MINI STORY: Love Within the Realm

When a Wolf Loves a Human

“When a Wolf Loves a Human”

The Story of Jared Valentine and April

“Where’s Dad?” Marleigh snapped with a snarky attitude.

“Dad is doing his job, Marleigh. He’s recruiting more members for the Royal Legacy pack.” April sighed.

“I wish you were the one who was gone all the time!” Marleigh shouted.

April frowned and shook her head at her daughter’s attitude.

“Me too, Mar, then your dad could deal with your attitude.” April mumbled, “Go to your room.”

Marleigh huffed and stomped all the way to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

Marleigh Valentine had all of the Valentine fire and all of the dominance that came with being the daughter of an Alpha. What she also had was enough attitude to run an entire city.

It had been almost ten years since Jared and April responded to the call to help the packs of the four corners against the Council. Marleigh was four then, she’s nearly 14 now.

Marleigh was enough to handle, the two decided, so they never had any more children. April, as a human, had a hard time with the werewolf pregnancy and her body struggled to recover afterwards so she had her tubes tied when they decided they were happy with one child.

Marleigh inherited her dad’s inability to talk about her emotions, her mother’s stubbornness, and her Aunt Jo’s strength. No one was sure where all the attitude came from.

Jared was gone a lot the first few years after they moved to the royal realm, less now, but it was still enough to make April feel a little bit like a single parent at times. Jared was in charge of diplomatic relations along with being a member of the royal guard. When the realm was brand new, he went around to other packs and told them about the werewolf realm, asking for volunteers. Now, he only went out when a pack requested information on the royals or the realm or when several members of one pack were considering joining the Royal Legacy pack.

Marleigh was the oldest child among the legacy children, the offspring of the packs of the four corners. She remembered bits and pieces of the final war with the Council and it was enough to give her nightmares. She was only 4, but some things just stick with you no matter how young you are.

She remembers hiding in the bunker at New Moon as the final invasion happened. She remembers when the rogues breached the bunker and killed so many people. She remembers the screams as one of the Alphas cut a baby out of a pregnant woman who had died. She remembers seeing siren magic for the first time as one of the Lunas defended the defenseless as best as she could. She remembers the wailing and crying and screaming afterwards, when people realized their mate, or brother, or parent was dead.

She remembers the misery.

But, all anyone seems to want to talk about is the after.

Arter the Council was defeated and everyone banned together. After the species mixing ban was lifted and all of the realms came together for the first time. After her and her parents and the other representatives crossed through a portal for the first time and entered the werewolf realm. After they moved into the palace and began restoring it.

Marleigh wasn’t sure what was so great about the after.

She was alone. A freakshow. She was the child of a legacy family, she was alive when the Council was in charge, she saw the destruction first hand. No one came within 12 inches of her at school. A brand new school that wasn’t finished until two years ago. There were only 20 people in her class and the grades were too small so all the classes were mixed ages. That just meant she was being judged by ten year olds on top of her fellow teenagers.

Her parents were different from the others who came from the legacy packs. They were together for years, already having a child, before deciding to move here. Frankie and Nadia, Meredith and Jack had just met during the war. They were shiny and new and exciting. Jared and April were struggling.

April was a human who was so terrified of werewolves that Jared had to give up being the Alpha of his pack or risk losing his mate. She started to come around when she got pregnant and her sister-in-law, Josie, fell in love with her own Alpha. She even consented to moving into the packhouse while Jared became the acting Gamma of Crescent Moon. She accepted the fact that her daughter was half werewolf and might get a wolf when she turned 18.

Moving to a magical realm through a cotton-candy-colored portal was a whole new level of weird. Thus, she relented and she adjusted her perspective of normal.

Not even that prepared her for what it would be like to raise a teenage half werewolf in said magical realm while being a part time single parent.

Marleigh’s newest phase was staying out past her curfew of 9:00 pm with a group of kids from school who were less than honorable. April knew Marleigh struggled to make friends in school, so she tried to be open minded, but the boy Marleigh was currently obsessed with left April worried.

His name was Benedict and he was once a rogue. His parents were members of the Council’s rogues. Of course, he was just an innocent child then, but his father was killed during the war and that left him bitter. His mother moved him to the realm in hopes of starting fresh. Still, he remembered.

Marleigh pushed the screen out of her bedroom window and crawled out of it, sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night to meet up with Ben. He was waiting for her on the other side of the royal village, leaning against a tree. He smirked when he saw her and pushed off the tree trunk. Marleigh flung herself at the boy and they immediately started kissing.

Marleigh and Ben sank into the cover of the trees. Marleigh was conveniently wearing a dress which Ben pushed up all the way to her hips and yanked her thong to the side. Ben undid his zipper and hitched Marleigh up against the tree before pushing inside of her. Marleigh buried her face in Ben’s neck to keep from crying out as he had his way with her. It was a quickie in a location they’d done it a hundred times before when Marleigh’s parents were being unbearable.

After they were finished, the two cleaned up and held hands as they walked through the woods. A few miles later, they arrived at a bonfire that some of the realm kids were throwing. It was a typical Friday night, where the highschool kids got drugs and beer from their fathers and older siblings to supply the bonfire and the middle schoolers snuck out whenever they could to crash it.

You didn’t come to the Royal Legacy pack because you had a nice, shiny childhood. You came here because you were the product of rogues, because your parents died in the war, because you had nowhere else to go. It meant that the children of the realm were unhinged and unruly. But, they were also damaged, so no one said or did anything, they just waited for the adolescent stupidity to run its course.

Marleigh laughed as she joined the party, swaying her hips to the music that was shaking the trees. Ben got them both a beer and they settled in for another night of partying. Marleigh knew she would hear about it tomorrow, but that wasn’t going to stop her from enjoying tonight.

*****

“Marleigh Valentine, how many times have I told you not to hang out with that boy!” Jared shouted at his daughter.

He had caught her sneaking back in just before sunrise, again.

“I need to talk to Mom.” Marleigh was as white as a ghost and her eyes were wide, terrified.

The anger immediately left Jared as he took in his daughter’s expression.

“What’s wrong?” Jared asked, softening his tone.

“I need Mom.” Marleigh was fighting back tears as she ran past her dad and into their bedroom.

April was sitting up in bed, listening to Jared scolding their daughter. The last two years, since Jared put together a team to travel to the packs instead, April and Jared have been better parents and better mates to each other. April felt less like a part time single parent and more like a team with Jared. However, that didn’t mean they had any more control over their teenage daughter.

“What’s wrong, honey?” April knew something was wrong as Marleigh crawled into her bed.

“I messed up.” Marleigh sobbed, “I’m pregnant.”

April froze at those two little words. She looked up to see Jared standing in the doorway, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open. He looked both terrified and enraged. April shook her head at him, silently telling him to get his s**t together because their daughter needed them.

“Is it Ben’s?” April asked quietly.

April whimpered and nodded.

“Does he know?”

“Yes. I found out a few days ago and told him. Today I found out that he left school and the realm, he’s gone back to the rogues in the human realm.” Marleigh hiccups.

April called Benedict every name she could think of.

“We’ll figure this out, Marleigh.” April sighed, running her hand through Marleigh’s hair.

“I’m sorry. I should have listened to you, you were right.” Marleigh cried.

Any other time, April would have love to hear those words from her daughter. But, not today, today her heart was breaking.

“We’ll help you. You’ll finish school and then you’ll get a job to help with the baby. We’ll make up the second room as a nursery. We’ll help you get everything that you need.” Jared finally spoke, moving across the room to sit on the edge of the bed.

Marleigh pulled away from her mother’s chest and wiped her hand across her damp face.

“You will?” She asked her dad in surprise.

Jared reached out and dried his daughter’s tears.

“Of course. You’re our daughter and that’s our grandbaby.”

*****

A few months later, Cole Valentine was born, 8 pounds, 6 ounces of pure Alpha werewolf. A year after that, Marleigh turned 18 and learned that she didn’t have a wolf. She was okay with that, she liked being human and strong just like her Aunt Jo.

Cole wasn’t alone in growing up as the son of a legacy family. He had Nadia’s daughter Constance, and Meredith’s daughters Cali and Lousie to keep him company. Of course, everyone thought one of them would end up mated to Cole, but it was too early for all that nonsense.

Then, there were the royal children. By now, Leo and Austyn-Rose had a son, Emmett, and a daughter, Lydia. The six of them were surely a force to be reckoned with. The future of the realm.

Once Marleigh turned twenty, she was blessed with her mate, finally. A man by the name of Nickoli. He loved her and her son like he was his own. Nickoli, in his need to adopt Cole as his son, created the realm’s official adoption process and began making noise about the importance of adoption. He and Marleigh created the realm’s orphanage before they turned 30.

That’s when the Queen had her final two children, Bruno and Regina, at which point the royal Trials were announced to the entire realm. The Trials outlined a plan for how the successor of the throne would be chosen.

Cole was being trained to be a member of the royal guard and the girls, Cali, Lousie, and Constance, were being taught how they could better help the realm.

A new era was stirring and everyone better be ready for it.

Read more about Cole Valentine in, “The Lonely Rogue” and Carter Valentine in, “The Royal Twins of La Lune”