Quinn
I could sense that she was shocked at what I just told her. I could also feel her gratitude coming out of my pores and knew my brothers could sense it too though we pretended not to know.
We would scare her if she knew that we could sense emotions and we didn’t need that. Asides the gratitude she felt towards us for saving her life, distrust was also there and that had to leave before she allowed us to be closer to her as we wanted to. We didn’t need to add to what she felt already and we were being careful.
I couldn’t remember the last time me and my brothers were as careful of our ourselves around anybody asides our father but Mia did that to us. We didn’t care about what humans or ladies thought of us. We took from them without apologies knowing that they wanted us and wouldn’t mind. Everyone was like that Mia.
She was both human and a lady and she made us treat her in ways that we hadn’t ever done to anyone. She called for and demanded her respect, leaving us no choice but to give it to her.
I smiled at the thoughts in my mind. I couldn’t deny that was what made us attracted to her the more. I couldn’t think of anyone else that would fit in the position of the Luna of the pack except her.
She was strong, intelligent, emphatic and stubborn. Just like mum. I smiled at the thought of claiming her as my mate, I knew that my brothers couldn’t wait for that as well but we all knew that we had to be careful with her or we would lose her totally.
We wouldn’t be able to have her as our mate if we lost her as our sister. We couldn’t wait to stop calling her as our stepsister and move beyond that but we knew that was the only way we could get her to trust us and see us as family instead of the three immature boys that had hurt her in the past and her mother was unknowingly getting married to their father.
I thought of her as part of our family now. It was up to her to accept that our family wasn’t going to be destroyed and accept that she belonged here with us. She would be a fool to not know how much our father love her mum and still hope to find a way to get out of this family.
She wasn’t getting out of it. The earlier she accepted that, the better for her.
Since she had discovered the secret of the basement, I figured that we should be honest with her. We should tell her about the truth.
“Do you really want to know all about the woman in the basement?” I asked her.
I didn’t want to bother her with what she might say she didn’t ask for. She nodded and I smiled. I wasn’t expecting anything less than that. She was too curious, even for her own good.
“You have to know that there is no turning back once you know this. The more darkness you know of our world, the less you can decide to return to a normal human world.”
I didn’t know what I was doing but I didn’t intend to scare her. I wanted to tell her in my own way that she was going to be ours and she had no chance of running away again.
She hissed. “Would you just tell me what you have to without being dramatic about it?”
I arched my eyebrows at her. Dramatic? That was a strange word to me. I couldn’t believe that she would dare to call me that but of course, she was Mia.
Even John and Jack seemed amused at her words. I nodded at her. Fine. I was going to tell her. I had to make it short as well. It was getting close to dawn out there and I didn’t want us to stay too long in her room.
It would be a fresh wave of trouble that I wanted to avoid if someone saw the three of us coming out of her room at dawn. It would lead to unnecessary questions and I didn’t want that. Dad would eventually know of what had happened and we didn’t want that.
Moreover, we had to leave her room on time so we could get our luggage that we had dropped to save her when we had heard her scream. We had to move them to our rooms before any of the servants woke up and found them.
“I will tell you.” I chuckled. “Be patient, tiger.”
“We and our father came from the Silver Moon Clan.” I started. “Twenty years ago, the Dark Wizard killed our mother and took her powers, the powers of the Luna. This granted him immortality and the ability to change his appearance at will. The Dark Wizard used dark magic to create chaos among the wolf tribe but he was later defeated and imprisoned by our father. However, dad was seriously injured and couldn’t kill him which is why we have him trapped in the basement and we have since been hiding in the human world.”
She believed the story and sighed. She looked at us as I talked and her eyes filled with pity. I scowled and wanted to tell her not to make us feel pathetic but I clamped down on my emotions. She was only being human at hearing of the death of her mum and I didn’t have to make her feel like a fool over it.
“I’m sorry about the death of your mum.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s okay.” It was twenty years of loss and though I missed mum, we all had moved on and didn’t feel as pathetic as we felt when we first lost her. The marriage of dad to her mum was proof enough that we were all healing.
She touched her neck and I saw the surprise on her face when she realized that her wound had already healed. “This is a miracle.” She marveled.
I chuckled at her reaction and then squatted down beside her bed so I could meet her gaze. “Do you think you can forgive us for the harm we have done to you in the past?”
Mia
Faced with their sudden apology, my heart was in turmoil. I wasn’t expecting them to apologize. I hadn’t expected them to at all, not now or ever.
For the past six months, I had been thinking every day about how I would retaliate if they came back, and I had prepared myself for it. We both know that the farewell that we had given one another before their departure then wasn’t sincere. It was a show. That was mostly for Albert’s sake and because I was trying to get rid of the guilt that I felt for them being sent out on a deadly mission because of me.
But now that I knew that they were alive and fine – in fact, they were too fine with the way that they looked now – I wasn’t ready to forget and forgive them easily of what they had done. I was back to being the old maid with the grudge.
I could always move out of their house if things got uncomfortable among us. I was sure that my mum would understand. I wasn’t around as I used to be so I was sure that she wouldn’t mind if I told her that I need to be away. She would get used to my absence once again. I had already given her enough time to be used to it.
I would find an excuse for her to leave so it wouldn’t be like I was avoiding the brothers and leaving because of them. I knew that mum was already worried that I wasn’t yet friends with her step-sons so I didn’t want her to worry about me more than she already was.
I had worked hard all these time, hoping that I would be able to support herself in the future. I had thought that I wouldn’t be able to live comfortably with the brothers when they come back and so I had worked my ass off so I could be perfectly fine living on my own and also able to cater for my myself and my mum should she miss me and pay me a visit.
I was confused on how I felt now though. I didn’t want to forgive them and yet I couldn’t keep on holding on to my grudge after they had saved me. That would make me a vengeful and ungrateful witch, the same as the wizard in their basement and I didn’t like the thought of that.
I shuddered at being compared to the sorceress. I hesitated and didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer. My emotions were really confused and I didn’t know what to say to them.
Quinn sighed and nodded at me. He seemed to have assumed what my response would be. “Let’s leave and let her rest.” He said and turned to his brothers.