Chapter 558

Nina

The warm summer breeze caressed my face, gently tousling loose strands of hair, but I felt utterly numb to its soft touch. My gaze remained fixated on the freshly upturned earth in front of me, the simple granite headstone bearing my father’s name and legacy in stark, uncompromising letters.

Here lies Aldric, the third of his name. Alpha King. Beloved to all.

The words seemed to mock me, like a hollow tribute to a man who meant so much—not just to me, but to my mother, my brother, Enzo, the entire realm. Almost two centuries of watching over the werewolf realm, and now it was gone. Now the Alpha King was buried beside my sister and my mother. And together the three of them laid silently.

I had failed him. Failed to protect him when our family needed me most, when his life was in peril. Perhaps if I had been swifter to action, none of this would have happened. Perhaps...

The endless stream of what-ifs echoed mercilessly in my mind, a relentless torrent of hatred and bitterness. Even now, although she had impaled herself on the rocks, I swore I could hear Mila’s voice in my mind. Her laughter. Jeering, taunting, utterly mad.

My fingernails dug savagely into my palms until I could feel warm, wet blood seep through the skin. The physical pain was a welcome distraction from the angry emptiness clawing its way through my chest, leaving every breath feeling like shards of ice piercing my lungs.

“Nina.”

The sound of my mother’s voice sounded far away at first, drowned out by the roaring static filling my ears. It wasn’t until the gentle weight of a reassuring hand came to rest on my shoulder that I managed to drag my gaze upward from my father’s grave.

My adoptive mother’s eyes, reddened from her own tears, studied me with a heartbreaking combination of compassion and shared misery. In that moment, I was struck by just how old she looked—how deeply the years had etched themselves into the delicate lines framing her mouth and eyes.

Before I could fully process her presence, the dam inside me suddenly burst. A ragged sob tore free from my constricted throat as I crumpled forward, burying my face in the soft cloth of her shirt. Her slender arms instantly folded around me, holding me upright as I shuddered with the force of my gasping cries.

“It’s all my fault,” I choked out between ragged breaths, clutching at the fabric of her shirt as if it were the only thing tethering me to this world. “If I had been stronger, fought harder, none of this would have happened—”

“Nina, don’t say that,” she murmured, her voice thick with her own tears as her fingers stroked through my tousled hair. “None of this was your fault. You were a victim, too.”

I swallowed at her words. “It was my idea to go charging in there. And I failed, I let her fly away, I let things get out of control. I caused an entire village to burn, I caused people to die, and my dad…”

My voice trailed off after that. No words would come, the only sound that of the sobs wracking my shoulders.

We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, holding each other as we cried. My mother cried silently, but I could feel her shoulders shake; she had lost her love. Again. We had both lost a man who had been in our lives for far too short of a time.

My sobs eventually subsided into quiet hiccups, but the emptiness in my chest remained. I felt as if I had been hollowed out—like someone had reached into my chest and scooped my heart out into their palm. They had buried it there, with my family.

Finally, after what felt like hours, I drew a shuddering breath and pulled back just enough to meet my mother’s haunted gaze. A lifetime’s worth of unvoiced dread and responsibility hung unspoken between us in that loaded silence.

“How can I do this?” The words slipped out before I could rein them in, and I swallowed, licking my lips. “Take over his—our kingdom when I barely know the laws, the history, any of it? I’m just… I’m not ready. I wasn’t meant for this.”

My mother’s features softened as she regarded me, cupping my tear-stained cheek with her palm. “Nina, you were meant for this,” she said softly, stroking a strand of hair out of my eyes. “Your father chose you as his heir because he saw that spark, that unwavering strength in you that your people will need to guide them forward.”

I opened my mouth to protest further, but her gentle fingers found my lips, hushing me.

“What did he say to you, in those final moments?” she prompted. She already knew the answer—I had already told her when he had died nearly a week ago—but perhaps she wanted me to say it again. Maybe she wanted to hear his final words one last time.

“He wanted me to heal our family’s wounds,” I whispered, recalling his final words with piercing clarity. “And… to guide our people into an era of peace. Whatever that means.”

My mother nodded solemnly. “Do you intend not to fulfill his last request?”

I swallowed again, staring at the ground for a few moments before I shook my head. “No. I know I need to do it, that’s my purpose, but…”

“Then you have to. You simply have to. There is no time to wait, no time to learn.”

“Why can’t you do it instead?” I blurted out. “You would make an amazing Luna. You—”

“No.” For a moment, my mother’s expression became inscrutable. But then, slowly, she shook her head. “You know I can’t. I’m not a werewolf. No one would ever accept a human Luna, and besides… I’m too old, anyway.”

“Dad was almost two hundred years old,” I retorted with a small snort.

My mother chuckled. “That Alpha bloodline is impressive, isn’t it?” she asked. “But I don’t possess that long life that you have. And at this point in my life, I’m ready to retire—to watch you and Tyler fulfill your own destinies.”

She was right. I knew that she was right. But it didn’t make it any easier.

I strained hard against the lump that had formed in my throat as my gaze drifted back toward my father’s grave. It was so warm out—the perfect summer day, really—but I felt so cold. When they had dug up the soil to bury his casket, it was as if they had pulled all of the cold of winter out of the earth and left it on the surface, where it didn’t belong.

But as I looked at his grave, and at my sister’s, and my biological mother’s, I knew that this was my burden to bear alone. The crushing weight of leadership, of responsibility for an entire realm’s welfare—it all rested squarely on my shoulders now.

At least I had Enzo, my family, and the Peacekeepers by my side.

Drawing myself up to my full height, I lifted my chin with as much regal poise as I could muster, placing my hand over my swollen belly.

“You’re right,” I said, even though my voice shook. “I have to do this. Just promise to stay by my side.”

My mother nodded and gripped my hand. “Always, Nina.”

As I turned to regard the trio of gravestones one last time, I felt a newfound sense of resolve taking root in my chest. It was small, but it was there. Maybe, with time, I would settle into this new destiny of mine.

It was as I was looking at the graves, however, that I caught movement in the corner of my eye. I looked up to see a familiar, tall, muscular figure walking briskly toward us, his curly brown hair bristling in the wind and the afternoon sun turning his deep brown eyes into pools of honey.

Enzo.

He paused a few paces away, silently, clearly not wanting to disrupt our moment. But when I saw a piece of paper clenched in his hand, I knew that there was no delaying the inevitable.