Epilogue: Now What?

When the girl awoke, it was to the familiar, comforting hum of engines. Her skeletal body was lying in a lavish bed surrounded by the kind of room only the obscenely wealthy and privileged experienced. Thinking that it was all a dream, that she hadn't avenged her small family after all, and that the evil Alpha would come in any moment to wake her, she started willing herself dead.

"No, Bliss," a strong, familiar voice shattered her concentration. Ama gasped in shock and started to sit up weakly. Tyr wasted no time going to his woman, the loaded-down tray of food in his arms forgotten. He set the tray on an end table and approached his dying woman. "I won't lose you to this. You are going to live through the remnants of your hatred. There's no reason for it anymore. Anyone who was responsible for the destruction of our Pride is dead and gone." He mounted her naked body as if to prove his point and tenderly loved his wife for hours, something that Reginald would never have allowed. There was no rush to his occupation, no sense of urgency as he made love with his bride. The Khaleesi simply opened herself up to him, accepting his dominance and the healing that it brought in its wake. By the time she lay weakly glowing and exhausted in his heavenly embrace, her heart had calmed and her body had a little more meat to it.

"Good girl," Tyr said tiredly, settling her sweet body more firmly against his side.

"Mmmmm… I love you," she grinned up at him happily. The Berserker had to marvel at her innocence. Five days ago she'd created the largest power vacuum in history, and yet here she was, smiling up at him so trustingly… He ruffled her braids with a fond smile and kissed her sweaty brow.

"I love you too, Bliss. Sleep now. You will require more feeding when you wake." The two slipped from consciousness peacefully, wrapped around each other and content.

"Wake up!" an irritatingly cheerful voice called to the couple. Ama stirred in her husband's embrace, annoyed at the interruption to her sleep. Tracy simply started shaking her, her strawberry-blond hair waving in the wind as she did so. "It's time for you to teach us to be strong like you!"

"What? No," Ama huffed, gently pulling away from her sleeping mate. "I can't teach you how to be like me. And even if I could, I wouldn't. You're all too innocent to be corrupted by a hard-assed broad like me."

"What if we want corruption?" Rebecca asked angrily. "I don't want to be a delicate little Rose for the rest of my life. The Drago-Kazov Pride, the biggest Pride in the galaxy, is gone without a trace. Civil Wars are breaking out and looting has already begun, That's why we had to leave Ground Zero. Did you know that our Berserkers were still alive?"

"I suspected, little one. But your benefactor never told me, if that's what you're asking."

"Stop treating us like children!" Rebecca stomped petulantly. "Despite what you think, we are full-grown adults!"

"You're tiny, helpless children compared to me," Ama shrugged, looking her 'sister' over frankly. "I've seen things, done things, survived alone in the big, bad universe for years. And that - the instincts that come with knowing that you are utterly alone and no one cares - I cannot teach you. You all need Pride protection. I would suggest you each choose a dominant Pride and make it your home, spreading yourselves out among-"

"What about you?" LillyBeth argued, twirling her silver-blond hair around a finger. "You're barely recovered from your hatred. You need Pride protection too."

"I'm not interested in being caged again. If anything, My husband and I will be searching the cosmos for any remnants of our old Pride. Apparently, the Kodiak was a large, well-established Pride before the Drago-Kazov attacked. I won't believe that it's all gone without searching at least."

"Then, by all means, search," a tall, silver-blond-haired male, obviously the mate of LillyBeth, walked into the room. "You're upsetting my woman with your talk of separation after all their time together."

Ama shivered at being addressed by another Berserker, but put on a brave face and retorted in kind. "Separation is the only means I can see of checks and balances now that the Drago-Kazov is not there with its iron rule. The cosmos will tear itself apart otherwise, giving these little ones a taste of the grown-up world. I'm not saying that they can never see each other again, I'm just saying that each should choose a home base to operate out of. That way-"

"Or they could stay together, and the boys could pool their power to protect them all. The Prides would come to them as a unit for help and healing," Tyr said, lazily tracing his woman's back as he spoke. "It's the only way that they will be powerful enough to compete with your power in the universe."

"I'm a free agent," the woman protested.

"I know, Bliss," he answered firmly. "You're still thinking of toughening them up like you. They've been a singular unit for decades, separation would only break them."

"You really think so?"

"It's Reginald's legacy." The couple looked at each other and Ama nodded at last.

"I defer to your judgment, Honeybear. I'm not myself lately." Ama stretched, wrapped a silky sheet around herself, and got out of bed, only to be pulled back in by her husband.

"I haven't finished with you yet," Tyr said, a sexy glint in his eye as he claimed her mouth hotly. The girls filed out of the room in embarrassment, not used to such erotic displays.

"Do you think we'll ever be like that?" LillyBeth asked her mate. Adam only smiled and kissed her cheek indulgently.

"I don't see why not," he shrugged.

The End

Ta-da! I've finished another story. And just in time for the New Year! Thank you to everyone who read my work. I'll be switching things up a little with another fandom once the New Year's first Wednesday rolls around. It's a long one and I'm very excited to present it to you, dear reader. Please look forward to it ^_~