Chapter 10: A Love That Came Too Late

Three days later, the entire Lunaris Pack gathered to bid farewell to Zora Thorne.

No one had expected the quiet girl they had ignored for years to leave behind such an unforgettable legacy.

Outside the memorial hall, hundreds of white Belladonna flowers covered the stone path.

Students from the Werewolf Academy stood silently, each holding a white flower in her memory.

Zora's supervisor stepped onto the stage carrying the Belladonna Cure Thesis.

"Many believed Zora was ordinary," he said.

"But she was one of the greatest healers our academy has ever produced."

"From today onward, this thesis will officially be renamed 'The Zora Thorne Research Project.'"

Thunderous applause echoed throughout the hall.

Many students lowered their heads in shame.

Some quietly cried as they remembered insulting her on the academy forum.

Meanwhile, the Pack Council announced the results of its investigation.

Laila had forged medical records, stolen academic achievements, and deliberately concealed Zora's kidney donation five years earlier.

Every accusation against Zora had been built upon Laila's lies.

Laila was permanently expelled from the Werewolf Academy.

Her academic awards were revoked.

She was banished from the Lunaris Pack and stripped of every honor she had once enjoyed.

As the guards escorted her away, she cried desperately.

"Mom! Dad! Please don't abandon me!"

Neither of them looked back.

Mom slowly approached Zora's coffin.

Her trembling hands rested gently upon it.

"I'm sorry..."

"I should have believed you."

"I should have protected you."

"I failed as your mother."

Dad knelt beside the coffin.

He bowed his head until his forehead touched the floor.

"You saved my life..."

"Yet I spent five years hurting you."

"I don't deserve to be called your father."

Simon quietly walked forward.

He placed the moonstone necklace inside the coffin.

"This always belonged to you."

"I was simply too blind to realize it."

He removed the mate pendant from around his neck and laid it beside her.

"If another life exists..."

"Please don't choose someone like me again."

The funeral ended beneath a sky filled with soft white clouds.

Everyone slowly left the cemetery.

Only three people remained.

Mom.

Dad.

And Simon.

One Year Later...

The Belladonna Healing Research Center officially opened its doors in Lunaris Pack.

Above its entrance hung a silver plaque.

"The Zora Thorne Healing Center."

Every young healer entering the academy would first learn about the woman who gave everything to save others.

A scholarship was also established in her name.

It was awarded each year to students who showed kindness, honesty, and selflessness.

Mom and Dad visited Zora's grave every single week.

Neither of them ever missed a visit.

Mom carefully replaced the fresh lilies while softly talking as if Zora were still listening.

Dad would silently clean the gravestone before sitting beside it until sunset.

Neither of them ever truly smiled again.

Simon never accepted another mate.

Every full moon, he brought fresh Belladonna flowers to Zora's grave.

Sometimes he spoke for hours.

Sometimes he simply sat there in complete silence.

His greatest punishment was not loneliness.

It was living every day knowing he had destroyed the woman who loved him the most.

Far above the cemetery, my soul quietly watched them one last time.

Their tears were genuine.

Their regret was real.

But love that arrives after death can never save the one who has already left.

A warm golden light slowly surrounded me.

Ahead stood Grandma with the same gentle smile I had missed for so many years.

"Come home, my little Zora," she said warmly.

This time, I ran into her arms without hesitation.

The pain.

The betrayal.

The loneliness.

Everything disappeared the moment she embraced me.

I looked back one final time at the people who had once been my family.

Then I smiled peacefully.

The girl they ignored in life became the person everyone remembered after death.

And as the golden light carried me farther into the sky...

I finally found the home I had been searching for all my life.

The End.