The Life They Chose
1756 Words
By evening, Blackwood smelled like fresh-cut wood, stone dust, and food.
The shattered windows had been covered. The northern wall had finally accepted the Aurelis stone after Isolde asked the estate’s permission three separate times.
Mason claimed the manor was being dramatic.
The manor dropped another roof tile near him.
No one disagreed after that.
Luna stood in the main hall watching warriors carry long tables from the dining room into the courtyard.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
Evelyn looked up from a stack of plates.
“Dinner.”
“For the entire estate?”
“For everyone still inside the boundary.”
“That’s a lot of people.”
“Exactly.”
Mason walked past carrying a wooden bench over one shoulder.
“We survived ancient kings, living crowns, frozen time, and family reunions.”
He set the bench down.
“We deserve food.”
“You always think you deserve food,” Evelyn said.
“I’m frequently correct.”
Darius entered through the open doors.
He had changed into a clean black shirt, but dust covered one sleeve. A shallow cut crossed his cheek.
Luna walked toward him.
“What happened?”
“The western tower disagreed with my instructions.”
“Did you ask?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“It threw a beam at me.”
Mason nodded approvingly.
“The house is healing.”
Darius gave him a cold look.
Mason immediately found another bench to move.
Luna touched the cut on Darius’s cheek.
He leaned slightly into her hand.
“You could’ve asked someone else to repair the tower.”
“I did.”
“Who?”
“Kael.”
Luna glanced toward the courtyard.
Kael stood beside Ronan, both men arguing over the correct way to secure a wooden support.
“Did he know what he was doing?”
“No.”
“And you helped him?”
“I supervised.”
A loud crash came from outside.
Ronan shouted something unpleasant.
Darius paused.
“I supervised poorly.”
Luna smiled.
His gaze settled on her mouth.
The bond warmed.
“Later,” she reminded him.
Darius stepped closer.
“It is later.”
“Not that much later.”
“You failed to specify a time.”
“You’re using technicalities.”
“Yes.”
His hand moved to her waist.
Before he could kiss her, Amara called from the courtyard.
“Luna, could you help me?”
Darius closed his eyes.
Luna tried not to laugh.
“That family timing really is impressive.”
“I preferred you before your relatives returned.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“No,” he admitted. “But you were easier to steal.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Steal?”
“Temporarily borrow with permission.”
“That was a very quick correction.”
“I’m motivated.”
Luna kissed his cheek, directly over the cut.
“After dinner.”
Darius’s eyes darkened.
“That sounds like a promise.”
“It’s a plan.”
“Better.”
The courtyard filled before sunset.
Blackwood wolves sat beside awakened Alphas who had once been prisoners beneath the estate. Members of House Aurelis removed their silver armor and joined the tables in simple clothing.
No one knelt.
Isolde looked uncomfortable without ceremony to hide behind.
Cora sat between Lyra and Selene.
She kept touching ordinary objects as though each one was a discovery.
A spoon.
A linen napkin.
A cup of warm tea.
“What is this?” Cora asked.
Selene looked into the cup.
“Tea.”
“It tastes like leaves.”
“That’s because it is leaves.”
Cora frowned.
“Why would anyone drink that?”
Lyra lifted her own cup.
“People enjoy suffering in small, controlled amounts.”
Cora looked toward the wine.
“I’ll try that instead.”
Selene caught the bottle first.
“Slowly.”
“I have an ancient immortal body.”
“And no experience using it.”
Cora considered that.
“One glass.”
“Half.”
“One.”
Selene sighed.
“One.”
Cora smiled in victory.
The expression looked nothing like Solara.
It belonged entirely to her.
At the next table, Gabriel sat beside Amara.
They were close enough for their shoulders to touch, but neither assumed anything.
Eighteen years stood between them.
Love had survived.
Their marriage might not have.
Luna watched her father reach for Amara’s hand, then stop.
“May I?” Gabriel asked.
Amara looked at him.
Her eyes filled with too many emotions to name.
Finally, she turned her palm upward.
“Yes.”
Gabriel took it carefully.
Not as a husband reclaiming his wife.
As a man asking to begin again.
Ethan sat across from them.
He noticed.
His expression tightened, then softened.
He still carried anger.
But he remained at the table.
One day.
Exactly as he had promised.
Luna felt Darius approach before his hand settled at the small of her back.
“You’re watching everyone.”
“So are you.”
“I’m watching you.”
“That sounded dangerously smooth.”
“I practiced.”
“With whom?”
“Mason.”
Luna stared at him.
Darius’s face remained serious for two full seconds.
Then his mouth curved.
“You’re learning jokes.”
“I’ve always understood humor.”
“No, you haven’t.”
“I understood that Mason was the problem.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Darius led her toward the head of the longest table.
Two seats waited there.
Luna stopped.
“No.”
He followed her gaze.
“What?”
“We’re not sitting at the head.”
“It’s my table.”
“It’s raised.”
“By two inches.”
“People will think we’re presiding.”
Darius looked around the crowded courtyard.
“We are hosting.”
“Move the chairs.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“Both?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Luna looked toward her family.
“Between them.”
Something warm passed through his expression.
Without arguing, Darius picked up both chairs.
Several conversations stopped.
Blackwood’s Alpha carried his own seat across the courtyard while Luna walked beside him.
Mason watched with open delight.
“I wish the old council could see this.”
Darius set the chairs beside Kael and Ronan.
“They would object.”
“Exactly.”
Kael glanced toward Luna.
“You’re sitting with us?”
“Unless you object.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
Ronan moved his plate to make space.
Darius sat beside Luna.
Not above his pack.
Inside it.
The estate seemed to approve.
Every lantern in the courtyard lit at once.
Mason looked up.
“Show-off.”
A lantern above him flickered out.
Evelyn laughed.
Dinner became louder as the night deepened.
People told stories.
Some were painful.
Others were ridiculous.
Maris learned that her grandson snored.
Adrian denied it.
Three Thorn wolves confirmed it.
Kael listened to Ronan describe Gideon.
Not the warrior.
The man.
“He hated mushrooms,” Ronan said.
Kael looked at the food on his plate.
“So do I.”
Ronan smiled.
“He sang badly.”
“I don’t sing.”
“Good. One family curse avoided.”
Darius leaned toward Luna.
“I also dislike mushrooms.”
She looked between him and Kael.
“That is not evidence of brotherhood.”
“It may be.”
“Do you sing badly too?”
“I don’t sing.”
“Suspicious.”
Darius’s hand slid beneath the table and found hers.
Their fingers joined.
No one noticed.
Or everyone did and had finally learned not to comment.
The touch was quiet.
Private.
A promise made only for the present.
Luna rested her shoulder against his.
“You’re happy,” she whispered.
Darius looked across the courtyard.
At Mason arguing with the manor.
At Evelyn smiling.
At Kael and Ronan learning their father through one another.
At Gabriel and Amara holding hands without pretending the past had disappeared.
“Yes.”
The admission sounded almost surprised.
“Are you?”
Luna looked at the people gathered beneath Blackwood’s lights.
“Yes.”
“Even with Lucian gone?”
“That hurts.”
Darius’s fingers tightened.
“But happiness doesn’t have to wait until nothing hurts.”
He looked at her.
“No.”
“It can sit beside grief.”
“Yes.”
Luna smiled faintly.
“You taught me that.”
His expression softened.
“I thought I was the one learning.”
“We both are.”
Much later, when the final dishes had been cleared and the courtyard had quieted, Luna returned to Darius’s room.
He stood near the fire, waiting.
No armor.
No weapons.
No Alpha mask.
Only Darius.
He looked at her carefully.
“You came.”
“I said I planned to.”
“Plans change.”
“This one didn’t.”
She closed the door behind her.
Darius did not move closer.
Not yet.
“Luna.”
Her name first.
Always.
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
She crossed the room slowly.
“With you?”
“Yes.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“About what this means?”
Luna stopped in front of him.
“It means I want you.”
Heat entered his gray eyes.
“It doesn’t mean forever.”
“No.”
“It doesn’t erase tomorrow’s choice.”
“No.”
“It means tonight.”
Darius touched her cheek.
“Tonight is enough.”
Luna kissed him.
No crown answered.
No ancient bond flared.
Nothing watched.
His arms closed around her as she pulled him closer.
The kiss deepened, slow at first, then hungry with everything they had kept waiting through battles, reunions, grief, and impossible choices.
Darius lifted his head.
“Tell me if you want me to stop.”
“I will.”
“And if I forget to ask—”
“I’ll remind you.”
His mouth curved against hers.
“Frequently?”
“Constantly.”
He kissed her again.
Outside, Blackwood settled around the family sleeping beneath its repaired roof.
Far beyond the boundary, Lucian and Eren walked beneath an unknown sky.
Tomorrow still held danger.
Questions.
Consequences.
But Luna no longer needed certainty before allowing herself joy.
Darius lifted her into his arms.
She held his face between her hands.
“Again,” she whispered.
His eyes warmed.
“Again.”
And for one night, they chose nothing except each other.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD