Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
Fiona gasped softly. Her jaw shook as his words echoed in her mind.
Galen stepped toward her, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her into a hug.
“I am your family,” he whispered. “You still have me, and Bell, and Ren. We are your family.”
Fiona didn’t bother trying to stop the tears that streamed from her eyes. She hugged him close and nodded as she let out soft sobs.
“I love you, Mom,” Galen whispered as he kissed her head.
“I love you too, son,” she said between sobs.
Galen thought of his parents, the smile his father always wore, and the snowflakes his mother had cut from white paper. He had spent years trying to keep a distance between himself and Fiona, always afraid that accepting her familial affection was somehow an affront to his parents.
But as he thought about them now. He thought of all the years he had shared with Cain, Fiona, and Alexander.
He realized how happy his parents would have been to know how loved he had been.
Galen closed his eyes, thinking of Alexander.
‘I promise, Brother. I will take care of our mom. Always.’
As soon as they had stepped out into the garden, Selene had pulled away from Corrine.
“I can’t,” she whispered as she hurried behind a large pillar.
Her heartbeat had grown louder in her ears with each step they had taken, her lungs felt like they had shrunk, and her chest ached.
Corrine followed her, looking around to make sure no one saw them. She looked carefully at Selene.
She could see clearly that Selene was on the verge of breaking down and running.
“Selene,” she whispered. “I understand, and you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”
Selene swallowed and looked at Corrine.
“I don’t?” she whispered.
Corrine shook her head.
“Everyone would understand if you didn’t,” she said gently.
Selene felt her panic begin to ease. She licked her lips and glanced back around the corner. The gathering of people was massive. In the distance, she could see the pyre and a small stage. Her heart began to race again, and she turned back, closing her eyes.
“I want to go,” she said. “I don’t want to be here.”
Corrine reached out and took Selene’s hands.
“If that is what you want,” she said, “I will take you back to my room.”
Selene took a deep breath and nodded.
“Yes,” she whispered, keeping her eyes closed. “Please.”
Corrine gave her hands a gentle squeeze.
“I understand,” she said. “But, before we go, I want you to think for just a moment… it will be difficult to stay, but are you sure you won’t regret leaving?”
Selene opened her eyes.
She had felt relieved when Corrine had given her the option to leave, but now, the panic was edging in again. She didn’t want to stay. She didn’t want to hear the words they would say or see the tears they would shed. She couldn’t stand by as they proclaimed that Alexander was dead. As they decided he would never return.
But could she really just leave?
Selene clenched her jaw. She leaned her head against the pillar and bit down on her bottom lip as she felt the unbearable heat in her chest and the burn of her eyes as the tears returned.
“Do you want to go?” Corrine asked softly.
Selene took a deep breath through her nose and closed her eyes. She shook her head hesitantly.
“Okay,” Corrine replied with a nod. She moved her hands to Selene’s arms, rubbing them gently. “We’ll stay. But just because we are here doesn’t mean you must talk to anyone.”
Selene looked at her mother. She smiled and nodded.
After giving Selene a few minutes to gather herself, Corrine led her carefully around the back of the crowd. A few people saw them, but they seemed to understand that they wanted to be alone.
Eventually, they found a spot to witness the vigil from a small balcony above the crowd. Someone would have to go out of their way to look up at them to know they were there.
After a short time, Corrine excused herself promising to return once she had paid her respects and let Axel know they had arrived. Selene hesitated to be left alone but didn’t stop her mother from going.
Not long after Corrine left, Selene caught movement on the stage. She swallowed as she watched Galen and Fiona step up in front of the crowd.
She felt a heaviness settling over her body as Fiona called the crowd’s attention. She welcomed them and thanked them for coming.
It was really happening.
Selene grabbed hold of the railing before her. Her legs felt shaky as she listened to Fiona speak.
“It is our custom, our tradition, to light the pyre and let it burn through the night. Into the morning or even the day, however long it lasts. We do not quench the flames, nor do we abandon them.”
Fiona paused. She took a breath and lifted her eyes over the crowd. Somehow, they found their way up to Selene.
“This is how we honor the one we have lost.”
The words were like a blow to Selene’s chest. She let out an uneven breath as her lungs squeezed and her heart pounded in her ears. She clenched her jaw but didn’t look away.
With a mournful sigh, Fiona turned, looking at the pyre filled with pictures, letters, and objects. Each one was a gift to or from Alexander. A memory, a piece of him that touched someone else’s life.
“We burn the body and relics of the life they lived to guide them to the Goddess’s open arms. To light the path and send along the memories and warmth they have shared with us.”
Fiona swallowed, her fingers gently touching the item she held tightly. It was a photograph. One of the few that existed of the four of them together.
Cain was always so busy. And cheerful and playful as he was, he always avoided having his picture taken. He had told her long ago that he preferred to be behind the camera, capturing her experience and reliving the moment in her eyes.
‘But isn’t it easier to remember what you were feeling if you can see your own expressions?’ she had asked.
Cain smiled at her, leaning in close.
‘There is a reason that all of my pictures are of you,’ he whispered. ‘Your joy, your excitement… that is what I want to remember. That is the memory that I hold on to.’
His voice in her memory still warmed her heart.
While he was alive, Fiona had found this sentimental affection endearing. But when he left this world, that lovely quality had become a source of pain as she was left with so few pictures of him to look back on.
The image she held in her hand was a copy. She couldn’t bear to part with the original.
The picture itself was a rare occurrence, but it was unique in another way. It had been taken just before Alexander left for his time in the human world.
Not only was it one of the last pictures of all of them together, but it was also the last time Alexander had been willing to celebrate his birthday.
She glanced down at their smiling faces gathered around a small cake. The edges of her mouth curled upward in a slight smile.
Eight years to the day.
“He would be twenty-six years old today,” Fiona said.
Selene’s eyes widened on the balcony, and her heart sank at the realization that today was Alexander’s birthday.
‘Maybe, next year, we can celebrate together.’
Selene covered her mouth and closed her eyes as her composure fell at the memory of his words. She fought hard to stay quiet, to keep her sobs as silent as she could.
That was the promise. They would celebrate this year. This birthday. But instead, she was attending his vigil.
A warm hand touched Fiona’s shoulder. She didn’t have to look to know that it was Galen. She smiled and swallowed, taking another breath.
“I’m all right,” she said.
She lifted her head and looked out at the crowd. Again, she smiled.
“Forgive me,” she said softly. “I lost myself for a moment.”
Throughout the crowd, tear-stained faces looked at her with understanding. They nodded and gave her reassuring smiles.
She looked up at the balcony, but it appeared to her as though Selene was gone.
Fiona cleared her throat and continued where she had left off.
“We burn the relics as a symbol of our undying love for the one we lost… so that he may receive that warmth, while we who remain can hold on to the memory it came from,” she began, moving toward the pyre. “In this way, we hope our loved one will know we are with him until the bitter end.”
She carefully placed the picture within the crossed beams of the pyre.
“So, he knows that though this life has ended, a part of him remains in this world forever. Each person whose life he touched will hold on to that piece of him.”
Fiona brought two fingers to her lips. She kissed them and then touched those fingers to the picture.
“We honor him through our memories,” she said. “And through the flames of this pyre, we gift him those memories as a final comfort on his journey.”
With one last glance at the happy memory, Fiona swallowed and returned to the crowd.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?