"NO!" Jackson yelled and moved for the first time since he was escorted out onto the stage.

He moved to jump down, possibly to shake some sense into me I imagine, before he was restrained by four other alphas.

"No!" He growled again. "This fucker is playing with all of you! Can't you see that? He is using abusing the system and he is winning!"

The other Alphas ignored his protests. So he changed his tactic.

"Will!" He cried out and Will tensed. "Will stop her! You can't do this Romy! You can't!"

He struggled and fought the men that were holding him back. I could tell he had significant damage done to his body from the way he was moving and flinching. Even if he had been allowed to fight my father, the possibility of him winning with his body wounded would have been significantly less.

Ignoring the yelling of my mate, I stepped forward and cracked my knuckles.

"Let's do this," I said, staring my father dead in the face.

His smile faltered for a moment. He wasn't actually expecting to have to fight, I knew that. It just went to show how little he knew me.

"Last one to submit or last one left standing wins," the speaker recited. "Stay within the confines of the fighting circle."

"No! No Romy!" I heard Jackson scream out hoarsely as I shifted, not caring about the clothes that were torn to shreds.

My wolf was ready. I was going to protect my mate. I was going to avenge my child. I was going to pay back what he had given to me ten-fold. Unlike him, I had something to protect, something to fight for.

My father shifted into his own grey and white wolf and without any ceremony I launched myself at him.

We were all teeth, snouts and claws as we bit and snapped at each other. He instantly went for my neck, an obvious move as I parried and snapped at his snout. He pulled back, snarling and showing his teeth. I growled back, letting my anger take over.

I jumped at him and he met me in the air. I managed to get a hold on his throat but he turn us and landed on me with a sickening thud, causing me to release my hold.

I kicked him off, driving him to the other side of the arena and pulled myself back up onto my feet. I crouched down, waiting for his next attack. He was bigger and stronger than I was. But I was quicker and definitely more fierce.

I could tell I would never win this fight thinking like a human. I could tell my father kept tight control of his own wolf, not allowing him release. My father had always been a bit of a control freak, so there was no surprise there. I, however, trusted my wolf completely and entirely and had no qualms handing the reigns to her.

She didn't hesitate to take over and launched another attack at the wolf that dared threaten our mate. She was furious. She was irate. She was a Luna she-wolf and she would have her vengeance. I surrendered myself to her completely and totally.

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I regained control of my body after I head a sickening crack. I felt blood filling my jaw and mouth and my canines ached. My body felt like nearly every bone was fractured and my head was swimming in pain.

I managed to back up a couple of steps and look down. I let the warm, sticky blood that had been pooling in my mouth to drop, leaving a small puddle of the syrupy substance on the ground. In front of me lay my father, as his wolf. His head was turned at an unnatural angle and there was a giant bite taken out of his neck.

I turned from the corpse, unable to truly process what had happened.

I made it a couple of steps away before my body seized and gave out, dropping me to the floor. My head hit the stone as I fell. My lungs felt like they were filled with water.

Was it possible to drown above water? I thought offhandedly.

My body started to convulse and my brain stopped processing. I saw people swarming around me, like a mass of zombies just coming in for the kill. My body went cold and I could feel myself shifting unwillingly.

The stone felt warm, like the sun, to my fragile, furless human body. The convulsing didn't stop. If anything it got worse.

I could hear rumbling around me, gruff and almost like barking. Was it talking? Was it barking? I had no idea. I couldn't think.

Then, I was suddenly jolted from the ground on which I lay. The unexpected onslaught of pain hit me like a freight train.

I am pretty sure I screamed until I passed out.

---------------------------------

They told me that I had been unconscious for almost a week.

During that time I had under gone so many surgeries even I had a hard time remembering them all. Jackson didn't. Jackson remembered every surgery and every wound that I had.

Since I had woken up, he hadn't left my side. My mother told me that he had been the same way when I was out. His face was less swollen and more just discoloured now, marking the passing of time I had been out.

I had won.

I had defeated my father and saved Jackson's life. Jackson told me that after my father was declared dead that they had absolved him as Gary's murder. That they believed it was a provoked attack.

I had snorted. I was sure that the result would have been a lot different if I hadn't taken care of Tony Cardaver.

Jackson hadn't waited for the ruling to leave the Tribunal, to get me to the hospital. Will had delivered it afterwards, while I was in the OR.

The few doctors that I had seen told me that it was a miracle I had survived. With all of the wounds I had when Jackson came storming into the hospital like hell was on his heels that they had very little hope for me.

"I told you that you are a fighter," Jackson had said.

It took me a month to be ready to be released from the hospital. Summer was almost upon us and Jackson looked good as new. He never did share with me what happened to him during the time he spent captive with my father. I was almost scared to ask. I knew what my father had been capable of.

Returning to the Merphate Pack house was like coming home. It felt like home. The scents, the people, the overwhelming feeling of love. They welcomed me back as Luna. Jackson had retaken over control as Alpha while I was still in the hospital.

We had offered my mother a place at our pack. She politely declined and decided to stay with the Cardavers and help the new alpha, Brendan, learn his roll.

"Is it really over?" I asked Jackson during the first week I spent back with him in our own bedroom. "I almost can't believe it.

He turned to me in our bed and ran his fingers through my hair.

"It's really over," he assured me. "We're together, we're safe."

"Forever?" I asked him, pulling my body closer to his.

"Always," he replied and sealed it with a kiss.

Then, we were lost in each other. We released all of the emotions over the past months - the fear, the anger, loss, devotion, depression but most of all love.

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Sorry for the late update.  I was without internet on my desktop computer last night :(

Also, only one chapter left and it is technically what I consider the epilogue.  So, I hope you all comment and vote on this and the next chapter!