Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 543

“Hey,” he said quietly.

“Hey. You okay?”

“Sorta.”

He held me for a moment longer, then pulled back and looked at me. Then he looked at Max, and his mouth twitched.

“You’ve gotten taller since I last saw you,” he said.

Max shrugged, trying to look indifferent, but we could all see the way his chest puffed out at the praise.

David ruffled his hair, then straightened and put his hand on my shoulder briefly before turning to lead us inside.

“How long can you stay?” he asked.

“As long as you need me.”

He nodded and didn’t say anything else.

The funeral was that evening.

Celeste’s pyre had been built in the plaza, the same place Bloodmoon had honored their dead for as long as anyone could remember. A small crowd had gathered. People were sniffling and laying bundles of dried flowers on the pyre.

I leaned close to Karl. “Did she plant that garden out front?” I whispered.

He nodded and blinked as if to dispel tears. “Yes. She said she just needed something to keep her active but she really just didn’t want to admit that she thought the flowers were pretty.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that.

David approached the pyre, said a few words, and lit it. Everyone watched in silence as the flames licked up the wood, reaching toward the sky.

For a moment, I thought back on the first time I’d met Celeste. She had been different then, angrier, crueler. That part of her had never completely faded, not even after what her mother did to her. And none of us, except maybe Karl for his own reasons, ever fully forgave her.

But she had changed. The ruby had changed her. It was hard to reconcile the mean–spirited, abusive young woman with the elder who planted flowers.

My hand found the key in my pocket, and I ran my thumb over it. I wondered what she left for me. Maybe it was an empty box. One last fuck–you for the road. I think I would have liked that.

The flames rose high and hot, and the smoke curled upward into the white sky, and I stood there with my son at my side and watched until there was nothing left but embers.

David found me afterward.

He had the box under his arm. It was a plain wooden thing, small enough to carry in one hand, sealed with a simple latch and a lock. He held it out to me without ceremony, which was how David did most things.

“She was specific,” he said. “Nobody was to open it but you.”

“I know. Karl told me.”

He handed it over and I took it. It was heavier than I expected for its size, and I felt something rattling around.

“Do you want some time?” he asked.

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Chapter 543

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I looked at him. Then I looked down at the box.

“Yeah,” I said. “I do.”

He nodded and left me to it, leading Max away and saying something about checking on the warriors together.

I found a quiet spot around the edge of the plaza, where I could have some privacy. I sat down on a stone bench and set the box in my lap.

I took out the key and turned it over in my palm for a moment before I slipped it into the lock. It turned with a satisfying click, and the lock popped open.

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