Zira could feel someone moving around her. She cracked open her eyes just in time to see little hands grabbing a cookie from her plate.
I must have fallen asleep on the couch, she thought, as the aches in her body reminded her of that fact.
“Hey, Bugga. Are you trying to steal my cookie,” she asked, trapping Arias’s hand in hers.
“My cookie,” Arias asked, trying to take it away from Zira, but she held onto it.
She easily took it out of his hand and hovered it above him. “Isn’t it a little early for cookies?”
Arias scrunched up his face. “But I want it,” Arias said with a pout. His eyes started to fill with tears and for a moment Zira could feel herself lowering her hand. He was good.
“No!”
Zira turned to see Luna Bella standing in the doorway with a teacup in her hand. She quickly walked over to take the cookie out of Arias’s hand. The moment she did that, he started to cry, and Zira went straight to comforting him. She smiled to herself when he didn’t pull away from her before turning to Luna Bella.
“It’s just one cookie, Luna Bella.”
Luna Bella gasped as if Zira said something outrageous. Then her mouth closed into a thin line. “First, I am not Luna anymore, though I might keep the title since it seems a particular person doesn’t want it.”
Zira bit her tongue. Deep down she knew Luna Bella would be pissed at her for not becoming Luna, but still…Words hurt.
“And just one cookie,” Luna Bella laughed sarcastically, “No, one cookie can easily turn into two or three with this one. The next thing you know, he won’t eat his breakfast, which is the most important meal of the day. Instead, he would run around to burn off his little sugar high and cause chaos, then cry that his stomach hurts. Is that something you want to deal with? Is it something you want to instill in your child?”
Luna Bella moved closer to them during her little rant until she was almost on top of them. Her eyes narrowed in on the two of them and, for a moment, Zira felt like she was being reprimanded. Arias was still crying, and Zira couldn’t help but feel his pain as the crocodile tears fell down his face.
Luna Bella sat her teacup down on the table, then suddenly clapped her hands once. It was so loud that Zira could hear the ringing in her ears, and it made her jump along with Arias.
“That’s one,” she said, but Arias kept crying.
She clapped again. “Two.” Arias went down to whimpering while studying his grandma. Apparently, the claps were a secret code Zira didn’t know of.
“Do I need to clap one more time,” Luna Bella asked with a challenging look only mothers could do.
Arias looked at his grandma and watched as she raised her hands to clap again. He quickly shook his head while wiping his face.
“Good,” Luna Bella smiled, “Now go and get your shoes on like I asked you to please.”
“Yes, Nana,” Arias said as he wiggled out of Zira’s embrace and ran into the other room.
That left Zira and Luna…Bella in the room...alone. Bella picked up her teacup and began to take little sips all the while studying Zira, who, on the other hand, looked everywhere else except for her. Many times, Zira tried to start up a conversation, but nothing came to mind.
What do you say to the mother of the man you were supposed to be mated to but instead left in the dead of night? Nothing, you say absolutely nothing, Zira thought.
“As if you would follow your own advice,” Nina said. Zira could see her curling up in a ball. “I vote to stay quiet. Her wolf looks ready to pounce and I don’t want to be on the receiving end.”
Zira heeded Nina’s warning, but the way Bella was watching her made her feel like she was supposed to say something.
“Luna-I mean Miss Bella. I just want to say thank you for all you’ve done. I know you’ve been an instrumental help in taking care of Arias while I was away,” Zira said with a half-smile.
“Well, someone had to do it,” Bella said with a hint of venom on her tongue.
"Told you so," Nina said. "Don't say-"
“Lu-Miss Bella, I-”
“Let me stop you right there, Zira,” Bella said, cocking her head to the side.
"Just choose not to listen to me," Nina said, shaking her head.
“I don’t know if there is anything you can say right now to make me forget what you did. Honestly, I don’t think you even know the consequences of your actions.” Zira started to speak but Bella raised her hand to stop her. “I understand the need to protect your child. It’s part of being a mother. Hell, I would do anything to keep my children safe but…”
Bella stopped to take a deep breath and closed her eyes. They sat there for a moment before she opened them and stared back at Zira. She placed her teacup back on the table, which Zira saw as a bad sign. Zira could see the presence of tears threatening to come and she saw…pain.
“...but you left…no…abandoned him. You abandoned them when they needed you the most. I don’t know if you know this, but Isaiah lost a lot in a short amount of time. He lost you, Zira, he lost Arias, then his father, his baby girl, his mate and then…” She swallowed hard as if the next thing was stuck in her throat. This was the first time she had said this out loud. “...me. He lost me for some time.” Her words were thick with emotion and each one stabbed Zira’s heart like pins and needles.
“Then he got you back and Arias, and you both gave him something to live for. Even though you were mated to someone else, you both gave him life. Then he lost you again when you lost James, but at least you were here. At least he could somewhat sleep, knowing you were not too far away.
So, when you left…again…you took a part of him with you. Being the Alpha, he was trained to hide so many things from others. Fear, doubt…loneliness. He worried about you every day, trying to put on a brave face for Arias, because he had no other choice, but I could see something withering away at him. He rarely slept, rarely ate. It’s just…he might not say it, but it was hard for him. I want you to know that because if you do this again, I’ll-”
“Ready, Nana,” Arias yelled, interrupting Bella’s speech, and Zira couldn’t be happier. Bella’s eyebrows furrowed at Zira before turning to smile at Arias. “Arias is going on a play date with Junior and the other kids.”
“Should he be around other kids? What about his fever,” Zira asked, bending down to touch his cool forehead.
“Ah yes. Your mother-”
“My mom was here,” Zira asked before Bella could finish.
Her mom came there, and no one told her or woke her up. It made her feel a bit uneasy about this information. Her mom was famous for barging into her room unannounced and waking her up whether she liked it or not.
“Yes. If I’m not up to it, she keeps him whenever Isaiah leaves.”
“Isaiah is gone? Where?”
“Not sure. He left in a rush this morning. Had to go meet someone, he said. He didn’t give me the specifics, dear.”
“Well, did he say when he was going to be back?”
“I’m not his keeper, dear, so I do not know,” Bella said as a slow smile spread across her face. “Doesn’t feel good, now does it?”
“Mother!” Isabella stood in the doorway, glaring at her mother. “Give her a break, geez.”
“Hmph,” Bella said while grabbing Arias’s hand and walking out the door. Isabella shook her head at her mother before walking over to give Zira a hug.
“I don’t know why you thought this was going to be easy, Zira,” Nina said while lounging in the back of her mind. She was grooming herself without a care in the world. “You just blew up everyone’s life coming back.”
“Would you rather me stay here and watch as our son slowly dies?”
“He looks fine to me,” Nina said without a glance her way as she laid her head down on her front paws with her eyes closed.
Zira ignored her comment. She knew why she took this journey and when Arias is healed, everyone would have to accept that she did what she had to. Hopefully, it would be enough for everyone to forgive her.
“Don’t mind her. She’s just a little overprotective of Isaiah,” Isabella said, sitting on the couch.
“She isn’t wrong,” Zira said with a sigh. “I didn’t know he was going through all this. He didn’t mention any of this when we talked over the phone.”
“Because he knew it wouldn’t have changed anything, Zi,” Isabella said.
Zira whined, knowing it wouldn’t, and plopped down beside Isabella. Zira felt hopeless. She just wanted him back. The ‘Isaiah’ before everything that has happened. Before Alaia, the pregnancy, the ‘almost’ dying twice. Most of all, she missed her friend. Just thinking about the past almost brought tears to her eyes when she felt Isabella’s hand in hers and her head on Zira’s shoulder.
“What should I do, Isa? He’s so mad at me and I can’t even talk to him without him leaving the room. I don’t even know what to say.”
“How about, ‘Hey Isaiah, you can thank me for finding a way to save our son’,” Isabella said, nodding her head. “That sounds about right.”
“No, that won’t help me fix it,” Zira said softly. “Being away for so long just made me realize how much he means to me and how much everyone means to me. Help me fix Isa, please.”
Isabella sighed heavily. “Stop worrying about Isaiah. One little kiss and he’ll be fine,” Isabella grinned. “Just remember why you left and try to lead with that. At the same time, try not to make him angry.”
Zira shoved Isabella’s shoulder before laughing and wiping the tears that had escaped. “You make it seem like that’s all I do.”
“Seemed like? Recently it’s all you’ve been doing, and he takes it out on his warriors, including me. I wouldn’t be surprised if they hated you a little too.”
Zira's eyes went wide. “Dammit! Who else do I have to win over?”
“If I were you, I would start with your family like your mother,” Isabella laughed.
“Ohmygod, you’re right,” Zira said, jumping up from the bed. “I totally forgot about my parents. They’re going to kill me.”
She hurried to the bathroom and ignored the uneasy look on Isabella’s face. Zira could almost hear her say something about a rude awakening but decided to ignore it. She was in a positive mood. If anybody would be happy to see her, it would be her parents.