Chapters 48

Leo's POV

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"Are you sure you want to stay?" Elise tugs at my t-shirt hoping that I'll change my mind.

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"It's just for another two weeks. I want to spend some extra time with her, and to help her get things cleaned up around here," I say. I was supposed to leave with everyone today, but I'm just not ready to leave my mom yet.

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"I have so much I want to know about her and my dad. I think a little time without everyone here will give me some quality time to do that. I need to know where I came from."

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"Okay, two weeks. That's it," she says and she hugs me tight. I say goodbye to the rest of the gang and they all pile into a van and head to the airport. I admit when they turn down the road and I can't see them anymore I instantly miss them and wonder if I've made the right decision.

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"Alpha Leo," Stefan comes up behind me and he's holding Ben in his arms. "Do you want to join us for lunch today?" he asks.

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"Thanks, but I am going to take a rain check if that's okay? My mom is going to show me around, like my dad's old office and where they lived."

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"She hasn't been in that section of the pack house in a long time. Eric had that sealed off after he took over," Stefan tells me and I'm surprised she hasn't gone in there yet.

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"Maybe we can grab dinner?" I suggest and he smiles.

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"I'll have Sadia set extra place settings for you and Luna Aria," Stefan says as he puts Ben down on the ground, and instantly Ben giggles and starts running.

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"See you tonight!" He says as he chases after the little guy.

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I walk back to the pack house and my mom mind links me to join her near the doors that lead to the right wing of the estate. I see her standing before them and she has the doors open but hasn't gone in.

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Luna Aria's POV

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“Are you ready?” I ask Leo and he nods his head, but he seems slow to move through the doors. I may be as nervous as he is to enter. When Augusta was killed, Eric had this side of the pack house sealed shut. It was our home, and Eric didn’t want any part of it. He built a separate home on the other side of the grounds.

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“I haven’t been here in a very long time,” we enter and the first thing that hits us is a strong musty smell, but once we are through the main entryway we see the light that shines in through the stained glass windows creating a beautiful pattern of yellows and pinks on the floor. Dusty as it is, and full of cobwebs, it is still beautiful.

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“Wow,” Leo exhales as he looks around the large room.

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“Your grandmother drew the flowers when she was just a little girl, and her mother had them turned into the patterns in the stained glass.”

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“It’s beautiful,” he says and he walks towards a dark and cold fireplace.

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“Did you ever light it?” he asks.

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“Your father loved to have it lit, even in this southern heat, he loved the way it smelled and how it looked. We would sit for hours in front of it.”

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He looks straight up and sees the glass dome high above us. “How many floors is this?” he asks.

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“Three. The top floor is a garden and a library. I’m sure the garden is all gone now.”

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I show him the kitchen, there are pots and pans still lying around and not put away.

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“Everyone was ushered out so fast,” I say and I look around at how displaced everything is.

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We move on to the living room and dining room on the first floor and then to the bedrooms on the second floor. I hold my hand over the carved door that leads to our master suite. Two wolves are carved into it and I let my fingers trace the wood until I force myself to open it. We walk in and I am quickly reminded of how beautiful it was.

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“This was our room,” I say quietly and I walk towards the closet and open it. All of Augusta’s clothes are still there and I can’t stop the tears that fall when I inhale and smell his scent for the first time in years. I grab a sweater of his and I inhale it deeply, and when I turn I see Leo, the spitting image of his father, and grief strikes anew in me.

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“How I miss him, I loved him so much.” I say and Leo comes to me and hugs me tight.

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“The Moon Goddess let me meet him,” he says and my eyes fly open disbelief. “When I was in the hospital, before I woke up, I met him. He spoke to me briefly, hugged me,” Leo's eyes get glassy for a moment, but he quickly pulls his emotions back and returns to the stoic nature he has held the last few days. Since our conversation in the hospital he hasn't shown much emotion. It seems he's put a wall up around himself, but I can feel him fighting it. “I saw him again when Eric was killed. He wanted me to tell you he loved you."

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"You saw him?" I ask shocked, and he explains that it is a gift he has been given.

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"I look just like him," he says.

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“Yes you do, you are just like him,” I run my hand though his hair and pull myself together.

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“Come, I’ll show you something I think you'll love,” we carry on to the third floor which is broken into two areas. We enter the first room and it is a massive library and observatory.

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“Generations of our family have contributed to this collection.”

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Leo looks all around the room, and settles in on a book that is opened, covered in dust.

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“That’s our family tree,” I say and he flips through the pages.

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“Do I have family alive?” he asks me. “Cousins, aunts?”

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“No cousins, I was an only child and Eric was your father’s only sibling.”

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He looks slightly disappointed and then takes a deep breath and smiles. “Doesn’t matter, having you is more than I ever thought I would have,” he says as he looks over at me and it nearly sets my emotions off again.

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We continue out to the gardens and just as I had suspected they are completely overgrown and in need of repair.

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"I'd like to help fix this up before I leave."

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"I'd like that," I say and we both sit down on one of the park benches that overlooks the pack lands, high above the forest.

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"Leo, I want to know about your childhood, about your past. If you're comfortable telling me, of course."

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He tenses up when I ask and I feel like I may have made a mistake by trying to dig deeper into his life. He wrings his hands together and takes a deep breath.

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"I'm not sure where to begin," he says, "or if you really want to know."

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"I want to know only if you want to tell me."

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For the next three hours we sit there and Leo walks me through an abridged version of his life in the human world. He never gets upset or angry as he recounts it. He talks about it as if it was someone else who lived it. He lets me ask questions, and I know there are some things he isn't telling me, and I wonder if it is to protect me or to protect himself. Either way, I take any information he is willing to share and I wish with all my heart that none of it happened to him.

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I spend some time talking with Gideon as well. When he comes forward in human form it is truly incredible. When he returns Leo back to me I can see that he is exhausted.

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"It's a side affect from Gideon being able to come foreword, it wipes me out," he says and smiles.

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Leo's POV

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"Here, you don't need to carry all of that yourself," Stefan grabs several bags of dirt from me as we head up to the gardens.

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"Oh, this is looking really good!" he says and I admit, it looks beautiful up here now. It is easily my favorite place on the grounds, and over the last week I've spent a lot of time here.

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We set the bags of dirt down and head over to the balcony to look out towards the forest that surrounds us.

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"Are you looking forward to going back North?" he asks.

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"I am, I miss Elise and the others. But I don't want to leave my mom either."

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He nods and just as he's about to say something we are both alerted via the mind link.

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We have visitors, coming through the west gate.

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We drop everything and as fast as we can we both rush out of the pack house and towards the gate. When we get there we see a man and woman and three children. A boy who looks to be about my age, and two girls. Twins for sure and they might be nine or ten.

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A crowd is forming around them and my mother comes pushing through us and stares for a moment in disbelief.

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"Evan? Is that you?" she says.

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"Who's Evan," I whisper to Stefan, but he looks just as shocked as everyone else.

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"I don't believe it," he says.

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"Who's Evan?" I ask again without an answer.

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My mother stands in front of him for a moment and then grabs him in her arms and hugs him tight and he returns her embrace.

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Gideon, what's going on? Do you know who this is?

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Not a clue.

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"Abigail," my mother walks up to the woman and again they hug and they have tears in their eyes.

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"How? You're alive?"

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I pull on Stefan's arm and finally get his attention. "Who are these people?"

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"It's Beta Evan, your father's Beta. We all thought that Eric killed them."

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I'm shocked at this news and I watch closely from a slight distance until Evan makes eye contact with me and he stares at me like I have six heads.

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"This is my son," my mother grabs my hand pulling me forward and Evan stares at me like I have six heads.

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"This is Leo?" he asks her and she smiles.

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"So you heard the news then?" she asks and he nods.

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"Alpha Leo," he bends down on one knee, "It is a true honor to meet you. I loved your father like my own brother. I am so sorry about what happened."

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I look at this man and think about the fact that he and my father probably grew up together. Just like Lucas and Roman.

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It doesn't take long for people to come crowding around and after a series of greetings my mother finally pulls this newly returned family aside and brings them to the pack house.

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"You must be hungry," she says. I've learned that my mom loves to feed people and she starts pulling together cakes and crackers and cheeses and sets them on the table.

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"Where have you been?" she asks the couple.

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"Eric spared our lives and told us never to return. Abigail was pregnant at the time with Josh and so we fled. I came back once to try and get you out of there, but I saw the witch and realized there was no way I could defeat her. I was a rogue, stripped of power and title, there was nothing I could do. I'm sure Eric thought we would be attacked once we left the territory by other rogues and killed."

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"We didn't have many options, and with a little one on the way we needed to figure out a plan fast. We ended up going where there were as many people as possible so we could get lost among the masses. We could disappear and try and exist among the human world. We ended up in the favelas of Sao Paulo. It was difficult, but we both got jobs and started to rebuild our lives," Abigail says as she holds Evan's hand tight.

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I look at Josh and he is sitting with his sisters and I sense that he is very protective of them. His jaw is clenched and he is looking at me as if I offended him somehow.

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"Have you been in Sao Paulo this entire time?" Stefan asks.

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"Yes, we stayed there and made nice litt-"

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She is interrupted by Josh who shifts to the edge of the couch.

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"Tell them the truth. We lived in our car for a while, on the streets. We had to beg for food when there was no work. Don't sugar coat it," He stands up and walks towards the door. "My parent's nearly killed themselves trying to take care of us. Working two jobs each. I started working when I was ten so that my mom could have the twins. Must have been nice to have all this..."

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"Joshua, don't speak to Alpha Leo that way, show some respect," his mother reprimands but he definitely does not care, he just looks me up and down with a judgmental scowl.

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"We might be more similar than you think," I say but he scoffs.

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"I'm sorry Alpha Leo, we have had our share of struggles, and when word spread that Eric had been killed we took the kids from what they know. I'm sure you can imagine they were not thrilled to leave their friends to return to a place that they knew didn't want them."

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"Well, you're home now. You and your family are welcome to stay here and become part of the pack," my mother says and I notice that Stefan shifts uncomfortably. I think he knows that if Evan stays he will probably take position as Beta instead of him.

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"Actually, we plan to go to the north. With Eric gone we can finally risk starting over again. We were just so afraid of him finding us again, we didn't dare risk it and put ourselves or our family on the radar," Abigail says and Evan continues.

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"I have a new job in Billings. They are providing housing and a great wage."

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"Why not join Roman's pack then?" I ask and Josh quickly shuts me down again.

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"We don't need to be in a stupid pack. We've been alone and done just fine. We don't need some dumb ass-"

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"Joshua, that is enough," Evan says and his voice drips with authority. He is not entertaining Josh's disrespect anymore and my mother steps in to calm things down.

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"Why don't I show you to your rooms, you can get comfortable and stay a while before you have to be on your way again."

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I don't see much of them for the next few days. It's not until the night before I'm going to head back north that I see Josh again, and he is sitting alone out in the woods next to the water tower. I usually run the path here just on the edge of the perimeter.

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"Hey," I say as I walk up and he just looks at me and rolls his eyes.

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"Did I do something to make you upset?" I ask as I get closer, "We don't even know each other."

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"I know your kind, living in a place like this," he says and I'm confused. "Even with a crazy psycho uncle, you lived the good life. Probably never had to work a day in your life." He picks up a bottle from the ground and takes a giant swig. Then he climbs up the tower to a balcony and I follow him. When we get to the top I am quickly reminded that I don't love heights. "Want some?" he waves a tequila bottle at me.

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I can't help but laugh as I decline to join him.

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"Goody two shoes" he says and swigs another.

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"Obviously you weren't told the whole story. Why don't we sit?"

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"Ok you're royal highness."

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"Look, I didn't grow up here, and for the record my psycho uncle tried to kill me."

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I tell Josh my story and he listens and to my surprise asks a lot of questions. He softens a bit when he hears everything and then stands up and walks to the ladder that leads to the very top of the tower. By the way he stumbles up I know he's had is fair share of the bottle.

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"Look at all of that," he looks out over the pack lands, "you own all of it now. What's it feel like to go from dirt poor to one of the richest people in the world?"

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"It's not mine. But, one day it will be up to me to take care of the land and protect those who live on it."

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He climbs even higher and then crawls to the very top and I bend my neck to look up at him.

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"Hey, come on down, it's not safe up there."

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"Don't you like a little adventure?" He asks as he recklessly moves around.

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"I've had enough adventure. You're going to fall, come on down."

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"I'm not gonna fall, and if I did who cares. One less mouth to feed," he says.

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"Please Josh, you're making me nervous."

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"Does this make you nervous?" He starts to hop around but one of his feet slips. He tries to regain his footing but he can't and before I know it he slides off the side of the structure.

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Without hesitation I channel all my thoughts to him and imagine catching him, and just before he hits the ground I'm able to control my newfound ability and I lift him up carefully and set him on the ground.

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"Holy shit!" He screams at me as I make my way back down the rickety ladder. "How did you do that?"

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"You scared the shit out of me," I say out of breath when I reach the bottom.

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"You saved my life! How?"

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"I'll tell you all about it if we can please just go back to the house."

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I nearly pass out from exhaustion as we walk back. It seems any gifts that I have will completely suck the energy out of me after. A small price to pay if you ask me.