Thirty Days: A Werewolf Romance

Childhood Memories

Ellie

My body ached, it felt like I was weighed down by a ton of bricks. My joints felt heavy and my brain well it was thumping with a pulse that beat in sync with the beat of my head. I tried to pry my eyes open but I felt hazy. The room was spinning and the trickle of sunlight was only adding to the sickness that was brewing in my stomach. 

Everything felt like a dream that I wanted to forget. Uncle James had told me that my mother was his true mate and that he sacrificed his happiness for my father. I didn't know how to react, it didn't make sense but equally it explained his distance when I was younger. Growing up, it wasn't that I didn't know him but he just wasn't around. He would attend big family events but he was always on the sidelines. I never paid much attention to it when I was younger, what was I suppose to know at that age. I didn't have a clue that I had came from a family of wolves. He was just an Uncle that I saw in passing. He would grace with birthday cards and Christmas presents but our conversations were brief and I was always shy around him. 

My heart hurt at Uncle James' pain, he was a good man. He deserved the best, he deserved my mother. The more I thought about my mother and James, the more I realised that they were indeed perfect for each other. Both shared similarities, he had similar beliefs and family values. He believed in the importance of family and love, whereas my father was happy in the office. He believed in status and was career orientated. 

I remember when I moved to New York after being rejected and I asked James how he could afford the apartment he rented for me. He simply shrugged his shoulders and stated that he wanted to know that I had secure and safe housing and that I didn't need to worry. He would call me nearly every day, he would comfort me when I was distressed. If I needed him, he was always there. It was the same as my mother, growing up she was always there after school. She had a smile on her face and food waiting at the table. When my father used to work late, she would patiently wait for him until he came home. I always asked mother why she didn't go to sleep and she stated that "spending time with loved ones is a treasure that should never be taken for granted." 

The life that Uncle James should have had was stolen from him and because he prioritised his family more, he made the sacrifice for his brother that not many people would make. He was a selfless man, like my mother was a selfless woman. Thoughts of what their life would have been passed through my mind, it was bittersweet. When my father became abusive, I could never understand how my mother could love someone like him. 

My grandparents believe that the abuse started after my mother's death but the truth is he was always like that. He would always vent his frustrations at my mother, he would scream and shout when things weren't going his way or when he was stressed from work. As I grew up, I realised that my mother took the brunt of my father's abuse, she was my shield. Just as Uncle James became my shield.

I had always been careful about what I told my family about my father's behaviour and now I was very thankful that I didn't share the dark moments in my life. For James was my mother's mate and if he came to know how my father treated my mother, he would be broken. He gave my mother up thinking that she would be happy with my father, when I knew that was far from the case. A part of me wonders whether my mother ever considered leaving my father, I could remember her tear-stricken face after one of the many fights with my father. 

Was this the destiny for those of us who rejected our mates? Were we doomed to never the happiness that we were entitled to? A part of me was worried because my fate was similar to James' - except rather than my mate making a selfless sacrifice, he simply deemed me unworthy. These thought's only added to my depressive state causing my head to feel like it was being ripped in half. 

I shuffled my body as I tried to work out where I was. I could feel the soft silk sheets on my back as my fingers grasped what I had gathered was a mattress. I started to push my back up against the headboard as I tried to peel my eyes open to take in my surroundings. As I took controlled breaths, I opened my eyes slightly and saw that I was in my childhood bedroom.