Chapter 57

Memories best left forgotten

(Leon)

**Six years ago**

They are shouting at each other again, honestly I’m surprised the whole pack can’t hear them. It’s more

of the same, it’s been like this for weeks and it just seems to be getting worse and more volatile I am on

the third floor and they are on the first which shows just how loudly they are shouting. If I can hear

them. I’m sure J erry and Lizzie can too, although I hope they are both asleep and are ignorant to what

is happening around them.

“Go to bed Alice before you bring the whole pack down on us.” I hear my father yell at my mother.

“So you can be with her again? You think I don’t feel it each time?” My mother yells back just as loudly.

“You have no right to tell me who I can and can’t be with. I’ve told you this many times, you are Luna in

name only. Willow is my true mate!” I flinch at the mention of Willow’s name. If she’s being brought into

the argument they are only just getting started.

Willow has been around for as long as I can remember. For a long time I figured she was a friend of the

pack but as I got older I slowly began to realise that she was more to my father than a friend. The older

I got the clearer it became, my mother kept getting pushed to the background, Willow would greet the

visiting packs, she would sit in on the pack meetings and she even started joining us for family meals. I

think the snapping point for my mother was when Lizzie called Willow, mummy. Lizzie didn’t mean

anything by it but I think it made

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my mother see how much Willow had come to integrate herself in the ice of her family.

“Why do you always have to bring that harlot up?” My mother yells.

“If it wasn’t for

father respon ou constantly making a drama I wouldn’t need to.” My

father responds just as meanly. I don’t understand why my mother and father have stayed together, he

clearly wants someone else and my mother is dying inside watching it happen.

“I walked in on her bouncing on your co ck, what else am I meant to do? Apologise and leave the room

while my mate chips away another piece of me?” She’s asks my father.

“You could have just left and we would have come to you when we were done.” Even at thirteen I know

my father is being really unreasonable about what my mother walked in on. In school we are taught

mates are to be treasured and cared for and my father doesn’t do this. Instead he flaunts his

relationship with this other woman knowing the pain it will cause her.

“You shouldn’t be with her anyway. I’m your mate not her!” A really loud bang follows this statement

from my mother.

I jump off my bed and slam my door open, I start running down the stairs as I feel the snap of my

mother’s bond. It hits me so hard that I trip on the stairs and I roll down them head first.

**Now**

“When I woke up I found out my mother was dead, my father had killed her in his rage.” I finish my

story for James. It’s been a while since I have spoken about that night, “the second I turned eighteen I

took Jer ry and Lizzie and came here. Fraction is the only other person who knows the story.

Memones best left forgotten

17

“I’m so sorry Leon.” He says getting up from the armchair and coming to sit next to me on the sofa. He

puts his arms around me and pulls me into his chest, his natural scent is stronger here and I find myself

drawing lungful’s of it into myself. “Your mother…she was an Omega?”

“She was.” I say into his chest, “growing up she taught me everything about being an Omega. And the

things she didn’t I learned by watching her watch my father and Willow.”

“So was it jealousy that did them in or the other mate?” James asks me, I know he’s asking because of

the situation with Fraction and Anna but I don’t think I’m going to give him the answer he wants.

“It was a little of both,” I tell him, sitting back up and regretfully pushing away from his chest. “Omegas

feel things much more deeply

than

can. Once mated into the pack they become connected to each member. My mother told me it’s like

they are the root of the tree, they help the rest grow and without the roots the tree will die.”

“So they embed themselves into the pack?” James says in a whisper.

“Not how you’re thinking, it’s a natural process. One that has happened with all Omegas over hundreds

of years. It’s spiritual, something they can’t control. I’m not even sure they know that they are doing it.” I

try to explain the best I can, “someone like Anna who didn’t even know they are Omega? She wont

realise how it has affected her until she is removed from it.”

“Fraction said something about a second mate destroying Anna…” I nod at James’s words.

“It will. Fraction and the Pack have become a part of who Anna is. To rip that away from her…you might

as well just hollow her out and leave her on the side of the road.” James sits in silence as he absorbs

everything I’ve said.

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“You know, it wasn’t until I was much older that I realised why my mother stayed with my father.” I say

getting up to take the picture of my mother off the fireplace, “I thought they could just split up and be

done. It’s not so easy to split from a mate. It makes me thankful that I won’t ever have one.” I don’t

realise James is even listening until he shifts on the sofa.

“Why wont you have one?” I can hear the genuine confusion in hist voice, is he so lost in himself that

he can’t sense me the way I can him?

“Wolves are not g ay. My father drilled that into me from a young age, there is no such thing as a fated

ga y mate.” I wish it wasn’t true but from everything I’ve read he wasn’t wrong.

“Maybe they take chosen mates instead?” James says thoughtfully, “I’ve heard of that happening. Not

with the same S** but I have heard of it.”

“And which Alpha will take a g ay mated shifter into their pack?” I’m ashamed at how needy I sound.

“Fraction knows about you and he swore you in?” James tells me from

the sofa.

“You mean the drunk Alpha with two mates? He’s clearly not of the right mind right now.” James laughs

at this but doesn’t deny anything I’ ve said. “I’m sorry that was disrespectful.”

“Don’t be sorry, babe. It’s just me here.” I watch his eyes widen as he uses the term of endearment with

me. I pretend not to have noticed and put the picture down and walk over to sit next to him.

“So…how do you plan to help Fraction?” I ask him.

“I wish I knew, I hoped you would be able to answer some questions but now I seem to have more than

ever.” I feel like I have let him down.

“I’m sorry I wish I had more to offer.” I look down at my hands and I’m shocked when James’s hands

join mine. He puts his hand on top of my two of mine and holds them still. I didnt realise I was worrying

about them together until he did that.

“You gave me plenty.” He whispers.

“I wish I could give you more.” I tell him truthfully looking up into his

eves