|43|
I saw my parents car pull up in front of the pack house and before they even had a chance to get out of the car, I was already running to them.
"Mum, Dad!" I called, just as my mother stepped out. She acted fast with her quick speed and managed to grab me as I catapulted myself into her arms.
"Hello sweetheart" she says sweetly, kissing me on my head. She was about to say something when someone else cleared their throat from beside us. I pull away from my mother and looked up to find my Dad looking down at me with an unimpressed expression.
"Clearly we know who the favourite parent is now." He teases, rolling his eyes with fake annoyance.
I grin and jump into his arms. "I missed you!" I exclaim, as his arm wraps around my waist, lifting me up slightly off the ground, squeezing me so tight all the air in my body left.
"Hello princess..." He whispers into my hair and I close my eyes as I lean into his chest, his familiar scent surrounding me.
"Thanks for coming." I say pulling away. I can tell from their faces, despite the fact they tried to hide it, neither one of them were ecstatic about being here.
I quickly cast a glance back to Zac who was standing a further distance away, arms crossed and a stoney look on his face. He too, clearly wasn't jumping in happiness at the sight of my parents...especially my father.
I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and turn back to my Dad, who had now noticed my mate and was currently shooting lasers at him with cold eyes.
"Dad, please," I plead, grabbing his hand, forcing him to look down at me. "please apologise to Zac. I really don't want there to be bad blood between both of you. It would mean a lot to me if you guys got on well."
His lips tighten at my words, but I've always been a soft spot for him, so I know that despite his tough outward appearance, he was secretly considering my words.
"Honey, why don't you show me around the pack house? Last time we were here, I never got a chance to look around." My mother reached for my
shoulder, recognising that it would probably be a good idea to leave the males alone for a while.
Looking between my father and Zac, I agreed that perhaps that would be the best thing to do, so with a final smile to my Dad and a pleading glance to my mate, I quickly led my mother away and into the house.
★★
"Urgghh!" My mother growls, her beautiful blue eyes flashing in anger, "what I wouldn't give to wrap my hands around that woman's neck!"
"Mum, seriously it's fine." I say sternly, but my lips twist up in a barely hidden smile. It was just too funny to see my usually calm and put together mother, pace up and down the room as if she had ants in her pants.
At my words, her furious eyes shoot to me and suddenly any traces of my smile disappeared.
"Fine? Fine?!" I feel my body shrivel up underneath her hot glare. "That witch Dominica-"
"Demelza-" I correct.
"-thinks she can waltz back into your life and threatens to kill you and you think that it's fine?" Her perfect teeth flash as her lips snarl in anger.
My mother is such a lovely woman and the best Luna ever. But good god was she scary when she wanted to be.
"Mum-" I try to get her attention, but she wasn't even looking at me anymore. She was huffing and puffing, sprouting incomprehensible words under the breath as she paced around the room.
"Mum listen to me-" I stepped in front of her and grab hold of her shoulders, finally making her stop. I could tell that despite the fact that steam was practically rolling out from her ears, she was using her anger to
hide something else. She was trying to hide the fact that she was scared at the sudden appearance of the powerful witch.
"She won't hurt me," I say, my voice as determined and sincere as I could make it. "I'm not a little baby anymore and I can defend myself now."
My words offer her no comfort and i watch the fear flickering behind her blue eyes. Her fingers clenched into fists by her side and for a second I wonder whether she was about to push me aside. But instead she just raised her hand and gently stroked my face and softly ran her hand over my hair.
"You are my daughter, Eve." She says suddenly and that's when I realise that she wasn't worried about Demelza physically harming me. No, she was worried that now my biological mother had returned, I would now forget about her, that I would leave her for Demelza.
I want to scoff at the thought, but before I could reply, my mother spoke up, her voice shaking.
"It was me who stayed up night after night when you were sick, worrying about you, praying for you. It was me who sang you lullabies and kissed you goodnight when you were too scared to go to sleep. It was me who loved you with all my heart, mind and soul." I see the glimmer of tears in her eyes and it makes my heart ache.
"Of course it was you," I said, not being able to hold back my tears. "That's what a mother is supposed to do and you are my mother. My only mother."
She blinks fast and the tears brimming her eyes, roll over and slide down her cheeks. She pulls me into her chest, holding me tight.
"You will never ever know how much I love you." Her voice murmurs and I close my eyes, tightening my hold around her.
And you will never believe how much I love you either.
★★
My father joined us a few minutes later and from the lack of bleeding wounds on his face, I assumed it was safe to believe that no fights had broken out between the two most important men in my life.
Since they were tired from their long journey, I showed them to their bedroom and made sure they were comfortable before leaving them and making my way back to Zac's office, where I knew he would be hiding.
I didn't bother knocking since I couldn't hear any other voices from the room and instead just pushed open the large wooden doors and walked in.
Zac was sitting in his chair, behind his desk and as soon as the door opened, looked up to me.
"Are you happy now?" He asks and I notice the hint of irritation in his voice.
"Very!" I say, taking a seat on the chair opposite him. I put my elbow on the table and lean my head onto the palm of my hand, not saying anything but just silently watching Zac.
He watched me suspiciously for a second, his perfect eyebrows cocked and then turned back to his work, flicking through several papers and signing various documents for a few more minutes, until finally he suddenly closed the folders abruptly and crossed his arms, turning his attention back to me.
"Go on then," he says sighing.
I raise my eyebrow, smirking at him "What are you talking about?" I ask.
His eyes narrow on me, pinning me in place. He pushes all the files on the table to a side and then leans forward, his face stopping inches away from mine.
"You have that look on your face, the ones that says you have something you want to tell me desperately and that you won't leave until you say it."
"Oh really?" I retort, "so you want me to leave, do you?" I jokingly stand up and get ready to leave but before I could even turn around Zac was by my
side, backing me up against the edge of his table.
"Never." He whispers into my ear as the front of him pressed up against me.
I push at his chest with a wide grin, but it hardly affects him and he remains flushed against me, his index finger coming up underneath my chin, forcing me to look up at him.
"What did you want to tell me?" He finally asks, completely serious except for the small smile playing on his lips.
I lean against the table and wrap my arms loosely around Zac's waist, still looking up at him through my lashes
.
"I just wanted to thank you," I say sincerely and I hoped he could see my gratefulness in my eyes.
"Having my parents here, means a lot. So thank you for trying to get along with my Dad."
Two grey eyes peered down at me with burning intensity and for a while it was silent as he pondered my words.
"I'm sorry for not realising how much they mean to you." His voice is gruff, but his words pull at my heart. "I'm sorry for questioning your parents choice to keep you in the sterile room, I realise now it was just to protect you."
My mind flashes back to the memory of us in the car on the way to see my parents for the first time and how he had infuriated me when he had assumed by parents were the bad guys, holding me hostage.
I sigh, and shake my head.
"It's only because they love me so much." I say, "My parents were never able to have biological children of their own. When my Mum was younger, she was attacked by a rogue and her injuries were so bad that it made her
infertile. For a long time they thought that there would be no chance for them to have a child and then one day I appeared, abandoned, sick and in desperate need of a mother and father. To them I'm a miracle they spent their whole life praying for and to me they are my everything- I owe them my life."
I smile despite my words but I notice the frown on Zac's face.
"Demelza is evil and cruel and yes she abandoned me in the hopes that I would die, but what she doesn't realise is that her actions that night saved the lives of three people- mine and my parents."
The frown on his face deepens.
"Shit Eve," he starts, "I'm such a dick. I didn't realise."
"Yes," I laugh, "you are definitely a dick, but I love you and I know you love me too and that's why I want to ask you to try again with my parents. I know my father disrespected you and I know it goes against every part of your Alpha instinct, but I'm begging you, please one more chance."
Zac watched me carefully, his eyes flicking across my face and somewhere in his eyes I can see a strange emotion.
"You're lucky to have parents who would give up the world for you." He says and again there is an emotion laced in his words that I can't quite figure out.
I stare at this face for a second, taking in the way his eyes harden and his lips tighten. It's clear he wants to say more but he hesitates and then decides against saying it.
"I'm sure your parents would do the same." I finally say, but Zac pushes himself away from me and takes a step back.
He was about to walk back around the desk when I reach out and grab his hand, pulling him back to me. I suddenly realise I've never even thought
about Zac's parents. The only relatives of his I knew were his sister and his aunt.
"Where are your parents?" I ask, my eyebrows furrowing.
A coldness came over him and his body stiffens at my words. He looks at me and I was a hundred percent sure that he wasn't going to answer, but he surprised me.
"Dead," he says and that's when I recognise the alien emotion in his eyes. Longing.
"How?"
"Hunters." He doesn't say anything further and I wonder whether I should push him for more or to let him be but he continues to speak after a long moment of silence.
"My father was an Alpha of a small pack in the North. It was a tiny little pack, barely a hundred members but he was a good man, an even better Alpha," he pauses, "...and the best father."
"He loved Kate and I with all his heart and he taught me everything I know. My mother too was the loveliest woman ever." A ghost of a smiled traced his lips but it was gone before I knew it.
"One day we were all happy, sitting around smiling and then the next day the hunters came and tore apart the pack and my family. They killed my parents and left Kate and I packless meaning the only option we had was to go rogue."
I gulp, my eyes burning.
"And for a while we travelled around, trying our hardest to just stay alive and then finally we came to this land and decided that we were tired of running away. Since I have Alpha blood in me, it wasn't difficult to build a pack. In our years out in the forests, Kate and I had run into several rogues and together we formed the Red Moon Pack and as more people found out
about this pack for rogues, they started coming over, asking to join and that's how this pack became what it is now."
My mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water and for a second my mind is crowded with so many thoughts that I could hardly think straight.
"You must have been so young," I say.
Zac barely looked over twenty five but I knew that this wasn't the case. From my old geography lessons, I knew the Red Moon Pack has been established for at least thirteen years meaning-
"I was sixteen when I became Alpha." Zac confirms what was already in my head.
I was speechless and with blurry eyes, I reached over and hugged Zac tightly. I couldn't even begin to imagine what his life must have been like, the pain he had gone through, the struggles of having to grow up so quick and taking over so much responsibility.
"I'm so sorry." I say not knowing what else to say and I know when his arms come around me, and hold me against him, with his face in my hair, that what I had said was enough.
★★
"I'm guessing Zac told you about our past."
I was sitting at the kitchen table a few days later, when Kate strolled in, her eyes focusing straightaway on me. I look up at her, trying to ignore the heavy feeling in my heart.
"How did you know?" I was sure Zac wouldn't have said anything to his sister.
She shrugs her shoulders, "It's not that difficult to guess, especially when for the past week you've been going around looking at me and Zac with that guilty look in your eyes."
Oh.
"I'm sorry." I quickly apologise. I knew better than most how it feels to have people look at you with pity and believe me it wasn't a nice feeling so all I wanted to do was slap myself for doing the same to Kate.
"No don't be. Being sorry means you've done something wrong."
Kate's sits down opposite me and reaches over to grab my hand.
"Zac and I have gone through a lot and we've both had to grow up really quickly, but it doesn't mean life is terrible. I mean look at us now." she gestures around us, hinting at the massive pack house.
"You do know that Zac was sixteen when he became Alpha, right?" She continues.
I nod my head. Sixteen. It's such a young age, basically the prime time of an individual's life where they begin to transition from a child to a young adult. It's already a difficult stage, with hormones and teenage problems but then having to take on the role of an Alpha as well? It sounded impossible and yet Zac had managed.
"It was around that time as well he found out from Demelza that you had died."
My eyes widened. Of course it was. A sixteen year old boy, already under the strain of losing his parents and then having to lead a pack only to find out his mate too had died should have pushed him over the edge.
"How did he keep going?" I'm afraid to hear her answer.
She shakes her head, her eyes closed.
"Honestly Eve, I have no idea. Zac is the strongest person I know and somehow he managed it. But deep inside I have a feeling that he was close to giving up before he found you."
Close to giving up.
A smile starts on my face. Clearly Zac and I were so obviously made for each other. Both of us had found each other when we were so close to giving up. I was ready to die when I had trespassed, desperate to find some kind of a purpose to my futile life and apparently so had Zac.
Somehow, despite everything, we had managed to find each other in our most desperate moments and had saved each other without even realising it.
I quickly stood up, desperate to go and find Zac and let him know exactly how much he meant to me, when I suddenly felt the room spin. I grabbed onto the side of the kitchen table to steady myself and not even a second later my mouth opened and I projectile vomited all over the kitchen floor, while Kate watched me with wide eyes full of shock and horror.