Reveal

Kiarra

“What?”

“Excuse me?”

Aidan’s voice overlapped with my own as we looked at them incredulously.

The two of them nodded their heads as if what they had just said was perfectly natural.

“We think you should come back home and stay with us, so we can get to know each other. Besides, there hasn’t even been a Luna ceremony yet, so you can still leave.”

Rose nodded even more enthusiastically, and I just sat there, dumbfounded. Did they not hear what I just said?

“Are you ~insane~?”

My voice sounded a little more high-pitched than normal, and I looked back and forth between them and Aidan, trying to figure out if I had just heard correctly.

Aidan looked furious, like he was about to jump across the small table in front of us and rip them apart, but he stayed in his seat.

My hand, however, was feeling the pressure of his anger. He held it tightly as if they were already trying to drag me away.

“You just said it yourself, sweetheart: you don’t know us. But this way we can get to know each other. We can’t leave our pack behind for too long, so the best way would be for you to come and live with us!

“You haven’t become the official Luna of this pack yet, so you can leave without much trouble.”

My jaw hit the fucking floor at her audacity.

“And besides, you haven’t marked your mate yet. So there is still time to change your mind. You have options!”

Aidan let out a growl and stood up with the speed of light. “What the fuck did you just say?”

I grabbed his arm and tried to drag him back down onto the couch, but he was shaking with anger and stood his ground. I believe the only reason he hadn’t attacked yet was that I was still holding onto him.

Rose’s eyes became cold as she turned her gaze to him.

“My daughter has ~many~ options and opportunities. And they don’t all include you, Alpha Gold.

“Besides, she is an Alpha’s daughter, so you wouldn’t even be living together before the Luna ceremony under normal circumstances.”

The sickeningly sweet expression I had seen on her face since first entering the office was gone, and she just stared at Aidan with a sneer.

“We would hate to involve the Council on this matter, but if we have to, we will. Protocol dictates that she will remain in our pack until a ceremony is held.”

James backed up his mate, but his expression hadn’t changed. He was still as neutral as he was when we first entered.

Aidan let out a threatening growl as I answered the man in front of us.

“~Remain?~ I was never in your pack to fucking begin with.” I sent them my best death glare. Sometimes I really wish looks could fucking kill.

“That wasn’t our fault!” Rose piped up as if that fact was oh-so-important.

What the hell was wrong with them? From all the things I had predicted, I would never in a million years have thought they would be thinking of separating Aidan and me.

We were fucking mates, and they didn’t even seem to care.

I knew the emotional toll it had taken on me the one time I tried to run away from Aidan and the pack.

Well, the one time I had done it to just get away from him at least, and I couldn’t even imagine doing that ever again. Not after everything we had been through in the past couple of months.

~“The best way to remain pure is to not depend on the mate bond. So the higher-ranking wolves would choose a suitable mate instead.”~

Ares’s voice rang through my head as I tried to figure out what the hell they meant when they said I had “options.”

My jaw dropped when I realized it. They wanted me to go with them, maybe even for good. Leaving my mate for good.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I almost screamed as I jumped to my feet to stand next to my shaking mate. Aidan’s anger seemed to only intensify.

“Hey!” James yelled back and stood up, his face mirroring our own expressions of anger. “Don’t talk to your mother like that!”

His words vibrated with the force of the angry growl from his chest, but I didn’t even flinch.

“Talk like that to my mate one more time, I dare you,” Aidan responded, and his voice had gone dark, darker than I had ever heard before.

“She is not my fucking mother, and I will speak to her however the fuck I want, you arrogant piece of shit.”

I no longer cared about keeping a peaceful environment, and things were escalating rapidly as I sneered.

The room filled with a murderous atmosphere as all of us held our ground. Low rumbles and growls echoed around the space.

No one said a word. Aidan and James were looking at each other as if they were ready to rip each other to shreds.

It seemed as if both of them were just waiting for an opening before attacking, for the other to blink and show weakness.

“You have a sister.”

I had been holding Aidan’s arm in a tight grip and stood my ground right next to him, ready to fucking pounce if they dared to even lift a finger against Aidan, but I faltered for a second when I heard Rose’s calm voice.

I looked at her with a frown, wondering what the hell she was talking about. Then her words registered.

“What?”

“You have a sister.” Rose looked straight at me, and despite the tension, she looked remarkably calm and neutral.

“She is eighteen. We had her years after we lost you, and she can’t wait to meet you too. Melody. That’s her name.”

My frown deepened. I knew I had a sibling. We already knew that much, but somehow it still shocked me. A sister.

The two men were still standing, stiff as boards, glaring at each other, but I could feel Aidan slowly stirring next to me as I stood, confused about how to react.

Rose looked at the two men who were splashing their Alpha hormones all over the place and placed a hand on her mate’s arm.

“Stop this. Right now. We didn’t come here to fight. We came here to meet our daughter, and I think we may have acted rashly.”

She looked at Aidan and then at me.

“I apologize for upsetting you. As you know, an Alpha feels emotions more fiercely, and your father is no exception. We should have spoken our intent with more care and respect.”

As she apologized she slowly bent her head down, showing her neck to convey her apology and that she took responsibility for the confrontation.

I stared at her in disbelief. This woman. She was good. She was extremely good with her words.

James sneered one last time but then relaxed his tightened body and nodded with gritted teeth.

He didn’t speak and didn’t apologize, but judging from how Aidan’s body slowly untensed, I could guess that it was probably the closest an Alpha came to it.

“I don’t give second chances. If you ever disrespect me or my mate again, I will rip your throats out.”

Aidan’s voice sounded rough and it was filled with dominance, but I could feel his murderous aura had dissipated slightly. He was probably only thinking of maiming them at this point.

“I can tell you don’t trust us. Of course you don’t. You have been through so much in the years you were taken from us, but we truly just want to get to know you.

“Even if you don’t want to know us, please think of your sister. Think of Melody. She is innocent in all of this and just wants to get to know her big sister.

“She has been feeling your loss for her entire life, even though she never met you. You must be curious about her too.”

Rose looked at me with pleading eyes and I couldn’t keep a straight face as she spoke. My eyebrows grew closer together and I shook my head slightly, as if trying to shake off her words that were sticking to me.

I knew this woman had a way with words, and I didn’t trust a thing that came out of her mouth. But I couldn’t help but falter.

I was curious.

What did this girl look like? Did we look alike? Was she like me?

I had wondered what my life would have been like if I had actually grown up with these people, and it seemed as if this girl would be the answer to that question.

If I saw her, I could get a glimpse into what my childhood would have looked like, and who I would be if I hadn’t been thrown away.

But while I was curious, I also hated the idea.

What could a person possibly turn into with parents such as these? That girl had grown up with those ideals and that temperamental father. Was she just as messed up as them? Could she even be normal?

So many questions ran through my mind, and I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if I actually went to their pack.

As I was going over all of this in my head, Aidan interrupted my thought process.

“My mate is not leaving.” His voice was cold and left no room for argument, but I grabbed his arm again and succeeded in getting his eyes to focus on me.

I hesitated slightly before surprising myself with the words that left my mouth.

“Maybe we should hear them out.”