Derek shot up from his chair and began to stroll frantically, his heart breaking as he repeated Lucille’s statement in his mind.
Emma was a werewolf. How hadn’t he seen that? Why hadn’t she had a scent?
He wasn’t the only one with those thoughts though.
Almost everyone in the pack had seen Emma, and they didn’t need any other person to tell them that Emma was one of Sheila’s daughters. That one was a spitting image of Sheila. They couldn’t believe either that they had treated the daughter of their best warrior that way.
Sheila wasn’t dumb about what was happening.
Her ears had flicked up on some of the discussions that were going on between the pack members, especially the pack warriors.
Who was Emma? Who was Freya, the vampire?
According to them, the duo had red hair, but with different shades of eye color.
She felt her head spin but she held it together, not believing that her two daughters had crossed their pack, not only that, had actually stayed here till two days ago, during Derek’s birthday, but they were ousted by Derek.
She glared at Derek who stopped strolling immediately, to look at her, frustration and regret clouding his eyes.
The realization that dawned in his eyes told her that he knew that she had heard the discussions of the people.
Derek sighed.
If what his mother had told him about the woman was true, then, the woman had a very sharp hearing.
“Sheila calm down..” That was Peter. “We didn’t know…”
“Didn’t know what?” Lucille asked, darting glances between her mother, Peter and the crowd which had somehow quieted down as if remotely caused.
“Your sisters had been here, Freya and Emma, and the pack had pushed them away, banished rather. They think Freya is a vampire, and that Emma is a slut. My two daughters…” Sheila groaned in anger, fury burning through her veins.
Her hands twisted, energy flowing through her. She felt like razing the pack house down with fire, but put off the thought for a while, cocking her head to the side, when she saw a guy walking toward her. The one that looked like her cousin.
“Are you Derek?” She asked, hoping that he was not the one. For some reason, she felt a thread of kinship toward him. “If you aren’t Derek, step aside.”
“Hi Aunt, I am Anthony. Your cousin’s son.” Anthony said, ignoring Sheila’s former statement.
Immediately, Sheila’s blaring green eyes stilled, then became gentle as the anger dissipated away.
She chuckled, and then hugged Anthony to herself, disengaging and hugging again, three more times, before allowing herself to look at him all over.
“You have grown up to become such a handsome young man, Tony. Did you know Emma though?” She asked him and Anthony nodded. “She was my friend, but..”
“But you couldn’t save her.” That was Lucille.
As the time went on, she was beginning to wonder the more, what her mother had actually seen in the pack.
To her, the pack was full of scoundrels. A pack of scoundrels. She had expected better than this.
Anthony opened his mouth to say something, but then, he shut it. Lucille was right. He couldn’t save Emma. He hadn’t been able to.
Perhaps, if he would have known about the decision, he could have convinced Derek to drop it. But it had come as a shock to him as well.
A soft hand on his shoulder caused him to look up.
“Where is Avira? Where is your mother?” Sheila asked him, and he shook his head, a lone tear escaping from his eyes.
Sheila’s hand fell from his shoulder, quaking with sadness.
She stepped back, away from him, sighing in mild comfort when she felt Lucille’s hand around her waist.
“What happened to her?” She asked Anthony.
“She died during the pack war last seven years ago.” Melvina replied, coming closer, but Sheila shook her head and waved her away.
She didn’t want Melvina close to her.
The action broke Melvina’s heart. But she didn’t blame her friend. She deserved the brush off.
She wasn’t a good friend.
“Okay, everyone let’s calm down. Everyone sit down. Sheila, you too. I know you are disappointed in us, but we had our reasons. There was no way we could have known that they were your daughters.” Peter stated, standing up.
He was leaning on a stick. Sheila noticed that. A lot must have really happened. She inhaled deeply, and nodded, turning aside to a long seat which one of the guards, as if told, brought to her then.
Together, she and Lucille walked to it and sat down, each drowning in their respective thoughts.
Anthony returned to his seat too. Melvina also.
“Okay, thank you. There are really a lot of questions and misunderstandings here. We wouldn’t be able to resolve it if everyone kept talking. So, this is how it would go, I will call up the core players in this matter, one by one, and they will narrate their side of the story. That way, we will get everybody’s stories and make a decision. And besides, Sheila, Derek is my son. And it wasn’t his fault that Emma was banished, I was the one that told him to do so because of some situations I had misunderstood. As a matter of fact, Emma is his mate.” Peter concluded, closing his eyes when the murmurings began again.
He knew that his subordinates would be angry with him now. But he was happy that at least his brother wasn’t here to witness this.
A spy could stay if they want, he was sure that there was one, but not his brother.
Derek shut his eyes too, ashamed actually that he had lambasted his mate in public, the public that were cursing him in their hearts.
Who would treat their mate that way? They must be thinking. Was such a person with an utter disregard for the mate bond deserve to be the Aloha of the pack?
He shook his head to the mental questions his mind kept bringing up. He didn’t think he deserved it either. Perhaps he should hand it over to Anthony.
“Now, I will call on…” Peter was saying, when suddenly there was an uproar behind the people.
Everyone turned, watching as a group of people sauntered into the hall, unhindered by the guards who were standing still, stupefied of course in their position like ice statues by the beings who had just walked in.
A pathway was created in the middle of the hall, as people made way for them, probably because of fear, or because Sheila’s girls had returned, and they knew how wrong they were pushing her away; especially since three of the seven visitors were familiar, one being a redhead. Their curiosity was at the peak now.
The group of seven stopped at the high platform, their eyes only sticking to the two females that were sitting together on one seat by the left hand side of the platform, whose eyes were on them too.