It was really a cabin. A cabin all alone in the woods. If Emma hadn’t known of their species, she would have been angry with her father for keeping Sheila in a place devoid of human interaction, in a place devoid of life. She wondered how the nurses had coped with this sort of distance, way far away from town.
Emma had checked the time when her father had come to halt in front of the cabin. And from her calculations, it had taken more than forty-five minutes to get here. She looked at her father’s car in envy, a car that could rival Ferrari in speed. A normal car would have taken no less than an hour and thirty minutes to get here.
“I give her enough for transportation and other things. And she doesn’t come everyday though. You can see the distance. But she is trustworthy, and very reliable. We have known each other for quite a while, from back in school days.”
Emma wondered if they had dated too.
“Let’s go in. You know we have to return back tonight.”
Emma knew that the ‘we’ didn’t involve her, and she was okay with that. They had done the best that they could do. At least, they had done more than the family that Tempest had thought she would have in the pack. Her people had exiled her.
The thought still left a tugging hole in Emma’s heart, as she became angry then sad whenever she remembered Derek and how easily he had disposed of her like she was trash, like he had been stringing her along all this while, and then had dumped her when he had utilized her till the finish. The problem was that Derek had wanted her when she was still seen as a human. So, why? Why had he bothered with her when she had been known, when he had thought her as a human? Why had he bothered when he knew that the pack would reject her being his mate even though they had been linked by the goddess?
Greed, and selfishness. She thought vehemently. He had only been thinking of himself. If she had been involved in his thoughts, there would have been a contingency plan to fall back to should in case things went south.
No. he had just had her to his full, and then had disposed of her, and had gone to Claire whom he had thought would be the best candidate for being his Luna.
Good luck with that. She thought. She only hoped that he didn’t take it into his mind to search for her. For his sake and his family, she hoped that he wouldn’t be that stupid. Because then he would understand the saying that hell hath no fury than a woman who is scorned.
“Emma, your mind seems to be in another place…”
Emma quickly apologized to her father before he could go on further. Her mother sighed. Yes, they were still her parents until they were not, until they finally parted ways.
“It’s okay. It’s actually quite understandable. Let’s go in.”
Emma nodded her appreciation at being understood, and walked into the cabin when her father opened the door, and moved in with his wife.
The first thing they noticed when they switched on the light of the sitting room was the nurse and another girl bundled together on the chair. Emma noticed the sullen look on the one she knew to be the nurse first and almost toppled to the ground. Had her mother stopped breathing?
**
Tempest smiled within the cloak as she listened to her children talk in low tones about Emma, and take guesses on where and what she would be doing.
The first thing that she had done after getting into the community had been to take an inventory using a magic that depleted her energy by a long short of the people in the community, of the strength of the safeguards. She had checked too if there had been non community members in the community. And when she had been done with the tiring review, she had moved to Venete’s place, curious to know what the latter had been doing.
Venete had been sleeping. It had taken years’ worth of strength and self control not to choke the older woman to death. Doing that would have brought about a search on her despite the fact that she had killed an enemy of the community. And so, she had watched the woman, and on a last attempt to ‘aid’ the latter’s miserable upcoming years, had casted a subtle magic on the old witch.
Should the Queen want to catch her, the latter wouldn’t be able to move or run away. But even the subtle magic hadn’t been subtle, for Venete had suddenly opened her eyes, and shot up on the bed as if feeling the magic cage surrounding her.
Tempest hadn’t bothered to see the reaction of the woman, she didn’t have the energy, not with the amount that she had expended tonight. She had hurried away.
She had then stopped at the palace, the final stop, before leaving for her residence.
A tear slipped from her eyes when she saw Leila pout when Lily sang Emma’s praises. It seemed that her two daughters had diverse opinions on the girl, Emma. Her two sons though were entirely on some case, for they hadn’t cracked a smile to the humorous display enacted by their sisters. They both seemed to be in deep thought, and she would have given anything to know them, to hold her children in her arms right now, but she knew it wasn’t the time.
They might have a hard time forgiving her for staying away for so long a time out of their lives, they might even hate her, but that was a small price to pay for the lofty freedom of the world should her plans work out. They should hang in there. No matter how long it will take, she will wait to obtain their forgiveness.
She wiped her tears off, and then moved a few steps away, her eyes still on them, almost laughing in pride the next second when Lily looked in her direction.
Her daughter had sensed her presence.