Queen of Death

Epilogue

Solana

~5 years later

"There you are! Everyone's been wondering where the bride and grooms disappeared to." Calla sings as she sashays over to me and throws her arms around my neck, squeezing me in a vice grip that she passes off as a hug. "I can't believe my baby sister is married! Oh, Sol, you're absolutely glowing."

I roll my eyes over her shoulder and begin to extricate myself from her claws. "For the last time, Calla, I'm not pregnant."

She's been dropping not so subtle hints all week about her theories on the goings on of my womb. Either she's super ignorant or genuinely that rude to keep pestering me about it.

Obviously the conversation of children has come up, but I've left the how's and the who's up to the guys. Whether each of them wants a child specifically from their seed or they leave everything up to chance doesn't matter to me. We're a pack. All of them will be fathers to any and all children we have. So I've left it up to the guys to hash out just how territorial their wolves are going to be over DNA.

"I'm not sure you can say that after what just happened upstairs, wife,"  Hunter purrs salaciously loud enough for Calla to hear.

You love saying that, don't you?  I link him before nuzzling into his chest, soaking in his scent.

It's all I've ever wanted. You are all I've ever wanted. He links back, dropping kisses to my neck and shoulder that get progressively closer to his Mark.

Hunter finally got what he wanted. Ten years ago he asked me to marry him and I said yes on the condition that we wait until our Centennial. That was before our lives imploded and well before I met the rest of my pack. But after finding our way back to one another I knew that waiting for our birthdays was still the way it was meant to be.

"If you're done mauling each other, we should probably head back to your party." Calla pulls me along with her, dragging me away from the peaceful isolation the guys and I had found and back to the limelight of a party I was strong-armed into agreeing to.

As a thank you to us for helping get justice for Elder Rimori and for putting an end to the corruption inside the council, one of the newest Elders insisted on planning our wedding. Elder Ianthe, also known as my grandmother.

When I implored my mom to stop her she threw up her palms and said she's never successfully swayed Ianthe's mind on any matter, especially party matters.

"Solana, be reasonable. Caligo can't accommodate an event of this magnitude. It's your pack's wedding, and yours and Hunter's Centennials. No. We're having it here in the Grove." My grandmother Ianthe spoke with finality. Not even my mother was willing to challenge her on it even though I desperately wanted something very small. Something very opposite of what my grandmother had in mind.

"Don't try to fight it, Sol. We all lost that battle," Rhys said with an amused grin. Unlike me and my older twin siblings, Rhys embraced Grandma Ianthe's meddling. His Centennial turned into a week-long Bacchanalia. Eli woke up naked in the gardens more than once that week despite my previous warnings not to accept anything Rhys offers you to drink.

"Let's get married here, baby," Dean gently coaxed me into agreeing. "Then we'll take you back to Caligo and have a proper after party. Sound good?"

***

"Are you having fun, birthday girl?" Ace grumbles in my ear.

"You shouldn't be back here," I admonish him playfully but otherwise ignore him and continue about my task.