with the presence of so many people around me, looking to talk to me. It made me glad that I had them around me because I could see that these were my people. These were the people I was now charged with protecting, Them and every other werewolf in the world. I felt very confident about how peaceful the next couple of years will turn out to be. I will be the best leader I can be to them. They deserved that and more.

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