Forever in the Past and Forever in the Future

The next day, Bronx decides he wants to go downstairs for dinner.

“Are you sure, Sweetheart? The doctor said you need to take it easy for another few days,” | ask as he is putting on a button- down shirt.

“Yeah Baby.I have some apologizing to do. No.I have a lot of apologizing to do. To everyone. I'm not going to hide up here in my apartment.I have to face the music,” he says resolutely. He puts on a dark blue eye patch to match his clothes and looks himself over in the mirror. He looks handsome with his inky black hair slicked back and olive toned face freshly shaven.

As we walk into the dining room a hush falls over the crowd.I give Bronx's hand a reassuring squeeze and he leads us to the front of the room. He stands in front of our table and faces the dining room.

He looks out over our pack, takes a deep breath, and eats crow. He fully admits that he got carried away with trying to protect me and he was wrong. He assures everyone that things will be different moving forward and that I will be more involved in pack related decisions moving forward. Then he apologizes to everyone for commanding them to treat me poorly. He publicly asks everyone to go back to loving and respecting me the way that he knows they do. He promises to do better because that is what the pack deserves before he thanks everyone for their loyalty and sits down. There are cheers around the room and some of the children run up to hug me. I kneel down and hug each and every one of them back. It is the best feeling knowing that things are going back to normal.

ake

by planning a wedding by myself to being overwhelmed by the number of people who want to help. By the end of February, just about everything is planned. The Summer Solstice celebration will be part of our wedding. So instead of just the Blood River pack, there will be a ton of other people there, leaders from packs around the world, Elder Council members, and

Ashley helps me come up with decorations, flowers, and place settings. If she ever wanted to switch careers, she could totally be an event planner. She is so good at reminding me of all the things I

plenty of room in the field behind the packhouse. The staff says they are more than happy to make the campsites and keep them

a rockstar too. She feels so bad about having kicked me out of the kitchens that now she is bending over backwards to help me come up with the menus, specialty drinks, foods to supply guests out in the tents or suites. We take inspiration from all over the place, each meal from a different part of the world. The wedding reception will feature Beef Wellington. She and I research recipes and perfect cooking techniques at a blistering pace. Bronx doesn’t seem to mind. Probably because he gets to taste test everything. Delilah offers to help Mrs. Miller with the cake but wants to keep the details a surprise, so I knew that was going to be amazing too. The entire pack refuses to let me worry about anything. The one thing they can’t help me with is a

all his friends know and they jumped at the chance to learn from their Luna. Every week, I  teach them a new simple, healthy entree, and sometimes we add in a dessert too. | had no idea how messy cooking could be until I try to teach a bunch of men whose hands are way too big for the utensils. They may be masters of precision when it comes to blade skills in battle, but apparently chopping green peppers

and I just need to hit the little green dial button, but | can’t bring myself

asks as he pulls me down onto his lap and runs his fingers

so scared every time I try to

your phone,” he says and holds out his hand and giving me a sympathetic smile. Naively, I hand him the phone. He jumps up, hits the call button, and runs into the bedroom. When I realize what he's doing, I jump up to

me. I can only imagine

door cracks open and I see Bronx's green eye looking at me, “Baby, what color did you say you want the girls to wear?” “Olive green, why? Wait! Bronx, what are you saying to them?!” but he