“Mum?” Luca called again, his voice a mixture of disbelief and longing.

Cora approached him, her feet shuffling hurriedly. Tears streamed down her face as she came, arms outstretched.

A small part of her long hair strayed into her face, and she moved it to the side as she walked up to Luca.

He was as still as a post when she embraced him. Her tears rolled onto his shoulders as she sobbed.

"I… I thought I'd never see you again,” she held onto him.

Luca's body failed him. He folded his hands into fists. He couldn't believe it. This couldn't be real. It was as if his feet were rooted to the ground and he could not move. His mother who had disappeared since forever was standing right there in front of him, holding him.

The last memory he had of her was her being in chains, her hair dishevelled. Her snout snivelled as she strained against the chains that held her down, her wolf roaring madly.

Ferguson had had her chained after she almost killed Luca in one of her rabid outbursts.

“H… how?” Luca finally found his voice, shaky as he tried to suppress his emotions. “How can this be?”

He allowed himself to become vulnerable as he hugged her tightly.

Elisha watched the outburst of emotions with puckered lips, his hands folded across his chest.

“You've grown into a beautiful young man,” Cora broke the hug. She held him back, her eyes sizing him up. Her lips curled up into a smile through her sniffling as her arms snaked around Luca's neck again.

“Aheem…”

“Hello, Elisha,” Cora smiled a greeting to him.

“Milady,” Elisha's frame bowed in reverence.

“You're not still hotheaded, are you?”

“Not at all, ma'am,” he replied, winking at Luca, who rolled his eyes and looked away.

“How are you here, mother?” Luca broke in. “What happened to you?”

“We'll talk about all that over dinner,” Ferguson's voice echoed in the throne room again. “Come.” he stretched his hand out to his Luna as he stood up.

Cora signalled to Ferguson. He leaned down into her, and she whispered into his ear.

Ferguson turned to Luca. “Your friend can join us for dinner.”

“Thank you, Mr. Alpha,” Elisha said, making a low bow. He turned to look at Luca, whose face was lit up with excitement.

“What?” Luca asked, getting a little uncomfortable under Elisha's gaze.

“Mummy's boy,” Elisha teased as he started walking away, making for Luca's room.

"Oh, shut up.” Luca shot back.

*****

The alpha's house was unusually rowdier than it had been in a long time. The omegas were on their toes as they prepared eagerly for the dinner to welcome back their Luna.

Ferguson had ordered the pack guards and omegas not to disclose the Luna's return to any living soul outside the pack house. No one dared disobey. Not if they loved their heads on their necks. Ferguson never went back on his words.

The dining room was a large hall that could hold at least a hundred people at once. It had a large polished table at the centre of the room and matching chairs that were well arranged, courtesy of the omegas.

A huge, beautiful, golden chandelier dangled above, its light reflecting on the marble floors, illuminating the room.

The omegas were almost done arranging the food on the table when Luca and Elisha walked in. They bowed to Luca as they dropped the last of the dishes on the table and went back to stand at their posts, hands enjoined as they awaited orders.

“Are you expecting more people?” Elisha asked Luca, quite surprised by the quantity of food on the table. Although the food had been arranged at one end of the table near the Alpha's seat, which stood where the table began, suggesting a small number of diners, there was more than enough food to feed at least twenty people.

“I don't think so,” Luca replied, glancing over his shoulders as the door opened.

Karl, his father's beta, walked in, his keen eyes surveying the whole room suspiciously as he always did.

“Find anything, beta?” Elisha asked jauntily. “The enemy isn't here, you know.”

“You can never be too sure, Elisha.” His eyes flicked across the room again. “Hey, Luca.”

“Karl.”

The door creaked open again and Alpha Ferguson walked in with his Luna, Cora their arms entangled as they came.

The guards and omegas bowed as they walked past them to the table. Luca, Karl and Elisha stood up and bowed too.

Ferguson sat down, Cora beside him. He signalled to the omegas, they came up to the table and served the food.

Luca stared hard at Cora. She caught his eye and smiled at him. He broke his gaze picking into his food.

They all ate in silence. Luca's eyes flicked between both parents.

“If no one will ask, then I will. What happened, mother?” he asked, pausing from eating his food.

“I knew it was only a matter of time,” she replied, smiling. She dropped her cutlery, pushed her plate away. She wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin, folded her hands across the table.

“Leave us alone,” Ferguson's voice boomed across the hall as he waved his hand over his head.

The guards and omegas all made a low bow and left in a single file, their feet thudding as they marched away. The door banged after them.

“When I left the pack,” Cora began, her voice as calm as the sea at night, “the old healer found me where I was tired and exhausted, my wolf almost dying. She knew what ailed me. I was poisoned, and she found traces of wolfsbane and mistletoe in my body.”

Her face remained calm as she told her story, her fingers still crossed on the dining table as she spoke.

“That wasn't the only thing she found. She also… also found…” her voice broke off.

"Here, have some water,” Luca said, pouring some into a cup and offering it to her from across the table.

She gulped down the contents of the cup.

“Thank you.”

She straightened up.

“I was cursed,” she dropped the bombshell. “The spells were very ancient, but bless the Goddess, the healer was even more ancient.”

The clicking of cutlery on dishes died down.

“The curse is broken now?” Ferguson's husky voice asked.

"Yes, my Lord,” Cora replied, her lips curled up in a little smile.

“She's still beautiful after all these years—those eyes… those lips…”

Ferguson let his thoughts run wild as he ogled his long-lost love. His eyes met hers. He saw the longing in her eyes. All the passion he had locked away washed down his body in one electrifying wave.