Chapter 417: Proud of You
Graeme awoke in the bed in his parents’ home. He immediately felt the space next to himself where August would lay, but it was vacant. She was not here. She had just been with him, but now it was like a dream—a dream that had not lasted long enough.
"Moon," he whispered, his hand going limp in the space where she should be.
"You are awake," Maggie gasped and stood up from the chair where she had been sitting watch for days next to him.
He had been in such a deep slumber that she would have truly worried had Greta not assured her that this was not the first time it had happened. Apparently Greta was right and this was how he healed, because he appeared as good as new now.
"How do you feel?" she hurried to the bedside and clasped her hands together in front of her, unsure of whether she should hug him like she wanted to or not.
Graeme slowly turned to find the kindest, most familiar face from his childhood. She was fourth only to his parents and Greta, and she had the advantage in his eyes of not being in the role to punish him like his parents or fight with him like his sister.
"Maggie," he sighed with the relief of finally seeing her again, but it had the strange effect of making him feel like he was a pup again. There had not been a reality in which she had been around when he wasn’t merely a pup, nipping at his father’s heels.
"Maggie. I thought... I thought you were dead," he choked on the last word, sitting up in bed to make sure this wasn’t another alternative reality that he would wake up from to find it couldn’t last. If August hadn’t told him that Maggie had returned home, he would have surely believed this a dream.
"I am sorry, dear boy," she kneeled next to the bed. "What a time that must have been for you. I am truly sorry that you had to go through it. It was my job to protect you after your parents were gone. I should have protected you. I should have protected you both."
Her hand extended slowly in the air, reaching for the cheek of the one who had grown so much since she had been away. Now instead of the sweet baby face of youth there was a grown male, his face covered in a thick, bristly dark beard that was so reminiscent of his father, it nearly stole her breath.
"Do you forgive me, Graeme?" she asked, her gentle voice the exact same as he remembered, stirring memories from deep within. They rose to the surface quickly like the stone tethering them had been kicked aside.
"I should have protected you, Maggie," he sputtered out. "It is me who needs forgiving."
"No," she shook her head, her voice full of sorrow. She leaned forward and embraced him like she would have as a pup. "No, Graeme. You were so young. There was nothing you could have done. I regret you had to see that..."
She recalled the crowd of those gathered to watch as her and the five others were dragged away to her cottage before it was set on fire with many screaming their support for the act. And the faces of Graeme and Greta... the shocked expressions that glinted with a horror they had not yet fully comprehended. She grieved for them more than for herself. She grieved for their pack who had lost its Alpha and Luna and would now be so lost. They would be so lost for a long time.
"No, our pack should have protected you. There was nothing you could have done," he objected.
"Yes, there was. There was," she nodded, pulling back from the hug to fix him the sincerity of her gaze. "I am a powerful alyko, Graeme. I could have fought. I should have fought for you. And for Greta. I have thought about it over and over for the duration of my stay in that vampire’s twisted world. It was not your fault but my own."
"Maggie," he shook his head, denying the reason for the tears that had formed in her eyes. "You were a victim."
"That is no excuse," she insisted, tears sliding in shimmering paths down her cheeks. "I was not strong for you in that moment. I have prayed to the Goddess to forgive me, and I pray you will see the truth in my words. You had not even a fraction of culpability in what occurred during that time. It was the elders. I knew it then, and I should have tried to reveal it. I just... I was afraid. I was afraid... without your parents..." she sunk back on her heels, her arms still extended to hold his shoulders.
"No," Graeme whispered, trying to reassure her against this surprising guilt. Never had he considered her to be at fault, and never would he.
Maggie continued. "Your parents were my strength, too. And without them, I was not brave like I should have been. Now it has taken this long for the truth to be revealed, and in that time you have suffered a great deal. Everyone in the pack has. I am sorry," she sighed heavily with the weight of all that had remained on her shoulders these long years.
"You are home," he said with finality, grabbing her hands that were on his shoulders with a reassuring smile.
He could not agree to her having any fault in what had occurred in the past when the alyko deaths were staged, but he could not continue arguing with her. It was a time for welcoming her home. It was a time for the present rather than the past.
"Yes," she agreed with a teary smile. "The Goddess has made much with the time that we have been apart. Greta has a mate and pups on the way, and you have a Luna and the next heir to this pack. Your parents... your parents would be so proud of you, son."
