Page 51 of The Warrior's Captive
Epilogue
Castor
Six Months Later
He’d make a bad diplomat, but one thing he didn’t make? A bad dad.
He adored Sadie Elena Lilac Phaethon. Named for his mother and her maternal grandmother, she’d made her way into the world screaming and red-faced after a long, painful labor. Part of the warrior way of life was to walk through whatever pain you were handed without so much as flinching. He’d been able to do that, bear any strikes against his body. Broken bones, fire, bullets, torture—they were all nothing. They left scars, but he’d endured them, and he’d endured them in silence. Watching Briar May enduring excruciating pain to bring their daughter into the world? Every one of those hours had nearly been his breaking point.
All those long months of Briar May’s pregnancy, months where the peace between their packs had been painstakingly arranged with far more tact and gentleness then he ever could have managed, he’d worried that he’d be a terrible parent by merit of, well, his whole life.
Briar May just kept telling him that doubts and worries were normal. Every person had them before they were parents and long after too.
And then his daughter was born, and she was beautiful and healthy and not a difficult child in the slightest. He absolutely adored her and knew he’d do anything and give up anything for her.
The cabin was filled with friends and family and voices buzzed beneath them, but it was only the four of them upstairs. Briar May and Prairie Rose in the room beside the one he’d taken up with Sadie. There was a sort of unspoken need for the women to be alone for a short time right before their mating ceremony, that the rest of the family respected.
Shifter mating ceremonies weren’t like human weddings. There was no white dress, no veils, no long-winded vows that may or may not be kept, no silly traditions about not seeing each other before the wedding.
Castor was honored to be in the big cabin, along with just about all of Briar May’s family. He held his three-week-old daughter, sleeping soundly because her mom had swaddled her just right in a soft muslin baby blanket the color of sage. She smelled clean and fresh, and her warmth poured into him. She was small for her age—unlike humans, shifter pregnancies were shorter, and their young were born small. But they grew rapidly in those first few weeks and by two months she’d be the size of a regular two-month-old. As soon as she’d fallen asleep downstairs, he’d come up searching for a quiet room. Sadie wasn’t a great sleeper, and it was a bit of a marvel that she’d gone quiet for half an hour so far. He could hear Briar May and her sister talking in the room next door. He felt bad for listening in—but given how the sound traveled, he had little choice.
“Are you sure about this, Prairie Rose? You can still change your mind,” Briar May asked her sister.
“Agnar and the men who came with him are already in Sheridan. Kieran and Dad have been working on this peace for almost half a year. Today, we’re going to make blood oaths that will keep our packs in peace with each other forever. I’m not afraid to have him for my mate.”
“Brooke Wind is going to come sit with the twins and Sadie. I just hope Sadie doesn’t scream her ears off for hours. I’ve pumped and left everything she could need, but—”
“She’ll be a strong female, just like her mom.”
“I’m not the strong one. You are.”
“At least where I’m going, winter isn’t like this,” Prairie Rose responded, clearly trying to downplay her sister’s fears like she’d been trying to assuage everyone’s worries for months. The more he’d gotten to know her, the more he thought she would be a good mate for his alpha. She was strong and wise, but she also had a softer side that his pack so desperately needed.
“I can’t remember one being so bad. It’s not just frigid out there, the snow is crazy. It’ll be lucky if Brooke can even get here.”
“Dad went for her an hour ago. They should have been here by now, but they wanted to leave lots of time.”
“Maybe we’ll all get lucky and Agnar and his men won’t make it.”
The sigh Prairie Rose made could be heard clear through the wall. “The ceremony is going ahead, this is what I want. They’ll come, even if they have to run all the way here. Speaking of runs, you have to be so excited. I can’t remember a mating ceremony where we did a group hunt.”
“It’s just going to be Mom and Dad and Kieran and Zora besides us and our mates. It’s needed. And yes, I’m excited. I haven’t been able to shift for so long, and then when I tried to let the wolf out, it was like she was so pissed at me for holding her back for so long, she wouldn’t participate. I did shift a few times last week and Castor and I went for good runs through the snow. He’s learning our woods. He likes to pretend that he doesn’t know anything about our lands, but I know he spent more time watching us before we ever met than he’d like to admit.”
“You mean spying and tracking.”
That brought a reluctant smile to Castor’s face. He kept Sadie balanced in his arms just right, not daring to move one single muscle unless he woke her. She was exceptionally particular about not being jostled or she’d wake up and howl out her disappointment.
It hadn’t been as hard as he’d thought it would be to open up to Briar May. It was a slow process, but she was patient. Every day was different for them than the last. It was so strange being in a pack where no one was being sent out on raids, no one was killing and justifying that killing, no one was seeking justice or vengeance. It was strange how everyone pitched in and banded together, not because they were afraid of being dishonored or called out and put to a slow and painful punishment or death by their own kind, but because they truly loved each other and cared about making a good life together.
He’d thought that there wasn’t a place on earth where people planted, gardened, and harvested together, and that could also stand as a metaphor.
Briar May had been so horrified when he’d finally confessed that after returning home from his time in the military, his own father immediately put his skills to use. It was often him bringing the contracts to him. Half of them were personal to the pack, but the other half of those kills had been random work. He’d turned his own son into a sort of mercenary and put him out for the highest bid. Most of the money had gone to the pack to ensure their survival, or at least so his father said. That had been one of the reasons his twin had left to join the Rangers, it wasn’t so much that he was against the killing, but he wanted to live and kill on his own terms. That was one of the things that Briar May had difficulty understanding, that despite his brother leaving the pack, his father still wanted revenge for his death. But betrayal was one thing, blood was another and family honor had demanded retribution.
In Wyoming, he didn’t have to kill anyone. As part of the Nightfall Pack, he and Briar May had their needs met. He woke up in the morning to find a new path of peace and healing, knowing that unless the world shifted horribly, he was never going to be put on that path of bloodshed again. He hadn’t realized how chained his soul and his wolf were until he’d met Briar May. He ran free now, in more ways than just through the woods, though there was nothing like that. Not even the red desert soils of Arizona could compare.
“I heard he lives in a cave. Is that true?” Briar May’s voice cut through his reverie.
Prairie Rose snorted at the question. She must have pinched her sister because Briar May cried out. “Hey!”
