Damian.
The moment I walked into the room and saw Ivy awake, I was blown away. I didn’t think it would ever be possible, and I had slowly started to lose hope, but the moment I heard her voice through my mind, I knew it couldn’t be real.
How many times had I actually contemplated hearing her?
More than I can count, that’s for sure.
For a moment I thought I was losing my mind, but when Talon and Hale took off running up the stairs, I knew it must have been real and the possibility had made my heart soar.
I thanked the gods for bringing her back to me, but I just prayed it would be forever this time. I couldn’t survive losing her again.
A few days had passed since then, and with every moment she was awake, I slowly found myself going better and better. I didn’t feel hollow and empty anymore. I didn’t feel like I was the reason she was gone.
Instead, we spent every moment together as if nothing had ever happened.
As if the war and everything else had only been a dream.
Sitting in the living room with Ivy and the twins, I watched her sit on the floor as the twins handed her various toys. I had waited so long to see this, and now that I could, I wanted to hold the memory forever.
The twins had their mother’s back, and from the looks in their eyes, they were happy.
She was the love of my life, and I hated it took me so long to realize. But now she was back, and I was going to make sure I showed her just how much she meant to me. Just how much she meant to this family.
There was no way in hell I was ever walking away from her again. I would never keep a secret from her again. Those days were long over.
I’d learned my lesson just as my brothers had learned theirs.
“How are you feeling today?” Hale said to Ivy as he stepped into the living room.
“I’m feeling better than I was before. My strength is almost back completely, but I will admit it will take some time before I run laps around you guys.”
Her comment caused both Hale and I to laugh. The twins glanced up at the two of us with curiosity before slowly going back to their toys. “They’re happy that you’re home.”
She glanced at me for a moment before looking back at the twins; her smile brightening knowing what I said was true. “I’m happy that I’m home as well. I have already missed out so much.”
“We have plenty of time to make new memories,” Hale replied, causing her smile to fall slightly as she nodded her head.
“I know, but still, I missed out on so much already. Some of those memories are ones that I should have been part of that I will never get back.”
I knew full well what she was referring to. She’d missed the first time the twins had crawled, eating solid foods, those very first steps that they took. She wanted those memories but would never have because of what had happened.
Regardless, though, she didn’t hold a grudge because of it. She accepted what was and moved forward with what would be. Ivy was by far one of the strongest women I have ever met in my entire life, and I was lucky to call her mine.
“I was thinking maybe today we can take the children outside, take them to the play in the park. They’ve been going there and playing with the other children for the past few months.”
As Ivy stared at the children for a few more minutes, her eyes connected with mine again, and she slowly nodded her head. The pack knew she was awake again. They knew the moment she awoke, how strong the bond with her had grown.
The problem was we had kept everybody at bay for the time being, wanting to make sure she was ready to see everyone before they tried to force themselves upon her, eager to win her favor once again.
“I would really like that. It’s been a while since I’ve seen everyone. Of course, I was pregnant at the time, but if the children have been going there, then I want that to continue. It’s about them, not me,” she replied cheerfully.
“That’s settled then. I’ll go ahead and tell James to pack their bags and we can head out here in just a bit.” Standing to my feet, I moved from the room to give Ivy time alone and drug Hale with me, who looked confused why I made him follow.
“What?” he asked as soon as we were out of the room.
“Because she deserves time alone with them. Instead of one of us always hovering.”
Nodding his head, he sighed as he followed me to find James. I was excited about the prospect of being able to show her off to the pack again, being able to get her outdoors out into the fresh air with the children, and for her to see the progress we’ve made over the past year within the pack.
One of the things I, myself, took head on was an idea she had given when she first came here. The night we had dinner with her father and Allison.
She wanted us to create a library for the children, a place where they can study, where pack kids could be tutored and get them excited about learning, but to also get them excited about who they are.
Surprisingly enough, we never had a library in our pack, which I had never really considered being an issue until I started researching what other packs did and noticed a library was actually very common within packs.
Which, of course, made me feel like a complete idiot.
Ivy was going to be excited. I knew she would.
The new building finished only just over a month ago and was filled with so many unique books. Not to mention we had requested books from the citadel and they had been more than happy to give them to us to educate younger pack members.
There was no fight anymore with the council as they had replaced their entire staff at a majority rule of the packs, so with the new council instilled, changes could be made. However, it didn’t stop us from worrying to an extent.
There were still rogue players around we had to be careful about.
Ones that weren’t happy with the changes we made, and the damage we caused.
The moment I had told James Ivy wanted to go out towards the play group with the children, there was a burst of excitement across his face as he started rambling on about packing a picnic and making sure we took the blanket, making sure Ivy had enough water, making sure the twins had their snacks.
It was literally one thing after another as Hale and I stood stunned by the way James was acting. “Dude, calm down,” Hale laughed.
“Hale’s right. You’re acting crazy right now.”
It didn’t matter what we said, he just kept mumbling as he went around taking care of things. I wasn’t sure what his damn issue was, but it was probably best we stayed out of his way.
By the time we actually left the house and made our way towards the park, Ivy was laughing hysterically as she watched James and Talon try to carry the items James packed while managing one twin. Talon had Castor, who smiled happily, but Pollux was a handful and that boy didn’t want to be held.
“Is it always like this?” Ivy asked, looking up at me with a smile.
“Not exactly. James went way overboard today compared to how we normally go to the park. I’m sure that’s just because he is trying to impress you.”
“Go fuck yourself, Damian,” James snapped, having heard what I said. “One can never be too prepared.”
His comment caused a commotion of laughter to spill from us as we approached the usual shade tree the twins loved to sit under. The low-hanging branches would one day be a place I had no doubt the twins would climb, and as James sat everything down, he left Talon and Hale in charge of the twins.
They were excited and unwilling to listen to anything being said.
Then again, they were the only one so who could blame them.
“Pollux, no!” Hale shouted as Pollux tried to scamper off near the swings, almost getting taken out completely by another kid who couldn’t stop if they tried. Hale reaching Pollux just in time to snatch him out of the way, but to end up getting kicked in the back by the little kid who looked as if he wanted to cry.
“Oh, poor guy. It wasn’t his fault,” Ivy said softly. “Hale, leave that baby alone. He didn’t mean too.”
Hale turned to look at Ivy in disbelief, but she narrowed her eyes and shook her head instead. “It’s okay, sweetie. Don’t let that big bad Alpha worry you. Go play with your friends.”
The way she took charge and made that little boy feel better as he wiped his tears away was amazing. It was another Luna quality about her I loved.
“Good job,” I said, smiling sweetly at her as I pulled her towards me on the blanket.
“Well, it wasn’t the kid’s fault. Hale should have been watching Pollux better.”
“Pollux is fast,” I chimed in laughing, to which she hesitated and gave me a confused face.
“Yeah, how is that? They are one… they shouldn’t be moving like that so quickly.”
Shrugging my shoulders, I looked to James and Talon, who held Castor. We had wondered the same thing ourselves many times, but we didn’t have the answers. Even Priscilla didn’t and just chalked it up to their good genes.
“Who knows? Every kid grows at their own pace, Ivy.”
Nodding her head, she sighed with a content smile. “I suppose… oh, I was going to ask… what’s this festival I keep hearing about? I want details.”
James’ smile grew as he went into a rant about the festival and all the party details he had, even down to the damn bonfire I was completely against. Ivy seemed intrigued though, and even threw in a few suggestions of things to do with the younger kids.
“I say we celebrate the festival, and our family. We can do something big. Maybe have Kate and my mom fly in?”
“If that’s what you want, then you will have it,” Talon replied quickly, stealing the words straight from my mouth.
It wasn’t going to be exactly easy sharing her between us all, but the more and more we spent time together, the easier it became. I just hoped it would last this way forever.
There was no telling what would happen when I told her about Kara’s visit.
I just wanted to wait a bit for her to recover completely before telling her everything, because I had a feeling she would not take it very well.
