My birthday was in June. My mom made this necklace for me for my sixteenth birthday and I haven’t taken it off since. She kept the tradition going from when her parents gave her hers, on her sixteenth birthday, in May.
“What are you doing?” Beck’s voice jolted me back.
“This is my mother’s.” I whispered softly as I unclipped the necklaces around Aurora’s neck and dropped the rest into her lap.
“How can you be so sure?” Ronnie came over and froze. “You are right. That necklace is your mother’s.”
“How do you know?” Beck came over and looked at the necklace in my hand. “Just because they both match doesn’t mean it’s your mother’s.”
“That necklace never left Ainsley’s neck.” Ronnie grabbed it from my hand and flipped it over. “Until the day your father took it from her.”
“My dad took it?” I looked from the necklace to his face.
“Right before their anniversary. He wanted to engrave it, but then he came back and you know what happened. He kept it and added it to the engraving.” Ronnie flipped it over and handed the necklace back to me.
“I love you to the moon and back in this life and the rest. Forgive me.” I looked up and I knew my face was confused.
“That’s what they used to say to each other. ‘I love you to the moon and back’. They thought it was funny because they are wolves.” Ronnie shook his head. “They thought they were hilarious. Stupid. But when your dad lived his second life and came back, he knew he would love your mother in all of his lives. So he added the last part. And he thought once he explained everything, he would beg her for her forgiveness. But…” Ronnie looked back down at the necklace.
“But he never went back.” I finished, and Ronnie nodded. “How did Aurora get this necklace?”
“I honestly don’t know. Your dad left it in her office. He would stare at it for hours as he sat at that desk, breathing in her scent. He always ended up there after one of the nights your mother…”
“Right.” I felt my eyes fill. “This is a mess.” Ronnie and Beck nodded. “This is going to break him.”
“What do you mean?” Ronnie handed me back the necklace, and I clenched my fist around it.
“If this is the-” I darted my eyes to Beck.
“He knows your dad has power, too. We all grew up together.” Beck nodded.
“If this is the spell, I think it is. I have to destroy this necklace to release him from it.”
“Oh, shit.” Ronnie and Beck mumbled at the same time. I let out a small laugh and then turned back to Aurora. I wrapped my hand around her finger and bent it up and applied a slow pressure until she woke, screaming.
“My nail. You stupid bitch, my nail!” I smiled as I dropped the necklace from my hand to swing in front of her face and I watched as she paled. “Give that back. That’s mine.”
“I think we both know that’s a lie, Aurora.”
“Give it back.” She screamed and leaned in trying to bite me since her hands were tied. But I just pulled my hand back.
“Why would I do that?” I flipped it around in my hand. “It’s beautiful, honestly. Where did you get it?”
“I got it from my mom.”
“Really? Why was she sorry?”
“What?” Aurora looked confused and shook her head. “She wasn’t. She got it for my birthday this year. Give it back.”
“When is your birthday?”
“What?” Aurora shook her head. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“Her birthday is December.” Beck answered me and I tilted my head. “I’m a Gamma. My primary job is to protect the Luna, and since we don’t have one, I keep track of the wolves trying to become the Luna. That includes their birthdays.”
“Why?” Ronnie looked back at Beck and he shrugged.
“I want to be a few steps ahead with the next Luna.”
