Chapter 79

Aurora

I’ve never thought of my wedding to be something spectacular. I have never thought of my mate to be so dutiful in planning it. It’s a relief to have Jaxson as the Alpha, as my mate, because as I linger ill on the porch, I watch him and a few other Dawn pack members erect a wood platform onto the beach, just wide enough for the two of us.

We have come closer to our pack, the beta and his family, and the thought of this ceremony going off without anyone in attendance actually brings sadness onto me. I dare to step into the sand, to thank everyone for their help as white roses are affixed to the structure, to the stage of sorts, but I hardly make it three steeps before my mate finds my arm and steadies me in place.

“Where are you off to, sweetheart?”

I graze the sides of my growing, expanding belly, and lean into his chest for strength. “I wanted to thank everyone for their help. It’s been a whirlwind here, Jaxson, and I haven’t gotten to show my appreciation to everyone.”

Jaxson grins apathetically. “Of course, sweetheart, but you need rest now. Please,” he hums, ushering me back up the porch and onto the cushioned swing. I kick my feet up slightly, my head falling back as the pains of my existence wither away. “I will be glad to extend your appreciation to the pack, darling. But for now, you stay put.”

I agree, too tired to argue, and watch Jaxson go back to fettling around the beach for our ceremony in two days. My birthday has never been anything but an affair with my family and friends. I haven’t seen them in so long, it hurts to consider the fact that I won’t have them around for the most important birthday yet. But it’s safer this way. I have to accept that.

My stomach moves on it’s own, the soul in my body squirming as it grows. I have grown quite attached to my pup, feeling for them at all hours, as though they can feel e reaching for them, awaiting their arrival. I dare to wish for a son, as does Jaxson, but I don’t pressure the process.

The ceremony stage is built upwards, a small tin roof with dangling vines and white, precious roses fashioned onto the beams and around the metal, silver roof. It’s a quaint place to finally feel mated to my fated for once and for all. I can’t bare another year, another lifetime, without the bond to the man I have come to love. He has held me at my worst, and forgiven me through my hell, and in all he has grown from an angry royal with a thirst for power, to a simple Alpha, willing to protect those who would protect him.

He moves so methodically as he works. I know he wishes the ceremony was today and we were finally sealed together as one. I can’t help myself from wanting the same thing. I lay back on the swing, feeling it rock gently in the breeze that brushes the shore nearby. It brings me joy to feel so at one with the universe around me. I finally feel peace in its best, most raw of forms.

When the construction noises settle, and the world pauses, I feel myself being carried into the house. Jaxson gently presses me into bed, assuring I am equipped with every blanket necessary to keep warm. My eyes blink slow and heavy. Jaxson kisses my forehead and sits beside me, comforting me as I try to find a comfortable position in this bed.

“Please,” I pant, his hand brushing through my short hair, finally feeling it grow out enough to where he can stroke his hand through the white, snowy locks. He kisses my cheek and nods, continuing to comfort me, a little kiss here or there when I get restless.

“You know what, Aurora?” he says, looking at snowflake who curls beside me in bed. “After everything we’ve been through, I would let it all happen again to be right here, in this moment, with you.”

I fight a grin, my face sore like the rest of my exterior. “I would, too, Jaxson.”

“We have fought and we have loved, Luna. We have known pain and we have seen it in each other, but we have found our way here, together, and it has become a magical place to be, sweetheart. I don’t regret any of it.”

I think back to when we met.

“I was a brash royal then, sweetheart,” Jaxson says, replying the moment in his mind as well. “I didn’t think to look past your upbringing and I told myself it wouldn’t matter, but it did. It put you and I in so much danger that I can’t even imagine if either of us had succumbed to those battles. I am very proud of your strength.”

“Thank you,” I say, blushing.

“You and I have faced so much, Aurora. I don’t think I can bare another battle without you. I need you to feel better for me, for our pups, and to live a long life together as my mate. You are my world now, sweetheart.”

I nod, my head resting back, the world spinning as I try to gain my strength. I go limp in the bed, my body tired and pathetic. Jaxson reaches for my cheek and it falls sideways, limp and useless. I can feel him panic, the world growing into a fast pulse, Jaxson barging out of the hut in a mere matter of seconds.

My eyes close. I feel the pulse in my stomach. I feel the pain in my throat. Jaxson may be able to handle another battle, but I am not. My body has reached it’s peak of pain and I dare to think that I will ever get past this agony. It’s still so early in my term, and I have so much more time to grow this life in my womb, but being a commoner is rough. The blood in my offspring is stronger than even I am, and I can’t fight the logistics of it.

My body wasn’t made to carry a royal pup. It is already stronger than me, tougher too, and it makes it hard to fight the urge to scream and give into the life that drains my own. Jaxson would never allow it, though, and I know that. He returns to the bedroom in a frenzy, pulling a healer inside with him.

I lay back and feel the hands circle my stomach, my body so deformed from where it was just weeks ago. I have to get use to this new weight, this new life, but it cannot adapt in a body so pathetic as my own. Jaxson holds my hand as the healer brushes something against my skin, a powder, followed by his hands that work to carve out the form in my stomach, mimicking the image of the inside of my womb on the outside of my body.

“I am drawing what I feel, and where,” the healer hums, shaking his head at Jaxson. “I do predict this to be the truth, too.”

He steps back, Jaxson following suit, and I strain to sit up and look at the markings he has made. My body feels so frail, so pathetic, and Jaxson is too in awe to notice my struggle. He and the healer exchange a long, meaningful look at one another. I dare to interject, to speak up, but instead I push myself to sit up and examine what has them both in a panic.

My vision goes cross for a long moment. I can’t seem to make the sight make sense. It looks like markings, drawings in black sand, but the smell of the powder invades my senses and makes me dizzy from the overloud of confusion. I want to cry out, to ask what this means, but I dare not need an explanation as my vision finally clears and steadies itself.

I see three outlines of life on my stomach. Three pups drawn against my skin.

I go unconscious in fear, in confusion, and in a little bit of excitement.