No Laughing Matter.

Epilogue

Two months. That's how long it has been since my mating ceremony, since that magical night that my mate and I said our vows and gave each other our promises of forever. Two months since our animals went into the forest and became one under the full moon. Two months since the goddess blessed us with her approval.

It felt like both nothing and everything had changed in such a short time. I had officially been in this pack for nearly a year and now I was helping to lead it to a better future. Everyday I had pack members coming up to me asking my opinion on things they deemed important but not important enough to bother the alpha. I took it all in stride; they were my people, my family now. I would do whatever in my power to help them.

My kids were now seen as alpha children and treated as such. Of course they did not completely understand how they were different from the other children or why they had to have more responsibilities than their peers but one day one of them would know and possibly lead the pack as well. My bet was on Aria. She had the most alpha qualities of all my children, she was headstrong and brave but also kind and inclusive. She would never let someone feel left out and if there was bullying she put a stop to it. I have been with them for over a year now, closer to two. That felt like a lifetime ago. The hunting, the fight for survival. I was forever indebted to that lion pride for sending us here and helping me find my mate.

The lion pride I owed my life. Not only had they literally saved us from starvation and certain death, since I had no idea what I was doing. They also brought me great happiness and a better life than I could ever give my kids. I was happy and in love, my kids were happy and had more friends than ever before. I was grateful I could give them this life and that was because of the lion pride and the magic user. They led me straight to my mate, I may never have met him otherwise and I loved him with every fibre of my being.

The kids were hanging out in their room they had been staying in for two months, they all loved it now even Atticus my little shadow it had taken some time but he had warmed up to the idea thankfully. It was nice to sleep in a room with just my alpha but some nights I would have to go stay in the other room if a child had a nightmare or if Atticus was having one of his special nights where he needed one of us around. He was such a small skittish thing, he was not growing at the rate of his siblings. He was still growing just slower. We didn't treat him any differently but sometimes it was hard with how much smaller he was. Aria and Atticus were nearly 4 now and Zar was definitely past 6 now. I would have to work out their birthdays and throw them a party soon. With everything that had been going on since we came here it hadn't crossed my mind and that made me feel like a very bad parent. I would have to talk to Thatch about this asap.

I was sitting in my mates office, attempting to read a book to not be bored out of mind whilst he finished up all the paperwork he needed to get done for treaties and such. There had been a change of leadership in the nearby pack and the alphas son had taken over so the treaties needed to be revised and resigned. Luckily the new alpha Lucas was one of Thatcher's alpha friends and so there was no problem happening with the resigning.

"Are you bored, my love?" Thatcher's deep voice came from behind his large wooden desk, his big dark eyes staring at me as I stared at him over the top of the romance book I was reading.

"Not bored really, just thinking about how different my life is now to two years ago." I looked down knowing that sometimes bringing up the past upset both of us with all the struggles I and the kids had gone through just to get to where we were today. One such struggle was Epiales. He had been radio silent since taking off in the middle of the night over two months ago. We had tried to reach out to other packs to see if they had seen the mysterious man but no one seemed to know who we were talking about. It was almost like he just disappeared into the night. Thatcher didn't care in the slightest he never came back but I was a little hurt he was my friend.