Talons

Chapter 85: The Return

Rhea’s POV

The girls and I lingered around Miami for a while, mostly to allow Julee and Brent to spend much needed bonding time together. They are different people, but fundamentally, their similarities are uncanny.

Poor Brice was the only one of us who did not understand why his brother was so smitten by a woman he had only just met, but he wasn’t jealous, he just kept begging me to introduce him to one of my relatives, and Miracle answered his request by putting him on video call with pretty much everyone.

We all know that the bond cannot be felt through technology unless it has already been proven in person, but so far, they have fallen in love with Brice, who won’t graduate from college until May, but has a bright future ahead of him.

His main goal is not going pro, but he is up for it. His wish is to help his mother and brother develop their gym and even if he is not fated to any of my cousins, he will make a good partner to one, but I sincerely hope that he is because I can see him and Blessing getting along well.

They are the same age, give or take a few months, and Blessing likes to have fun just the way Brice does. She didn’t come back to the states with us because she did not want to leave her mother behind, and thinking about the way the two of them put family first warms my soul and has my heart hoping that the impossible will happen.

Nothing has been said within our community, but Jamie and I have noted that the number of fated couples within packs has gone up slightly, and it lends to my theory that the bond is a form of mental illness that is likely linked to outside elements. 

Raven took birth control meant for humans, and she said that it put her s*x drive in overload. That isn’t something we learn or have been taught about as wolves, and it goes to show that there is a ton of misinformation about our species; I blame the council.

My cousins and I returned to Claw Territory in the dead of night and snuck into the Packhouse like criminals. Miracle has been humming a spy theme song, which has been making all of us giggle, and the patrol on duty can only shake their heads at my eccentric cousin. 

I can only imagine what kind of trouble she has caused since being here, and when we enter the Packhouse, she leaps into Chun’s arms. I suddenly realize she is crazier than I thought. 

My brother’s gamma tries his best to shake her, but she has her arms tightly wrapped around his neck, calling him Jong-Kook, which seems to irritate him. It’s Lark who pries her away and my sister who is able to make the girl fold.

Chun is not a bad guy, in fact, he is probably one of the most well-behaved males I have ever met. He and I used to be rivals as the smartest people in the pack, but after a while, he stopped competing with me because his older sister kept dropping off babies, and never coming back.

Chun has been like a father to his nieces and nephews since he was a teen and I know from all that time ago that he will only settle down when he meets someone who can accept his ‘children’ and Miracle is clearly not that girl. She doesn’t see him as himself, but as a character, and it's obvious to me that it’s not what the man wants.

“He is just shy,” Miracle says to me, and I roll my eyes.

“You called him another man’s name,” I correct, and she shows me her screen saver on her phone. 

“He can’t lie to me,” she says and while I hate to admit it, Chun really does look like the man in the photo. 

“Doesn’t make it right,” I reply, and my cousin shrugs.

“People say I look like Zoe Saldana all the time. It’s a compliment.” I just stare at my cousin, who really doesn’t see the issue, but I guess I’m sensitive to being called ‘names.’

I hug my brother and his mate, then look down at her belly, realizing that underneath her shirt is another baby. She shushes me, and I nod, then hug Robin and Luke at the same time. My parents are the last to arrive, and I sprint to my father who I haven’t seen in a much longer time. 

He lifts me off the ground, spinning me while apologizing for his distance. I know that he couldn’t come see me because he could barely stop himself from attacking General, and while it hurt, I understood.

“You are such a beautiful young woman baby girl,” my father says, setting me down to inspect me. “I feel like I missed too much of your life.” My father hugs me again, and my mother joins him. I settle into their warmth and allow myself to cry. 

“Would it be too much of a burden if I joined the pack?” I ask. Lark is the one to answer, and I nod at his request for patience. I’m so happy to be home and for the first time in a long time, I don’t want to leave.

I follow my parents back to what used to be my grandparent’s cabin, settle into my room, which had been moved and I feel like I’m home again. 

The guards who saw me have no idea who I am, and I’ve asked my family to keep it that way until I feel a bit more comfortable. My hope is that by the time people start to figure out who I am, I will be a pack member and I’ll be able to rank within the fighters. 

I’m not the weak little girl I used to be. My wolf and I can and will defend ourselves, but we would rather not have to. I don’t want to brag about killing, but I have done it, and it doesn’t bother me anymore.

In fact, it's gotten easier, especially when I consider that if I hadn’t acted in every situation that I was forced to take a life, someone I care about may have been killed. The last situation was in Miami where a small colony of Rogues took interest in Jamie. 

She had noticed them in the past, so we agreed that she would not go anywhere alone until the situation was handled. City rogues are a bit savvier than our country kind, so we had to lure them into the woods to deal with them.

I’m not sure why, but back then, every one of them rushed me, except for one, who stood frozen in place as if he had seen a ghost. I didn’t even need to shift, and while I’m not bragging, Sylvia is extremely proud of that fact. 

She says that it means we are both strong women, and while Jamie said I was being reckless, my wolf disagrees. We have already been told by multiple wolves that we smell weird, so I know there is something about me that triggers the rogues into fight or flight mode, not including those who choose to submit willingly.

Those rogues are the ones who confuse me the most, but right now, I’m not concerned with any of that. I heard my grandfather complaining that he should have been woken the moment I came back so I jumped out of bed and rushed to him. 

He can move around with a cane now, so it uplifted my spirits to see him.

“Is Wela awake?” I ask, but I hear my grandmother call out to me, and I enter her bedroom to find her lounging in bed. She pats the mattress and I dive into it, snuggling up to her as she kisses my head. 

She keeps apologizing to me for not being able to save me from General. From what I have been told, my grandmother slipped into depression during that dark time, and when I tried to kill myself, both she and my mother took the news so hard that it physically hurt them. 

While I had recovered from my blood loss over the course of a few days, bitterness and grief consumed them in a way that Lark told me was scary. Sylvia and I hadn’t thought of that when we decided it was better to end things, but now that we know, we have made a promise to ourselves and to our family that we will not try that again. 

If my time with General has taught me anything, it's that people who are like me need a safe place to exist, and as soon as I have confirmation that the man is marked and mated, I will establish a rogue rehabilitation pack. 

The way I see things, the only ones who will join are those who genuinely want a second chance, and if I can convince Raven and Jamie to help me, we could end up stumbling onto something that the council should be doing themselves. 

Titi Beautiful’s pack was mostly made up of relatives, but there were a few individuals who she had taken in because they were made rogue for reasons that should be illegal. For example, Priscilla; her alpha declared her ineligible to join his pack at fourteen because she refused to promise her first time to him.

The man was marked and mated, not fated, so infidelity was not something his mate could feel so much as sense. As far as she knew, she was the only girl the man had done that to, but my mind tells me that it's only because others agreed.

I want to make a place for those people to flourish and grow to their highest potential. I’ll still need an Alpha, but since I’m back on Claw territory, I will go looking for the rogue who saved me. His wolf was huge, and if he isn’t an alpha, then he is of alpha lineage and I want to ask him if he is interested in the position, the worst he could say is no.

“Can I sleep in here tonight?” I ask, and my grandfather gives me a thumbs up. I run into my room gathering pillows and blankets, but my father clears his throat.

“We thought you may sleep in there, so we made arrangements.” I drop my things, and when I return, my mother is opening a fold out cot. I turn and hug my father, telling him that he should expect me in his room next before getting ready for bed.