2

Her scent hit me as I rounded the first corner in the entry into the common area. As I smelled her the tears welled up and soon enough I was engulfed in her hugs.

“Oh my baby, oh I’ve missed you so much!” She told me.

I hugged her back just as intensely.

“I’ve missed you too, Mama,” I told her through the tears.

“Why are you here? Do you need something?” she asked as she pulled away and held me at arms length. “Like help to plan your Luna cer-”

She suddenly stopped as she took in my tears and my demeanor. I knew I couldn’t hide from her, no matter how much I might have wanted to.

“What happened.” She said, this time her voice was steel and her smile gone.

“I’ll tell you, but first lets send Ryn home to see his family and go to the kitchen, I’m starving”

She hestiated but then gave me what I had asked. She dismissed Ryn after I gave him a hug and thanked him for everything. Then she and I walked into the kitchen and once I had a sandwich in hand she raised her eyebrow expectantly, urging me to continue.

“He rejected me,” I told her as I took a big bite of my sandwich that tasted like Heaven and prepared myself for her over reaction. However as her face turned red and her eyes lit up in anger it was actually from the doorway that I heard a yell.

“HE WHAT”

I turned and saw my older brother and my dad standing there with steam practically come out of their ears. I hadn’t planned to tell them like this because of their tempers but I guess whats done is done.

“Yep.” I simply said. I had no other words to describe it. It was, what it was.

“WHO THE FUCK DOES HE THINK HE IS!?” My brother shouted as he closed in on me at the counter.

My dad reached me first and pulled me in for a hug before he reamed into me equally.

“What happened? Why would that little pup do this? Who DOES he think he is? I mean to have the balls to reject-” He started before I interrupted him.

“He doesn’t know who I am.”

“Excuse me, but I was going to say HIS MATE. It does not MATTER who you are or where you’re from, you do not simply reject your mate.” Dad finished and I nodded.

“Her magic was stronger than we thought,” I voiced out quietly and I saw they all understood. We had been worried about the witch ever since she showed up two years ago. She hadn’t set her sights on Syn originally. She had been rescued from rogues and the pack thought she was a human. They allowed her to stay until she was 18 and then it was expected she would leave, and they didn’t tell her but they would have had a witch wipe her memory. Little did they know, she already knew that, as she was a witch. I had seen her display magic several times and I could sense her as I was a royal. Thankfully she didn’t know this, she just assumed I knew because Lana and I had seen her perform magic. Once she realized that I was Syn’s mate when Syn turned 18 last year, she made it her mission to get him so I wouldn’t. I never knew how she found out I was his mate. He wasn’t allowed to tell me, as was law, until I was 18, but if he told someone who told her or if he did himself, I’ll never know. And she figured out that if she got him, no one would believe me about her. And she was right.

“He marked her…. didn’t he?” My brother said, this time more calm.

“Yes. Two days ago. They told me yesterday when he rejected me. Ryn and I left last night.”

“Oh sweetie,” my mama cried as she came to me. “You had to go through the pain of him marking her and the rejection didn’t you?”

“Yes, but the marking was the worst. The rejection pain was bad, but not as crippling since I already went through the pain of the marking. And nothing was as painful as watching him embrace her and her smirk while she wore his mark.” I said, not able to hide the disdain from my voice.

“That piece of shit,” my brother muttered under his breath as he clenched his teeth.

“He might be that, but we cannot do anything about it.” My mother said with a sigh.

“She is right. He deserves the worst from us, but at the end of the day all wolves have free will and he chose to mark that witch, not Oly, and that’s that. We cannot punish him, the Goddess will do that enough. We can however, reevaluate his pack and their position when he takes over,” My father said. He was always diplomatic, thinking big picture. And I honestly couldn’t help the smirk that took over my face when I thought of their future position at the bottom of the royal totem.

“They would have been the most powerful aside from us if Oly had become the Luna,” my brother voiced.

“Exactly, but with that witch as the Luna, the bond is not only less than a destined bond but it is also full of deception and ruin. They will now be the least powerful pack when Syn takes over.” My mother finished for him.

“Good.” I said simply as I finished my sandwich. “Can we please give Ryn like a month off from duties? He has earned it.”

Both my parents nod in agreement.

“How is Jod?” My father asked.

“How is Lana?” my brother eagerly added and I smiled at his excitement at the mention of his mate.

“Jod is still a drunk, and Lana is still the most incredible sister I could imagine,” I told them both. My father huffed at the Jod comment and my brother beamed at the Lana comment. When they had agreed to put me in Jod and Siri’s care when I was 2, they were a happily mated couple with a 1.5 year old daughter. They were both bright, caring, respectful and loving. Siri knew who I was, but agreed not to tell her mate or daughter. Everyone assumed I was a lost baby they had found and honestly, it was weird how many questions WEREN’T asked regarding my origins over the years. One day I wasn’t there, the next I was. That was that. But when Siri died from a rogue attack when I was 9, it was too late to pull me back out. I was there to be close to my mate. I was there so that Syn and I could have the strongest bond and relationship possible. We were friends as kids and it was on track. But when Siri died, Jod began drinking. And when he began drinking, my father began worrying.

We had discovered that Lana was my brother’s mate very early too, during one of the first visits between us. Every weekend Siri would bring me to see them. And he would sniff my clothes because he could smell her. Unfortunately, just like myself, he had to wait till she was 18 and felt the bond too. And he couldn’t come live in the pack with me. He was the crown prince. This was his pack to take over, the royal pack and werewolf kingdom. He had to stay here, away from her. We’ve had the same struggle of 16 years of waiting for our mates to love us as much as we did them already. I was glad my brother would have better luck than me with his mate though.

“Only 1.5 more months,” my brother breathed out happily.

“She is bright, and so sweet, and actually,” I said, pausing to open my backpack and bring out the bag of things she had given me. I opened it further and found that inside was a shirt that I had loaned her about 5 years ago. We had traded it back and forth and it became our shared joke. I pulled it out and handed it to my brother. He looked confused, until he smelled it.

“She has been the only one wearing it for a few months. I hope her scent helps you for awhile,” I told him with a kiss on the cheek as he inhaled deeply of the shirt and his entire body relaxed.

“Thank you, for this. I needed it.” He tells me honestly and I nod in response.

“So what happens now? Now that my entire future is broken and I have no future,” I say as I slap my hands together and look at all of them. It was supposed to lighten the mood but it definitely didn’t work.

“Guys, I’m not ok, but I’m also not not ok, if that makes sense. It happened, its over, and I’ll be better everyday. For now, I want to focus on the future. They made their choice, and once its the right time, they will see the witch for what she is and the ruin she will bring them. But for now, I wanna focus on me.” I add and they all just look at me stoic.

“Well, then I guess we consider the other options for you,” my mother says simply.

“There were other options?” I ask.

“Of course. In case your mate died, or somehow he ended up not your mate at 18, or anything like that.”

“Or he rejects me” I add

“Yes, or that,” my father huffs. “But what your mother means, is we did have to think of the possibilities. And now we can revisit them. Your future isn’t ruined, its just off the course we anticipated, which is a pretty normal part of life. Let’s explore what the Goddess has in store for you. But for now, get back into your regular schedule. Enjoy being home. Training is at 5am tomorrow. Start there. Are you still up to date with your training?”

I can’t help the chuckle that leaves my lips but before I can respond my brother speaks up.

“Apparently she is more than up to date. Ryn’s reports state that she has kicked his ass more than once.”

“What? You get reports from Ryn?” I asked shocked.

“You do?” My parents ask as well.

“Yeah, just on training and only about once a month. I was curious how well you had developed and it helps me sleep better at night that you can take care of yourself. Hearing you flattened Ryn when he was genuinely trying his hardest was the proudest thing I could have heard. Ryn is our 3^rd strongest warrior.”

I knew that. Ryn trained with the old pack but also here, on weekends as often as possible. His future was supposed to be that he would be my brother’s lead warrior of his army. But then he became my guardian. Now he had returned, and would take that spot again I assumed.

“Well I’m glad it made you feel better, it sucked having to hide it from the pack. I was middle of the pack there when training.” I said with a scowl.

“I know, but it was for the best. If you had displayed your abilities as a royal, they would have known something was up. And the entire point was that he and they choose you for being you, not for power of being a royal female.” my father says as he holds my hand.

“I know. But I guess that just means they all rejected me for me.” I say as the tears well up and they all seem to lean in at the same time to hug me.

I don’t remember passing out, but I do remember the feeling of being carried and my brother’s scent. I cried until I couldn’t and the next thing I know I was waking up in my bed, in my room, completely at peace with the fact I was finally home.