Chapter 23: The Life Beyond the Waiting

The morning after Gavin's wedding, I returned to my office before sunrise.

There was no sadness waiting for me there.

Only a mountain of documents.

I smiled when I saw them.

Three years ago, I would never have believed paperwork could make me feel peaceful.

But these records represented something I had built with my own hands.

By noon, Princess Helena arrived with an announcement.

“The Royal Council has approved the Highmoor Peace Administration's expansion.”

I looked up from my desk.

“Expansion?”

She placed several documents in front of me.

“Three new regional offices. They want you to oversee all of them.”

I stared at the papers.

“That's a lot of responsibility.”

“You're ready.”

I smiled.

“Then let's begin.”

Over the next several months, I traveled between the northern Packs, training officials and establishing mediation systems.

Everywhere I went, people knew my name.

Not because I had once been Gavin Mercer's fiancée.

Because I was Celia Langford.

The woman who had built Highmoor into something the entire kingdom could rely on.

One evening, I returned to the Sanctuary after a long journey.

My grandmother was waiting for me.

She had come from the capital to visit.

“You look tired,” she said.

“I am.”

She laughed.

“Then sit down.”

We watched the sunset together.

After a while, she asked, “Do you ever wonder what would have happened if Gavin hadn't postponed the wedding?”

I smiled.

“No.”

She looked surprised.

“Not even once?”

“I've spent enough years imagining a life that never happened.”

I looked toward the mountains.

“I don't need to imagine anymore. I'm living my life now.”

Grandmother reached for my hand.

“Your younger self would be proud of you.”

I smiled.

“I think she would be surprised.”

That night, after Grandmother went to bed, I walked alone through the Highmoor gardens.

The moon was bright above the mountains.

My wolf stirred peacefully within me.

There was no ache.

No unfinished promise.

No question waiting for an answer.

I remembered the day I had sent my engagement dissolution papers to the Mercer estate.

Back then, I had thought I was ending my future.

Now I understood that I had only ended the part of my life that was no longer meant for me.

The next morning, I signed the final document establishing Highmoor as a permanent royal peace center.

At the bottom of the page, I wrote my name.

Celia Langford.

My hand did not tremble.

For the first time, my name felt complete without anyone else's beside it.

I closed the document and looked out the window.

There was still so much work ahead.

So many Packs to help.

So many conflicts to prevent.

So many lives that could be changed by a single fair decision.

I smiled.

I had spent six years waiting for a wedding.

Three years learning how to let go.

And the rest of my life would be spent discovering everything I had been too afraid to want.

I no longer needed someone to choose me.

I had chosen myself.