Aviva
I expected to be led into a throne room guarded by wolves. I expected gold finishes, ball gowns, crowns made of precious gems. I expected to see their powers at work and feel tiny in comparison.
I wasn’t expecting the woman who greeted me in the doorway of a very simple, open sitting room in the depths of the castle, yellow wallpaper illuminating her face in a soft glow.
She sucks in her breath and absolutely beams at me, her dark blue eyes widening with… joy. Or maybe it’s utter relief. I’m not sure. Whatever it is, she’s happy to see me, and she doesn’t even know me.
“The girls said you had red hair, but this–wow, you are just stunning.”
“Mom, can you at least let us come into the room first?” Ryan smiles down at the woman, his mother, his hand flat against the small of my back.
I see the resemblance now. Ryan doesn’t look like her other than the eyes. His features are much more striking, harder, sharper. But she’s soft and lovely, her hair a deep, wine red. It’s pulled back in a long ponytail that drapes over her shoulder as she takes my hand and tugs me forward. “Look at her, Ryan. Oh my Goddess. You have incredible hair.”
I clear my throat. I’d caught my reflection in a trio of mirrors while we walked across what felt like an entire city on our way to this room. My hair was crazier than usual, practically standing on end at all angles, tightly curled. A lion’s mane, honestly.
I look back at Ryan as his hand slips from my back. He tucks his hands in his pockets, smiling softly as his mom guides me toward several couches arranged around the room. But just as I’m about to turn back to his mother, several tiny people rush for him, crashing into his legs at full speed.
Ryan dramatically falls to the ground, groaning like he’s injured, much to the delight of the four children climbing him like a tree.
“I thought the girls were joking when they told me Ryan brought home a wife,” she says, her hand still locked on mine as we reach the center of the room. She finally releases me, motioning for me to sit. I do, wondering if I’m dreaming up this incredibly weird day. “It sounds like, from what Sydney said, that you didn’t have a choice. Is that true?”
“Can we not get into this right now?” I hear Ryan say from across the room. He has one of the toddlers, a little boy, tucked under one arm, while another, a boy of a similar age with bright blond hair and silver eyes, climbs over his back. The little girl with curly brown hair, Brie, I assume, is busy knotting Ryan’s shoe laces together, while the fourth, the youngest of the group, stands by and innocently sucks his thumb. “Let me guess,” Ryan chokes out, trying to stand, “Sydney told you everything?”
“I forced him to, in his defense,” she retorts, but smiles at me nonetheless. “I’m Maddy, by the way. Welcome to the family.”
Is that it? No interrogation? No arguments about whether I’m suited for her son or capable of ruling beside him as Luna, carrying on his family name and lineage?
“Blake, that’s enough. Uncle Ryan isn’t a jungle gym, remember? We talked about this.” The blonde woman from earlier enters the room wearing an outfit made of silk, I believe. It’s a deep, muted violet, matching pants and a flowing shirt that hangs off her shoulders. She scoops up the little boy who was sucking his thumb and adjusts his weight on her hip before she sets her sights on me.
I go rigid when her eyes meet mine. Her eyes are pure violet. “Aviva,” she says brightly, her wide smile lighting the room. “I’m so sorry my idiot brother-in-law and thoughtless mate didn’t have the wherewithal to warn you about jumping.”
My mouth pops open in a perfect O. No, this wasn’t what I was expecting at all, and now I feel incredibly unprepared.
“She handled it just fine,” a blond man, who I hadn’t realized had been standing in the room the entire time, says from the corner near the window. He’s standing with two other men, older, Maddy’s age, by my estimation.
I stand on instinct, something reminiscent of fear coiling through my veins as the dark haired man turns around to look at me. Silver eyes drift over my face. Tattoos cover his neck and his forearms, down to his fingers.
Holy shit.
That’s Ryatt, Alpha King of Eastonia.
My legs wobble. I nearly drop to my knees and hang my head in a bow. I’d heard about him, the legends about him. I guess I never really let the truth of the matter settle in.
I’m mated to his nephew.
How is this real?
Ryan is behind me suddenly, turning me to face the men fully. The second man is most definitely Ryan’s father. The resemblance is uncanny. Now that I’ve seen King Isaac in person, I can also imagine the differences between Sydney and Ryan more clearly. Sydney takes after Maddy.
Ryan is his father’s son, through and through.
King Isaac walks toward me, smiling kindly if not a little skeptically, and extends his hand. Unlike with Sydney, I take it, wondering if I’m meant to kiss his knuckles or shake his hand.
He chooses the latter. “Aviva. That’s a unique name.”
I’m speechless.
“It’s Endovian,” Ryan says as Isaac releases my hand.
Everyone is looking at me. My heart starts to beat out of rhythm. I feel that twisting ache in my chest again, making it hard to breathe. Ryan notices, giving his mom a look before turning me toward the door in an attempt to get me out of here, but then the little girl is in front of us, peering up at me with large, hazel eyes the size of tea saucers.
“Who are you?” she asks politely.
“I’m–I’m Aviva,” I croak, embarrassed, feeling like a tinier version of myself.
“I like you,” she says with conviction and then darts away.
“Okay,” I whisper to myself, feeling faint. I’m going to faint. I am, in fact, losing my vision around the edges.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Ryan practically growls, cursing under his breath as he starts to nudge me toward the door over the voices blurring around us.
“She’s just feeling the effects of jumping, you meathead.” A cup of tea is suddenly thrust into my hand, and I’m seated before I can blink or form another rational thought. Silver eyes fill my vision, and then she’s there, the small, dark haired woman I’d seen very briefly when I arrived. She smiles kindly at me as she bounces a baby on her hip. “Drink it. You’ll feel better. It always makes Evander feel better.”
Evander. That name is familiar. Why is it familiar? Ryan mentioned him a few nights ago, of course. His childhood friend or something.
I blink a few times and sip the tea. It’s lukewarm, meant to be finished right away. The silver-eyed woman watches me tip it back and drain the cup, pleased when I hand it back to her with trembling hands.
Ryan ropes an arm around my shoulders as the room continues to spin. It takes several minutes for it to slow down, for the voices and faces to stop blurring. A bright warmth flows through my body, making my skin tingle. On instinct, I look for the woman who gave me the tea and find her seated nearby with the blonde woman with violet eyes.
Everyone has dipped back into their own conversations, leaving me and Ryan alone for a moment. When I sigh heavily, taking a much needed breath, Ryan asks softly, “Are you okay?”
“I’m really confused.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I could have prepared you better. It’s just been so busy in Silverhide the last few days.”
“I know.” I rest my hand on his thigh, squeezing, feeling instantly better knowing he’s actually here, and I’m not hallucinating all of this. “I’m not upset with you.”
“You should be. I’d deserve it.” He licks his lips, looking around. “Goddess, there are so many of us now.” He adjusts his position, turning to point to the group of four men standing in the corner by the window. “That’s my uncle, Ryatt. My dad, obviously. You met Sydney already. And the blond, scary guy is Evander.”
He does look kind of scary. Deadly is a better descriptor.
“Evander is mated to Kenna, who gave you the tea. She’s Ryatt’s daughter, my cousin. Sydney’s mate is Sarah, the one with the blonde hair.”
He goes on to explain whose children belong to whom. Brie, Aris, and Maeve, the baby, are Kenna and Evander’s children. Blake and Liam are his nephews, belonging to Sydney and Sarah.
My head spins, but I take it all in.
“Ryan,” King Isaac says with a tilt of his head toward the door as the men move out of the room.
Ryan flexes his jaw, his fingers tightening their grip on my arm.
“I’m being summoned. I’ll walk you back to my apartment–”
“No, don’t take her away yet,” Kenna argues from across the room. Sarah shakes her head in emphasis.
Ryan looks down at me as he stands, his eyes searching mine for confirmation that being left here with his family is okay with me.
“I’m fine,” I tell him, wondering if I am, in fact, fine.
“This shouldn’t take long.” He grumbles, bending to kiss me right on the mouth in front of his mother. I go bright red as he pulls away.
Kenna and Sarah move in on me without prompting. Maddy is busy with the children, looking like she’s in the Goddess’s Kingdom in the clouds. I don’t think she even realized the men left.
Kenna sits on one side of me, and Sarah takes the other, so I’m trapped.
I think of Natalie and her friends in Silverhide. Women who like Freya but don’t look in my direction if they can help it. I’m not the kind of person who can make friends naturally, but Kenna and Sarah aren’t really giving me a choice.
“So, you're Ryan’s mate?” Sarah asks, smiling around the words. Again, I notice the relief in her eyes that I also noticed in Maddy’s. I nod, and her smile widens.
Kenna lets out her breath with a sad smile, her eyes slightly glassy.
“He seems much happier,” she says absently, nodding to herself. “Good.”
I notice their expressions, the deeply seeded grief. It strikes me in the chest. I know Ryan has been through a lot, likely pushed people away like I’d been doing since my mother died, but I didn’t realize how it affected his family.
How deeply must he have been hurting for them to look beyond relieved that he’d found me?
“I know this is a lot to take in,” Sarah whispers as Kenna gets up to tend to Aris, who bumped his head on a coffee table while playing with one of the other boys. “I’m an in-law too.”
“There’s just a lot of people.”
“Oh, you can be honest. It’s totally overwhelming, but you get used to it. Sydney and I often end up in another room, enjoying the quiet, after a family dinner.” She smiles prettily, her strange eyes seeming to glow. “It could be worse,” she continues with a shrug. “You and Ryan seemed to have just found each other naturally, pre-forced-marriageaside.”
I smile a bit, which makes her smile even wider. “Is that how you and Sydney–”
“Oh, no. I wiped his memories of me after the first night we met and conceived Blake, then–”
A rushed intake of air travels through the room as two new women appear in the doorway. I stand on impulse as Ella enters… Queen Ella. Her power radiates off her just like her mate’s. She’s smiling at me though, but then looks… shocked. The woman beside her with copper-blonde hair rushes forward, coming to an abrupt stop only a few feet from where I’m standing.
“Amanda, what’s the matter?” Maddy asks as she stands with baby Maeve in her arms.
Amanda. She looks like Evander. She must be his mother.
Queen Ella and Amanda stare at me so hard I go red.
“Who is your mother?” Amanda rasps, tears in her eyes.
“My mother?” I echo, confused.
“There’s no way,” Queen Ella says to herself, but Amanda shakes her head, several tears sliding down her cheeks.
“Who is your mother?” she repeats in a desperate tone that has everyone rising from their chairs in confusion.
Sarah grabs my hand. I barely feel her touch out of the shock of this moment, but it’s comforting.
“Gemma. Her name was Gemma.”
Amanda crumbles, covering her face with her hands. Queen Ella looks suspicious as she edges toward me, her fingers gently touching my cheek, turning my face to the side. “Is she still alive?”
“No,” my heart begins to crack. I ask myself, for the thousandth time today, what’s going on. “She died six years ago.”
“How?” Queen Ella’s voice is totally, completely serious. Hard, and stern.
“Mom?” Kenna asks behind me. “What’s wrong?”
“She died having my sister. Lora is six now. Shoshannah is ten, and there’s me, and Mercy.” I’m not sure why I’m telling them this, but at the mention of the four of us, Queen Ella’s eyes soften, and Amanda steps toward me, scanning my face before pulling me in for the tightest embrace I’ve ever received.
“Ella,” Sarah says cautiously. “What–”
“I thought I was the only one left,” Amanda says, holding me tight. “You look like us. Our pack. Gemma was–”
“Gemma was a friend,” Ella says tightly, obviously resisting the urge to cry. She turns just as Maddy reaches her side. “Dinner’s ready.”