His Selected Mate

Chapter 32

We ran around outside for a couple more hours before returning back to my tree. Several times, I had caught Maxon's scent combined with my siblings' scents. I didn't try to follow them though. I wanted May and Gerad to spend time with Maxon, to get to know him. He was, after all, going to be their brother-in-law one day.

My parents rolled around on the ground near my tree before settling down enough to shift. I turned around while my parents got dressed. A couple minutes later I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to see my dad looking at me with a mixture of worry and happiness. Worry because I'm sure he could sense my sadness and happiness because he got to run around with his mate. His other hand was out stretched and held my clothes. I stood up and grabbed them from him with my mouth and trotted a few yards to the nearest tree that was wide enough to change behind.

I shifted and quickly changed before silently making my way back to my parents. They both looked at me, not sure what to say before dad spoke up. "I think you may want to tell your mom the truth, America." Mom whipped her head towards dad then to me. "What truth America? What are you two talking about?" My mouth was dry but I forced myself to speak anyway.

"Mom, Maxon is my mate," I said quietly but she heard me. She looked taken aback at first but then her face morphed into a smile and she charged at me with her arms outstretched. "Oh America, you have no idea how happy I am for you. I mean I'm angry you didn't tell me, or you Shalom," she said, her body slightly turning so she could face him but then she shifted back. "But I can overlook that. I'm just so happy that you found him, that you found each other," she squealed. I let out a giggle. I couldn't help it, her joy was so contagious. She quickly pulled back, her face a little serious.

"And you accepted him? Because before you came here you weren't really open to the idea of having a mate." I nodded and her face broke into a beam. "Oh, thank Goddess," she said dramatically.

"Really mom? I wouldn't have told you if I had rejected him. And he accepted me, by the way," I said with some pride in my voice. "So, he knows? About us?" mom asked. I nodded again.

"Then why were you so sad earlier honey? And don't try to deny it. You've been my daughter for 17 years, I know when you're sad," she stated. I looked down at the ground. I didn't want to say that seeing them happy like that for the first time in so long made me sad. "I just realized that Maxon and I won't be running around out here together," I said sadly, "or teaching our pups how to hunt or fight or any of that. Hell, I don't even know if my pups will be able to shift!" I finished with a cry and felt tears running down my face. I didn't know why I was so sad. I had found my mate, some werewolves weren't even that lucky.

But the deep, primal part of me would always want for those things and I wouldn't be able to have them. Both my parents were suddenly at my side, their arms wrapped around me, supporting my weight as I cried. Eventually the tears stopped flowing and I was breathing a little raggedly. Mom's hand had been running through my hair the whole time so when she noticed I had stopped crying, she lifted her head from mine so that I could lift mine up. She looked at my face and used her thumb to wipe the last few tears from my face. "Better?" she asked. I nodded. I did feel a little better.

Sometimes I forgot that mom was my mom. In Carolina, she would come down on me the hardest, probably because I was the oldest of her children living in that house. Since I would always go to dad with my problems, I would forget that mom was there for me too. I felt dad's hand at my back. "Everything will work itself out, kitten, you'll see."

"Your dad's right honey. The Moon Goddess does everything for a reason." I let out a sigh at her words. I hoped they were right.

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I let my parents go ahead of me since I figured they could find the garden doors on their own and ask the staff if they needed help finding their room. I decided to make a detour at the stables to see if Maxon had returned or not.