‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ 𝓐 ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙
I had to admit, now that I was standing right on the front porch of my father's house I was much more nervous than I had been just moments ago.
"You have to remember that this man is your father Amara." Elijah said and put his hand on my shoulder.
"This man was my prison warden Elijah and when he wasn't he only cared about keeping me alive for a suitable mate." I said. "He doesn't care about me. He never has."
"That's not true. You were young...you saw your father as a monster because of the measures he took to keep you from wandering away. I Know better because I was there the day you were born. You were born, dead." Elijah said solemnly. I turned and looked at him. This was news to me.
"What do you mean I was born dead?" I asked.
"I mean exactly what I said. When you came into this world, you came in blue and not breathing. The cord connecting you and your mother was wrapped around your neck and your father wept. We all did but he...was broken."
"That doesn't make sense, People don't just come back from the dead Elijah!" I hissed.
"No, people don't. Not without a little help."
"Could you be less cryptic?" I sighed.
"I wasn't supposed to see it and if Alex knew… That I know what I know.." Elijah sighed
"What is it Elijah?" I asked. Elijah went to speak but the front door swung open and a woman who I did not recognize at all stood in the door frame staring at us.
"Who are you?" I asked probably a little more rudely than I should have and then watched as Elijah ran his hands over his face exasperated with me.
"Who am I? You are the stranger on my porch." She said, narrowing her eyes at me.
"Your porch?" I asked, unsure of why I was suddenly so defensive.
The woman stepped forward and Elijah stood in front of me.
"Forgive her Gwen, Much has changed since she was in these parts." Elijah sighed. "This is Amara. Alexander's daughter."
"Surely not, Alexander would have raised his daughter to be more respectful than this." Gwen said, giving me a reprimanding look.
"Alexander had very little to do with how I was raised. He couldn't bother himself with me most of the time. Right Elijah?" I smiled and pat Elijah on the shoulder and then looked at Gwen. "Are you going to let me in or not Gwen?" I asked.
"Gwen darling, who is it?"
The voice rattled me, and I froze as for the first time in a long while I came face to face with my father. I felt like all the air had left my lungs. His eyes were angry.
"What is this?" He asked, turning his icy stare to Elijah.
"I found her in our territory." Elijah said. "She means to pass through." He explained.
"And she needs my permission to do so." Alexander said, looking back at me.
I nodded and finally cleared my throat to speak.
"I just need to get-"
"No." Alexander said. "Elijah escort her back to the river, if she refuses. Kill her." He said coldly
Gwen put her hand on Alexander's shoulder.
"Let her at least explain why she needs to pass through, Alexander." She said. Alexander looked at me, like he would rather stab himself.
"Come in." He said.
"In..as in inside?" I asked. "You want me to come in the house?"
Alexander just stepped away from the door, giving me and Elijah room to pass through the doorway.
Elijah walked ahead of me and I followed him. The second I crossed the threshold into the house I felt strange. It looked exactly the same as when I left it but it felt very different. Alexander led the way to his study. I had never once seen the inside of it, as I was not allowed in. This was where he held most of the pack meetings which I was usually left out of.
Alexander stood at the door to the study and looked at Elijah and Gwen
"Leave us." He said but then kissed Gwen on the cheek.
"We won't be long love." He said and smiled at her. It was a smile that I hadn't seen since before my mother passed. Elijah gave my shoulder a squeeze before he walked away.
"Hear her out Alexander." Gwen said. "Everyone deserves to be heard."
Alexander nodded and Guinevere followed after Lance.
"She's…nice." I shrugged.
"She is." Alexander said and unlocked the door to the study and opened it, walking in and flipping on the lights. I followed him into the room and looked around. There were shelves full of books, and little trinkets and in the middle of the room sat a round table with chairs all around it. I walked over to the table and ran my hand over it.
"Why a round table?" I asked.
"Because when we all sit together as a pack to discuss things we sit as equals. There is no head of the table. As Gwen said.. Everyone deserves to be heard and this is where they are heard" Alexander said.
"Oh." I said.
"However.. As you are not of my pack. You can stand and still be heard." He muttered and sat down at the table.
"It seems your new mate is making changes around here.." I said. "Good changes...do you love her?" I asked. He scoffed and sat back in his chair.
"Who are you to concern yourself with my mate?" He asked.
"It was just a simple question Alexander." I said. Alexander's expression dropped slightly and I realized that was the first time I had called him by his name, rather than papa, or father, to his face. Maybe Elijah was right. Maybe there was some tiny piece of his soul that actually cared for me.
"I do love her. More than life." Alexander answered.
"It shows. You never listened to mum the way you listen to her.." I mumbled and looked down at my hands.
"I heard that your mate...your Alpha has left his pack." Alexander said. "Abandoned it."
"He didn't abandon us. He's coming home. I just need to go and get him." I said. "He's not on this side of wolf country. I need to get to the territories on the other side of the city." I explained.
"Why would you need to cross through my territory to do so?" Alexander asked. "There is a path straight through to the city in your own...going through my territory is taking the long way around."
"It is... but that path has become riddled with hunter camps at night, and I was...recently attacked by hunters and I don't have the strength to fight with them." I said.
"And how is this my problem? You ran away from your pack. Your home, and you chose him over your own father. Why do you think you are deserving of my permission?" Alexander asked.
"I left because my father was going to force me to mate with another wolf that I did not want to mate with. My father was going to put me on display in front of the whole pack to watch as Colt did whatever he pleased with me." I growled. "Tell me, does Gwen even know that you would have subjected your own daughter to rape? Does she allow you to subject the other she-wolves to it?" I demanded.
"I will admit… That there were flaws in the old ways. Gwen has shown me that." Alexander said. "But you still chose him! Over your own blood!" He spat.
"Because I fell in love!" I said. "You have made me feel like a lesser being since mother passed. You pushed me aside. You locked me in my room and barely let me out until I was of age to bring something to the pack!" I felt the tears welling in my eyes and hated that he still had that power over me.
"Why on earth would I choose that over love?! Even after all you put me through, I still thought that some part of you loved me because I am your daughter but you never did" I shook my head.
"I did love you!" Alexander shouted. "I kept you in your room because the other pups were horrible to you because of your size and because every time I let you outside you wandered away!"
"To get away from you!" I practically screamed.
Alexander actually looked hurt for a moment but he shook it off.
"I never saw you and when I did, you were hateful to me." I said.
"When I lost your mother.. I was consumed with guilt and grief. When I saw you.. All I could see was her. You look and act just like her and I couldn't look at you so I pushed you away."
"You didn't just lose her, I lost her too and I needed you to be my father. I needed to feel loved and you locked me away because you couldn't look at me?" I said in disbelief.
"When I chose Kieran over you.. You told me that you always resented me because I wasn't born a son, and that after I was born, mother couldn't have any more children so you were stuck with me. Are you telling me those are words of love?" I asked.
Alexander sighed and ran his hands over his face.
"Yes." He said simply.
"Yes?" I scoffed. "Are you bloody m-"
"Listen to me!" He shouted and stood slamming his palms down on the table cutting me off. "Just.. listen to what I have to say." He said, trying to reign in his temper.
"I knew..that once you got across that river, by your own will or not, I would never get you back." Alexander said with tears in his eyes. "But I had to try because you were all I had left and when you refused I knew I had to let you go. You were happy. You were free and that was more than I could have given you and I hate that man more than I ever have, for giving you things I could not."
"I don't understand.." I said and shook my head.
"Acting as if I hated you made it easier for me to let you go Amara." He explained.
"You have a wild heart, just like your mother and you were born to run. I Knew my time with you was limited so I kept you hidden from the world and I am a horrible person and father for it. I know this. Attempting to mate you with Colt was a cruel final attempt to get you to stay and I am sorry."
I had never once heard my father ever admit to making a mistake, and couldn't believe that not only had he done that, he apologized for them. He stepped around the table and stood in front of me. He put his hands on my shoulders but I shrugged away from him and stepped back.
"Amara, I want to fix this. I want to make all the wrong I've done to you right. Come home, the last year will mean nothing, we can put it behind us and we can be a family again."
"This last year has meant everything. It can't just be put behind us. This last year gave me a chance to see who I truly am. I don't want to come home, I have a pack of my own that I love and I am happy with. I would not be welcomed here."
"You would be. I can make them accept you!" Alexander pleaded with me the stench of desperation was rolling off of him in waves.
"My pack accepts me without having to be brainwashed by the Alpha."
"Your pack HAS no Alpha. He left you, Amara darling.. Please give me a chance." He said.
"I can't." I shook my head. "I can't abandon my pack."
"I need to fix what I have done." Alexander said.
"Then do me a favor Alexander.. When you and Gwen have a child.. Hold them, tell them every night that you love them before they go to sleep so that they know they are loved no matter what the other pack members say, Make sure they know that they are special in their own way. Do everything you never did with me..with them."
"Gwen is barren.." Alexander said softly. "I..won't have a chance."
"Then I'm sorry." I said.
"Forgive me." Alexander said.
I wiped a tear before it fell down my face and shook my head.
"I can't.. Not yet."
He turned his back to me and he was silent for what felt like forever and when he turned back to me, his face was void of the emotions it previously showed.
"So there is still the matter of you needing my permission to pass through my territory." He said as if the last hour of us speaking never even happened.
"Yes." I nodded and clutched onto the chain of the key necklace I was wearing. It was the mysterious key that had somehow made it into my shopping bag during my trip to the mall with Ruby. I had taken to wearing it, because somehow I felt like I needed to.
"You are a member of a rival pack. Letting you pass through my territory simply because you are my daughter would be a sign of weakness on my part." Alexander said and then his eyes traveled down to the key around my neck, his eyes held a certain madness to them the second they locked onto the key.
"But I suppose.. If you were to do something for me in return It could be arranged."
I sighed heavily and rolled my eyes at him.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"That key.. Around your neck." Alexander replied. I looked down at the key and then back at him.
"Why would you want this?" I asked.
"Your mother... she had one just like it and I always found it beautiful. It disappeared shortly before she passed."
"I don't know.." I said. There was a voice deep inside telling me not to hand over this key.
"That is my offer. You give me the key, I give you permission to pass through my territory, both to and from where you are going. Seems like an awfully small price to pay to be reunited with your precious Alpha." He sneered. "No Key. No permission."
"What do you plan to do with it?" I asked.
"I plan to put it in your mother's room with the rest of her things that I have." Alexander shrugged.
"Can.. I see?" I asked. Alexander clenched his jaw and rolled his eyes.
"I suppose. Follow me." He muttered and turned on his heels walking out of his study. I followed him, as he walked up the stairs and down the hall. He kept walking, but I stopped in front of my old bedroom and lightly pushed the door open. It had been exactly as I left it. I figured he would have thrown out my things..but it was mostly untouched save for a couple books on the floor.
"Distracted as always.." Alexander sighed and stood in front of me closing the bedroom door. "Your mother's room is over here."
I walked with him down the hall and he opened a door.
The second he opened the door, I could smell her. Gods did I miss that smell, it was floral and minty. I followed him into the room and looked around at what was left of her belongings. I smiled and picked up the headband of yellow and red feathers she used to wear and I gasped and put it down as I looked at a picture of me, and her.
"Can..can I have this?" I asked. "I don't have any pictures of her."
He looked at me with glaring eyes.
"Papa.. please." I said softly. Maybe it was a dirty trick, calling him Papa to try and appeal to the man I was speaking to earlier but I really wanted this picture. The only picture I had of her was in my mind, and it was when she was sick.
"Take it." He mumbled and looked away from me and walked over to my mother's jewelry box and opened it.
"The key would go in here." He said. I picked up the picture in the frame and put it safely in the side pouch on my backpack and looked back up at him.
"Do we have a deal or not?" He asked.
I was still hesitant to give up the key.. But if it was the only way I'd get to Kieran safely than I would do it.
I pulled the chain over my head and walked over to him and placed it in his hand. He closed his hand and nodded at me.
"I, Alexander Aldrich, Alpha of this pack grant you permission to pass through my territory, both to and from your destination. After this, you will not be granted permission again... You will not be welcome on this side of the river." He said and I could actually see the hurt in his eyes as he spoke those last few words.
Perhaps there would be a day when I would forgive my father for all the hurt he had caused but as of right now, I just wasn't ready.
I nodded and extended my hand to him. He put his hand in mine and we shook on it. I went to pull my hand back but he pulled me to him and embraced me quickly and before I even had time to process it, he released me and looked away.
"You should be going. However, be on the lookout for human authorities. Four teenage girls went missing a couple months ago and they've been searching the area. They may be working with hunters."
I nodded.
"Thank you. I'll keep an eye out.." I said and turned away from him walking out of the room.
I walked down the stairs, meeting Elijah at the bottom.
"I have permission to pass through both ways." I said. He looked up at Alexander who was standing at the top of the stairs. Alexander nodded and Elijah turned back to me.
"So you'll be off then." He said.
"Yeah. I will." I replied.
"I'll walk you to the door." He offered and led the way to the front door. He opened it and we stepped outside onto the porch.
"So?" Elijah asked. I sighed.
"You may have been right.." I muttered.
"I'm sorry.. I couldn't quite hear you." He grinned and leaned closer.
"You were right, asshole." I said and shoved his shoulder. "But that doesn't mean that there wasn't damage done Elijah. He stole the world from me, and he made me feel unloved so much that I was almost too afraid of love to give Kieran a chance."
"I know Mara. Gwen, she's been working with him. Making him a better man. She's trying to put an end to this whole rivalry thing with your pack"
"Good luck with that.." I said and looked at my hands. "You were saying something..before Gwen came outside, about the day that I was born, about something that you probably shouldn't have seen..What was it?"
Elijah sighed heavily. "I really shouldn't.."
"Elijah. please. I'd like to know."
"Your mother, she wasn't like us. We found it strange that Alexander took her in and loved her because he's never before taken in anyone who wasn't a wolf."
Tink was right. She wasn't a wolf.. and if she was right about that.. no Mara that is just insanity.
"We knew there was something different about her. Alexander knew too but he was very closed off about it. As far as the rest of us could tell she was human..but she didn't have a scent to her."
"She did..she smelled like summer." I smiled. At least that is what I remembered.
"The day that you were born I saw something that has stayed with me since and I've told no one except you." Elijah paused and I could see that he was weighing whether he should tell me or not.
"Your father..he left the room in absolute despair and your mother..she just held you and sang to you as she wept...and then, the first light in the room went out. One.. by one lights all over the house began to go out until the entire house was without power and there was but one source of light to be seen...and it was coming from you."
I shook my head trying to process what I was hearing. This was just impossible.
"You let out a cry and I swear to you, the house shook. Somehow..Amara you came back from the dead and somehow it was your mothers doing.."
"No.. it's impossible Elijah. it must have been something else."
"What else then?" Elijah asked.
"I...I don't know." I shook my head "I have to go.." I stammered and turned around and just started walking away. This was just a lot to take in. It was too much. Between this, and Tink telling me that my mother was a fairy and Eiravale was a real place I just needed a break from the madness and I just needed to find Kieran and Silence all this chaos in my head.
-------------------------------------------------------
I could hear cars in the distance so I knew I was getting closer to the road, the sky was getting lighter, and the early birds were singing their songs. My legs were starting to get tired so I leaned against a tree for rest. This was the part I hadn't really thought about. How much walking I was going to have to do, and how very unprepared I was for that. I didn't bring much with me as far as food and beverages. One of my downfalls was my one track mind. I sighed heavily and sat down against the tree.
I opened the backpack and looked inside raising my eyebrow at something I had not put in there. There was a couple baggies of sandwiches and a folded piece of paper sitting on top of them. I opened the note and tried to hold in a laugh.
"You have the survival skills of a slug- Rob"
He must have put those in there after finding Riley in my closet.
I opened one of the baggies and took out the peanut butter sandwich and took a bite.
After eating the sandwich, and drinking half of one of the bottles of water Rob had packed too I stood up and stretched.
A sudden smell drifted with the breeze and I froze for a moment taking in the scent. Whoever it was..was male but not a wolf and not a hunter. Hunters had a certain stench about them when they didn't mask their scents but this wasn't one. This smell..was smoky, like a campfire. I pressed my back to the tree and held my backpack tightly in my arms trying to be as still and quiet as possible as I heard branches snap behind me. If I shifted, I could likely outrun him and since he was just a human he likely wouldn't think anything about it but that would mean leaving behind my backpack.
My next option was to simply reveal myself, and show that I was not a threat. Not many humans knew of our existence so maybe I could be seen as just someone taking a stroll through the woods.
Humans however, I had learned were very unpredictable. With hunters you knew exactly what you were getting. Humans could put on the face of an angel and have the heart of a monster.
I quietly adjusted myself against the tree and then cringed as my foot slipped and I accidently kicked the half empty water bottle I had left sitting on the ground.
"Hands up! Don't move!" A commanding voice spoke as a man ran around the tree where I was standing.
I looked fearfully at the man with a gun pointing directly at my face. He had curly brown hair, and blue eyes. He wore a khaki green colored shirt, a brown waistcoat, brown pants and boots. On the left side of the waistcoat was a badge that read
Sheriff
"Backpack on the ground, hands in the air." he nodded, gesturing towards me with the gun.
I slowly put the backpack down and raised my hands. I was an idiot to think this journey would go off without a hitch.. Or two.