"Thank you. I have not had this in over ten years." She said as she turned to look at David and Gretchen again. "Now the real fun begins." She declared
I shot up off the couch like a rocket, my fists balled at my sides. "Will someone PLEASE tell me what the hell is going on?" I yelled. I was beyond frustrated at this point. This was something big that I had no clue about. Why was all this kept from me?
My uncle stood up out of his chair and walked slowly over to me. "Amber –" he started but was quickly cut off by my mother.
With a flick of her wrist she forced my uncle to sit back in the chair he had previously been sitting in. "Don't Adam! You've done enough!" She said through tight lips. Turning to me she gave me a small smile. "Amber, please sit down honey. I will tell you everything." She said quietly.
I turned back to the couch, feeling so overwhelmed and anxious I had tears welling up in my eyes. I felt Damien's hand reach for mine. As I let him take my hand I looked up and met his wary eyes. He gently pulled me down to his lap and wrapped me in his protective embrace. "Babygirl I am hear with you. I will be hear this whole time, and we will be here together. No matter what happens, I'm not going anywhere. I promise you." He whispered gently in my ear. Gently nodding my head up and down I took a deep breath and rested my head on his shoulder.
My mother took a step towards the center of the room and I could feel her eyes on me as she began. "I know there are a lot of questions for all of you, and I am sorry for how confusing this all must be. You see, I am not sure really how to start." She started hesitantly.
"With the truth." Damien demanded.
"Son let her speak!" David boomed.
"I don't need you to rescue me David!" my mother burst out. Her face was tomato red and I could see she was extremely angry. What I couldn't understand was why she was so angry. "Not now. You didn't come for me when I needed you all those years ago, so just don't do anything now!" she screamed.
What was I missing? Didn't come for her? How well did these two know each other?
Taking in a deep breath and exhaling slowly my mother prepared to start her story. "As I'm sure you are all starting to connect the dots, David and I have known each other since we were kids. In fact, he was my neighbor when I was only a child. Best friends we were, always exploring and getting into mischief when we were children. He was like my guardian angel, always there to look out for me and watch over me."
I looked over at David and almost as if confirming his story, he stared at my mother with so much love in his eyes.
"But you see, our friendship was taboo. We were not supposed to be friends, best friends for that matter. You see he was a wolf, an alpha wolf at that. Wolves and our kind never mixed well. So the older we got, the more secretive we had to be about our friendship."
I looked around the room, feeling like I was the only one who was left in the dark. What was she? In turn what did that make me? I cleared my throat, "Um, I'm sure everyone else in the room already knows what you are, but would you mind telling me what exactly you are? What that makes me?" I nervously asked.
She turned to me with an apologetic smile on her face. "Yes, Amber I am sorry. We are known as Lapis Pythonissam. That is the proper name at least, but for your sake of understanding, we are known as Stone Witches."
I let out a gasp. "How is that possible? I thought I was werewolf and human. So you are not human?" I asked.
She let out a small chuckle and shook her head no. "No, I am not a human. Although you see, being a stone witch has its advantages and disadvantages. You see, all of our magic is drawn from the stones and crystals around us. Each stone witch has a different level of power, but only as long as she has stones and crystal to draw her magic off of. Without the aid of these stones and crystals she is powerless, like a human." Putting her hand on her necklace she gripped it tightly. "Isn't that right Adam?" she asked with anger in her voice.
Adam looked up to meet my mother's eyes. "Yes, Natasha. That is correct. I kept your necklace safe for you in case you returned." He finished dryly.
Rolling her eyes at Adam, my mother turned to look at me again. "So continuing on with the story, David and I were the best of friends, but we had a secret friendship due to the fact that werewolves and Stone Witches are not supposed to consort with each other. We were very careful with out friendship and things were going great until a little vengeful slut of a werewolf came into the picture." My mother glared at David.
"Do not call her a slut! She was jealous and insecure! She may be a lot of things but a slut she is not!" David argued.
"Aww poor David. I'm sorry I will refrain from calling your wife a slut. But I will not forget that vengeful bitch outted us. She went to David's parents and told them of our friendship. They were so livid that they went straight to the elders and told them of our transgressions."
"But why would the elders even care?" Damien asked confused.
"Because unbeknownst to most of the population, werewolf royals and stone witches are more connected than anyone else. Werewolf royals are the purest blooded werewolves there are, and they seem to have witch like powers, at least some of them do. And surprisingly enough, those stones play into those powers in some instances. At least the purer the blood of the royal, the more their powers are associated to stones and crystals. " She answered. "The elders do not want stone witches and common werewolves mating with each other. They believe that it is unnatural and will tip the scale for the werewolves so that the royals will lose all their powers. So instead of just reprimanding myself and David, they let David have his beautiful little life with his vengeful mate and I was shipped off to the elder castle."
I gasped. So her meeting my father was not her choice? Was she in love with David? I wasn't sure that I wanted to know the answer but before I could even think about the consequences the questions rolled out of my mouth. "Were you in love with David?"
My mother looked at the ground. Tears filled her eyes and she nodded her head lightly. "Yes, I was in love with him." She said as those tears started to roll off her cheeks.
David moved to get up, trying to shift Gretchen off of his lap. My mother whispered so low it almost wasn't heard, "Don't." When David didn't listen to her and continued to try to make his way towards her she raised her voice. "Don't David! Don't do it now, you didn't come for me then, I don't want you to come for me now."
He stopped moving. His head lowered down now in shame. "Natasha, I didn't come for you then because I couldn't come for you!" he yelled. "Please believe me, if I could have came to you I would have. You were my everything!" he begged.
"Then why David? Why did you have a girlfriend? Why did you get married while I was being held against my will? Why did you mate with her?" my mother's quiet tears had turned into sobs now.
"Natasha! We were living a secret! I had to keep up appearances, and since when were you being held against your will? I've had pictures of you and Ashton together looking mighty cozy with one another! You sleeping in HIS bed!" he yelled.
My mother dropped to the floor continuing to sob. "What did you want me to do? Keep pining away for you? Keep hoping that one day you would come save me from the misery that became my life? You were moved on with that…that woman!" she cried harder.
David jumped up from the chair he was seated in, making Gretchen fall to the ground. He quickly made his way over to my mother and pulled her into his arms. Wrapping her in a tight embrace he stroked her hair gently while placing a kiss on top of her head. "Natasha, I never stopped loving you. NEVER. I thought about you every moment of every day. You have no idea the anger that coursed through my veins at the thought of you sharing that bed with Ashton. My heart tore in two every time I looked at those photos." He was rocking her on the floor.
My Uncle stood up from his seat. "You two sicken me. It's been over 20 years since you have been together and you still can't just let it be! Natasha, your relationship with Ashton may not have started out on the best of terms, but that man loves you more than he loves himself. He has been beating himself up every day over the way the things went between you two. You once loved him, and then you left him taking his daughter with you. What kind of person does that? What kind of person lets their sister assume their identity and abuse their child?" he boomed.
"I didn't let anyone do anything to Amber! You took my necklace! I was powerless! How you could you even say that to me?!" she screamed with pain in her voice.
"I did nothing of the sort!" he screamed incredulously. "Your necklace, you gave it to me the day that you let Ashton find you in bed with Jeb! You told me to keep it for you, that you no longer had use for it! What are you talking about Natasha?" he seemed so confused, waiting for answers.
In a flash Gretchen was standing from the chair laughing to herself. She raised her hand with a big mega watt smile on her face. "Oh you all were so easy to fool. I can take credit for that one too!" she laughed. "After all, it all was so easy. Trick my older sister into thinking I wanted a relationship with her. Take her necklace while she was sleeping so that it left her powerless to do a damn thing while I unraveled her life. Adam I brought you the necklace because I knew you would keep it safe, but would never suspect anything." Turning to David she had a pitying look on her face. "Oh and David, those pictures that were sent to you were actually me and Ashton together. I knew you needed a little bit of encouraging to get on with you life without Natasha, so I made sure you had something to fuel the fire." She let out an evil laugh. "And Ashton it was so easy to fool him. He was so in love with Natasha from day one. Even the slightest interest shown by me made him so happy. He was simply love-struck by her. "
"Why? Why did you want to ruin their lives?" I asked Gretchen.
Gretchen turned to me incredulously. "Why? You really want to know why? Because everyone always loved her so damn much, and I, I was the disgusting abomination! My mother couldn't even look at me because I was never supposed to exist! A child made of a stone witch and a werewolf, the exact life that Natasha was heading towards!" she yelled.
"So then you have different fathers?" I asked her.
"Yes! Would you like to know who my father is?" Gretchen asked almost excited to reveal who her father was.
"The Rogue Alpha." My mother whispered.