The Forbidden Daughter

CHAPTER 9

TALIA POV.

The weekend went by quickly. Jane called in sick to work because she was still sore and had bruising on her face and was to embarrass for anyone to know what happened to her. By Sunday evening the swelling subsided but there was nothing we could do for her split lip because she didn’t heal as fast as we did.

We were currently sitting in my room or as it was now our room, on the bed while Jane packed away some of her last things that she didn’t get a chance to do over the weekend with Jack pulling her around for a kiss at every chance he could get. My eye catches the shoe sized box that she put on the bed. It looked old and battered and my curiosity burned to know what was in it. Jane, who turned around to get something from her bag again, saw me eyeing the box and smiled sadly at me.

“It’s all that I have left of my mom.” She says and my heads snaps to her sad tone and look into her sad face. “My dad got rid of everything else, but he didn’t seem to get rid of these, or couldn’t.” She says as she crossed back over to the bed to sit on it across from me. The box between us. Without picking up the box, she lifts the lid and I see that it was full of photos.

Unable to help myself, I reach inside at the same time just as she does and we each pull out a couple of pictures. One of the photos I pulled from the box was a younger and much more sober version of Janes father. He looked so different. He gazed lovingly down at the woman standing next to him who he had a arm around her waist. The woman herself was beautiful. She looked so young and her features so like Jane with the same blond hair that they could have been taken for sisters.

“That’s my mom when she was about my age. Her name was Sonja” She says, and I nod in return before flipping to the next photo. This one was of the Janes mother again but this time she was holding a small baby, securely wrapped in a fluffy white blanket. Jane must have been a couple of days old in this one and Jane confirmed it when she glanced from her photos to the mine that I held.

A sniff from Jane makes me look up and my heart twists as I see a tear rolling over her check. “Th-this was one of the last pictures of me and my mom before she died.” She says and shows me a picture of the same woman from my photos, only a little older. She was bent over slightly to the side to be able to hug a young Jane to her chest. They were both smiling wide for the camera.

“That was taken on my tenth birthday. My dad took that picture before we left to go the fun park.” She says, her lips turning up at the corners in a smile at the memory.

“What happened to her?” I ask carefully. I didn’t want to pry, seeing as this was a painful trip down memory lane for her but my curious side took over. Jane was such a puzzle to me. The energy she gave off was so calming and pure that it drove Nera and myself to instantly protective over her, which has never happened before, and I wanted to know everything about her.

“Car accident. She was on her way to work after she dropped me off at school when a drunk driver ran the red light and his truck collided with her car.” She said and quickly wiped at the tears that were rolling over her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry Jane.” I say, genuinely feeling for her loss and I put a comforting hand on her arm, making her look up at me. “I lost my dad during a fight in my mothers pack before I was even born.” I say, thinking of the nightmares my mom still gets and the emotional pain that I can sometimes feel from her.

“A fight?” Jane asks. “Yeah, you see, not all werewolf packs live in peace. A lot of packs get challenged by others for different reasons like trying to take over their territory or mates and such. According to my mom that was the normal way of life in a pack, but this fight wasn’t about land or mates or petty arguments between wolfs. It was between vampires and werewolves. They were allies once but because of a disagreement that couldn’t be resolved, they ended up fighting.” I say, frowning a bit to myself. Thinking. I knew it had something to do about my parents, but I never fully got the whole story. I never knew what they did to offend the vampires that led to my mom running away while my dad stayed to fight that cost him his life. There were always more important things to worry about like trying to live under the radar and keeping a step ahead of the hunters that were after us.

“But… if they were friends or allies as you said, what was so bad for them to go up against each other?” Jane asks.

“Honestly? I’m not hundred percent sure.” I say and Jane frowns in confusion making me continue.

“I knew it had something to do about my parents, them both being alpha’s.” I say and Jane still looks confused. “You see, my mom was born an alpha female, so she should have had a beta or omega male as a mate but instead she found another alpha as her soul mate. Those matches are both empowering and terrifying.” I say.

“O-kay.” Jane drawls out the word while thinking everything over that I just told her. “I know I’m new to all this, but that doesn’t seem bad enough to go to war with each other.” She says and I nod in agreement. “There are some things that I don’t understand as well, but my mom said she would explain it to me one day.” I say and busy myself again with the photos again.

We quickly look through the rest of the pictures. Jane commenting on people or places where some of them were taken, but it was obvious that there weren’t any more photos taken after her mother’s death. Nearing the bottom of the box we see a few letters whose paper looked wrinkly like they were thoroughly read and reread. It was addressed to Janes mom and peeking inside we found more pictures, but these looked a little older.

I see her frowning as she flips through them. “What is it?” I ask, slapping myself mentally for my impatient curiosity. Luckily, Jane doesn’t look annoyed, but she also has a curious expression on her face when she hands me the photos one by one after looking at them.

“I don’t know any of these people.” She says. “except for my mom in this one.” She says and points to one of the photos to a girl that looked identical to her mother in the others with her and her dad. I flipper through a couple more and found two more where she was included but at a different age.

The picture showed more or less the same group of women. Some were dressed in long circle flared dresses with wider than usual belts around the middle with tucked in button up blouses, some had on long or short sleeved cardigans that reached their knees with boots that poked out under the rim of the dresses. They also had their hair in different lose or braided styles, combined with either flowers or beads, strings and head bands. The group gave off the impression of being between hippies or gypsies and I was sure that if this wasn’t a black and white photo that the colors would be odd as well.

I stare in shock when I realized whom I was staring at or more importantly, to what type of women this group were that I was staring at in the pictures. Looking up at Jane, I knew that she didn’t have a clue as she continued to look at the pictures with a frown on her face. Studying her more intently, I can practically feel the pieces click into place. Her gentle nature. The calming effect she had on me and my wolf. The trust and protectiveness towards her as well as the strange things that happen around her when she was emotional, upset or scared, like the flickering lights for example.

She must have felt my stare because her head snapped up to me and I feel as though I could slap myself mentally for missing the spark in her eyes that was always there but never gave much attention too. “What?” She asks. “Is there something on my face?” She asks and quickly rubs over her face with her free hand that is not holding the photos.

“Are you sure you don’t know any of these women?” I ask, eyeing her carefully for any hint of a lie. She looks at me strangely before answering. “Of course I don’t, I think I would have remembered if I met any of my mom’s weirdly dressed friends.” She says honestly and I can’t help but feel confused. If her mother was truly one of them, which would make Jane one as well, then why would her mother not introduce her into that life or at least inform her of it. To let someone like her walk around without any training of control could be very bad to anyone if she would to have an outburst of emotions. No wonder things seem to go haywire when she’s distressed.

“Jane. Do you know what these group of women are? What you are?” I ask and a stir of excitement starts to run through my veins. Jane looks at the pictures again with a frown before looking at me with a frown and shakes her head in a negative.

“Jane. These group of women are witches. Which mean that your mom was one as well.” I say and I can see the wheels turning in her head as she processes my words. “Jane. This means that you are a witch too.” I say and my voice raises slightly in excitement as I watch the realization cross her face as she came to the same conclusion at the same time, I voiced her thoughts.

“Jane… Jane?” I call but she just sits there, mouth slightly ajar and staring at me in shock before doubt crosses her face. “No.” She says and shakes her head. “I mean, I can’t be… my mom would have told me, right? I mean, there’s nothing special about me. I’m the school nerd. A loser in everyone’s eyes.” She says and while she keeps rambling my bedroom lights start to flicker as well as my alarm clock next to my bed as her emotions starts to surface and I smirk at her while crossing my arms and waiting for her to catch on.

She suddenly stops as she stares at the lights above her and she looks to me in shock, heaving for breath due to her rambling. “See?” I say still smirking at her. “Once you get excited or are in distress, your magic starts to emerge.” I continue but my smirk falls from my face as when I see her starting to ventilate more and a panicked look crosses her face. s**t. I think to myself as I feel her mounting emotions. She’s starting to have a panic attack and Moon Goddess knows what could happen if she were to lose complete control.