Talons

Chapter 23: The Gift

Rhea's POV

My sisters turn nineteen tomorrow and I have been diligently working on the gift I have planned for Raven. We haven't asked our parents, but she has already agreed to live on campus with me if they say yes. Moving would also help her because she and Tucker have gotten serious, and our parents are becoming suspicious of how much time she has been spending away from the pack.

They are not against my sister dating, but Tucker is human so she would have to leave the pack to be with the man long term. If the pair were fated, Raven could legally mark him, and move him into the pack, but because they are not, it is a huge risk, and therefore banned.

Tucker could die from an unfated mate bite because it is meant to turn human mates not just to lay claim to one. Humans who are fated to a werewolf, usually have the gene already present, maybe from a distant relative, and the mark awakens it. For those who do not, the bite is poisonous.

I roll out of bed and make my way into the kitchen where my mother is preparing breakfast for me. I still cannot smell, but I have the tiniest ability to taste, which to us, is a huge improvement. 

My mother has been so excited about my nerve healing itself that she has been testing me by making different foods to see which ones I can 'taste' and which ones I cannot, but my diet is mostly still the same green stuff that makes my siblings shudder dramatically.

My injury healing is serious to my mother. When I told her that I did not want a mate, a full-blown argument erupted. I, of course, was not shouting at my mother, but I refused to back down. Once I realized that she was not listening to me, I had to tell her the truth. I told her that I no longer had a wolf, and beyond that I had brain damage.

It is a scientific fact within the werewolf community that wolves with brain damage do not have fated mates. Even those fated who were already fully marked and mated will lose their bond to a brain injury. Scientists do not have a reason for this, but the devout claim that it is the mercy of 'Our Luna;' the moon goddess. 

True believers claim that the mated partner would suffer too greatly and likely die from the experience, so the link is severed. I do not yet have an opinion on the matter, but I know that my brain is damaged, thus I likely do not have a mate, and even if I did, he would probably reject me because I am an omega.

My mother fainted from my confession back then, and through the bond they share, my father felt her distress. He came barging into our cabin, ready to kill me, his own daughter because I was the first person he saw.

Raven was also there, and apparently, she had heard everything, so she was able to talk our father down quickly. Which was fortunate because, no matter how much I train with Robin, I wouldn’t have lasted a second against an alpha male, even if he is retired.

That brings me back to breakfast, my mother, and my brain healing itself. Her hope, and I am sure nightly prayer, is that I am healed before I turn eighteen, but without a wolf to help speed up the process, it is highly unlikely.

"Good morning," I say to no one in particular. My father has been extra attentive to me since he almost attacked me. He swears that it was his wolf who had taken over, but his wolf is my father too, so either way it's bad.

"Baby girl, please stop ignoring your father." My father is talking about himself in the first person, which gives me the opening I really needed.

"Sorry, but my father tried to kill me," I say rudely, and I am rewarded with a slap. I turn to see my mother huffing and puffing as she struggles to reel her wolf in. Despite the pain, I simply get up and walk away from the table. I do not heal quickly, so whatever mark my mother has put on my face will stay there for a while.

"Sweetheart wait, come back. Your mother didn't mean it." I don't get far before my father pulls me into a hug and I break down. 

“I didn't mean to be rude, but I am almost sixteen and my wolf is gone. I’m just stressed and scared.” That is the truth, once I hit the age of wolf maturity, I will officially be an omega and it has been killing me slowly. I desperately want to tell everyone that it was Colton who hurt me, but I don't want to put the pack or my cousin in harm's way.

"Baby girl, your mother reacted because she could feel how your words hurt me. You haven't been yourself lately and we are worried."

"I’m not myself because I am not myself. You don't know what it's like; My wolf was the only part of life that made living worth it." I feel another set of arms wrap around me and I look up to see my mother with a red face.

“She will come back to you my little genius. I know it.”

----

Raven’s POV

I love B, but she has been behaving strangely for months, and while I cannot imagine being parted from Gigi, I also cannot see myself treating the best parents in the world like crap because of a misunderstanding. 

Brain has our parents walking on eggshells around her and it is beginning to make me angry. She has always been babied by them, and she should know that our father would never hurt any of us. He was confused because, according to him, my mother linked my sister’s name to him before he felt the most intense distress he had ever felt coming from her.

I do not have a mate, but I have spoken to Lark and Luke, who both agree that my father was within the limits of the norm.  They both claim that my father showed great restraint by listening to my pleas and not ripping my sisters head off, but Brain is not following our logic. 

It has been months, and she is still treating our father like a monster. I had hoped that she would at least not cause any trouble between today and tomorrow because I am already stressed enough. 

Dolton still cannot come back to the states, which means I am about to be a nineteen-year-old mateless wolf. While that doesn't bother me, it comes with its own set of problems. I am falling for Tucker more daily, and my will to end things with him is weakening. Even Gigi does not want to leave Tuck. She knows he isn’t our mate, but she feels like he is something more.

I stand close to my door and I hear my father shouting for B to ‘come back.’ Just like that my appetite is gone. Once again, she is at it, and I really don’t know how to approach her about it. She should be grateful that Lark has taken over as alpha because if we were still living in the packhouse, some of our ranked members would have gotten involved by now.

I climb out of my window, wanting to see Tucker. He has been suspicious of me lately, and the fact that I am not spending my birthday with him is making things worse. The good news is that Lark is now the alpha and Robin is the beta female. The celebration will be mostly focused on her, and I will use that as an excuse to disappear.

Rhea’s POV

Raven snuck back into the cabin well after midnight, last night and had it not been for the fact that I didn’t want to get her caught by our parents, I would have barged into her room to give her the gifts I have prepared for her.

I ran to Raven’s room, pushing open the door, surprised to see her curled in bed with a tear-streaked face. I close the door and slide into bed beside her, and as usual, she pours out her troubles to me. Tucker thinks she is cheating on him, so he gave her an ultimatum; either she spends the entire day with him, or they end things.

I know how my sister feels about the human, and a smile crosses my face. I hand her the letter I was holding, and she looks at me in confusion.

“Read it,” I say. She opens the letter and frowns.

“Congratulations?” I know Raven is confused. The letter she read says that I have been awarded a $10,000 grant and the money will be made available to me as soon as I accept it. I hand her another envelope and she looks at me like I am crazy. “B, I’m happy for you and all, but-”

“Just read it,” I interject. Raven rolls her eyes before scanning them over the paper and sitting up abruptly. The smile on my face is huge and I know she is starting to put the pieces together. “Happy Birthday Raven.” I see my sister's face contort and she looks up at me in confusion.

“How did you get them to agree?” The paper she is holding is a lease to an apartment. My parents have already paid the first month's rent, and my grant will support us for the rest of the semester.

“It wasn’t hard,” I say, pointing to my red cheek and my sister's eyes widened.

“Is this why you have been acting like a b*tch?” I wince at the words. “B, that’s scary.” I frown, but then my sister pulls me into a hug. “You did this for me and Tucker, didn’t you?”