Valene:
“Your father’s been looking for you, love. He’s worried.”
Of course, he was. I would have been worried if my father wasn’t worried. I appreciated that, but I just could not see him at the present time. Not after what I had found out after coming out of my slumber of truth.
“You know that I cannot talk to him right now, Ares. Not right now.”
Ares’s footsteps approached me from behind. “I cannot keep speaking for you, Mimar. My word only goes so far with the man. And I will not stand between him trying to see you and make sure that you’re alright.”
I turned around to face him. “Why not? I thought you had my back.”
“I did, and I do, but if a wolf or lycan or any creature tried to stop me from seeing my daughter when they are not even officially committed to one another, I’d kill him.”
His blunt truth was amusing to me. I chuckled and shook my head. “Point taken.” But I still couldn’t bring myself to face my father. Not yet. Not just yet.
The tip of his large forefinger playfully and gingerly flicked underneath my chin to garner my stare.
“You must reassure your father, mimar. At least connect with him…and your mother. Let them know that you are doing fine. That you need time before you see them.”
“They won’t take that, Ares. They won’t.”
“Yes, they will. And if they do not, then I will step in and back you up. You are an adult and they have to respect that. Whether they like it or not.”
“Then why can’t you just step in before it even gets to that?”
I was so afraid to face my father and even my mother. Finding out what I had, it would open up a can of bloody worms that I just was not in the mood to deal with. This newfound information would force dad to make a difficult decision, and I knew that mum was as unhinged as I was. She’d probably wait for no decision to be made at all. She’d go for the jugular as soon as she had the chance.
“You do not know that it will get to that point, Vale. You are assuming the worst.” he reasoned. “And as I said, I will not speak for you, but I will stand by you. Your father and mother have to know that it is your desire and not mine to keep you away from him. Otherwise, that can of worms that you are so afraid to open will turn into something far worse than what you are expecting right now. “
He was right. I knew that.
I dropped my head into his chest. When did I become so comfortable to engage with him this way? It was probably between the time of me begging him not to leave me alone and him big-spooning me through the worst night of my life.
“Well, might as well not keep them waiting,” I finally gave in. “ Let’s go.”
“Before we go,” said Ares. “You should know that your father has decided to have some sort of town gathering to alleviate the stress that everyone is under.”
“What?” I glanced back at Ares incredulously. “Does that really seem like the best idea right now with all that’s going on?”
Ares shrugged. “Everything has been quiet, so I guess he just wants-”
“Okay! And when has silence ever been a good thing in this town?! Peace isn’t something that Shadow Veil knows
“Surely things have not always been so bad, Vale,” he said to me. “Don't you think that you are being a bit…paranoid?”
He was right. Yet again he was right. Stresfully, I sighed. “I think I’ve earned that right,” I murmured as I thought about the plato behind my death and everything leading up to my last day on earth as a human.
Ares pressed my shoulders gently and nodded. “You have every right.”
“But?” I knew that there was a ‘but’ coming. So I waited.
“But, your father has never made a decision that was not calculated and he has kept this place safe for centuries. If no one else, your father knows what he is doing.”
“Why are you always right?” I countered under my breath.
Ares chuckled. “What kind of alpha would I be if I were not right at least some of the time.”
“Yeah, righht. Let’s go, Mr. Modest.”
I wasn’t sure where to go but I was almost certain that someone was at the packhouse. Should I have contacted my father to make sure? Of course. Could I have asked Ares to ask for me? Probably.
Deep down, however, I had hoped that there was a slim chance of me not seeing him if I went in blindly. Contacting him to find where he was, it would have been far more difficult to put this whole thing off. I just could not bring myself to speak with him. Not just yet.
We approached the house and I opened the door. “Hello?” I called out after sensing that someone was there. It wasn’t dad though.
“Vali?”
Harlyn came gliding down the stairs in perfect form as she usually did. There was a look of concern on her face. It was hard to place. Was she concerned for me?
She was standing in front of me before I could even make sense of her expression.
“You alright?” she asked me.
“We need to talk.” I blurted out, hardly giving her space to finish her sentence. Apparently my subconscious and Fierya thought that there was something far more important to discuss than whether I was alright.
Harlyn’s brow furrowed as she worrriedly glanced at Ares and then back at me. She was afraid. Of me.
“Just talk.”
“O-okay.”
“I’ll go find your father.” Ares knew that it was time to take his leave. He consciously placed his hand on the small of my back. I felt a sense of reassurance from his touch.
I looked up into his eyes. “Thank you.”
He smiled and left the house. Suddenly, it was just me and Harlyn now.
She was nervous. Honestly, I couldn’t blame her. “How are you? I asked.
Harlyn anxiously picked and nibbled on her fingernail. “I’m great! Just great.” She watched me a moment before reiterating her question from before. “How…how are you?”
“As well as I can be,” I stated stoically.
“Well, guess that’s good.” She didn’t know how to respond to me and honestly, I understood why.
The last time we saw one another we nearly killed eachother. I nearly ended her life. If I was Harlyn I wouldn’t feel comfortable around me either.
“I’m sorry,” we both blurted out at the same time.
I was surprised to say the least. I’d never known my little sister to be genuinely sorry about anything. This time, however, there was a sincerity there that I had never seen before now.
“Harly, I-”
“No, no, listen!” she interrupted me and before she could even start to explain herself she began to cry. “I…I have been so bitter!” Harlyn sniffled. “So angry, and I…I know that it’s only because I…knew that you were always better…than me. That you were daddy’s ideal daughter. You…you’re smart, extremely skilled at just about any and everything bloody thing that you put your to! You were stupidly gorgeous even as a human and it only intensified when you became…well…whatever the bloody hell you are now.” she sighed and turned away from me. “Then I find that…you literally were his ideal daughter. You were the daughter that was meant to be. The daughter of his true mate.” she turned around to face me. “The true heir to the pack.” the tears dangled from her pretty eyes and then fell to the floor. “I…I just, I guess I thought that maybe dad wouldn’t want me anymore. With mum dead, and your mother here, what need would there be for me?”
Harlyn’s tears turned into a flood of weeping.
“I was so horrible to you, Vali! So horrible! Because I was so afraid that if…if daddy saw how…that…that he w-that he wouldn’t…I-”
I rushed to her and I held Harlyn in my arms.
“I’m so sorry! I’m so, so sorry, Vali!” she cried.
“Shh, shh, shh. You are not useless, Harlyn. Dad loves you, so much. Do you understand that?” She didn’t answer me. I pulled her away and forced her to look me in the eye. “Do…you understand that?”
Slowly she nodded and I nodded along with her to give her the added reassurance that it was true.
“Dad has more confidence in you than you think. You just have a few things that you need to learn. That was all. We all are flawed and we all never stop learning. Does not mean that dad finds useless or that I find you useless. I know that mum dying was devastating for you. And I know now, that my biological mother showing up has been a lot for you to handle. I get it, but you will always be needed and you will always be loved. I could never replace you in dad’s eyes. I don’t want to-I never wanted to. Dad loves you, Harly. Don’t ever doubt that.”
She looked down. “And…what about you?”
I couldn’t answer that question right away for some reason. It was that delay that caused Harlyn to meet my gaze again.
“Will you always hate me? Do…you..”
“I never hated you, Harlyn.” I said to her. “Never. I resented you for hating me.”
Harlyn closed her eyes, shaking her head. She took three deep breaths to keep from crying again and then she opened her tear-filled eyes.
“I never hated you. I don’t think I ever really resented you, but I sure as hell was bloody jealous of you,” she chuckled dryly. “You were always who I wanted to be-who I want to be.”
“You don’t want to be me,” I said without hesitation. I couldn’t help but think about how traumatizing my life had been over the years. “I wouldn’t wish being me on anyone.”
“You’ve gone through a lot.”
“Yes.”
“We can talk about it, you know?” she said to me. “You know you can talk to me, Vali. Right?”
“I’m glad you said that.” I looked into here eyes. I didn’t want to put a damper on this moment because for the first time in a very long time, this felt like an honest conversation between two sisters. But this….this was far too important a subject not to discuss. “There is something that I need to tell you.”