Filed To Story: Their Bullied and Broken Mate by Teri Petry
It has once again been years. So much has happened since I last wrote on your pages. Our family has grown. We have lost a few along the way, but they are always with us. My girls will be 18 soon, and I think I am more excited about meeting their wolves than they are. They are too worried about finding their mates. Their father’s and brother’s, however, are not thrilled about that. Liam seems to think that the girls’ mates are going to have their hands full. Adelina would need a fierce man, not mean, just fierce. She is Liam through and through. She loves to train and fight. She is hardheaded and stubborn, but also has a heart of gold. She is loyal to a fault, and loves with all her heart. Alette, well, she needs a patient man. She is spontaneous and flighty. She goes where the wind takes her. Our wild child, as Liam calls her. She is much like Loki. Ready to have fun, but also prepared when seriousness is called for. Her sense of humor definitely matches Loki, and she can make you laugh until your belly hurts. She and Maddix are the closest as far as the brother and sister bond is concerned. Adelina has a soft spot for her little brother, River. Then there is our runt, Asteria. She is our quiet one. She may be quiet, but she is also the most observant. She doesn’t miss a beat. If she is in the room with you, best believe she knows everything you have done or said while there. She has a photographic memory. She is graduating with honors, and is going to attend law school in Seattle. We only agreed to let the girls attend schools close by. With their over-protective brothers and fathers, it’s lucky they were able to go away to college at all.
By now, all of our adopted kids know their story. All of them have taken the news amazingly. True to his word, Maddix didn’t let his birth parents affect him at all. It only made him more determined to be a good person, and an even better Alpha. He met his mate, Riley, at Ruby Meadows this past summer. She moved into the pack house just a couple of weeks ago. He went back and forth for months, so that she could finish her training with grandma. Eventually, grandma sent her here. She said that there wasn’t anything more she could teach Riley that wasn’t already within her. Riley is a super sweet girl, and I believe she will make a great Luna. It has been decided that they will take over just after Maddix turns 20 in January. Maddix’s wolf, Franz, is Ruby’s pup. The one shown to me by the goddess herself. When she said he was special, she was right. Maddix has chosen Grace’s sons George and Henry as his Beta and Gamma. They are the best of friends and will be a perfect fit.
Phoenix has become our pack psychologist. When he found out about Rochelle’s first mate committing suicide over their breaking bond when she died, he wanted to study everything he could about the bonds we form. He wanted to study each one and see if there was something that could be done to help people through it better. That way, things could be handled differently. I was beyond proud of the man he had become. He met his mate, Valarie, at med school in Portland. She is human, or so we thought. Turns out she is part Fae. Of course, it took meeting Grandma Gretchen and uncle Luke to point it out. She is having our first granddaughter in February. I am beyond excited, and the twins are over the moon. The only downside is, Trinity is getting married in February. That is a good thing, but the memory of seeing my grandmother passing not long after, tears my heart apart. My grandchildren would never really know her in person. Just through stories and memories from everyone else. She feels differently than we do. She said she would know them and they would know her, but in a different way. I suppose she is right, but it doesn’t make missing her presence any less painful.
River, our sweet boy. He is our scholar. He is quiet, and an avid reader. I think he had read every single book in the history section of our pack library. He spends a lot of time with Chris and a little girl he adopted right after we got River. Her name is Maisy, and it wouldn’t surprise me if her and River were mates. They are inseparable most days. He has decided that he will go to Oregon state and study in their history program once he graduates. He hopes to be a curator one day. He likes deep conversations with his dads, though most times I think he confuses Loki with what he’s talking about.
As for me and my mates, I am looking forward to our retirement. As much as I have loved being Luna of Blood Moon, I am ready for things to be just us. No pack duties in the way all the time. I want us to travel and see the world, and eat at exotic locations. I want to be able to pick up and go visit family in other packs without having to make arrangements to have Rico or someone watch the pack in our absence. Just to have a little freedom is going to feel heavenly. I know eventually the excitement will go away, and my mates will help Maddix whenever he needs it, but things will be a lot easier for us. As soon as the boys took over, Rico, Grace, my mates and I had already decided to go on a cruise in Alaska, and then a trip to Greece. So, to say things are changing and moving forward, is also saying that there are also new beginnings happening for us. I am looking forward to our future and seeing our children pave a new path for their generation. The only way from here is up and I, for one, am ready for the ride.
Until we meet again, dear diary. I can’t promise it will be in the near future, but as long as life keeps us on our exciting journey, I’m sure I will have plenty to tell you when we do meet again.
Love,
Melian
Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
Journal Entry 21st of May
Everything comes to an end. This just happened to be the end of our journey, and the beginning of Maddix and Riley’s. I know they will do a wonderful job protecting the pack, their family and each other. Maddix was born for this, and I, for one, am happy to see it come full circle. In the past 20 years, we have faced so much adversity.
We watched Melian come to Blood Moon bloody and broken. We weren’t even sure if she would live out the night the day she arrived. She fought tooth and nail to stay with us, and grew into an extremely strong, powerful and loving woman. She was not only a fierce mate, but also a fierce mother. I think if we could have taken on 30 kids, she would have. However, six was plenty. My brother and I have grown stronger because of the strength she invokes in us. She brings out the best in everyone and, the last few months, watching her work with Riley, I have no doubt that she is now satisfied with leaving her legacy in Riley’s hands. That is what it has come to. Her legacy. There has never been another Luna that we know of, rising from such tragedy and abuse to be one of the strongest Lunas to exist. She may be known as the broken Luna to everyone else, but to us, she is our queen. Our world and our children’s universe.
When the time comes, and someone sits to teach the children of Blood Moon’s future about our history. I hope they make sure to tell her story exactly how it was, not something adjusted to make people comfortable. It was the bad and ugly that made her life good and beautiful. As far as Loki and I, I just hope they include us in the beautiful world she created for us all. I hope they teach the stories of how she raised 6 beautiful children, and each of them unique in their own way. I hope the generations of Alphas that come from our lineage tell the pack stories of their mother, grandmother, great-grandmother Melian Carter Young, and how she inspired everyone to have a good heart, but to not take shit from anyone in the meantime.
As I sit and think of the direction my children are going, I am filled with pride. My girls are identical in looks only and are definitely their own unique person. They will go on to do great things in their lives. Of this I am certain. Adelina is fierce just like her mother, and a talented fighter like Loki. Asteria is our scholar. Patient and Kind. She will teach the world to be the same. Patience is a virtue most need taught. Alette is our wild child. Such a lust for life. Her gift to the world is to live life as it comes. Don’t be fearful to reach out and take every chance to be happy. Phoenix is an amazing doctor now. He is a general practioner at the moment, but his goal is to learn and treat as much as he can about mental illness. When he learned about losing the man who he once knew as his father in an act of suicide, it really changed him. He has studied endlessly about the effects of a broken mate bond, in any capacity, and why it causes people to do what they do because of it. I have no doubts he will find the answers we all need. River, he is so fascinated by our history, that he plans on taking over our curator and librarian position. Chris is ready to retire, and has taught River so much. No matter where life takes our kids, success will be the end goal. A goal they will achieve. Then there is Maddix. Once he found out about his birth parents, his overwhelming need to protect others kicked in. He had already been protective of his siblings, but something clicked in him back then, and now he is protective over everyone he comes in contact with. This is the main reason I felt confident and comfortable making him our heir.
Like I said, it’s only our journey, Melian and the Alpha twins, that has come to an end. The new rising of the next generation has begun. Alpha Maddix Young and Luna Riley Young have been sworn in, and a new chapter in the Young family journey has started. All Hail Alpha Maddix! Protector of us all. I am sure our son will face trials and tribulations, and I am also sure that he will face them with the fierceness as his mother did. I have complete faith in him. I am excited to see where his decisions and his mate’s guidance takes them both.
As I close this entry, I leave you with just one more thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” I truly believe that. I hope Maddix remembers that. I hope he isn’t consumed by life itself, but the life he chooses to live and lead.
-Liam Young, former Blood Moon Alpha
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.