Chapter Sixty
dropped onto the sofa with both my parents looking down at me. My father mouthed the words sorry, but I just flipped him off and he laughed. “Now spill.”I “Well, you already know the beginning of the story. I woke up, in the past, you sent me to Dad’s hoping he could figure something out to help me. Dad came clean, told me about our powers, and I started training.”
“She also started female warrior training back up.” My dad pointed out, but my mom glared at him over her shoulder.
“What do you mean ‘back up?’.” She growled and then turned to me.
“You said that yesterday too...back up.” She turned back to my father and lifted her brow.
I watched him gulp, and then he rubbed the back of his head. “I was missing you. And I had hoped that you still had friends in the pack.”
“I cut everyone off, Gav. It was too hard.” She looked away.
My dad nodded. “Amy told me this summer. If I had known the truth, I would have stopped when I still had a semblance of control over the situation.”
“Gavin Michael Maclean, what did you do?”
“I gave the order to stop everything you were supposed to oversee in hopes your duty as a Luna would push you to come back. Even if you hated me, I would still have you as my Luna.” He gave an awkward smile as my mother’s mouth dropped open.
“What did you do?” It was like she couldn’t believe him.
“I thought you would come back.” He looked away.
“When?” she whispered.
“Two years after you left.” She hit him over and over in his arms. “Ow, I’m sorry. I thought you still had friends there, and I didn’t know.”
“Gavin, how could you do that to the women?”
“To everyone. They didn’t even know how to talk to their wolves…” I pointed out and my dad shot me a quick glare, but I smiled at him.
My mother choked. “Oh, my sweet Goddess.” She dropped her hands.
“Those poor pups.” She pointed a finger at my father. “I don’t know how long this will take, but when I get back there, so help me and the Goddess, you will help me rebuild my school.”
“You’ll come back?” My father’s hopeful question had her tirade ending prematurely.
“Of course I’m coming back. You’re my mate.”
“Four years.” I called out.
“What?” Both my parents turned to me.
“It will take four years for us to come back to the pack. But we can also take summer trips, just the two of us, around the world, but in reality, we are just coming back home.”
My dad shook his head. “Although I would love to have you both every summer, Vince has spies. Every Alpha does.”
My mom turned to my dad and grabbed his arm. “What about here?”
“Here?” My dad looked around and smiled.
“Yeah, it’s off every pack land by a long stretch, it's hidden unless you have been here before. It has everything we need to train Amy.” She grabbed his hands. “We could do it, can’t we?”
“I could probably get away for a month.” My dad looked hopefully at us.
“We could as well.” My mother beamed up at him.
“But why four years?” My dad turned back to me, almost missing the timeline.
“A degree in computer science takes four years. I can learn about coding, streamline programs and I can only assume, use the knowledge I learn legitimately and apply it to say hacking.”
My mom and dad froze. “You are a genius.” My father finally broke and ran over to me and picked me up. “You are honestly one of the smartest people I know.”
“Hacking? Why do you have to learn how to hack?” My mother’s voice had us freezing.
“Dad asked me to learn. He thinks Vince has something to do with the attacks on the pack.”
“Attacks?” My mother waved her hands. “Sit.” My dad dropped me.
“Explain.” We both sat on the couch and looked at each other.
“So, a lot happened this summer…” my dad started.
“I gathered that.” My mother waved her hands again. “So why don’t you
explain it all to me?”
“So, I went there.”
She held up her hand. “You went there, found out you had powers, and started training to use said powers.” And then she glared at my dad. “And you restarted the training I had in place for YEARS to train female warriors.
What else happened?”
“Well…” My dad rubbed the back of his neck again.
“Dad was under a spell.” I jumped in.
“What? How is that even possible?”
“Well, it seems like my grandmother wasn’t the only witch who fell in love and mated a wolf.” My dad tried to smile and failed miserably.
“There was a she-wolf…an unranked she-wolf. Who used your necklace in a spell to make dad infatuated with her? It only worked for a few minutes each time, but he was close to falling for it when I got there.”
“What?”
“It was magic, not how I truly felt.” My dad tried to comfort her.
“What happened? What necklace, and who is the she-wolf?” My mother listed off the questions in quick succession and I wanted to laugh.
“Ainsley…are you jealous?” My dad smirked, but she just backhanded his arm, and she turned back to me.
“After I noticed something was wrong, I worked to get my power under control. My great-grandma helped me. And-”
“Wait, the dead woman?” My poor mother was trying her best to understand everything, but she was lost when it came to powers. “I’m used to Carl and his gifts, so I’m a little lost, but people coming back from the dead should be off the table, right?”
I laughed with my dad. “Think more like spirit. Her spirit helped Amy.”
“You got help from a fucking ghost?” She came over and sat next to me.
“Mom. We are werewolves, and you’re surprised by ghosts?” I patted her hand, and she shot me a glare.
“Listen. That isn’t really fair here. I’m out of my depth.” She almost pouted, but my dad hugged her to his side.
“We know.”
“Anyway, Grandma helped me understand my power more, and once I could connect with it, well, then the Goddess blessed me.”
My mother choked. “The Goddess, THE Goddess. You met the Moon Goddess?”
“Yeah, another side to our gifts. We have to be blessed by the Goddess.” I smiled as she slowly shook her head.
“I don’t recognize you anymore, baby.” She whispered, and I chuckled.
“I’m still me. Anyway, once I had my power under control, grandma guided me to her Book of Shadows. And I found spells that could have been used to make dad act the way he was, but I had to be sure. If I was wrong, I could royally fuck everything up. But after some digging. Aurora, the she- wolf who tried to steal dad, I realized she had to be the one doing the spell.
So, I called the King. I thought it was the council, to ask permission.”
“Permission for what?”
I really had hoped she wasn’t going to ask that question. I wasn’t ashamed I did it, just that I didn’t want my mom to see me as a monster.
“To torture her.” I squeezed out while looking at the floor.
“Amy.” My mother gasped.
“I had to, so I could be certain.”
“I’m just happy you asked for permission is all, baby.” My mom gathered herself and clutched at my hand. “If it was me, I would have just done it
and begged forgiveness later.”
Now it was my term to gasp. “Mom?”
“What? You think I am just going to allow some she-wolf to steal my mate? Absolutely the fuck not.” My mother was riled up again, I could see.
I laughed and dove back into the story. “Anyway, while torturing her, I figured it out. The spell she had on him. She made a mistake choosing your necklace. The one with your birthstone and your wolf.” I pulled mine out of my shirt. “I recognized it immediately.”
She reached over and trailed her finger over my necklace. “All this time and you, had it?”
My dad nodded. “I took it to get it engraved, but then everything happened. I kept it in your office. I had everything of yours moved there
except your clothes.”
“Why?”
“Seeing your stuff hurt me. A lot. But I could never part with it. So, I left everything in your office so I could sit in there and remember you.”
“What did you do with my clothes?” My mother met his eyes, and I saw the blush form on his cheeks.
“I left them in our closet. On terrible days, I would sit in there, breathing in your scent. It calmed Loki and eased the ache a little.” I felt my eyes water as my dad admitted something I didn’t even know he did.
“Gavin…”
“I love you, Ainsley, and nothing would ever change that. Not one thing.”
This right here was the love I wanted in my life. The all-consuming absolute devotion of my parents. Even being apart for so long, and my father is still so head over heels in love with my mother. He just gets here.
Totally understands exactly what she did and why she did it. And he doesn’t
blame her.
He blames himself.
But they both should blame the cruddy circumstances they had to live. I wanted them to forgive themselves and grow into the couple they should have always been. “Goddess, I love you Gav. I’m sorry for everything.”
“I am too, love. I am too.” They kissed again, but then a howl cut through the air. A familiar howl.
I felt my face drop and my mother hid her face. My dad looked at me and just asked for one word. “Morgan?” I could only nod.
“Our time has run out, love, but I am so thankful I came here.” My dad kissed her one more time before he got up. “I have to run.” He took a step towards the door and my mother jumped up and wrapped herself around him.
“Don’t be mad.” Her words were soft, almost childlike, in her fear.
“I’m not baby. We have four years to wait. I’ve already waited seventeen, and this will be easier because now I know you are coming back.” He kissed her again, and she walked him to the door. She pulled out descenting spray and sprayed him down. One second my father’s scent was surrounding us, and the next it was gone, leaving a missing hole in my senses. “Can you do me one favor, though?”
“Anything.” My mom stared at his face with a longing so strong it made my heart hurt.
“Unblock me so we can mind-link. It has been ages since Loki talked to Sigyn, and he misses his mate. As I miss mine.”
“Already done.” My mother smiled up at him. “That’s why they have been quiet. They have been spending time with each other.”
My dad smiled and leaned down once more to kiss her one last time.
“He’s always smarter than me.”
“That he is.” She hugged him once more, then he was gone. A long howl sounded again, and she slammed the door and walked back to me. Tears were welling in her eyes, and she looked at me. “I don’t want to go back.”
“I know.” I grabbed her hand and smiled.
“I couldn’t say this in front of your father, not after I got him back, but Morgan has been pushing to have a pup of our own.” She looked at me.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Don’t do it.” My answer was fast.
“Obviously not.” My mother was quick with her answer. But she looked at me, really looked at me. “Why did you answer so quickly?”
“In my first life, you were pregnant with Morgan’s pup, but it was like the pup sucked the life out of you. Every day you were pregnant, you died a little more on the inside. Your wolf withered, and you did too. By the time it came for the baby to be born, you were so weak, you died. I had thought you died from sadness that it was Morgan’s pup, and that fact ate away at you making you weak, too weak to give birth. I found out as Brandon took me that he had poisoned you to make you weak. Well, Brandon and Shannon, both. Then they had the doctor use silver on you, and in your weakened state you and the pup died on the table.”
My mother trembled as I told her the full truth. “That bastard.”
I just nodded. “He killed my entire family. He killed dad too. This time around, I won’t be letting him anywhere near us.”
“You have dealt with so much already in your life, and you are barely eighteen.” My mom stroked my hair. “This isn’t how I pictured your life.”
I leaned into her arm, and she wrapped me in a tight hug. “I doubt my life would ever be what you and dad dreamed it would be. You made an Alpha, and a strong one at that. My life was always going to be harder than most.
Plus, as a Lycan, it was doomed from the start.” I gave a small laugh.
“Don’t say that. You were supposed to have an amazing life, and you still can.”
“Mom. My mate is a bastard. He will never be deserving of me.”
“Your wolf mate will never be deserving of you. My wolf’s mate wasn’t either.” She chuckled as she shook herself. “He was and still is a disgusting rat bastard that I never allowed myself to get too close to until I was fully mated to your father.”
“Dad was your Lycan mate?” I questioned.
She nodded. “He was strong enough to catch Sigyn’s fancy, but in truth, they were destined to be together. My wolf, Leanne’s mate, is, well, pathetic.”
“Who was Leanne’s mate?” I looked up at her and she shook her head in disgust.
“Vince.” She looked down at me, disgusted. “I caught his scent the morning of my eighteenth. I followed his scent back to his pack, and I watched as he rutted another female. I was disgusted. As I taught you, my mother hammered home the meaning of mates and how we should save ourselves for them. So, when I saw him rutting with another, it broke
Leanne’s heart.”
“Understandable.” I held her close.
“But even then, I could have tried to make it work.”
“Then what happened?” I pulled back.
“Mid-rut, the scent hit him. The she-wolf was pregnant with his pup. And he lost control. He ripped her apart. The poor girl was no more than seventeen and he ripped her to shreds. I watched as he killed a girl that he confessed his love to, and I couldn’t do anything because I was a rogue wolf on his land.
I stared at her for what felt like minutes, but it was probably only seconds. “Mom…”
She shook her head, and a new tear fell. “I knew then I could never mate Vince. So, I left. And I spoke with my father, as you spoke with me, and he said he would never make me mate with a wolf that held females so low.
Low enough to use them while they were at their weakest and then kill them when he was finished with them. So, whenever Vince came looking for his mate, my father would always send me back home.”
“How did you meet daddy?”
My mom blushed at her thoughts, but a more frantic howl ripped through the air and I watched him deflate. “We should go.” She put out the fire and quickly put everything away. “Morgan will go berserk if we don’t show up
soon.” She lifted her lip in disgust.
“Can you handle the next four years?”
“Yeah. Baby, I have to.” She waved me to the front door and sprayed us
both down with descenting spray.
“Won’t he notice?”
She shook her head. “We will wash it off in the stream. It only protects our cabin.” I nodded as we walked out of the cabin and froze when we heard a howl close. Too close. “We have to hurry. We will have to cut down away from the pack and then wrap back around. I refused to allow him here.”
I just nodded and we both shifted. She ran off behind the cabin and I followed. Morgan’s howls came more often until we were almost too far to hear it. Then my mother stopped and howled back. A quick response, just a quick, we are on our way. Even I could tell that my mother’s wolf was annoyed with that howl and Morgan would know it, too.
He kept howling, but my mom never answered again. I could see her wolf bristle with each howl, and her annoyance was slowly burning away to her
anger. “How dare he?”
“Mom? What’s wrong?”
“He knew this was our first run, and yet he is acting like this.” His wolf bristled again as his longing howl cut through the air. “I didn’t bother him all night when he took Shannon for her first run, but today he is acting like this.” If her wolf could spit I think she would have. She was foaming at the mouth with anger.
We crashed through the stream and our scents came back. When her scent hit me, I stumbled. I knew she was angry, but her scent hit me like a truck.
We ran almost twice as long as the first time around and when we ran from the trees to the backyard; we found Morgan mid howl. My mother’s wolf bristled, and her hackles rose to their full height. Morgan the wolf trotted over and tried to rub down my mother’s side, scenting her, but she snapped at him and growled. His wolf danced away and looked hurt. But she turned to me and scented me with her smell.
Morgan sulked away and shifted, then came back over to where we were.
My mother was still trying to calm herself as she ran herself down my side.
It was almost like I was her worry stone. Every pass, she calmed down a little more. Every intake of our combined scent soothed her wolf in a way that only mothers understood.
I watched Morgan with hostile eyes as he came over. “Where were you two?” His question was accusing, and once again my mother bristled. She looked at me and me her, and then we both shifted. And she turned on
Morgan.
“How fucking dare you.” She was pissed.
“Amy, go to your room. I will talk to you later.” Morgan tried to sound stern, but there was a quiver in his voice.
“Like hell you will.” My mother grabbed my arm, and I almost yelped.
Not in pain, but in surprise. “Amy is my daughter, not yours. And don’t for a second think that an Alpha wolf would take a command from a Beta.” My mom’s word cut into Morgan. I could see the hurt behind his eyes. “Amy listens to you because I ask her to, but tonight, tonight, you crossed the line.”
Morgan raised his hands in surrender. “What exactly did I do?”
“Do not play dumb Morgan. It doesn’t suit you. You know exactly what you did tonight.” My mom walked up to him and pushed her finger into his chest. “The first run with your child is the most important. It allows our wolves to bond, as they should their first time meeting one another. BUT YOU.” She slammed her finger into his chest so hard that he flinched. I always forget that my mother is an Alpha because she always defers to her partner as a Luna should, in public anyway. I think Morgan forgot, too.
“You had to come out here and start howling. Demanding we come back.”
