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Epilogue: Rourke
The young king stood in the palace gardens, his grey-blue hair shining almost white beneath the light of the full moon. He was still, as if frozen in time as he glanced up at the starlit sky. Even from a hundred paces away, I smelled him. His scent was floral and soft yet masculine, so deeplyhim. The hair on the back of my neck rose and I shivered all the way down my spine.
As I approached, my nails clicked against the stone pathway. But the King didn’t need the sound to alert him of my presence. I knew he knew I was already here. It was just one of the many ways our destiny as fated mates revealed itself.
Sebastian turned to me with a calm smile.
And in his arms was a tiny prince.
The sight of our son pushed me through the shift and I stood before them as a man again. Sebastian huffed a small laugh as I approached in all my nude glory.
“Couldn’t you carry some clothes in your mouth or something?” he asked, tossing me the pair of pants he’d kept nearby for this very occasion.
“Too much effort,” I said, pulling them on. “Besides, unlikesomefancy royals, not all of us have the ability to magically absorb our clothes when we shift.”
“Too bad. I still don’t know how it works, but I must say, it’s very convenient.”
Sebastian handed our son over to me. A burst of warm affection exploded through my body as I cradled him to my chest. At two weeks old, he was so small, so delicate. As if he didn’t look enough like Sebastian already, a patch of grey-blue hair crowned his head just to remind everyone of his princely status.
But when he opened his eyes to peek up at his dad, they were as dark and deep as my own, as black as the night itself.
“Hello, Silver Tundrarum Lacehaven,” I said with a smile. “Did I keep you waiting?”
Silver blinked his dark eyes at me. He was already mastering the haughty omega prince expression that must’ve run in his blood. I chuckled and gently stroked his pink cheek.
“You kept both of us waiting,” Sebastian chimed in. “Did you at least have a good run?”
I kissed him on the corner of the mouth in apology. “Sure did. Thanks for watching Silver.”
As the birth of our son had approached, I’d felt more and more of the urge to shift, to become a wolf and roam the outskirts. Not because I wanted to run away, but more in the sense that I wanted to patrol my territory, and of course, it was difficult to do that in the streets.
Sebastian and I had a few theories, mostly about the urge to hunt and provide for our offspring, but I also wondered if it had something to do with my fierce feelings of protection. As an alpha, I was naturally strong, but a giant wolf was more powerful than a man. Maybe I had some subconscious need to display my strength in order to keep Sebastian and Silver safe.
“Anytime,” Sebastian replied, “so long as you’re not away from me fortoolong.”
“I’d never dream of it.”
Sebastian shot me one of his impish smirks before looping his arm in mine and leading us through the garden. There was a private courtyard in the palace grounds that overlooked all three rings, plus the outskirts. I’d noticed recently that Sebastian had been spending more time there, his gaze lingering thoughtfully over his kingdom.
I still thought of what he’d done in the alpha market for my sake. A bunch of alphas had left the second Sebastian had cancelled their contracts, but I knew Shep and a lot of other guys were still living there, more like long-term residents than pieces of meat for sale. At least, that was Sebastian’s goal. In practice, there was a silent understanding that the underlying social norms would take much longer to dismantle. But there were so many things Sebastian had to do as king. He couldn’t be everywhere at once, and I didn’t fault him for that.
As if thinking the same thing, Sebastian let out a thin sigh. I ran my hand over his back to comfort him. Silver cooed in my hold, blinking grey-blue eyes as he looked out into the sky.
“Are you glad our son is an omega?” I asked Sebastian.
The signs were subtle but clear at birth. Things were shaped slightly differently down there, even in infants.
Sebastian shot me a small smile. “Are you?”
“Yes,” I said. “But I would be just as glad if he was an alpha.”
“That’s not an answer. Tell me.”
“Are you asking as my fated mate or as the King?”
His eyes gleamed mischievously. “Both.”
