I was emptying the last of the drawer out into my suitcase when someone knocked on the door. I opened it up to find Remi there; her eyes widened when she saw what was on the bed. I quickly gave her a hug, careful of her arm which was still in a sling. “Oh my, come in Aunt Remi! Are you feeling better?” I felt a little guilty as I had been avoiding the dining hall since the attack, staying mostly in my room. As a result, I hadn’t seen her since we were both in the clinic.
“I’m fine, just a few more days of healing left.” She walked over to the bed and sat down while I stood at the door. I felt like I was caught trying to sneak out of my house, which, well… basically yeah, that’s what I was planning to do. I was going to leave a note and sneak off. “What’s going on, Ella?”
I slowly walked over and sat on the bed next to her. “You’ve talked to Doug about what happened with the attack, right?” She nodded. “I feel horrible about it. Because of me, Darryl is dead, you were almost killed and Renee was put in danger. It’s all my fault, I can’t stay here and let you pay the price for me being here.” I flopped back on the bed, I couldn’t even look at her without the guilt hitting me.
“You know that’s not the case, Ella.” She laid back on the bed next to me. “If you’re at fault, tell me exactly what you did wrong. Were you wrong to kill those three wolves? Wrong to make an appointment for that thumb of yours? Wrong to kill that man outside the hospital? Wrong to kill a man who was raping you?” I was bawling by now. “Were you wrong to resist the people who drugged you and handed you over to a man to be forcibly mated? What exactly have you done, Ella, that was so wrong you’d leave your family and friends and go off alone?”
I rolled on my side and placed my head on her shoulder as I continued to let the pain and hurt out. Remi pulled me close and ran her fingers through my hair like my Mom used to do. “If I hadn’t asked to go to school in Minnesota we never would have made the trip.”
Remi laughed. Actually laughed. At me! “So what? You had dreams, Ella, and they were good ones. You saved yourself for your mate. You wanted to go to a good business school so you could be eventually take over the family and Pack businesses. You wanted to prepare yourself to become Alpha someday. What exactly was wrong with that, Ella? Are we supposed to give up our dreams because something bad might happen?” I buried my face in her hair. “It was a good plan for you and your Pack, that is why your parents arranged it. I’ve talked to the members who came here, and I know how my sister and her mate were. They were VERY successful in business, and as a result they had one of the richest packs, even though they were one of the smallest.”
I perked up a little, we didn’t brag given our Midwestern values, but I knew how hard they worked to get the Pack to where it was. “Mom was on the phone that last morning as we drove in, she was divesting out of the oil business since she figured the boom was over. I was looking at the markets this morning, and she was right.” Oil prices had cratered, already down to $40 a barrel and some forecasts had it going down even farther. Our lawyers had finished the sales with the liquidation of the Pack assets, and it was a good thing.
“Your Mom was very sharp about these things. She was a LOT smarter than Alpha Marvin. You really screwed him over by giving him those mineral rights, you know.” I laughed to myself, I had realized the same thing. “He’s going to owe millions in capital gains taxes come March 15th, and those rights are worth a fraction of what he owes now. If oil prices don’t rebound, he could go bankrupt.”
I gave her my best Evil Overlord “Bwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!” and we broke up laughing. “Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” I said.
“True. I’d say your path of revenge is already going, and you haven’t had to do a thing.” She sat up and pulled me with her. “I know you think you have to do everything on your own, but you need to stop being so impulsive and think through things a little better. An Alpha who doesn’t consider all the options, who doesn’t weigh the costs, is one who will get them all into trouble.” I looked at her and my shoulders dropped. “Why exactly do you think you have to run off? Do you think we will be better off if you run off by yourself and get killed?”
“You wouldn’t have been hurt.”
“Oh please,” she said. “You’re my niece, the only link I have left to my only sister. I promised her I’d watch over you, and I did. I’m sorry about Darryl, but he died protecting you as he had vowed to do, he died with honor and don’t you DARE cause that to be in vain by doing something stupid.” I nodded at her. “But there is something else, isn’t there?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Aunt Remi.”
“You should, though. People don’t walk out of the clinic crying for no reason. Why do you think I came to see you, dear?
Crap. If I didn’t tell, she’d ask Doc and it would be out anyway. “I’ve been throwing up in the morning. Doc had me take a test.” I buried my face in her chest, the water works had started again. “It was positive. I’m pregnant.”
“Oh, Luna…” She hugged me to her tight. “I’m so sorry this has happened to you, Ella. What do you plan to do?”
“I can’t have an abortion,” I said. I looked up at her eyes, she was crying now too. “On the way here, I got together with Mark. He’s been my friend forever, I would have gone out with him if he wasn’t human.” I looked at the floor. “He was so good to me, and I just wanted to erase all those memories. We made love. It might be his.”
“Can Doc tell you?”