Melvina blushed around her neck. “Ehee, not true.” Even though she knew it was true.
She brought her stool closer to her friend, hoping that maybe this would be the talk that would set them on the path of healing, the both of them, especially for her.
“You know what, I will go first.” Sheila conceded, seeing that Melvina was at a loss of words. She understood why though. The latter had a lot to put together. A lot to explain.
“I’m sorry for being too hard on you for your choices. Wait first, sorry for blanking out on you. I’m sure that had caused you to blank out too. I had asked you about Mr Kletch, and then ghosted you. He is still around though right?”
Melvina nodded. “Still hale and hearty. Still doesn’t talk a lot, and barely around. He spends most of his time in the human towns, probably because seeing us, his kins people, reminds him of the war, and the mate that he had lost. So, he chops wood, and then we don’t see him for quite a long while.”
“Do you think he is around now?” Melvina shook her head. She didn’t think she had seen the man that had once been a close friend of the family since Emma had stepped into the pack. If he had been around, assigning him to look after the red head might have given him some kind of purpose since they were almost neighbors.
“Alright then, so back to the apologies. I’m sorry for being too hard on you. There was no way you would have known that Emma was my daughter…”
“Don’t say that. I should have known.” Melvina interrupted Sheila.
But Sheila shook her head in regret. “You would have if I had included you in the plans I made with Tempest. If I had, maybe all these would have been averted. You wouldn’t have pushed her away. You would have protected her with your life. I’m sorry for not taking your friendship seriously. I’ve been thinking about it all, and I am sure it’s as much my fault as it’s yours.”
A tear slipped from Melvina’s eyes.
She pushed her stool closer to her best friend, and then hugged Sheila to herself.
“Still, I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have been callous to a girl like that. I liked her, you know. She had trusted me, and I had betrayed her. I hadn’t listened to my guts either. I’m so sorry.”
Sheila let out a few tears too. “It’s okay. It’s all in the past. Let’s focus on the future, and working to make it better.”
“Yeah, I like that.”
They disengaged from the hug.
“So, Margo was a friend of yours? How come I don’t know her?” Melvina have always wanted to ask this.
“Well, Margo is always indoors. Never follows us to our meetings. Quite an introvert if I must say, but she is okay. She is actually Tempest’s cousin.”
Melvina’s mouth dropped open.
“Surprising right? I know. That’s why Tempest must have told her about the triplets. I don’t know how I had forgotten that piece of information, why I had forgotten to mention that piece of information. Well, it’s alright. So, that by the way, what’s your deal with the phantom, Azeera. It seems to be ever ready to leave Leonarya. What do you have over her?”
Melvina shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing much though. I had saved her life in the forest one time. I think she had been pursued by her previous master, and had fallen into some kind of trap. Till date, I’m not sure what it was. I had been a bit drunk that night, teenage exuberance. Yet, I had asked her what to do. She had told me, and I had helped her with some words she told me to pronounce. For some reason it had worked. We had both been surprised that night. Turns out seeking my help had just being to humor herself, until the spell had broken.”
Sheila cocked her head to the side. “You never met your mother right?”
Melvina nodded her head. “Dad had mentioned that she had died whilst giving birth to me.”
“But what if it’s not true? I don’t think there is a way for magic to work if the user doesn’t have a thread of magic in them. And that would explain the complexities in Eva and Derek.”
Melvina was short of words.
“What about you?” She finally managed to say.
Sheila shrugged. “I think we are in the same boat. My father, I asked Peter after the discussion, he died after some time waiting on me, but I also knew he wasn’t the one. Sometimes, I had caught him, you know, looking at me unpleasantly. Somehow I had just known he wasn’t the one.”
“Wow…. So we both don’t know our origins?”
Sheila chuckled at the shock in Melvina’s voice.
“Well, at least we know our mates. At least they have origins, and we know them.”
Melvina laughed then, throwing her hand over Sheila’s shoulder. It felt good being in the good graces of each other. She had really missed her friend. Only if they could locate Emma. They will. She believed they will. Until then, they will keep waking this path of healing together, with their children, with the pack.
“Even though I didn’t include you in the plans, I had missed you greatly. The reason why I hadn’t really was because of Peter. He was your mate. I didn’t think you could hide the matter from him. ” Sheila pointed out, resting her head on Melvina’s shoulder.
“I know, Sheila. I know. And I understand your reasons perfectly.” Melvina stated, sighing deeply in contentment. Everything will be fine. Everyone will be fine. She wondered how long the ancients would take before they returned.
“You know, I can’t wait to meet him.”
She didn’t need to call the name.
Sheila already knew who she was talking about.
She couldn’t wait to meet him too.