Chapter 85

Aurora

I manage to slip on something to wear, feeling so clouded in my mind that I don’t even notice I have managed to slip into a summery white dress while holding Dawn on my hip throughout it all. I kiss her pale nose, her bright blue eyes a wonder to this world. She is too precious to believe and yet, I know she is special, like her two little siblings.

She winks awake and back asleep a few times, attempting to finally fall back asleep but I can’t stand another sleepless night where Jaxson and I have to take turns with cooing these little pups back to sleep.

I pace outside to the living room, seeing the beach full of people. I spot Jaxson first of course, his arms full of little Jax and Lily who is busy pulling at his hair in the fistful. He doesn’t seem to mind it as much while he converses with the newcomers.

I know them all, of course. I’ve just been too nervous to say anything to them. I cling to Dawn, like a shield, or a distraction, and carefully step off the front porch and into the crowd outside under the morning sunshine.

“Aurora!” Ann hollers, rushing over to me. Her eyes are wide and bright, her arms strong as she leaps them around my side and pulls me and Dawn into a tight embrace. “I can’t believe you girl! Three babies? Who have you become!?”

I laugh alongside my friend, greeting Paul and Row next, both of them minding the newborn on my hip. They eventually manage to get ahold of Lily and Jax, swaying them in their tough arms, making silly faces in the meantime. The babies all laugh while I meet my parents next, seeing them gushing pink in hue, fresh with tears of obvious joy, mixed with a little bit of pride.

“Mom,” I hum, letting her hold me in her arms, my father doing the same thing next as he presses a kiss to my temple. Both of them eye Dawn. “This is Dawn Emerald Knight.”

I had her over to her grandparents and watch their faces all light up together. I turn to Jaxson, both of our arms free of the babies, and I embrace him, just for the hell of it. He sighs happily into my neck, kissing my cheek once and quick, smiling in the process. I manage a sigh of relief, Jaxson turning us to the last little bunch left to greet out here.

“Luke,” I say, breathless.

Mary stands beside my old friend, holding a blanket in her frail arms, a small face poking out of the cocoon briefly to see the world. I smile at the sight of my best friend back in the graces of his mate, now with a pup of his own, but I can tell something haunts him in the depths of his somber eyes. He doesn’t mention it, letting only a kind smile poke through.

“Aurora,” Luke says, tipping his head toward me. “You certainly have outdone yourself.”

I blush, clinging to Jaxson. “It was a team effort.”

Everyone laughs, no matter how uncomfortable this encounter is. Last I saw Luke, we were under Xander’s grasp. Last Jaxson saw him, he was saving his ass from that wretched dictator. I don’t understand if that’s why everyone is here now, or strictly to meet the pups and then head home, but I can’t let this awkwardness overshadow the day. I am with my parents, and they have their grandchildren now, and it feels so complete in my heart.

“Aurora,” Paul hums, holing out Lily Opal with both hands, his eyes wide. “This one stinks…”

“Diapers are inside, second-from-the-top drawer in the bedroom,” I say.

His eyes grow wide and worried.

“I’m kidding, Paul, relax,” I say, laughing. I take Lily in my arms, promptly then taken from me by Jaxson who gives me a small grin.

“Go show everyone around our little house, dear, I’ll handle this one.”

I nod, taking Jax from Row and snuggling him into my chest. He relaxes instantly, yawning, and I let my mother keep hold of Dawn for now. I need the break, anyways. While Jaxson deals with the diaper situation, I manage to squeeze everyone inside for a brief tour, before getting to walk them all through town and showing off our little pack.

My mother brims with tears the entire time. It makes my heart warm to see her proud of me.

I take them through the gardens, and the old Alpha’s home where we have made it a daycare of sorts for the younger pups in the pack. They are safe here with the elders, teaching and protecting them simultaneously. Jaxson wanted to create a strong future for our new pack, so who better than the oldest and wisest of the pack to instill traditions into the young?

I catch Luke’s eyes once or twice, trying to ignore it, before I hand off Jax to Ann who can’t stand not holding a pup by now. Everyone takes off to the beach, walking through the wet sand and making the younglings laugh as they kick up salt water into the air. Mary even joins the fun, leaving Luke and I behind to do what I have been wanting to push off for a while—talk.

“Hey,” I hum, taking a seat in the sand beside my most closest of friends. He seems so unfamiliar to me now, like a distant, faint memory of a man I use to know quite well. “How have you been, Luke?”

He shakes his head, forcing an insincere grin. “Skip the small talk, Aurora.”

“What do you want me to say?” I mutter. My wolf is hurt by his tone. He isn’t here for a pleasant catching up. He is here for a conversation I would rather never come. “I know we didn’t get a proper goodbye and all, but everything is okay now. Xander is dead and—”

“I don’t care about that,” he says, speaking so low I almost miss his words entirely, “I care about you and I came to say that. Your mate obviously tried to stop me and invited everyone here to drown me out, distract you from me or something, I don’t know, but I can’t ignore it anymore.”

“Ignore what, Luke?”

“You, Aurora. You and I have been through so much. We have always meant to be together.”

Somewhere deep down, I ache for the loss of the man I used to think belonged to me. We may have been through hell and back but that doesn’t give excuse to his feelings anymore. He has Mary, and a pup, and I have a family that I never anticipated, but I could already not imagine having. It would break me.

“Luke, you can’t say those things anymore.”

Peering up, I watch my parents hold my two pups, Dawn and Jax, while Mary and Ann look after the young pup of Luke’s and Mary. Everyone is laughing, including Jaxson who seems uninterested with Luke and I conversing right now. He has nothing to fear, either.

I know who my family is now. I would never risk wounding our bond.

“You used to think the same, Aurora,” Luke hums, aggravated, I can tell.

“I was confused, and so used to what we had before the mating bond found us both, Luke. I found Jaxson, and you found Mary. Everything else doesn’t matter. I may have loved you, but like you said, it’s because we had been through so much together. I can no longer measure love based on how hard it was to obtain.”

I eye Jaxson on the beach and it brings a smile to my exhausted features.

“Some of the finest love comes simply.”

Luke doesn’t like that answer, and I can understand why, but he knows the truth deep down. He just wants what isn’t obtainable at this rate. If I accepted his love, and he spited Mary, not only would his mating pull try to correct that, but he would beg for her to take him back and tell me we aren’t meant to be. He is confused and I can’t blame him for that.

We have been through a lot and we hold a love for each other that is unmatched. It is however surpassed by the love I have for Jaxson, the Alpha to our pack and the dutiful father to our three rambunctious pups. I wish Luke to learn the love of a mating bond, but also outside of that bond, because I can tell by personal experience that it is the strongest, most fulfilling love there is.