The Alpha King And His Chosen Luna novel Chapter 282

Today belonged to them

Today belonged to them

(Caius)

Claim

I watched Isla and Lyrienne walk into the home together. Neither released the other’s hand until they reached the table, and I understood why Isla wasn’t ready to leave yet. She had spent weeks searching for a woman who had spent centuries searching for her. They deserved more than a few hours together.

Zeron stopped beside me.

“When are we leaving?”

“Not today.”

He looked toward the home.

“Tomorrow?”

I considered everything waiting for us in Wraithbone. Pryor needed to see what we’d found, and we needed the records from Derek’s exile. None of it required taking Isla away from her mother immediately. One more day here wouldn’t hurt us.

“We’ll leave tomorrow.”

Zeron nodded.

“I’ll tell Raith.”

He walked away to find him. The warriors still waited on the other side of the mountain, and someone would need to return to them before it got too late. We had enough supplies to remain here. Frostvale had given us no reason to expect trouble.

I entered the home and found Isla sitting beside Lyrienne. Varen’s records were no longer between them. Instead, Lyrienne had brought out another book. Isla looked up when I approached.

“What’s that?”

Lyrienne opened it.

“Something I kept from before you were born.”

I pulled out the chair beside Isla. The first page held a drawing of a man and woman standing beside a river. The man had one hand resting against the woman’s stomach. Isla recognized them immediately.

“My parents.”

Lyrienne smiled.

“Your father insisted we have this made.”

Isla touched the page. Darius looked younger than the drawings we’d found in Silvermere. Lyrienne looked much as she did now. Isla spent several seconds studying her father’s face.

“He looks happy.”

<Today belonged to them

“He was.”

Clesta

Lyrienne turned another page. Several entries had been written beside smaller drawings. One showed Darius standing beside the river with pieces of wood around him. Another showed something only partly

built.

“What was he making?”

“A cradle.”

Isla looked closer.

“He made it himself?”

Lyrienne nodded. Darius had refused every offer of help because he wanted to make something for his daughter with his own hands. He’d spent weeks working on it near their home in Silvermere. According to Lyrienne, he’d complained about it nearly every day.

“Was he bad at it?”

“Terrible at first.”

Isla laughed cradle. Sn

I sat b

past

to

her before turning another page. The next drawing showed the completed Ives had been carved into the wood.

nem. Isla had spent so much of this journey learning about the worst parts of her ek, and the Council had taken over almost every conversation. She needed this

s.”

nake?”

er about small wooden animals Darius had carved while waiting for her birth. He’d made a a fox, and several others that Lyrienne couldn’t remember. He’d planned to add more as Isla

re they?”

know.”

looked down at the drawings. Some might still be somewhere in Silvermere. Others could have sappeared during the centuries that followed. I already knew Isla would want to search for them.

We can look when we return.”

Isla looked at me.

“I want to.”

Lyrienne continued throu teach his daughter firs

“He wanted to te

described Darius trying to decide what he would

ienne had disagreed.

Today belong to them

“Before you could walk, apparently.

Clees

tsla laughed again. The sound filled the small home, and I found myself smiling. Darius had never been

able to raise his daughter, but Isla was finally getting to know the man he’d been.

Raith appeared near the doorway. He looked toward me without interrupting them. I stood and went outside with him. Zeron was already near the stream.

“Two warriors are returning to the vehicles.”

“Good.”

Raith looked toward the home.

“We’re staying

“Until tomo

He nodd

Isla a

B

eeded to cross the mountain before reaching the vehicles. Leaving now would take ne only hours after finding her.

a had moved farther through the book. A drawing of Silvermere’s river filled one page. maller drawing of a young tree.

ched the drawing.

er planted it for you.”

ed at her.

r the river.”

rienne explained that Darius had planted it after learning she was carrying a daughter. He’d wanted isla

grow alongside it. Every year, he planned to mark her height against its trunk.

Isla became quiet.

“Do you think it’s still there?”

“I hope so.”

I remembered the river in Silvermere. There were trees everywhere, some old enough to have survived centuries. Finding one type of tree wouldn’t be easy.

“We’ll ask Elara.”

Isla nodded.

“She might kn

Lyrienne

g rather than drawings. Isla read several lines

Today belongent to them

before looking at her mother. Her expression changed into another smile.

“He talked to me?”

“Constantly.”

Ctains

Darius had spoken to Isla before she was born as though she could understand every word. He told her about Silvermere, the river, and the wolves waiting to meet her. Sometimes he told her about things he’d done during the day.

“What did you do while he talked?”

“Usually told him you couldn’t answer.”

Isla laughed.

“He probably ignored you.”

“Every time.”

I listened while

record woul

Eventual

“I wa

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