This is the last chapter...I've loved writing this. Thank you for everyones support and love.
Maybe Jace's memories wouldn't all come back.
It had been nearly a month now since the night when everything had gone down with Valentine, and only a few more bits and pieces had come back.
Clary showed him some photos that her mother had given her and he barely recognized himself in the photos. Even when he hadn't thought he had this whole family that he really had, Jace had always felt as though he was missing something when he was growing up. And he knew that his mother had felt it as well. Sometimes, when he was a kid, he remembered hearing her crying at night, or watching him with this faraway look in her eyes as though she wasn't totally there in the moment with him.
At least he could understand that now—or begin to.
And even though he couldn't totally grasp onto the memories of his parents together with him, at least he knew that he had had time together with his father. His father had spent years with him, had watched him grow up, had helped him when he had first started to walk, had been there when he had first transformed in a full moon...Maybe he couldn't remember it explicitly, but Clary had been there, and she could remember for him.
She seemed to get more frustrated than him—not at Jace, but because she wanted those memories for him. The ones especially of his father, but with both of his parents, and also of her and her mother. She had told him at one point that she had been speaking with both Magnus and Charlotte, asking if there was anything that she could do to help with his memories. Magnus didn't know much memory spells, he had always consulted with Jocelyn when it came to them. Charlotte knew a bit more, but she said that it was never a good idea to mess around with memory spells when they were put in place by another Spark or warlock. There were whispers about a group of men known as the Silent Brothers, but they were only sought out in truly desperate times.
Her mother had died a couple of years ago, which was why asking for help from her wasn't an option. Luke had been killed by Valentine and one of his men—likely Hodge—only a year after everything went down with Valentine, and it didn't sound as though Jocelyn ever truly recovered. She had lost her husband and the boy that she had raised like her son. She had lost her best friend and her own family when Celine had taken Jace and run to put distance between them to try and keep them safe. And then she had lost the man who had helped her get through.
Clary hadn't spoken much about it, and Jace didn't push it, because unlike the memories of his father, Clary's memories of her mother were clear and vivid, and he didn't want to upset her.
He trusted that she would open up to him when she was ready.
They had time.
They were still getting to know each other and in turn, learning things about themselves.
With Clary deciding to stay, that meant Simon was staying.
Magnus was staying as well, although that wasn't directly tied to Clary, but it was undoubtedly one of the contributing factors. The main reason, though, was Alec, and Jace didn't have an issue with that. Magnus had definitely proved his loyalty to them when he had stayed to fight against Valentine and his team, and the way he refused to leave Alec and Max's side as they were recovering.
Magnus was pack, just like Clary was pack, and Simon was also pack, although he was still finding his niche. Isabelle was more than happy to make him comfortable, though, despite the dirty looks that that earned them from Alec as he got used to the fact that his sister was actually falling for someone who was decent and was probably going to be around for a long time.
Charlotte and Lydia seemed a lot more accepting of them as well. Well, more Lydia, because it was clear that her and Clary were close friends. Charlotte was still grumpy and didn't like the whole pack around her house, but when they just came in pairs, or even three or four if they were with Clary, Charlotte's face wasn't quite as hard as it used to be. It turned out that she had been alive for a long time, and she had been ready to stop using her powers, and to let them slowly fade away. The only reason that she had been hanging on for so long was because she owed it to Jocelyn. Lydia made almost a complete one-eighty, though, and she was actually friendly with them now. She had known the whole secret, and she said that she had always viewed them as family, but had to try and put up some walls because she knew that she couldn't get too close them while knowing such a big secret about their Alpha.
Jace could understand that.
Alec had actually asked if he was angry that Charlotte and Lydia had been around for the past few years and had known more about him than they had ever let on, but he wasn't.
It was similar to how he felt about the memories that would maybe never come back.
It was done.
It was in the past.
He could choose to be angry and frustrated, or he could choose to move on, and appreciate everything that had been done in the name of love to keep him safe. Love from his mother, from the second mother than he had never realized he had—Jocelyn, from Charlotte and Lydia, from Clary.
But he chose to be happy.
He had had a mother and a father who had protected him with everything they had.
He had a pack that loved him and would fight fiercely for him.
He had a partner with a history tied in so close to his that it seemed she knew him better than he knew himself.
His life was good.
There were parts that needed work—Max was still dealing with the aftermath of the abuse that he had suffered at the hands of Valentine, and sometimes he still had nightmares. Clary had seen her brother killed and had then killed her own father, and despite knowing the horrible people they were, they had still been her family. Jace was dealing with the guilt of Max being taken when he was his Alpha and meant to protect him, and also the guilt of killing someone. Aline and Maia had also killed someone, and their guilt manifested in different ways, and so did Jem, even though he hadn't directly killed Sebastian, but given he had knocked him unconscious and he had then died in Clary's explosion, he was indirectly responsible.
They were cracked, but not broken, and they were healing together.
It was surprising, actually, how close Clary and Maia got, especially after the way that they had grated on each other from the time that they had first met. But whatever it was, they were so close that they were barely ever apart when the pack all came together. They trained fiercely together, and Jace wouldn't want to be the poor soul to ever come against the pair of them.
Jace had always known that his pack was close, but the way that they rallied around each other now, it had drawn them even closer. With the new additions of Clary, Magnus, Simon and even Lydia, the bonds between them pulsed stronger than they had been before.
They were still healing almost eight months later, but things were definitely better. It was a full moon, and the werewolves were all so ready to be out in the woods, running and letting their fangs and claws press through. There eyes were all glowing and they had almost destroyed the kitchen of Jace's loft as they had filled themselves with food, enough to get them through the night.
It wasn't the first full moon that Clary was spending with them, but it was the first time that she had felt so happy. Unlike Jace, she had held onto her anger longer, a lot of her anger turned in toward herself, mainly at not being able to bring Jace's memories back. But Jace was pretty sure he had finally managed to get through to her that; it might happen, it might not, but either way, they had found each other now, and he wanted her to see that, to be with him in the now.
He had then crashed both of them through one of the walls in the apartment that she had rented not far from his loft, his arms tight around her body as she had kissed him fiercely, her magic vibrant in the air around them.
They left the apartment and took their cars to the woods. The werewolves would have happily run, but Jace didn't trust them to keep their pace to something that was passably human and their eyes from glowing. When they got to the woods, they parked up and practically fled from the vehicles, sprinting into the woods. Jace ran with them, although he forced himself to stop the change that had happened in the last two full moons, wanting to run alongside Clary.
She was fast, but not as fast as him, especially once he transformed into a wolf.
His pack ran ahead, apart from Jordan, Lydia, Aline and Simon. Jordan would follow after Maia, although he was happy for her to run ahead and he would just take his time. Simon was wheezing a little, he really needed to improve on his endurance given he could barely run for five minutes without keeling over and Lydia didn't really run with them, she sort of just came with them and then wandered along the edge of the forest, more than happy to dawdle and wait for them to finish. Aline would sometimes stay behind with Lydia, sometimes she would run with the pack. Today, it seemed like she was staying with Lydia. Jace could feel the relief and the endorphins coming off his pack and he grinned to himself as he reigned himself back to run with Clary.
"Jace," Clary called out to him, and he slowed a little so that he could look at her. Her eyes were glimmering a soft purple, and he could feel her magic surrounding them, stretching out to the woods around them, connecting with him and with the rest of the pack. "Go," she told him, her face open and smiling. Jace hesitated for a moment, and then she reached out and gripped his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before she changed directions, running toward where a howl was coming from Maia.
Jace watched her go for a moment, before he began pushing himself to run so fast that everything around him started to blur. He felt his wolf shifting inside him, it's paws pressing against him, stretching out and filling his arms and legs, and he felt himself tear through the fabric of the clothes he was wearing.
He landed down firmly on the ground of the woods, big paws digging into the damp floor, running faster. He passed by Alec, who let out a loud shout of approval, and then by Jem and Max, who were laughing and shoving at each other playfully, their eyes glowing. Jace tackled Isabelle at one point, who giggled and pushed at him, and he slowed himself to nudge his nose into Jordan's side before he continued to bound through the woods. He felt free and right and everything around him smelt the way it should and he could feel through the pack bond that his pack was happy and that in turn made him even happier.
Jace reached the creek first, the place where they would all gather after the first stretch of their run, and he felt Clary's magic gathering, and that sharp smell that once but him on edge and now soothed him filled the air. A moment later, lightning split the sky, and Jace's eyes glowed red as he watched it lighting up the entire woods in loud cracks and bangs above them.
He felt his pack responding to it—laughs and shouts and howls in reply to Clary's signal.
With the wind in his fur and joy pulsing through his pack members, Jace had never felt more alive.
I hope you guys enjoyed. Thank you again for all your support.