Chapter 29

Cassian’s POV

I wasn’t sure what I had expected.

Maybe unbearable silence

Stiff smiles thst were too obvious to lie thst they weren’t fake

I had expected that we wouldn’t as much as glance at it each other

But not this.

Not Sisi skipping ahead with a basket swinging from her tiny arms like the whole world had been fixed overnight.

Not the sun coming out like it had been waiting for this moment. Not the way Selena’s laugh

It was quiet and different from the practiced laughter the nobles had ,

We hadn’t even sat down yet, and I already felt… off balance.

We followed the winding stone path to the field behind the palace

It was less formal than the royal gardens, more wild. Sisi called it “her picnic land” like she had built it with her own hands. She darted between tall grass and dandelions, plucking yellow flowers for Selena’s crown.

“You said I’d wear yellow,” Selena reminded her gently.

“You will.” Sisi’s voice was full of purpose. “But I need at least twenty.”

“Why twenty?”

She puffed out her chest. “Because you’re the Luna.”

Selena blinked. “I’m not—”

“Yes, you are,” Sisi said. “You’re my Luna. And Daddy’s too. He just forgets.”

My feet slowed.

I didn’t say anything.

Selena glanced at me, expression unreadable.

I looked away.

We reached the center of the clearing, where the grass bent in a perfect circle.

It was almost sun set and the garden was beginning to be covered in golden rays, and the sky had the kind of blue poets wrote about. Sisi dropped the basket and flopped down dramatically like she had climbed a mountain.

“I’m starving,” she moaned.

“We just left the palace twenty minutes ago,” Selena said, unpacking the basket.

“That was a hundred years in tummy time.”

I sat down across from them, stiff at first. My hands hovered awkwardly as she passed me a cloth napkin. It had flowers on it. Tiny, pink ones. Sisi’s doing, no doubt.

Selena didn’t look at me.

Not directly.

She laid out the food in small containers—cheese, grapes, warm bread, slices of roasted chicken, tiny jars of honey. Nothing fancy. Nothing royal.

It was… nice.

Sisi reached over and poked my knee. “Daddy. Eat.”

“I’m watching.”

She frowned. “Why? Are you waiting for the chicken to tell a joke?”

That earned a small chuckle from Selena.

A real one.

It knocked the breath out of me.

I cleared my throat. “No. Just making sure I get the biggest piece.”

“I already picked it.” She held up a slice like a trophy. “For Mommy.”

Selena blinked. “For me?”

“Yup. Because you’re the Luna.”

Her cheeks colored. She didn’t argue this time.

We ate slowly, quietly at first. The breeze carried the smell of honey and earth, and for the first time in weeks, I didn’t feel like my chest was caving in.

Selena pulled her knees close, chewing gently, her hair falling to one side. I couldn’t remember the last time I had looked at her this long without anger between us.

Or pride.

Or guilt.

Just… looked.

She was beautiful.

Not in the way noblewomen tried to be. Not in perfection. In softness. In the quiet curve of her smile when she thought Sisi wasn’t watching.

“You’ve never had a picnic before,” she said suddenly, not looking up.

I blinked. “What makes you think that?”

“Because you’re sitting like someone might attack the grapes.”

Sisi laughed—bright and loud—and I felt the corner of my mouth twitch.

“Maybe I’m just… not used to this,” I admitted.

“This?”

“This… peace.”

She nodded like she understood.

Maybe she did.

Sisi crawled into the middle of the blanket, stretching on her back. “This is the best day ever.”

“We haven’t even started the activities,” Selena said.

“We don’t need to. I already feel it in my wolf.”

I blinked. “You feel things in your wolf?”

“Duh.”

Selena raised a brow. “And what does your wolf say?”

Sisi closed her eyes dramatically. “That she’s happy. Because Daddy and Mommy are sitting and not fighting and nobody is leaving.”

A silence stretched after that.

Selena looked down at her lap.

I looked at the grass.

I don’t know how long it lasted.

But eventually, Sisi broke it.

“Okay!” she clapped. “Crown time!”

She started pulling flowers from a little pouch she had stuffed in the basket. “Mommy gets yellow. Daddy gets green.”

“Why green again?” I asked.

“Because black is boring.”

Selena stifled a laugh. “She’s not wrong.”

I gave her a look. “Are you teaming up with her?”

“I might be.”

Sisi handed me a stem. “You have to braid them.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Learn,” she said simply. “Mommy did.”

Selena looked amused. “I taught myself. It’s not hard.”

I glanced at the flower. Then at her.

She tilted her head. “Want me to show you?”

I hesitated.

Then nodded.

She slid a little closer—not touching—but close enough for her leg to brush mine once.

“Start with three,” she said, her fingers gentle as she picked up three strands of green stem. “And twist them like this…”

I watched her hands more than the flowers.

I watched her mouth move.

The curve of her wrist.

She was so close.

Too close.

I swallowed.

“This okay?” she asked.

I realized she meant the distance.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

She smiled softly and continued braiding.

The space between us shrank without warning.

Or maybe I just stopped noticing.

I tried to tell myself it was all for Sisi. That I was doing this for her. Sitting here. Laughing. Learning how to braid flower stems.

But the lie didn’t settle like it used to.

Because this?

This felt like something I wanted.

Selena looked up and caught me staring.

Neither of us looked away.

Her eyes were the color of dusk—deep and quiet and full of things I wasn’t ready to name.

Sisi broke the silence again. “Daddy’s crown is weird.”

I blinked and looked down.

The braid I’d tried to copy looked like a dying snake.

Selena laughed. “He’s learning.”

“Looks like it needs help.”

She reached over and gently took it from my hands. “Let me fix it.”

Her fingers brushed mine. Warm.

Alive.

I let her take it.

Because for the first time in a long, long while—I didn’t want to pull away.

And maybe… neither did she.

Sisi immediately declared herself Queen of the Feast, plopping into the center of the blanket with a crown of dandelions already tangled in her curls. “Daddy, sit there. Mommy, sit beside him. That way I’m in the middle.”

We obeyed.

Of course we did.

Selena sat beside me. Not too close. Not too far.

And for a long while, we just… ate.

I let Sisi smear jam on my bread with fingers far too sticky to be legal. I let her boss me around when I didn’t “chew properly.” She made me hold a slice of cheese between my teeth so she could “take a bite like a fox.”

I let her climb into my lap.

Because how could I not?

Selena’s laughter startled me.

Gods.

I wasn’t ready for this.

“You’ve got jam on your cheek,” she said softly.

I froze. “Where?”

She leaned in before I could stop her. “There.”

She wiped it off with her thumb.

No words. Just that.

I swallowed hard.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

She didn’t reply, just nodded and passed me the jar again.

And I… relaxed.

Slowly. Carefully. Like a door creaking open in a house that hadn’t seen light in years.

I leaned back on one elbow, watching Sisi chase a butterfly near the tree. Her laughter echoed like wind chimes.

“She’s good at this,” I murmured.

Selena turned to me. “At what?”

“Pulling people together,” I said. “Even ones that don’t know how to stay.”

Her gaze held mine.

but she didn’t say anything

And it broke me

Because I so badly wanted to know what was going on in her mind

Instead she jerked her head up, studied my face for a while.

“You’re not scowling today. What happened, buh pack alliance?”

“I don’t scowl.”

She arched a brow. “Cassian. You scowl like it’s your birthright.”

I huffed. “Fair.”

We both smiled.

Not big. Not forced.

But enough.

Sisi returned with a handful of leaves and a “very magical stick.”

I loved that she returned

It didn’t give me the opportunity to dwell much on the topic of my scowling.

She declared us her royal assistants and demanded we build a fort of flowers. Selena tied together strands of grass while I arranged stones like a perimeter wall.

We argued, gently, over which side should be the “front gate.”

“You’re not even symmetrical,” I teased.

“It’s a fairy castle, not a fortress,” she countered. “Fairies don’t care about symmetry.”

I smirked. “That explains the last treaty meeting.”

She laughed. Again. This time with her whole body.

And gods… it did something to me.

I didn’t realize how badly I’d missed that sound. Or maybe I never knew how badly I’d wanted to be the reason she made it.

Sisi crowned us both when the fort was done. She placed a daisy chain on my head and a handful of violets behind Selena’s ear.

Then she stood back and examined us with the seriousness of a general.

“You look like real parents now.”

My chest caved a little.

and I couldn’t explain what the statement did to me

I wanted to turn

To capture Selena’s reaction

But I didn’t want to look like I was beginning to care

Heck Conrad was going to mock the hell out me

So instead I kept a straight face.

But I didn’t corrrect her

None of us did.

We lay down after that, all three of us. Sisi curled between us, her small hand clutched in mine, her other in Selena’s. The sun warmed my skin.

And I could feel tye breeeze pulling my collar.

I didn’t remember the last time I lay down and didn’t think about war.

Didn’t think about rogues or rituals or obligations waiting like wolves at my door.

I just breathed.

And watched the clouds.

“They look like wolves,” Selena said quietly, pointing upward.

I turned my head toward her.

She lay with her cheek pressed against her arm, her curly hair falling in a dark curtain over her shoulder.

Her eyes didn’t meet mine, but I could see the curve of her lips, maybe I had imagined it, but they looked beautiful .

“They always do,” I said.

“I used to think they were messengers,” she murmured. “My father said the Moon Goddess used the sky like paper.”

“Do you still believe that?”

She was quiet for a moment.

Then: “I want to.”

Me too.

Tye words almost left my lips

But I swallowed them instead

I doubt if she would believe me anyway

Plus, we were here for sisi

I wouldn’t want to ruin that.

Instead, I asked, “What do you think she’d write to us today?”

Selena tilted her head slightly.

“Something simple,” she replied. “Like… ‘Don’t mess this up.’”

I snorted.

“I’d take that as divine wisdom,” I remarked. “Even in cloud ink.”

She smiled.

Sisi stirred between us, letting out a tiny sigh and snuggling closer.

And for one moment—

Just one—

Everything was still.

There was no pack. No expectations. No regrets.

Just us.

A woman I couldn’t stop watching.

A child I’d die to protect.

And a quiet hope I hadn’t dared name until now.

Maybe this wasn’t just for Sisi.

Maybe this was the first time I wanted to be seen.

Wanted to be forgiven.

Wanted to start again.

I felt a finger touch mine

Then it pulled away

I knew better than to assume that it was by accident

I didn’t move.

And for once, neither did she.

Maybe there was no need to define things yet

No need to rush into things

But now? I was just happy that didnt pull away.