I felt pressured and thought if they heard my voice, they’d continue with their dislike. Benlyam and went around to the other side of the table and sat quietly as my parents did the same. My father seemed a lot more appreciative and open than my mother, who was sitting up straight with her hands collapsed together in front of her.
“Violet, what would you like to know first?” my father lightly asked me and my mother shot him a glare.
Before I could answer, she cut me off, holding out her hand to Benlyam. “Alpha Derek.”
Benlyam shook her hand, but inside, he was pissed at her but he didn’t want to lash out at her because she was my mother. He also shook my father’s hand to be polite in front of me.
She shook his hand but glared at me?
Benlyam’s hand on my knee gave a small squeeze.
…”It’s okay, Flower.”…
I swallowed and told myself to calm down before I spoke so I wouldn’t stutter and embarrass myself.
“What- um… what would you like me to c-call you?” My voice came out slightly shaky and I put my hand over Benlyam’s, resting on my knee. I saw my mother silently scoff at my stutter.
…”You’re fine, Flower. Doing just fine.”… He gave another small squeeze to comfort me.
“Whatever you’re comfortable with,” my father spoke out, “if you want to call me father, dad, or Milan, I’m fine. I just want you to be comfortable,” he nodded with a smile and I nodded.
“Milan?” I questioned, really asking for approval and he shook his head.
“That’s fine by me.”
I gave my attention to my mother but she beat me to words.
“Mara.” Her voice was crisp, short, curt. Benlyam didn’t appreciate it.
“And you can call her Luna,” he snapped right back at her and I took a deep breath, grabbing his hand from my knee to hold.
She started at me for a moment then looked at Benlyam, “Yes, Alpha,” she nodded. “I’ll tell you what happened,” she turned her neutral self back to me, her brown eyes glistening with a mean emotion.
I nodded.
“We’re obviously your parents, but, we didn’t want you,” my heart dropped and my heart stung. Benlyam growled but I rubbed his hand for him to calm down. That was very straightforward… I didn’t like that, not one bit. Whenever Benlyam I talked about some things, we’d ease into it, he did it mainly for me because he knew I was still unbalanced with some things. Even if I was getting better, I haven’t fully recovered yet.
“Let me rephrase that,” Mara corrected, bowing her head at Benlyam’s warning growl. “You came as a surprise to me and Milan. We weren’t ready for kids, we were freshly nineteen and still just fiances.”
So, they’re about forty…
“And we were seeing the trouble of raising a child when you weren’t ready, and we didn’t have stuff for three.” she was monotone the whole and it made me feel guilty like I did something wrong, but I knew I didn’t.
“I had some family members in a different territory of Ohio, so Milian and I took the opportunity to go over, but we couldn’t take you because my parents didn’t know we had a child. Especially a bastard like you because we weren’t married yet when I had you.”
… Benlyam and I weren’t married and we had kids…
… I wouldn’t ditch them…
I felt Benlyam squeeze my hand.
“And because we weren’t mates, they would’ve probably made me abort it if they knew because you were conceived out of wedlock. So, because I didn’t want to just throw you to a pack of rogues on the way, I talked to Alpha Christopher,” Benlyam and I have kept ourselves away from his name. So hearing it for the first time in a while, I’m not even sure how long, wasn’t too pleasing.
I flinched and desperately tried to play it off so they wouldn’t think I was a weak ‘bastard’ who couldn’t do anything and it would give them justification for leaving me. But, I thought of something. I didn’t care if they thought I was ‘weak’ because they left me. Either way, Benlyam let out a deep, dark growl at Mara. The table shook.
“You will not say his name in our presence!” he growled at her and I saw her eyes narrow at me for a split second before nodding her head at Benlyam.
“Yes, Alpha. I apologize.” Mara spoke out, then brought her disapproving gaze to me. She didn’t look at Benlyam like that, and I was her daughter… “Back to the story, we left when you just turned nine in his possession because he said he’d take care of you and we trusted him, of course.” She didn’t sound the least bit remorseful, did she know what he did? “That’s about it. He was a close friend of mine and I knew you’d be fine with him.”
Did she really just say that?
Honey… ha… no.
I felt my brows furrow, did she just not know? Please tell me…
“Did you k-keep in c-contact with him?” I asked, fearing the answer. I hated that my stutter was coming out. I kept telling myself to just calm down, but it wasn’t too easy.