41: Emma

I stood on the balcony, wrapped in Theo's arms, my entire body humming with the newly formed bond between us. My fingers trembled slightly against his chest, but I felt a warmth spreading through me, an expanding heat that wasn't quite confidence – more like inevitability. Two days ago, I'd been simply Emma Maxwell, gamma of the Blood Moon Pack with an Alpha wolf I kept carefully hidden. Now I was mate to the Lycan King, and nothing would ever be the same again.

"Before we go back inside, Emma," Theo murmured against my hair, his voice a gentle rumble I could feel through his chest, "there's something you should understand."

I tilted my head back to look at him, finding his amber eyes serious in the moonlight. "What is it?"

"Our scents will have mixed enough now that it will be blatant that we've accepted each other, that you're my mate." His hand came up to cup my cheek, his thumb tracing the curve of my cheekbone with reverent gentleness. "And my Queen. Their Queen."

I froze, the full weight of those words pressing against me like a physical force. Queen. The title seemed impossibly foreign, as though he were speaking about someone else entirely. I'd spent years learning to be comfortable as gamma, deliberately hiding my Alpha nature to maintain pack harmony. The concept of being thrust into the highest position in the kingdom made my throat tighten with sudden panic.

"They will now instinctively bow to you just as they do to me," he continued, his eyes never leaving mine.

"That's going to take some getting used to," I whispered, my voice sounding strange and distant to my own ears.

The corner of Theo's mouth lifted in a small smile, his thumb still making those maddening circles against my skin. "I imagine so."

A strange thought bubbled up from somewhere deep inside me, something so unexpected it caught me off guard. Benjamin – arrogant, controlling Benjamin who had spent months telling me I was defective and unworthy – would have to bow to me. The image was so incongruous, so perfectly ironic that a chuckle escaped me before I could contain it.

"What?" Theo asked, his eyebrows rising slightly at my unexpected amusement.

"There's something strangely amusing," I admitted, "about the fact that Benjamin will have to bow to me."

Theo's smile widened, a flash of delighted surprise crossing his features. "I suppose there is a certain poetic justice in that."

‘And it's not just your status as Queen they'll react to,’ Artemis piped up, her mental voice practically vibrating with smug satisfaction. ‘I think our base aura is too strong to hide now too. Everyone will know we're an Alpha.’

My amusement vanished instantly, replaced by a cold splash of anxiety. I'd hidden my Alpha status for years, even before Benjamin. It had been a deliberate choice – one that protected Elijah's position and prevented other packs from viewing me as a threat or potential challenger. Being recognized as an Alpha would change everything, from pack dynamics to how other Alphas interacted with me.

"Theo," I said urgently, pulling back slightly to search his face, "Artemis thinks my aura is now too strong to hide that I'm an Alpha anymore. Is that possible? Is she right?"

He studied me for a long moment, his head tilting slightly as if seeing something beyond my physical form. "Yes," he said finally. "I can almost see it around you – a pale green shimmer, like sunlight through spring leaves. It's... remarkable."

I closed my eyes, trying to process this additional revelation. "No one was supposed to know," I whispered, more to myself than to Theo. "We decided years ago that it was safer if I was just a gamma."

Theo's hands slid to my shoulders, his touch steadying. "Emma, look at me."

I opened my eyes reluctantly.

"You're the mate of the King," he said, his voice gentle but firm. "You're the Queen. Hiding your true nature is no longer necessary – or possible."

The simple truth of his words settled over me. He was right, of course. Everything had changed the moment our eyes locked across that ballroom. There was no going back to the careful life I'd constructed, the walls I'd built to protect myself after Benjamin. This path – this mate bond – meant stepping fully into the light, with all the vulnerability and strength that entailed.

I drew a deep breath, straightening my shoulders beneath his hands. "Maybe we should tell our brothers before walking back in there," I suggested, focusing on the practical next step rather than the overwhelming implications. "Elijah will never forgive me if I don't tell him first."

Theo nodded, understanding in his eyes. "I'll get Chris to round up Elijah and Elena and bring them out here."

He pulled away slightly, reaching for his phone, but I caught his hand before he could move too far.

"Wait," I said, surprising myself with the sudden need to remain close to him. Wordlessly, I moved back into his arms, resting my head against his chest, where the steady rhythm of his heartbeat anchored me against the tide of changes sweeping through my life.

His arms enfolded me without hesitation, one hand coming up to stroke my hair. We stood like that for several minutes, the night air cool against my heated skin, while Theo sent messages one-handed rather than break our embrace. The consideration in that small gesture – his unwillingness to move away when I needed his closeness – twisted something tender in my chest.

Benjamin had never considered my needs. Even in our earliest days together, physical touch had been on his terms, when and how he wanted it. The contrast between that memory and Theo's effortless attentiveness made my throat tight with emotions I couldn't fully name.

’He is everything Benjamin was not,’ Artemis observed, her mental voice gentler than usual. ‘Our true mate. Our King.’

For once, I didn't argue with her assessment. Instead, I simply breathed in Theo's scent – cedar and stone, honey and lightning – now intertwined with my own in ways that marked us as irrevocably connected. The mate bond hummed between us, new yet already essential, like a limb I hadn't known was missing until it was restored.