And the one answer — the only answer to her insane proclamation — became clear.
“Alright,” I said.
I both felt and saw her surprise. “Alright? You’ll come back to the secret kingdom with us?”
The question hung in the air between us, heavy and final. And in that moment, I realized there was no fight left in me. Just love. Just her.
“Yeah… yeah… alright,” I repeated, tears welling up in my own eyes.
Guess the Wild Wolves weren’t as hard as I thought.
After all, their king ended up crying like a babe in front of the lot of them.
Even harder when his Wild Queen leaned down to seal her curse with a kiss.
Epilogue
Naomi
The four ofus got married underneath the next new moon, along with the trimates, as the Sea and Wild Wolves called a mateship between two males and a she-wolf.
Although, we’d have to expand that definition.
Astrid, Frey, and Priscilla were among the new moon wedding participants. And Priscilla couldn’t have looked happier when she traveled back to Belfast a few months later.
A decision that Eoin hoped would turn out all right.
Aidan was fairly sure that the Scottish Wolves wouldn’t even think to bother Eoin’s and Wild’s sister being that “They couldn’t possibly have any idea she’s related to two of the Irish Kings. The one thing we have going for us is that they have no idea where to look.”
“But how about this source of the Tríbéirríthe’s?” I asked while we helped Sea make his decision. “Is it possible…?”
“No, their source is Scottish,” Eoin assured me. “Only got in contact with them due to Sadie. If you hadn’t brought your friend with you, the lot of ye might still be in Scotland, making plans to bounce to Ontario after all was said and done.”
I was worried about Sadie, who we still hadn’t managed to get in touch with.
Apparently, she and the Tríbéirríthe were in what Aidan called “the kind of wind only billionaires with access to god tech could afford.”
Speaking of god tech, Aidan was nearly as fascinated by it as me.
Back in November, he took one step inside the secret kingdom’s castle and immediately announced he was quitting his job.
The castle wasn’t guarded by a dragon, but it housed tech beyond our wildest dreams, including programmable walls that bent dimensional space to such an extent that he’d taken to calling it the “castle Tardis.”
And if that wasn’t enough to keep our curious minds occupied for days, the “control room” contained ancient yet somehow highly advanced tech that appeared to run on some manner of quantum fusion.
Aidan and I — much to Wild’s eye-rolling annoyance — agreed on pretty much everything. But we super-duper agreed that there was nothing we’d rather do with the rest of our lifetime than figure out and possibly reverse-engineer the secret kingdom’s god tech.
So, the thought of never having been kidnapped by Eoin and Wild sent a chill down my spine.
Even if it wasn’t quite safe to send anything but the vaguest of letters from an ever-rotating set of rural human mailboxes assuring my sister and parents that we were safe and happy.
And only the fates knew what they’d do in the spring when they discovered that every single one of the kidnapped she-wolves had chosen to stay in Ireland rather than return to Scotland.
Though Fiona had asked me about trying for a wee visit after her twins were born.
I’d love to believe that a huge number of multiples would solve any rift.
Dublin and I were in talks with the Colorado Princess about possibly getting another contingent of she-wolves sent to Scotland.
