Chapter 91: Two Years Later
I finished dressing up Saoirse, smiling. “Look at my little Saoirse. Isn’t she adorable?” I said as I put her down on the floor. I watched her walking on her own already while she was giggling.
“Mama! Mama!” The door busted open revealing Sander in his new clothes. “Papa sent a letter, Mama! Look! Look! The insignia of the House of Verlice!” he beamed. His face brightened when he walked toward me. “Auntie Rachelle bestowed it to me after I am done training with Cloudy.”
My heart leaped out of my ribcage upon hearing that. I took the letter from him and saw the crest of the House of Verlice. The crest was the shield and in the center of it were the three heads of the wolf with vines protecting the edge of the shield.
The House of Verlice was one of the ‘shields’ of the de Carteret royal Lycan family of the Sowinski Kingdom. If one’s noble household became one of the ‘shields’, it meant that you were bound to protect all the members of the royal lycan family.
There were other noble households that became the ‘swords’ and ‘spears’. A noble household becoming a ‘sword’ meant that you could be ordered by the royal lycan family to assassinate someone or you are in need to fight on behalf of the royal lycan family. If someone became a ‘spear’, it meant you were going to be sacrificed and prepared to be killed.
The Waevalon Kingdom also had swords, shields, and spears’ noble households. They also applied what they had. However, they were not revealing on their crest what type of weapons were they for the royal lycan family.
“Mama! Please read for us!” I snapped back when Sander beamed.
I smiled. Ever since we left the Sowinski Kingdom and Desmond had started to exchange letters with us, Sander couldn’t hide his excitement.
“Alright, alright.” I opened the letter and started reading the content Desmond had written just for us. “Dear my loveliest family,” I paused for a while before I continued reading it. “I am writing again because I have missed all of you so much. For the past two years, I have never forgotten all of you. I have been wanting to hug my son, Sander and my little daughter, Saoirse. I had missed her one-year-old birthday and Sander’s eighth and ninth birthdays. Even you, Mama. Your 36th and 37th birthdays.” I was quite surprised that Desmond had mentioned me here. But it made my heart skip a beat already.
Desmond was not failing to call me, Mama. My heart felt ticklish every time I had to read that part.
“Me! Me! Can I read the rest, Mama?” Sander volunteered. He was even raising his hand.
“Of course, sweetheart.” I bestowed him with the letter before I took Saoirse so she could sit on my lap. “Honey, listen. Your Papa wrote us a letter, alright?” Saoirse nodded which made me smile from ear to ear.
Sander cleared his throat. “I felt melancholy from the time that all of you were not here when we celebrated my 41st and 42nd birthday. Hoping that this year, I would get to celebrate your next birthday together. Missing all of you, Papa.” He looked at me. “Auntie Rachelle told me that we can even return now back to Papa’s pack.” My eyes widened at what he said.
“Sister Rachelle said that?” Sander nodded. “I see.” I must speak to her then.
I let their nannies take care of my pups while I was looking for Sister Rachelle.
My sister and I have strongly connected thanks to this galaxy moon necklace which was gifted by our Mother, the Moon Goddess. My mother’s name was Lunaria. The color of the galaxy moon necklace bestowed to me by Rachelle was yellow.
My favorite color…
I saw her in the Luna Queen’s garden in the particular place where her favorite flower, stargazer lilies, were planted there. I happened to see Claude as well. Both of them were laying in the grass while looking at the blue sky.
“Don’t you think that it is time for Cloudy to have a sibling, Claude?” I overheard Rachelle’s voice through my sensitive ears as a werewolf.
“Hmm?” I heard Claude’s teasing tone. “Well, well… Are you finally considering my suggestion, love?”
Rachelle chuckled as she mindlessly caressed her stomach. “Yes, yes. So, should I stop taking fertility control, hmm, Your Majesty?”
Claude grinned. “Please do, Your Majesty. But remember that I am going to watch over your pregnancy this time. Don’t do what you did from the last time you kept it from me. It fucking hurts, you know.”
“I won’t. I won’t repeat history, love.” Rachelle immediately got up when she noticed my presence. “Seraphina!” she beamed upon seeing me.
Chuckling, I decided to approach them and curtsied in front of them. “My apologies. I hate to interrupt this cute moment between the two of you.” But I somehow felt envious that they could be with each other despite the hurtful past that happened between them. Claude had learned to forgive my sister for keeping the pregnancy and acting on her own accord from the time she was in the rogue war with the criminal or must I say she found that the leader of the rogue was Mother’s first mate. “But I really wish to speak with you, sister.” Claude was about to stand up but I halted him. “No need to leave, brother-in-law. This is not even a secret.” I chuckled.
Claude smiled. “Is it?” I nodded. “Alright then. I shall stay here.” He stood up and offered his hand to Rachelle. “Ray, you cannot just sit there in the grass if you are going to speak with your sister. That is rude.”
I grinned. I was already expecting that Rachelle would frown, which she really did. “Fine.” Rachelle accepted his hand.
These two… especially my sister… She was always acting like a kid towards my brother-in-law. Rachelle was a playful and zealous older sister to us, wife to Claude, and mother to Cloudy.
“What is it that you wish to discuss with me, sister?” Rachelle asked as we were sitting on the patio.
“Um…” How must I start this conversation? “You have told Sander that we can go back now? Are you… certain?” I asked, hesitant.
She nodded. “Yes. I am also following Mother’s orders. If you are quite hesitant about this, you may try to speak with her.” She clasped her hands together, smiling from ear to ear.
I squinted my eyes at her. “You know that smile of yours is quite frightening, Rachelle. It seems like you have a dark plan concocting right now.”
Rachelle rolled her eyes. “Oh, please…” She even shook her head. “Do I always look like an antagonist in my sister’s love life?”
“Under the orders of Mother, yes, love.”
“Claude is right.” I agreed, grinning and jesting.
“Both of you!” Rachelle crossed her arms over her chest, looking like she was sulking already. Claude and I chuckled at her silliness.
But I knew that Rachelle was not the real antagonist here. She was just doing anything she could to protect us after our mate hurt us. She was our real protector and I really appreciated it that she showed herself at the main door of Verlice’s vacation house two years ago.
I felt like I couldn’t heal even though Desmond and I were separated from each other. I could still vividly remember how he betrayed me by sleeping with Hazel and getting her pregnant with their twins.
But when I started living here along with my other two pups, I felt like I had finally found the peace that I had been looking for. I started to get healed even though Desmond was still communicating with us by writing some letters. However, we never communicated back under the instructions of my mother.
I decided to go to the celestial realm where our Mother was living there. In the vast field of lavender field, Mother was levitating there looking up at the two moons in the sky. One was a full moon and the other one was a crescent moon. The sky looked a purplish black with some stars like decorations.
It looked so wonderful every time I was visiting here.
“Sicilia.”
I flinched when Mother turned around.
The Moon Goddess… She was the creator of the mundane world. She is the Goddess of the Werewolves and the Universe. We worshipped Her every single day for being the deity as well as She was the Goddess of the Moon.
“You wish to speak with me, my dearest?” Mother’s godly voice was so soothing like a lullaby. Her silver platinum hair was floating in the air as Her beautiful face was covered with a blinding light.
Only us, Her daughters and Her grandchildren, could be able to see what She really looked like. The color of Her eyes was the color of the mixed colors of the galaxy moon necklace which was really bizarre but really mystical.
Sometimes, I couldn’t believe that I was still Her daughter and that I was the Goddess of Fertility. Now I know why my father loved Her so dearly. As soon as I saw my mother in Her spirit form, I knew by then that I finally found the missing piece.
“I wish to consult something, Mother.” I greeted her with a hug. All of our sisters promptly softened whenever we were with our mother. It felt so good that I could be like this to my mother.
“Yes? About Desmond?”
I chuckled. Mother really could read our minds. We did not say anything as She knew everything about what was happening to Her surroundings. “Mother, you instructed Ragriel that we can finally go back. Is it safe to say that we can really go back now?”
Mother held my face. I could see that She was smiling. “Yes, my dearest. Desmond changed in a better way.”
“Just as Cornelius to Isabella, is that it?” Isabella’s mate was the Alpha of the South Monterey pack whose name was Cornelius.
My second older sister, Isabella was not residing in the royal palace since she needed to return to the pack, South Monterey pack, that sponsored her from studying in the royal academy as a pack doctor.
Mother said that it was the right time for Isabella to face her second mate who had changed for the better.
“Indeed.” Mother nodded.
“Did Desmond really change for the better?” I asked, still hesitant. “What if we return there, he would try to control me again, Mother? I would get hurt by him. I did not want our pups to hurt again.”
Although I had already moved on from the time he did that, there was this part of me that perhaps Mother was wrong about Desmond.
I did not want to cry again if ever that happened that Mother was wrong. I had loved Desmond so dearly but everything had changed with his betrayal. It was so hard to make a decision that we needed to leave but I think this was for the best for both of us.
I did not want to look at Desmond with a disgusting emotion. I wanted to look at him with nothing but calmness
“My dear…” Mother held my face. “Believe me. I have been watching your mate from here.” In an instant, She brought me to the mirror lake, waving Her hand. There, Mother showed me Desmond who had grown more mature from the last time I saw him. His image was rippling in the water.
My heart skipped a beat seeing him harvesting the cotton which he never wanted to harvest. But he was only doing it because I looked at him with a pleasing expression. I used to boast about him with my fellow wives.
But I was somehow confused why he was harvesting when he never wanted to do it before in the first place.
“His pack has become more flourished thanks to him as the Alpha of the pack, Sicilia,” Mother said. “You can clearly see it, right?”
“Yes… I can see… it clearly, Mother…” I was not looking at the surroundings but at Desmond. I couldn’t help but gulp seeing his half-naked body. Oh, how I suddenly wanted to run my hands there. He looked so ravishing right now with his newly trimmed beard.
He looked so appealing to my eyes.
I had not seen Desmond for the past two years. Mother told me that I did not need to see him in the mirror lake even if I wanted to. It was my first time seeing him again here.
Mother said before that She was going to show Desmond only if I was ready to face him.
Hold on… Mother showed me Desmond in the mirror lake, right? I gasped and turned my head at Mother. Chuckling, Mother nodded. “Yes, dear. You are ready to see him. That is why I instructed Ragriel to inform you.”
“A-Are you really certain, Mother?” I could hear my heart hammering inside my chest.
She nodded. “Face him again and try to work things with him, Sicilia. If you really cannot fix your mate bond with him again and you feel like you do not want him as his mate anymore, then I will tell Ragriel to cut your mate bond off permanently. Then I will pick a suitable mate for you who is the same as Desmond. Your choice, Sicilia.”
As soon as Mother said that, I fell silent.
But one thing I knew for sure, I did not want Desmond to have another mate aside from me.