Alpha's Legacy (Black Moon Saga Book 3)

7. A New Adventure

When my alarm went off in what felt like the middle of the night, it occurred to me that my “road trip” escort is a powerful vampire. It makes no sense to have to leave so early when we can just teleport to wherever we’re going. But I’m not about to complain. I’m going, and that’s all that matters.

I’ve just finished combing out my hair that is still wet from my shower and tucking the last few things into my luggage when Tian arrives. But he doesn’t materialize in the middle of the living room the way I’d expected. He knocks at the front door.

“Good morning, Anna Jade. Your chariot awaits,” he announces when I open the door, turning to gesture to the sleek SUV parked out in front of Uncle Pete’s house.

“Wait, what? We’re driving?” I ask excitedly.

For some reason, though teleporting would be far more convenient, part of the appeal of the idea I originally had in my head was the driving and traveling. I’m excited that having him along won’t be taking that from me after all.

“But you hate driving,” I point out. “If you’re just doing this for my benefit, it’s not necessary. We can teleport.”

“And sometimes, we will. The rest of the time, you’ll be driving. I don’t mind riding as much as driving, and it’s a far richer experience to travel from place to place in a way that lets you see it all.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“Good. Let’s get all your things loaded into the back, and then I’ll take you to our first stop,” he commands.

“You’ll take me … do you mean we’re teleporting to our first stop?” I ask him, confused about why he would say he’s taking me when he just told me I’m driving.

“We are. It’s also the reason for beginning our travels so early. Our first stop is a bit time-sensitive,” he explains. “Even though we’re leaving the vehicle here for now and will have to come back to get it, let’s still consider this our launch. Be sure the house is locked and ready to be left for a time, because we won’t be going back inside when we return.”

He helps me do one last walkthrough and make sure that everything is unplugged and ready to be left for a couple months. I give the back garden one last, longing look, sincerely hoping that the pups my Alpha mother hired to tend to it while I’m away will do a good job. I know it’s essentially just a bunch of plants, but I still care about what happens to them. The garden was important to Uncle Pete, and it matters to me now too.

“Ready? We need to get going,” Tian says, interrupting my thoughts, which is probably for the best. I don’t want to be changing my mind now, and especially not for something so silly.

“Ready,” I tell him confidently.

He waits as I check the locks on the back door to the garden and then make my way through to the front of the house one last time. I close and lock the door behind us, taking a deep breath as I stow my keys away in my purse.

“Hold on to me,” he instructs, reaching out his arms to embrace me.

I can already feel the weird vibrating feeling that means we’re about to teleport, followed immediately by the smell of the sulfuric smoke that swirls around us and sweeps us away to wherever.

Seconds later, I open my eyes to look around and try to figure out where he’s taken me.

“Whoa,” I exclaim, realizing that we’re up high on some narrow cliff. I can see the ocean stretching out before us, though it’s quite a distance below.

But I think I remember this place. He brought me here for my 8th birthday surprise. If I remember correctly, this spot is high up the side of a mountain that I pointed out in a painting I noticed hanging in the common room of my uncle’s packhouse, wishing out loud that I could go there. From the look of the painting, it seemed like it would be the most beautiful place in the world. And Tian was listening, the way he always is, and knew he could take me there. So he did.

What we didn’t get to do that day was watch the sunrise just like in the painting. I never said anything because I was too excited and grateful just to be able to come here and I didn’t want it to seem like I was complaining. But I did wish then that I could have watched the sunrise from this spot, and now here we are again. At sunrise this time. This must be the time-sensitive part of our destination that he was talking about.

“Tian,” I start to say, my eyes already filling with grateful tears as my hold on him tightens.

“Shh, we’re going to miss it,” he scolds, but his smile and his sparkling gray eyes give him away.

I laugh instead, taking him by the hand so we can sit and settle into the same spot he showed me when we were here before. From there, we can dangle our legs off the edge, and I remember him teasing me about that the first time we came. He had me convinced that if I kicked too much, I’d lose a shoe to the abyss. He may even have been right about that.

It feels like not even a whole minute goes by before I start to see that the painting didn’t do this moment justice. As the sun starts to appear over the far horizon, the display of colors shining over the water would be impossible to capture in only an image. The soft hints of clouds off in the distance only intensify the way the light spreads all the colors around. It might be the most incredible thing I’ve ever witnessed.

I hear the click of Tian taking pictures with his phone and realize I hadn’t even thought to pull mine out and do that. But honestly, I’d rather look with my eyes. If not even an artist’s painting can portray this, then surely a camera has no chance of capturing it.

“Thank you, Tian,” I finally say what I tried to before.

I feel breathlessly in awe of this moment, and it’s thanks to him bringing me here. Emotions I don’t even have names for are brewing just below the surface, because it feels so deeply good to have someone who cares so much and remembers little things of such importance to me all these years later.

“You’re welcome, Anna Jade. I know my present from before was incomplete, but your mother told me you were too young then to be dragged out of bed so early in the morning, birthday or not.”

“I loved it anyway, but this does take it to a whole new level. And now I have my own painting in my mind to take with me forever.”

The warm, affectionate smile he gives me and the way he seems intent to watch my face when there’s so much else he could be looking at makes me feel undeniably special and appreciated, which is a welcome and much-needed feeling to have. I’ve been having a rough few weeks, so this gift couldn’t have come at a better time. What a perfect start to our adventures.

We’re quiet for a few more minutes, watching the colors play on the water until the sun has fully risen. Even then, the sky looks different than it did the last time we were here. There’s just something about the soft laziness of morning light that I really love.

“You know, the last time we came here, you were still calling me your dad,” Tian comments out of the blue. “It wasn’t ‘thank you, Tian’ then. And I know you’ve grown, and I’m glad for it. I’ve enjoyed every second of watching it happen. But there are just certain moments when it hits me harder than others that you’re not that little girl anymore. I suppose this is one of them.”

He sounds so sad and wistful that it’s heartbreaking. I didn’t realize that he was so affected by what I call him. I made the decision to start calling him by his name for my own selfish reasons without even considering how he would feel about it, and he allowed it without complaint.

“It’s just that it got kind of difficult and confusing for me after a while,” I tell him. “It’s not that I don’t see you as my dad, but reserving that term for only my father makes a lot of things easier outside the house, like when I was at school. A lot of the other kids would make comments or even tease me. Having three mates is one thing, and the pack seems to have accepted it for Mom, but having three dads is something else entirely. I got sick of having to explain myself. After I got my magic, everyone realized who my father was anyway, so no one challenges me when I call him my dad. It’s just easier to call you and Adam by your names.”

I’ve never actually explained that out loud before, and I’ve noticed I’m the only one of my siblings who does it like that consistently. I’ve been doing it since shortly after my tenth birthday. My magic changed a lot of things for me.

“You stopped calling your mother ‘Mama’ at about the same time, so I guess I never attributed it to anything but growing up,” Tian says after a moment. “I’m sorry that you’ve had such experiences because of your mother’s unconventional relationships, and I regret whatever part I may have had in that.”

“Tian, other people’s ignorance is not your responsibility,” I point out. It bothers me that he thinks it’s somehow his doing when bullies are just bullies and will find anything they can latch onto to harass someone like me. “I just hope you know that my feelings about you have never changed. I’ve always loved you exactly the same. You are my dad, whether that’s what I call you or not.”

He reaches for me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and giving me a gentle squeeze.

“Your wisdom and maturity far exceed your years, and I’m always glad to hear you chime in with your perspective on such matters. And though I’ve always worried for your sensitive heart, you always manage to astound me with how you take things like that in stride. That’s much the way your mother has always been too.”

I hear that a lot. In fact, I’m always told that my positive qualities model hers. I only wish I could do as much with them as she has managed to, and I also feel like people give me too much credit. That “wisdom” and “maturity” has never prevented me from being deeply affected by how people treat me. It just helps me talk about it more impressively.

“I stopped calling her ‘Mama’ because I was often mocked for sounding childish,” I feel the need to explain to him. “Emerick was the worst one for it, but many of his friends would join in too. They’d chase after me chanting ‘Mama, mama, mama,’ in these high-pitched voices that sounded a lot like chickens squawking. So, I stopped. I decided that what I call her isn’t that important. She’s still my mom.”

He seems to mull that over quietly for a bit, probably deciding which bit of his sage advice is appropriate for that admission.

“Your mother still calls her own mother ‘Mama,’ you know,” he points out after a few moments of peaceful quiet. “And she’s a full-grown Alpha.”

“I know,” I giggle, amused by the funny tone he used at the end. “It’s different, though. She does that because to her, ‘Mama’ and ‘Mom’ are two different people.”

“See, and she also has more than one mom and more than one dad too,” he continues pointing out playfully.

“Still different. She only had one of each when she was in school, and her situation is one that I don’t think anyone would have mocked her about anyway. She was adopted.”

“Plenty of people mocked her for it. Not only was she the adopted ‘outsider’ to the pack, but everyone thought she was human.”

Okay, he has me there. I don’t have an argumentative retort for that. My mother’s wolf was locked away by a curse until she was well into adulthood, and she appeared human until her wolf was finally released. I'm sure that was a struggle for her in ways I can't even imagine.

“I don’t understand what point you’re trying to make,” I confess. “Is it that she’s much braver than I am because she didn’t let other people sway her from doing what she wanted?”

“No, not that,” he assures me. “It was more that you’re not alone, and she can relate to you more than you know. If ever your feelings of being different or an outsider get to be too much, you should know that you have a natural ally and confident.”

“Yeah. You,” I tease, poking at his chest. “The only vampire in the pack.”

“Alright, you have me there, Anna Jade,” he concedes, his eyes shining with amusement and affection as he gazes down at me. “And it is true. You can talk to me about anything. If you tell me it’s to be kept only between us, it will be.”

And I know that. I always have. I just have a hard time actually going and talking to anyone about anything, especially about my own troubles and feelings. I always end up feeling like a whiner who should have figured out a way to solve her own problems, or just chickening out entirely. My mother and her mates are busy and important people who shouldn’t have to be troubled with the burdens of a silly teenager.

But instead of confessing any of that, I merely thank him for always supporting me. That’s the important part anyway. Even if I don’t take advantage of that support as often as maybe I should, I do appreciate that he’s offering it.

“Unless you wish to stay longer, we should probably get back to the truck and be getting on the road,” he says at about the same time I was thinking it as well. The show of colors in the sky seems to be about over anyway, and I’m eager and curious to see what else he has planned for us.

“Where are we going next?” I ask as he’s helping me stand up, keeping a protective hand at my back just like he did when I was a child.

“I was thinking of finally taking you to see Anya at Council Headquarters so you can see where she works, which is also where you’ll have to go to receive training from her once you’re of age.”

That might seem boring, but it’s not. Whenever Anya has tutored me in the past, she’s come to Black Moon to do it. I’ve always wanted to see where she lives and works, but it’s not a place you can just visit on a whim. Unless you’re Tian, apparently.

“You know, that’s not exactly the sort of stop I had in mind when I was fantasizing about this trip, but I’d really love that. I guess that’s one of the perks of traveling with the one and only Bastian Ambrogio, former vampire emissary to The Council of Supernaturals.”

“And don’t forget founding member and valued former agent and operative of said council,” he adds just as dramatically as I was speaking before him. “And yes, that does grant you VIP access to places you wouldn’t otherwise be able to go.”

“Such as high cliffs of unclimbable mountains and private sanctuaries of world-renowned witches.”

“Yes,” he chuckles. “Though you’re kidding yourself if you think I can get you access to Anya’s private sanctuary. It’s called a private sanctuary for a reason. I’ve never seen it. Where I’m taking you is more of a corporate workspace.”

He beckons me to come closer to him, and I step forward and wrap my arms around him to brace myself for the teleport that I know is coming.

“Here we go,” he announces as my body starts to vibrate and the stinky smoke swirls around us again.

"And here you go," he adds once we're back in front of Uncle Pete's house. He's holding a set of keys out to me, presumably the ones that go to "my chariot" behind us.

And here we go, finally leaving Black Moon. I knew I wouldn't regret insisting that I get a driver's license, though I had no idea then where it could possibly take me. To Council Headquarters, apparently.