And I'd choose you;

in a hundred lifetimes,

in a hundred worlds,

in any versions of reality,

I'd find you and

I'd choose you

~THE CHAOS OF STARS

The water washed into tiny ripples as the wind blew it softly aside.

Touching the surface before moving on.

The two sat together, watching the thin line of waves along the surface, as it reflected back to their eyes- the trees, the falling sun, and the rising stars above.

Silence invaded their hearts and minds as they took in the memories of the place. Took in the lost tears and unspoken heart ache, neither one was able to express.

"Let's talk."

It was the man who spoke first.

The man who clung to the side of his chair as he looked away from the woman and her dark blue eyes. Away from her slow falling blond hair and long skirt that exposed her ankles and bare feet with the gentle wind.

The woman averted her eyes. Adverted her eyes as she too avoided the dark handsome features of the male. Avoided his black swept hair and shadow eyes now filled with new age lines, that held all their pain inside.

It took a moment more before the woman rose.

Bracing herself before she stood directly in front of him, blocking his view of the lake ahead.

"Alright."

He held out his hand, an unspoken invitation. One he had not dared extended in the months of their silent healing. One he had not had the courage to show until now.

The woman watched his shaking offer. Watched as his features quivered in anticipation and fear.

Waiting for the rejection.

She took his hand.

The contact sent heat through the both of them, making the male sigh as he pulled her close, and into his arms.

She pushed herself to him, wanting to be as tight as she could within his folds. Wanting to never let go of the sensation. To get as much as she could from their lost time together.

"Let's talk."

The woman was the one to say it now. To speak the truth that they had been avoiding.

However the silence remained, each to wrapped up in the other- the lost feel of one another as they held each other close.

They had avoided this.

Avoided the confrontation of their souls. Almost five months in, and they still had not the courage to do this.

To reach out and brush upon bleeding scars.

"I wonder....If we'll ever be the same from our choices."

The man looked at the woman as he took in her words.

"I don't think so."

"Can we...go back to how we were?"

The man shook his head. She and he both knew how foolish that question was.

"No. But we can start again."

"How."

They stared at one another as they contemplated the question.

"I...I was scared Jay. I was young and foolish and wild and reckless and didn't know what I had until it was gone from me. I wanted to protect my heart. I was...scared of love."

Jay watched with a sad smile as she finally, finally said the words out loud for his ears.

"You consumed me," tears started to form within her eyes as she confessed her true, darkest secret, "you consumed my soul and made me feel. You made me feel. And I didn't like it. I didn't like how you exposed me so much and showed to me just how empty my life was. Just what a monster I had become. I didn't...I..."

"You were a coward."

Daisy stared into his eyes, not breaking from his look as he spoke, "You were a coward to love."

"But Jay...I wasn't scared to walk away. I was scared you wouldn't follow."

Jay blinked, as the raw pain opened into her eyes.

"I spent a year looking for Nova. Your mother."

Daisy nodded.

"I spent a year looking for a woman I had never met. For a person that I had heard you talk about only once. I don't regret it. I came to love Nova like she was my own mother. But," a raw choke sounded from deep in Jay's throat as he tried hard to keep his emotions in check to finish his sentence, "I do regret this. That in that time, I didn't spend the same effort looking for you. I didn't spend it searching for you. Trying to get you back. Because I found my own reason for why you left. I thought I knew. Because I spent so long looking at myself, and saying out loud, 'who could ever love this?'"

Daisy's forehead fell upon Jay's chest as sobs fell from her, breaking their eye contact. Softly he lifted her chin, taking in the tears that hung from her lashes and dripped down.

"I wanted to come back, and I've told you why I didn't." Jay looked up as he held his crying love. She had told him of her confinement within South America. How she made the choice to send their son to him.

He knew now.

And he knew now his mistakes also had played a part within their grief. Because he could have followed her. Could have followed that woman who delivered Atlas to him. Could have demanded for her to take him to Daisy, and dragged her back to him. Because he knew now that she wanted to. Had pleaded to the moon in her time there, for Jay to come save her. For anyone to come save her.

And no one had.

Instead he had sat there in self misery. Wallowing away, thinking of his own worth, as the reason for her abandonment. Never considering that maybe it wasn't him that was the problem. It was her. Her problems. Her insecurities.

"And so when I was free from that place, I didn't come because I thought I knew also. Thought I knew- and said to myself everyday as I looked within the mirror, 'who could love you? You're a monster. You abandoned your child. Abandoned the man you loved. You love no one but yourself-," but Jay, "-she clung tightly to his shirt as her desperate eyes looked up to him, tears falling in streams down her face, "I didn't. I didn't love myself. I really and truly didn't. There were days when I...." A cry of pain sounded deep in Daisy's throat as Jay softly kissed her forehead, before she continued, "Days where I could not bring myself to get up. Days where I couldn't eat. Days where I worked to much and then days in which I slept hours and hours, never having the energy to move."

Jay nodded. He had Atlas and others to love and support him and make him function and work. He had people surrounding him. A family.

Daisy had no one.

The choices they had made.

The choices they had made.

They fell into wishful silence, taking in the growing night as they held each other close.

"Atlas hates me."

Jay nodded, "I don't think he will ever forgive you."

Daisy sobbed again, her heart breaking that she had forever lost the love of her only child through her decisions.

"Jay. I think you are someone I can love."

Jay held her close as she spoke her words.

"I think you are someone who is beautiful. I think you are worth it. And it shocks me when you kiss and hold me- the electricity and fire that courses down me. But my goddess Jay," she looked up into his eyes, "you are worth the pain."

"We are so very broken are we not?"

Daisy's soft laughter hit him, making him smile from the sound. They had a choice now. A choice to keep making their same repeated mistakes, and to indulge in their sorrow, to relieve their pain. Or to move on. To choose happiness. To grab the opportunity that was before them.

"We went through hell. But we came back stronger. Together."

Daisy smiled at his words, smiled at his crinkled dark eyes, "I broke you."

Jay nodded, "You did."

"Yet you still will have me?"

"I broke you also."

"And so we will have each other?"

"I think we can learn to love our shattered parts."

They sat watching the lake turn dark with the rising moon. Daisy's eyes never left the figure as Jay watched in silent chaotic thoughts.

"Please don't leave....I will not survive you a second time."

Daisy glanced away from the moon to look into Jay's anguished face. Looking at the result of their chaotic love.

"I don't feel her anymore Jay. She's gone. I'm not consumed with this uneasy feeling, this sensation that I need to be isolated from everyone but her. This wanderlust of loneliness. I'm...nothing."

Jay picked up a thin strand of the blond hair and examined it, looking at the color. The color that seemed to suit her face and red cheeks more than white ever did.

"The choice you made."

"I choose you. A thousand times you. Because...I'm selfish. I'm greedy. I'm a monster. And if that means letting others suffer because I want you, then that is a choice I have to live with."

Daisy thought back to the woman whom she had taken care of just a month ago within the Alba Rosa pack. Burdened with a hard pregnancy and carrying pup. It didn't survive.

Daisy stood there, listening to the cries of the mother and her mate as they held their stillborn pup. Took in the wounds of her heart as Doctor Schulman, a once kind man, now hardened by life, patted her on the back before softly limping away to cry within his own office.

Daisy had just stood within the hall way. Letting her tears fall as the knowledge consumed her that a life she could have saved, left the world that day.

As the full knowledge hit her. She was not moon blessed. And she could not save them anymore.

"I didn't realize until it was gone, how much the blessing hid away the bond. Now when you touch me, I feel the full heat on my skin. When it once was sparks, now it's flames."

She looked at Jay with curious eyes, "it was like this for you?"

Jay nodded, drawing a thin finger up her arm to prove his point. She shivered at the contact.

"I would not have left if I felt this. Would not have had the strength to pull away from you. The blessing clouded my judgement."

Daisy glanced at the moon again, "Maybe things work a certain way. Because I don't feel that urge to leave anymore. That fear to settle. I'm not a slave to her anymore, and the hole I once had is now consumed by you. If I had come back those first few years- I know for sure I would have left again. And again. Leaving you and being ignorant to the fullness of the love we could have had."

Jay growled then, making Daisy turn to him with wide eyes, "Don't blame the moon for your actions. Don't think she meant for us to suffer like this. We both made our own conscious choices."

Daisy shook her head, "No, I know. I'm just saying how life is funny and full of different turns and paths. Because now I have you, and there is no fear in my heart to drive me away."

The moon's light reflected across the water as Jay's fingers slowly reached down to pick up one of Daisy's hand. Her left. The hand that contained the small daisy flower ring upon it.

"I meant this, you know. I still mean it. If you want to."

There was a quiver within his voice. Because the wounds of his past still made Jay fear rejection. Still made him doubt.

Daisy's arms wrapped around Jay, encircling him as she held him close. "Yes. Yes Jay. I want to be yours in every way. Chase me, grab me, pull me and be with me, always. Because I am forever yours to claim."

She growled within his ear, taken over with a new fierceness, "And you are mine."

Jay felt himself shiver at the words. He would hunt this woman down and never let her leave him again. Because he knew now that love didn't come to those who waited. You had to take it with your own two hands. Because to love is to risk, therefore to love is to be brave. They had learned again and again from their mistakes. To not fall in love. But to rise from it.

Jay found his own arms wrap gently around her as he said back , "I think we deserve our happiness now my love. We are good wolves. And we've suffered enough."

This is the end of 'Moon Child.'

Thank you for reading this far, and finishing the story of these character's lives with me.

For going through their pain, love and joy.

Thank you for voting, reading and commenting.

To all of you-

I don't think I will ever be able to say thank you enough.

This is my first completed story, and I'm proud to share it to you readers. Please check out Atlas's story titled 'Sun Child.'

So here's to us. To all the things that contributed to the writing of this story- to the readers, the stars, to coffee, red bandannas, music and the moon.

Until next time,

Loves,