The Forbidden Daughter

CHAPTER 8

ELAINA POV.

I jerk awake. I’m breathing hard as my heart races fast; I can feel my skin sticking to my bedding from my sweat. I take several deep breaths to calm myself down as I look up at the ceiling in my bedroom. My thoughts drift back to my dream again. The same one that haunts me on most nights of Dray sending me away while he stays behind.

I close my eyes as tears run into my hair and a sob escapes my throat while my heart aches painfully. Dear Moon Goddess I miss you so much Dray. If only our fathers accepted us, then things would have been so different. More sobs escape me as I feel the loss of leaving my mate all over again.

I turn on my side and drown my cries into my pillow even though all the rooms have been sound proofed, I still feel guilty for feeling so weak.

I jump when a hand touches my shoulder and I sit up to see Talia kneeling at the side of my bed. Concern in her eyes. “Talia w-what? I didn’t hear you come in.” I say, hating the sound of my shaky voice and quickly wipe at my eyes and trying to put on a reassuring smile, although I’m sure it must look like a grimace to her. She gently smiles at me and climbs into my bed and wraps her arms around me. The simple gesture is too much and the flood gate of tears open again as she cradles my shaking body.

“I miss him so much Talia.” I cry out against her chest as she rocks me gently with her cheek pressed against the top of my head.

“I know mom, I wish I could do something, anything to make it better.” She says, stroking my hair in comfort. “Is there any chance that he…?” I shake my head, cutting her off. “There’s nothing that can be done. The mate bond has been broken years ago and the only way that’s possible is by face to face rejection or… or d-death.” I try to stifle a sob as she continues to comfort me.

Silence follows and soon enough I fall into darkness again.

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TALIA POV.

I rarely see my mom break down. She is always so strong and confident even though we are being hunted like wild animals. I woke up early this morning with a strong urge to check on her and even Nera nagged me to be quick about it because she could feel mom’s wolf was in distress again. After mom calmed down enough to fall asleep again, I gently slipped out and let her rest for a little while longer.

Now, sitting at the kitchen table alone, I sigh, watching the swirling liquid of my cup of coffee after taking a sip. It’s still early and everyone is still sleeping but I couldn’t go back to sleep again after I tucked mom back under the covers.

‘Nera?’ I call to my wolf. I hear her grunt in response. ‘Is there anything we can do?’

She stays silent for a minute before she answers. ‘Nothing can heal a broken heart Talia.’ One can only learn to live with it over time but it never goes away.’

‘I’m afraid Nera. I’m afraid the same thing happens to us when we meet our mate.’ I say and I close my eyes as a tear runs down my cheek. She doesn’t answer but I feel her shuffle in the back of my mind as I feel the same fear from her as I do, and I know that she understands.

My ears twitch as they pick up faint footsteps from above and I smirk knowing full well who it is and where he is off to. I get up and quietly make my way up the stairs to my room where the door stood slightly ajar and I hear low voices followed by Jane’s giggles and shushing. I roll my eyes at their attempt to be quiet. Really, as if you can be quiet in a house with werewolves and a vampire with the door ajar. I silently push the door open wider and stand in the doorway, leaning against the door frame with my arms crosse.

“You know I sleep in that bed, right? I say, trying to stifle a laugh at the startled site unfolding in front of me. Jack is leaning over Jane on the bed, half under the covers kissing her heatedly, while resting his weight on his one elbow and cupping her behind the head with the other. Upon hearing my voice he whips around trying to get off but gets tangled in the bedding and crashes to the ground painfully while Jane gives out a startled cry and tries to cover herself as much as possible while trying to set Jack free of the bedding.

“TALIA! What the fu…?”   Jack exclaims and once over the shock Jane starts to giggle, her cheeks very red. I smirk at them and move over to join Jane next to her on the bed, laying on my back and propping myself up on my elbows. “You know you got your own room to do these things right?” I ask with a teasing tone in my words. Jack gives out a small growl and untangles himself silently and stands up looking embarrassed at being caught.

Jane gasps, clutching her one hand over her mouth while trying to stop another round of giggles and I immediately spot why. I bark out a laugh. “Well at least another part of you isn’t as embarrassed as your face” I laugh nodding my head towards his boxer briefs. He looks down and immediately snatches some of the bedding he untangled himself from off the floor to hide the huge erection tenting his boxer briefs and groans in further embarrassment. “Oh, for the love of Gods…” he mutters, and Jane and I burst out in a fit of giggle together.

After the whole awkward situation, we chase Jack out of the room to get dressed then we went down to the kitchen to start on breakfast. Mom still wasn’t up but I let her be. Jack also noticed and gave me a look, but I just shake my head so that he understood. He knew of mom’s nightmares but what I didn’t know was that it was getting worse for her being so close to her pack, so her emotions of past memories were running amok.

“So, what are our plans for today?” Jane asks as she and Jack sit at the kitchen table while I plunder the fridge intend on making breakfast. “I dunno” I say shrugging my shoulders while juggling ingredients in my arms and bringing them over to the kitchen counter.

“I’ve got a few ideas.” Jack chirps in and starts nuzzling Jane’s neck making her giggle while a blush creeps up her neck to her face as Jack whispers something into her ear. I just roll my eyes at them and start cracking some eggs. “I-I’ll help you.” A very red Jane says and whips off her stool towards me. Jack barks out a laugh and mumbles something under his breath about her being a tease and heads out the kitchen. Probably to shower and change.

Jane released a breath and looked almost dreamily in the direction where Jack disappeared to. “I think there’s room in the fridge.” I say innocently, snapping Jane out of her love puppy state. She looks at me confused and I try to hide a smirk. “You know… since you’re as red as a tomato you might want to join the rest in there…” I say full out laughing now as Jane catches on.

“Oh You!” She shrieks and playfully swats my arm, starts laughing too. Calming down she sighs. “It’s so strange. I mean, I know I’ve only met him yesterday, but already I feel that I’ve known him so much longer. I can’t stop thinking about him. I’ve even dreamt about him last night and when I woke up, he was there and I wasn’t even freaked out or anything.” She says and I can’t help but feel a little jealous but happy that they were paired.

‘Mates’ I scoff to myself. The one thing that is said to make your life complete and that can easily make your life fall apart at the same time. Quite terrifying actually. A part of me hopes to never meet my mate and the other part craves for it. Must be the teenage hormones. I say to myself.

“I’m really happy for you guys.” I say with a genuine smile. “I wouldn’t have picked a better girl to be with my brother but…” I say, but before I could finish Jane buts in. “If I break his heart, you’ll break my neck?” She says with a cautious smile.

I give out a small laugh but shake my head. “Yeah there’s that but I was going to say that it’s going to be an adjustment to you. So, I would recommend taking things one day at a time. It’s one thing to know about us but for a human to actually live with us can be… overwhelming.” I said.

Jane stares down at her chopping she has been doing but looks back to me seriously. “I know it’s a lot to take in. Heck it feels like I’m in a dream. In a matter of a week I found out I’m not crazy to believe that supernatural creatures exist, my tormenter at school gets his ass handed to him, I moved out of my abusive dad’s house to live with my werewolf  new best friend who has a badass wolf inside her and I met the love of my life who happens to be a vampire….” She says to me seriously. “And I couldn’t be happier about it.” She said giving me a wide smile and eyes twinkling in genuine happiness.

I stare at her in a slight daze of awe. I didn’t actually think that she would be able to grasp the whole situation and I probably thought she was still in shock or something but here she is standing in the kitchen and helping to make breakfast for a vampire and a couple of werewolves and acting as though it was normal.

I engulf her in a hug which she returns before we let go. “You really are a strange little human you know?” I say making her grin and we giggle together.

“Well… Seeing as I have gained another daughter… would it be possible to ask for a cup of coffee?” Elaina’s voice comes from the doorway. We whip around towards her and we smile while Jane has tears in her eyes. Elaina comes over and pulls Jane into a bear hug and Jane immediately returns it. “Welcome to the family Jane.” Mom says to her before they part.

Jane has silent tears running down her cheeks as she nods to mom. She’s holding back a sob as more happy tears fall over her cheeks, but she quickly wipes them away.

“So… about that coffee?” Mom asks and Jane jumps into action. “Y-yes of course.” Jane says turning to the coffee maker, nearly tripping on her face but quickly recovers. We snicker at her moment of clumsiness as mom comes to give me a hug as well. “Thanks for earlier this morning Talia.” Mom whispers in my ear and plants a kiss on my forehead as Jack finally re-enters the room freshly showered and dressed.

The rest of the morning we spent talking to each while eating and then we all helped with cleaning up. I look around the kitchen and happily take in the cheery talking faces. ‘We sure are a strange pack huh little wolf?’ Nera says and I know that she too is observing them through my eyes. ‘We sure are, big wolf’ I say back to her smiling.