79. Painful past

“Can someone please explain what the fuck is going on here?” the younger man says.

He looks to be around my age or so, maybe younger. I’m not sure. I stare at him and see the resemblance between him and Lilly. The only difference being that he had black hair. I assume he is Luke and the older guy currently kneeling down, crying, must be Lucas, their father.

“Join the club mister because I’m just as confused as you” I stare at them. My hands folded across my chest.

“Dad, mom?” Lilly calls to them shakily.

They seem to be in another world. Like they’re completely lost.

It may be insensitive of me but I came here to relax and pass time. Not to dive straight in to a family drama that may or may not involve me.

“Look Lilly, thank you for inviting us but I need to leave. I’ll book myself, the kids and Hunter to a hotel for tonight, then head back home tomorrow.” I tell her and begin to walk towards them.

I needed to leave. For some reason I felt like I'd been stripped raw. I just knew that I couldn’t stay here anymore.

I was about to walk past Lucas when he shoots his hand out and grabs mine.

“Please don’t leave. Don’t leave again” he begs. His voice broken.

The emotions I see in his eyes tag at my heart. A part of me wants to stay for his sake but the other wants to leave and forget this weird and strange meeting.

“Please dear, stay and we’ll explain everything” Valery pleads. “We’re normally not like this but seeing you just brought back some painful memories and some lost hope”

I stare at her. Wondering what memories I could have brought when I didn’t even know them.

“Blue, Midnight? Do you think we should stay?” I asked them.

I needed their guidance on this. This also concerned them as much as it concerned me.

“Yeah” Blue answers slowly as if she wasn’t that sure but was curious none the less.

“We have to. I have a feeling that whatever they’re about to say is connected to us and also to your past” Midnight replies after a while.

I sigh. I was afraid of that. Afraid that what was unfolding before my eyes was connected to me.

“Okay” I agree.

“Thank you…Let’s move to the office, we have a lot to tell you” Valery tells me with a small smile before turning to her children.

“You too Luke and Lilly, this is something you need to hear because it also relates to both of you”

Luke nods and so does Lilly.

Their father stands up. He seemed to have gotten himself together though you could still see that he was battling whatever ghosts that were inside him.

He begins to walk, leading the way and we follow him. I for one felt like I was being led to a slaughter house.

“Please lock the door Lilly” Lucas says in a hoarse voice once we are inside the office.

She does so and then we take our seats on the cozy sofas. My heart was pounding and I was panicking when both Lucas and Valery didn’t say anything.

“Look it’s either you talk or I walk” I break the silence.

Didn’t they realize the anxiety was killing me? Maybe Midnight was wrong and whatever they had to say wasn’t something I needed to hear.

“Don’t you dare talk to my parents like that! This is all you fucking fault…Look at the state they’re in”

Luke growls at me, spitting fire in my direction.

I level him with a deadly look. “I suggest you shut your mouth before I shut it for you. You’re Lilly’s brother and that’s why you’re still standing but talk to me like that again and I will rip out your throat”

I let Midnight and Blue shine a little through my eyes. It’s a battle of supremacy between the two of us. I don’t want to back down and neither does he.

“Stop it, both of you” Lucas commands. His voice now hard.

I don’t know why I obey him but I do. I turn my eyes towards him and keep them focused on him.

He sighs. “I had a fated mate about thirty years ago”

“Okaaay” I drag the word. “What does this have to do with me?”

“Please, let me finish” he tells me and once again I oblige.

“We realized we were mates when I came back from my Alpha training. She was part of the pack. To be honest, I never really hung out with her before, she was more of the quiet, shy girl who loved reading and didn’t pay much attention to what was happening outside her novels” he smiles, probably remembering a memory from long ago.

“Her older brother and sister were twins and also my best friends. So despite being around her all the time when we were younger, she never really sparked my interest. When I came back from my training I didn’t expect that she would be my mate. It was a complete shock to the both of us, but the moment I saw her everything just clicked. She was skeptical cause she was insecure and didn’t believe that she would make a good mate and Luna to the pack. She thought that I would reject her for someone stronger” he frowns before continuing.

“I managed to convince her to give me a chance. A mate from our goddess isn’t someone to push aside and ignore. I told her we could try dating, get to know each other first. Like I said, I didn’t pay much attention to her when we were growing up so I didn’t know her like I knew her siblings. She agreed and we started dating. Both our parents were happy because hers were the beta couple and the bestfriends of mine”

I hear a sharp intake of air and I turn to look at Luke. His eyes were scanning his parents in question.

Seems like one piece of the puzzle had fit.

Lucas continues, ignoring Luke’s reaction. “We dated for a year and fell in love. She was everything I could have ever wanted and everything I never knew I needed. Within that year she became my everything. We mated and got married the next year, everyone was happy. Not only was she a great mate but she was also a great Luna and everyone loved her.”

“We weren’t expecting to get pregnant so soon, we had planned to wait for another two years or so but when we learned we were having a baby, we were happy. He or she was going to be the best part of us. We were excited to be parents and everything was going well until it wasn’t”

I see the pain in his eyes and I know what he was going to tell us next still tears him apart even now.

“About five months to her due date, we started having problems. For some reason she started thinking that I didn’t want her any more. That I was cheating on her which wasn’t true. We fought a lot because of that. I loved her with all my heart so how could I cheat on her? How could I want anyone but her?

She didn’t believe me though. Both our hearts were breaking, she believed I was cheating on her while I was hurt that she could even think that, that she didn’t trust in me and my love for her”

“The pregnancy progressed well despite everything and before we knew it she was going into labor. It wasn’t an easy one but they pulled through. She was tired so when she slept I came back home to let our families and pack know that both of them were well and had pulled through. I wish I hadn’t left though. Wish I had stayed. If only I knew it would be the last time I would see her alive”

The pain that flashes in his eyes is tangible. It’s there even after all these years. Still weighing him down. Still stabbing at his heart and soul.

“What happened daddy?” Lilly asks in fear.

I was afraid too. Afraid of learning what happened next. What happened to his mate.

“I was going back to the hospital when I felt the pain. Like my heart had stopped. Like my soul had been torn apart. By the time I got to the hospital I wasn’t feeling like myself. I felt empty, dead inside.

That’s when they told me she was gone. They told me that a few minutes after I left she started bleeding and no matter what they tried they couldn’t stop the bleeding. She bled to death. I stood in the hospital bed, holding our tiny baby girl while they covered her mother and my mate with a white sheet, while telling me her time of death. I kissed her goodbye and promised to love and take care of our baby”

He was crying now. Full blown crying. Valery squeezed his hands. Trying to comfort him while her own tears flowed freely.

“She always wanted to be cremated, always wanted something quick, something that wouldn’t drag on and cause more sorrow to the people she loved. I arranged it with the blessings of her family and she was cremated the next day. I couldn’t go, I didn’t go because I knew that I would throw myself in the furnace with her and I just couldn’t do that when our baby girl needed me. She had already lost one parent,she wasn’t going to lose another. I named our girl Freya because that's what we had settled on”

He pauses but I know that this tale is far from over. The pain this man has gone through, most men wouldn’t have survived.

“It was hard, honestly. Here I was a single dad and mateless. Freya was the one keeping me sane.

Keeping me from ending it all. I was broken but still holding on for her. I didn’t realize that no one had gone for her ashes, I thought that her parents had them so I didn’t bother because I didn’t want to be reminded that she was dead. When the morgue sent the urn with her ashes two weeks later, I broke down all over again. I got butt drunk and woke up the next day naked with her sister in my bed”

I interrupt. “Your other bestfriend, that sister?”

He doesn’t say anything, just nods. I see shame in his eyes. He still regrets what happened that night.

Still feels like he betrayed his mate.

“I don’t remember much of that night. What I remember though is drinking with her. A month later we found out she was pregnant. Turns out she was also drowning out her pain that night we slept together.

She didn’t tell anyone that she had found her mate and he had rejected her. Our parents thought it would be good for us to choose each other as mates given she was already pregnant and Frey needed a mother” he breathes before continuing.

“The next months went by. I wasn’t happy but I was content, I had no choice but to accept my lot in life.

I would never love her like I loved my mate but I knew we could reach a sort of happiness based on years of friendship. Life chose to rip my heart out again five months later. It was the worst day of my life, worse than the day my mate died. We woke up to the screams of our beta couple. They were hysterical and I didn’t understand why until they told me what happened”

Fresh tears start falling down his again. His eyes and mind far away. Reliving the nightmare of that day.

“They had a daughter who was a couple of months older than Freya and she was missing. No one could find her. That’s not what tore me apart though, it was being told that Freya was missing along with their daughter Abby. We searched everywhere but we didn’t find them, there was no clue, no scent, nothing. It was like they just vanished into thin air. I didn’t give up and neither did John and Olivia but months went by with no sign of the both of them. Months turned into a year then two. With each year that went by we lost hope of ever finding them. We stopped the search twenty years later when the hunters we hired told us that they had reason to believe that the two girls were dead. Probably kidnapped and killed by one of our enemies” he finishes.

I look at him. A tight fist gripping my heart gripping my heart.

“Why are you telling me this? What does all these have to do with me?” I whisper, afraid of the answer.

He inhales then exhales, tears swimming in his eyes. “Because I believe you’re my and Hailey’s daughter. You look exactly like her”