Sins Of The Mother.

Chapter Three- Cold Comfort.

MIRA.

Dad's green eyes narrowed in the mirror. "You've been real quiet these last couple of days, you okay?"

"Nothing dad, I'm just tired." He frowned at me through the rear view mirror. Realising my mistake, I quickly looked out the window at the forest rushing past us, a blur of greens and browns as we drove past. I'd always been so careful but my stomach was churning with fear and my palms were sweaty. I had to get my act together and lower my heart rate, I couldn’t make mistakes like that but I didn't know what to do. Realising he was still looking at me I shrugged, forcing a small smile, “maybe I’m having another growth spurt.” 

He nodded and turned his attention back to the road. Closing my eyes, I leaned my head against the cold glass. We were on our way home after staying with the pack for a few nights. Every time I saw Dad or Elaine I would withdraw into myself, they’d glance at each other, concerned, but I couldn't bring myself to put on my act. Even with his green eyes twinkling and his Mira smile on his face, all I could hear were the words he’d said three nights ago, playing over and over again in my head. And now we were almost home, where mum and Aden were waiting for us and I was terrified for them.

In the past I had asked dad why we didn't live with the pack. He’d always told me that it was mum that didn't want to live under the protection of the pack, she didn't feel safe around the wolves, even though her husband and daughter were wolves themselves. He told me he agreed to live on the outskirts of a small human town and help her set up her own business, a small private catering company from home. I had believed him when I was younger and less observant, trusting that my dad, who showered me with affection, wouldn't tell such lies.
However, as I got older it became apparent that my dad is the reason for both my only happiness and my greatest pain. Quinn Peter's has a gift. When she cooks I swear magic takes place, her food is renowned yet the woman behind it a mystery, orders flood in all the time. Her assistant Marlie is the only person she really sees outside of her husband, children and my homeschool teacher Miss Portman, who along with Marlie were, of course, wolves, paid for their silence by the very human they sneered at. Marlie handles all the shopping, accounts, dealt with clients and guess who hired her after the last assistant disappeared? I shuddered at the memory of my dad patting her bottom after her 'interview'.

He didn’t want to live with the pack with a human mate. A mate he despises for what she is, not who she is. He never took the time to know her and she could never be the person she was before she met him, the beatings had seen to that. Mum works from home not because she wants to, but because she can earn him money and he can control her from there. River Run has only two other humans, mated to wolves, our Alpha didn’t make his pack members give up their mates but they lived on the very edge of the territory, ostracised and kept to themselves with their halfling pups. I don’t know what story dad came up with to explain my existence or why I didn’t live with my pack but I was never treated like the halflings were.

It's not that me being a wolf scares her, it's that he doesn't want his pup having any strong attachment to 'a filthy human', and my brother falls into the same category by default of the chromosome lottery. 

*****

By the time the car stopped the splinters were relentless, stabbing me. Sucking in a panicked breath, I gripped my fingers together to stop them shaking and bit the inside of my mouth when a peculiar wave of reassurance swept through me. I slowly breathed out, involuntarily relaxing my shoulders and the ache in my heart loosening its grip. 

I didn't panic, I didn't need to. Instinctively I knew my wolf, patiently waiting until I matured enough to be her equal, was sharing a small amount of her strength with me. This had happened twice before, the night the blue and red lights took mum away three years ago. And the night she came home, still so weak and bruised, she’d spent hours in the kitchen, catching up on orders she’d fallen behind on, Aden doing all the fetching, carrying and bending for her as he always did, I wanted to help but that’d just make things worse. 

That was how it all began, the stalking, I mean, I’d heard her cry out and realised I could see through the vent in my room into my parents, just out of sight from the camera honed in on my bed and the rocking chair at the end of it beside the window. The vent cover on my side popped off easily and I stuck my head inside the wall, my small shoulders fitting into the space easily. 

The feeling of dread I felt that night is something no child should ever have to experience. Hands clapped over my mouth to keep the screams inside and terror in my eyes, I watched my dad cutting into my mum’s tummy, as long as I live, I will never forget the sadistic smile on his face as she screamed into the pillow he held over her face, his clawed nail carving into her flesh, the blood that ran down her pale skin, soaking the sheets beneath her. My future threaded didn't give me too much, just enough for me to be able to undo my seatbelt and open my door. Feeling the gravel under my boots, I swung my bag over my shoulder and put one foot in front of the other. my breath swirling in the crispy winter night, once again a strange feeling crept over me, this time it seemed to come from the house. It was empty and cold, pricking my skin and making me rub my arms, shivering, yet this feeling comforted me just as much as my wolf.  Looking up, relief exploded inside me and I knew, without question, that my house was empty.

Somehow, the moon goddess had heard my pleas. Mum and Aden were long gone, hopefully far far away and safe from dad. They would be free to live their lives away from the persecution that came from the one person who was supposed to love and protect them. I would make sure 'daddy' was kept happy and busy enough so he didn't bother looking for them, play my part and I’d bide my time. I would learn, train and be the perfect daughter for him. 

And then he would pay for stealing all the moments away from my mum and my brother, and from me. 

One day I will find them, but only once it’s safe. And I will tell them everything I knew, everything I felt. I will listen to them and know who they are, their thoughts and dreams. I'll ask questions like 'what's your favourite everything?' and my brother will tease me about my hair and I'll make fun of how red he goes whenever the girl he likes goes past. My mum will have a nickname for me, she'll make me my favourite foods because she chooses to, not because of his demands. And she’ll hug me without violent repercussions, showing me everything she hadn't been allowed to.

Hearing my dad's roar as he discovered that mum had finally defied him lit me up inside even though my face showed only confusion and alarm. He stormed outside and I watched him shift and sniff all around the house before finally taking off into the woods. With certainty I knew it didn't matter how far he ran, he would never harm them again. For I learned something important tonight. Walking to the front door, I curiously placed a hand on the wood, a warm tingle ran through my fingers into my veins making me gasp at the glow emitting under my hand. I don't know what mum and Aden are, nor what that makes me, but there’s no way we're human.