– Funeral Flowers and Steel
“You’re serious about the bars?” Edward asked, holding a clipboard as Claire gripped the metal rail, sweat rolling down her spine.
“Dead serious,” she muttered through clenched teeth.
Her arms trembled. Her right leg buckled again.
“Claire—”
“I said don’t help me.”
He took a step back.
The rehab suite smelled like bleach and rubber. Early morning light slashed across the floor. Claire’s hospital gown clung to her like second skin.
“One more step,” she whispered.
“You can rest—”
“One more.”
Her leg screamed. She bit her lip until she tasted blood. Then she moved—inch by inch—dragging the wreckage of her body forward until her left foot kissed the mark on the floor.
She exhaled, shaky but victorious.
Edward raised an eyebrow. “You just beat every projection I gave you.”
Claire leaned on the bar, panting. “Don’t lower the bar next time, Doctor.”
He almost smiled.
Then voices floated in from the hallway.
“Did you see who just walked in? Elodie. Not a scratch on her.”
“Moon Goddess must favor her.”
“Unlike some people…”
Claire didn’t flinch.
Edward’s jaw tensed. “You don’t have to listen to them.”
“I already did,” she said. “For years.”
The door opened a crack. A nurse stuck her head in. “Claire, um… I thought you should know. Your father’s memorial service is today.”
Claire nodded once.
“They’re holding it in the Alpha atrium. All the elites are gathering.”
“Right outside this room?”
The nurse nodded awkwardly. “Yes.”
“Perfect,” Claire said flatly. “Maybe someone will remember I’m not a ghost.”
The nurse disappeared. Edward folded his arms.
“You’re not going, are you?”
“I’m not invited.”
“That never stopped you before.”
She gave him a dry look. “I used to think being the Beta’s daughter meant something.”
Edward’s silence stretched too long.
Claire glanced down at her leg. “I’ll stand again before I beg for a seat at that table.”
---
Hours later, Claire sat on her hospital bed, dressed in slate-gray sweats, hair pulled back into a simple braid. She dabbed foundation on the worst bruises. She would not attend her father’s memorial looking like roadkill.
A voice drifted through the hallway.
“…such a shame, really. If she hadn’t insisted on that marriage—”
“She threw herself at Jasper. Elodie was always the right Luna.”
“She’s just a scar now. A reminder.”
Claire’s hand clenched.
Another knock. Another mistake.
A courier peeked in, holding an elaborate bouquet of lilies.
“Delivery for the atrium,” he said. “Wrong room?”
Claire stared at the flowers.
“No,” she said calmly. “You’re in the right place.”
He blinked. “You’re… Claire Nightwind?”
She nodded. “Leave them.”
When he left, she pulled the bouquet close.
White lilies. Funereal. Regal. Dismissive.
She took the scissors from the nightstand.
Snip.
Petals fell into the basin again. One by one. Controlled. Surgical.
“Cremation,” she whispered.
The door opened behind her. Edward stood there with a tight expression.
“They walked right past your room, Claire. Every single one of them.”
“I expected no less.”
“Your father served this Pack for forty years.”
“And now he’s ashes. Like these.” She dropped another petal into the bowl. “I’m honoring him the only way they’ll let me.”
Edward walked in slowly. “You don’t have to prove anything.”
“I do, actually. But not to them.”
“To who, then?”
Claire looked up, eyes bright but dry. “To myself.”
He sat down across from her. “What do you need?”
“Parallel bars in my room. Permanently.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You planning to dance in here?”
She held his gaze. “No. But I plan to leave standing.”
Edward gave her a long look. “I’ll authorize the install first thing in the morning.”
“Good.”
A pause.
“You’re not going to ask for pain meds, are you?”
Claire shook her head. “Pain reminds me I’m still here.”
Edward exhaled. “You’re tougher than anyone I’ve met.”
“No,” she said softly. “I’m just done being weak for people who never asked me to be strong.”
---
That night, long after the corridors emptied and the lilies wilted in the basin, Claire picked up her tablet again.
The wedding replayed.
Jasper stood beside her in a pale gray suit, jaw tight, eyes distant. She remembered the silence between them. How his fingers never curled around hers. How the crowd applauded like it was a coronation. How Elodie, seated in the front row, smiled like she already knew it would end.
Claire fast-forwarded to the moment the officiant pronounced them.
No kiss. Just a nod.
She zoomed in again on her own expression.
It wasn’t joy.
It was fear.
A desperate, silent plea.
She powered off the screen.
“Never again,” she whispered.
---
The next morning, before the sun rose, Edward helped install the bars in her room. Nurses hovered awkwardly. One muttered that no patient had ever requested rehab this early.
Claire ignored them all.
She stood between the chrome rails, hands trembling.
Step.
Wince.
Step again.
Edward watched from the corner, arms crossed.
“Did I ever tell you I broke my spine during the last territory war?” he said.
“No,” Claire grunted.
“I spent ten months learning to sit up. One year after that, I took my first unaided step.”
Claire paused.
“And now you’re here,” she said.
He nodded. “Helping someone even more stubborn than I was.”
Her lips twitched. Almost a smile.
Outside the room, footsteps echoed.
Male voices. Laughter. Commanding tones.
Jasper.
She didn’t look.
Just stared straight ahead, muscles shaking.
The chrome rail dug into her palms.
Two centimeters of glass separated them—worlds apart.
She took another step.
---
At dusk, Claire sat propped in bed, hair damp from a sponge bath. The lilies were gone now. Her room smelled like antiseptic and soap.
Edward appeared with a tray. “You should eat.”
“Later.”
He hesitated. “You’re making progress faster than anyone expected.”
Claire tilted her head. “Is that admiration or concern?”
“Both.”
She took the tray. “Thank you.”
Before he left, he paused. “Tomorrow?”
“I’ll walk to the window.”
He nodded, then added, “They’re planning a banquet for Elodie.”
Claire’s grip tightened on the tray.
“She’s officially being welcomed back.”
“Of course.”
“You don’t have to go.”
Claire met his eyes. “I’m going.”
“Why?”
She smiled faintly. “Because they think I won’t.”
– Parallel Bars
“You’ll rip your stitches,” Edward warned as Claire tightened the brace on her leg.
“I won’t,” she said. “They healed.”
“Barely.”
“Enough.”
He sighed. “Why the urgency?”
Claire glanced at the window, where rain streaked the glass. “Because they’re watching.”
Edward followed her gaze. Across the courtyard, a glass wall separated the rehab wing from the Alpha compound’s training grounds. And there he was—Jasper Redfern. Laughing with hunters, sword strapped to his back, cloak billowing in the wind like he’d never known a burden.
He didn’t glance her way.
Claire stepped between the bars.
“Wait,” Edward said. “Let me—”
“I don’t need your hand.”
The silence that followed was heavy. She shifted her weight. Her right leg trembled. Her left locked into place.
She moved.
Step.
Pause.
Breathe.
Another step.
Her arms bore most of the weight. Sweat clung to her spine. The pain flared hot across her knee—but she didn’t stop.
Through the glass, a young trainee pointed. “Is that—?”
Jasper looked.
Their eyes met.
He blinked.
She didn’t.
Then she turned her back to him and took another step.
Edward said nothing. But when she reached the end of the rail, he exhaled softly, almost reverently.
Claire gripped the bar until her knuckles ached. “I hate that he saw me.”
Edward handed her a towel. “He saw you walking.”
“He saw me weak.”
“He saw you fighting.”
Claire’s voice cracked. “He never came, Edward. Not once.”
“I know.”
“I waited.”
“I know.”
---
Later that morning, Edward wheeled her into the diagnostics wing. “We’re doing a scan on the femur,” he said. “If the bone's healing faster than expected, we can begin weight training.”
“Good,” Claire said. “I want full mobility in six weeks.”
He blinked. “That’s... ambitious.”
“Is it?”
He smiled. “Stupidly so.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Perfect.”
The tech greeted them. “Claire, good to see you upright.”
“Don’t get used to the chair,” she replied. “It’s temporary.”
“I’ve heard.”
While the scan whirred to life, Edward stepped aside to check his messages. Claire stared at the ceiling, counting her breaths.
After a while, Edward spoke.
“They’re hosting the welcome banquet for Elodie tonight. Main hall.”
Claire didn’t respond.
“You’re not expected to go.”
“I know.”
He studied her. “But you are going, aren’t you?”
She nodded once.
“Dress?”
“Simple.”
“Hair?”
“Pulled back.”
He nodded. “Cane?”
She turned her head. “Polished like a weapon.”
---
By evening, Claire stood before the mirror in her hospital room. The navy dress hugged her waist and ended at her knees, modest and strong. She fastened the clasp of a steel bracelet—one of the few things untouched from before the crash.
Her cane gleamed, silver-tipped.
A nurse entered and froze. “You look... regal.”
Claire turned. “Thank you.”
“Would you like me to call for an escort?”
“No,” Claire said. “I’ll walk in alone.”
---
The banquet was already underway when she entered.
Music flowed from the string quartet near the dais. Chandeliers glittered. Everyone turned.
Silence spread like frost.
Claire stepped through the doors.
Cane tapping.
Dress rustling.
Her limp was subtle, dignified. Her chin never dropped.
“She came,” someone whispered.
“She looks... different.”
“No Elodie charm.”
“But steel in her eyes.”
Claire didn’t stop.
She reached the edge of the crowd.
Jasper stood beside Elodie, raising a glass. “To the Moon Goddess,” he said. “For bringing back our brightest star.”
Elodie beamed.
The crowd applauded.
Claire didn’t.
Jasper’s eyes met hers over the rim of his goblet.
For one second, he faltered.
Claire turned.
She walked toward the musicians.
There, standing beside a notary in the shadows, she murmured, “Do you have the forms?”
He nodded, already pulling them out.
Claire signed each page with deliberate strokes.
“Witness?”
“I brought my own,” she said, nodding toward a young nurse behind her.
The notary glanced at the last page. “Divorce decree,” he muttered. “You’re sure?”
Claire sealed the envelope with a crisp press of wax.
“I’ve never been more sure.”
She slipped the envelope into her clutch.
At the far end of the room, Elodie laughed at something Jasper whispered. Claire didn’t watch.
Instead, she approached a full-length mirror in the corridor outside.
She looked at her reflection—hair pulled tight, dress dark as dusk, bracelet catching light.
No jewels.
No pretense.
Only a woman with eyes like tempered glass.
She exhaled.
Tonight was not her funeral.
It was her resurrection.
---
Back in her hospital room, Edward was waiting.
“Well?” he asked.
She handed him the envelope.
“Tomorrow morning,” she said. “It goes to his desk.”
He opened it, scanned the header, and looked up. “Final?”
“Signed. Sealed.”
He looked at her for a long time. “Do you regret it?”
Claire sat, stretching her aching leg. “I regret ever waiting for him to love me.”
Edward didn’t respond.
Claire leaned back against the pillows, cane resting beside her like a sword.
“I’ll need a ride home in three weeks.”
“I’ll drive you myself.”
“I’ll need crutches by then.”
“I’ll order them.”
A pause.
Claire looked at him. “You believe I’ll walk unaided?”
Edward smiled, eyes warm. “I believe you’ll run.”
