Melvina tweaked on her seat, excitement not letting her stay at a place.
Calm your horses down, Melvina.
She heard her mate say to her through their common mindpath.
Well, how could she be calm? That was her best friend of so many years standing there, looking all plump and beautiful just like before.
It has been seven years for fudge sake, seven years since she had seen the latter. So, how could she stay still and calm now? It was nearly impossible.
She actually felt like dragging Sheila away from the people, from this crowd thirsty for information to a super quiet room where they could hug and gist properly like before.
If only Tempest and Anthony’s mother were around? It would have been terrific, just like the good old days. She thought, getting sad for a second.
She missed her crew. But still, she was happy that at least Sheila was alive.
“I don’t know where to start, but I think I should take off from the beginning.” Sheila began, her eyes scanning the entire room for her cousin.
She had seen Anthony of course, but hadn’t really recognized him, even though she nursed the thought of their similarity.
But her cousin.. she hasn’t seen her. It wasn’t sitting well with her.
What about Tempest? God, she has really missed a lot.
“As you all know, I have been missing for the past eighteen years, two weeks after the party which was organized in the favour of a treaty that was established between different realms and the different supernatural…” Sheila was saying, stopping suddenly when she saw the bewildered looks on the people’s face.
Melvina too was shrouded with disbelief, even as she stood up and shook her head, her eyes flashing with incredulity and suspicion now, a hostile suspicion.
Sheila knew that look. Her best friend was thinking that she was an imposter!
“I think you got this wrong Sheila, or are you really the one? Because if you are, you would know that you fought alongside the warriors at the pack war last seven years. You had returned with me after the party meeting eighteen years ago and you had stayed till the last seven years when you had suddenly disappeared into thin air. Who are you? What have you done with Sheila?” Melvina asked Sheila, her excitement turning to fury in a second.
She couldn’t believe that she was about to be duped.
“I am Sheila, Melvina. If anyone should know that, then it’s you. I don’t know who had taken my face and stayed with y’all for eleven more years before disappearing but I am not the one.” Sheila replied, feeling trepidation, beginning to wonder if it had been a good choice on her part to come back here. She hadn’t seen these results coming.
Her hand tightened around Lucille’s. The latter squeezes hers too. They were both nervous. This was a new development that they hadn’t seen coming.
“Then, how do we prove that? No, never mind. You are an imposter.” Melvina said, anger coating her veins, damning the woman whom she thought had given her false hopes.
“Guards!” She shouted, gesturing to the pack warriors standing by the side, before her mate could say anything. “Take this imposter away!”
“If you touch my mother, I will make sure that the last thing you see is her face, just before you go down.” That was Lucille now, so angry too.
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing now. Were these the people her mother had gone on, praising and praising, last night? The Melvina? She scoffed. She should have known.
“My name is Lucille, and this is my mother, Sheila. If you are not okay, go and fuck yourself.” She said deathly to Melvina who gasped together with the crowd.
This one was as blunt as Emma. Her eyes were sparkling with rage too.
“My mother told me all about this pack, about her best friend Melvina whom the goddess has shown mercy and delivered her from the abusive hands of her father to lovely Peter here. But it seems she has been wrong. You lot are a bunch of scallywags. Especially you, Melvina. Shouldn’t you be asking the necessary questions, shouldn’t you be the one to believe at least or wait to hear the side of story before casting your judgement, but no, you are condemning her fast. Touch my mother, and you die. I just met her two days ago, and she is already the most important person in my life now.” Lucille stated, her tone laced with anger and determination.
The girl was not joking.
Lucille didn’t know how she was going to kill a bunch of werewolves, but one thing she had learnt during her stay with humans, was the fact that you have to fake it, including confidence, until you make it.
Nobody has to know that you are a nervous wreck. Just act like the boldest and most confident in the room, and things go straight. Well it has at least always worked for her.
Melvina kept silent then, a bit disoriented. The girl knew about her father. Only a few knew of her story.
If the girl knows it, then the woman here was probably her best friend. If that was so, then she had truly fucked up just like she had with Emma.
Her judgments were beginning to get twisted. She was letting her emotions rule her now, and overrule her instincts again, just as she had done in the case of Emma. That was not good.
“I’m sorry.” She muttered, before gesturing to the guards to stand down. “You can continue with your story. Prove to us that you are Sheila and not an imposter. Satisfy our curiosity.”
“Yes. But Lucille, right?” Peter asked, and Lucille nodded, facing the man her mother had called a good man. It’s been a while since she saw someone called being good.
“You said something? That you had just seen Sheila two days ago? Can you explain that, just before she continues with the story?” Peter inquired, and Lucille nodded again, before she could stop herself.
“I grew up believing that I was the child of my parents, till two days ago when Sheila had shown up at our doorstep, claiming to be my mother. One glance at her had told me the truth but I had needed the confirmation. When my human mother had told me the truth, I was furious actually, at Sheila. I thought she was one of the mothers that abandoned their children, excusing themselves because of circumstances, then coming back to assuage their guilt or something. Well, I was wrong. She had been in a coma since she gave birth to me, or rather to I and my siblings. According to her, she had met the matron who had given me out for adoption. The woman mentioned that she had three daughters, all with red hair.” Lucille stated, causing another round of gasps to flood the room.