Where She Belongs

The Truth About...

Sitting around the dining table, nobody spoke. There was a lot that needed to be said, but no one seemed to to know where to start. Tears never stopped running down my mother's face as she just sat staring into her tea cup and while I wanted to care, I just couldn't.

"So, all this time and you never thought she deserved the truth?" Luke broke the silence and the earlier loyalty they had shown our, well their, father was gone.

Jack had left after it turned out this was actually for real and no one stopped him. He'd be back, his temper often matched mine which was a gift from Mum. I didn't doubt that he would soon walk in, say something we all needed to hear and everything would be okay again. Until then, I wasn't sure what to do.

"From the moment Samara was born we knew. She was different, always has been." Dad sighed, hanging his head between his hands as he suddenly looked about twenty years older than he should.

"So who is this David guy exactly?" Luke demanded, looking at me as though the guilt of the moment should be all his. "Samara's, biological, ah, well, father?"

He said each word like they were coming out in a foreign language, one he didn't like. I could answer him, tell him what I knew and save my parents the shame of revealing all the information about their secret. It would be easy enough to say, well David is a vampire Luke, so that makes me more of a freak than we've always thought too! Only that didn't really answer his question.

"Nevermind him." I interrupt, surprised at how normal I actually sound. "How did this happen? You and Dad have always been together. You said after you met that first time, you knew you were mates and all that bullshit. Were you attacked, I've heard that if-"

"David didn't attack me. He isn't like that. Well, he wasn't when I used to know him." Mum sucked in a deep breath, but didn't look at any of us as she continued. "It was my fault. I was like you darling. I didn't want to be a werewolf. I hated pack life. Things were stricter back then and we were expected to simply just obey not just our fathers wishes, but pack too. We were females, our opinion didn't matter."

"You were raised in the eighties, I find that hard to believe." I snap. It wasn't like it was the twenties where women were fighting for their rights. "Grandad wasn't even-"

"He wasn't the man you knew. He'd softened by then. Society may have moved on, but the pack hadn't. I wasn't the only one, all of us had enough of the way things were and we fought against the pack laws as often and how ever we could until change finally happened." She sighed. "I met David at your Uncle's twenty first birthday party. He wasn't a shifter so of course I was interested in him, it only helped he was rich and well, I found him attractive. You see, if we hadn't found a possible mate by twenty five, the pack would select one for us. I was twenty four and determined not to do what they wanted."

"But you two have always said you're mates." Looking at my brother, this seemed to be hardest on him and Jack right now. "So even that isn't true?"

"It is." Dad growled and Mum continued as though neither had spoken.

"David was new and exciting. He'd just come back from studying in Europe and since his parents were going through a divorce, he was enjoying wasting his trust fund just to annoy them. So was I. We went to red carpet events, exclusive restaurants and clubs. The wine came from a winery he purchased just so make me that blend. There were constant gifts and for someone who never really had a lot, I was easily caught up in his way of life. I thought it could really be true love. I was young and naive and-"

"And then we met." Dad added as Mum seemed to drift away into memories rarely visited.

"We did. You know what it's like for our kind. The mate bond is impossible to ignore and try as I did to fight it, David was simply a novelty and I broke it off."