Mixed Fates

Chapter 16.

Mia's POV.

“DEMON!”

“INTRUDER!”

“WITCH!”

I look around the people I grew up with yell at me and stare at me with horror and hatred in their eyes.

“SOMEONE FIND ALPHA MAX!”

Dad…

Where is mom?

Will they recognize me?

Will they be scared of me too?

“DON’T MOVE MONSTER!”

I stand perfectly still but looking at the husband of the woman that babysat me, million of times. They are keeping their distance and some have shifted. I am home, I feel it but this still feels like a dream.

I look around at the environment that I grew up with, the big main house that can hold the entire pack for a meeting. The pack house that almost had a party every weekend and I would sneak out to party with the older boys. The treeline, I would look after my friends' shift and disappear behind it, wishing that I could shift one day and run with them. I loved and hated living here. This was my heaven and hell.

I look down on my body, my feet look crooked and almost transparent. I lift my hands up to my head hoping to feel my hair again but just my skin covering my skull meets my fingers. I look at my hands, they are nothing but skin and bone, crooked and misshapen bones. I move my hands to hold myself, but I just met with my ribcage and nothing. I want to cry, this is not how I wanted to be greeted home. I wanted to be crushed in my dad's arms. I wanted to feel the warmth of my mother and see the smile of my younger siblings.

“WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

Hearing my dad's angry voice does not fill me with fear or terror but with a protective feeling. He is not a calm and sweet person. His voice has always been hard and threatening so people get the wrong picture of him most of the time. Or right picture and I just have the privilege of getting his good side.

“Daddy?” I turn around, looking at him.

He looks older, he has a few gray hairs peeking into his hair. He has wrinkles on his forehead and under his eyes. He looks at me like I am a stranger.

“Daddy, please” I beg him.

He does not look faced by me calling him daddy but he steps closer to me.

“Who are you and what are you doing in my territory?” he growls.

Cold water runs down my spine and tears start to sting my eyes.

“Daddy, please look at me” I beg again, putting my hands up towards him.

“Alpha, she is a threat. We need to get her away from the pups” a young man says to dad from behind him.

“Shut up Greg” I snap at him.

That made my dad's mask slip a little and I can see him starting to believe it is me.

“Don't you dare order me around, you ugly ass witch!” Greg yells back at me.

Second later he flinches and moves away to the back of the circle that is around me all ready to pounce on me. Dad moves closer to me sniffing the air around me.

“Daddy I know I don't look like I used…” I choke out.

He lifts up one eyebrow.

“Mia?”

I spin so fast around I feel the dizziness threaten to take me down. My knees feel like they can’t carry me anymore. There she is.

“Mom?”

She is beautiful. My mom has always been the most beautiful woman that I have seen. She is only human, but that has never made me think any less of her strength. She is the strongest person in my life and even now, she is the unbreakable mountain in my eyes.

“Please mom, it's me”

She walks closer to me, dad growls at her to stop but I just keep eye contact with her and feel like every single step she is making towards me is healing me. I want to run into her arms but I know I can’t. She needs to come to me.

“Mia. Is that you?” her voice is not strong at all but I can feel it.

Dad walks over to mom and puts his hand protectively around her waist. Looking at me with his eyes searching every inch of my body. My body, that is only covered by a shirt covered in blood and myself also covered in blood. Mom is in jeans and a purple long sleeve t-shirt. Her hair is up in a ponytail and she has some wrinkles in her face but she has these big bags around her eyes. She looks like she has been through some hard times.

“Mommy please believe it, I am back. It's me, Mia.”

Silence.

“YOU CAN’T BE BELIEVING THIS BULLSHIT! THIS WITCH DOES NOT SMELL ANYTHING LIKE OUR MIA! WE SAW HER GO! THIS SICK FREAK IS NOT OUR MIA!”

The disgust in her voice shocked me to my core. This woman is an elder and I have known her since I came here, she is kind of like my grandma. We baked together. She took my side when the other pups bullied me because I could not shift or sense things like them. She gave me books to read on werewolf history and witch history. She should see through all this and see my core.

“Nana Gwen, it is me” I beg but I can’t look at her.

The tears are threatening to fall. I can’t hold this in anymore. I just want to be in my room, in my bed, sleeping until next year.

“Show me it is you”

My eyes fly up to meet moms. I know what she is talking about but I don't know if I have enough magic to do it, I just sigh. I walk very shaky steps towards her, she does not move or break eye contact. I lift up my hand to her cheek and let myself connect to her mind.

I show her the first time I saw her, reading in the woods.

I show her giving me a bubble bath.

I show her going shopping with me.

I show her us cuddling on the couch.

Her eyes are watering.

“Mia?”

I nod my head and fall into her arms. We hold each other for a little while until I put my hand out for daddy to take. He does not hesitate to take it. I show him different memories.

Me and him fighting.

Me and him training.

Me asking him to help me study.

Me sitting in on him holding a pack meeting.

He breaks the bond and grabs both of us in a great big bear hug.

“Where is my little troll? And Bunny?” I ask.

Mom pulls a little away from me and looks at Dad.

“Mia my love, I think getting you a little more healthy is the main priority” Mom says in a considered voice.

“You are not falling for her act, are you!?”

“This is not MIA!”

These people are supposed to be my family! How can they not see me? Am I really nothing like I was? I bring my hand again up to my bald head but before I can lift them all the way, I see them. They are crooked, my skin is so white I can almost see through it and I can count every single broken bone in my hands. The tears start to fall and I am shaking.

Mom brings her warm hands into mine and I move my eyes up to her.

“You are my Mia, I can’t imagine what you have gone through but I see you know”

“Mom” I cry.

“Let’s get you to the hospital, we need to get you to a doctor right away” daddy says in his no-s**t voice.