Chapter 3 – The Parents

JONDA

I’m an Alpha’s daughter for goddess' sake.

Something I never thought I would be doing was pouring over tablecloths, decorations, and seating for a sister I never knew I had up until six months ago.

Not even for me.

Then again, it’s not every day your sister is being crowned the Queen of wolves. I just hoped all this hard work would pay off and everything would go perfectly for Tala and Kellen.

I rub my palms over my eyes and exhale an exhausted breath “I think I need a break,” I tell Oliva, Mike's mother. “All these colors are giving me a headache.”

Oliva laughs at my outspoken stress. “I guess after all these years I’m just used to it.” She shrugs, her blues glazing with a faraway look. No doubt recalling a memory from her days as the female Beta to the late Queen Sarah.

From what I understood they were all close and the death of Kellen’s parents hit everyone hard. They had touched the lives of their people in so many ways that it had a lasting effect on the Kingdom. Too many times I had heard that Tala had big shoes to fill.

I didn’t doubt my sister in the least.

After the life she lived, and everything she had been through, she would be the most compassionate, caring, and successful Queen this Kingdom had ever seen.

“I just never thought I would be doing this,” I half laugh, half groan. “I’m sure my life will be full of party planning once Mike and I complete our mating.”

I wince when I realize I said the last part out loud. Mike's parents were wonderful, and I got along fantastically with his mother. However, I could tell they were not keen on us becoming chosen mates.

That thought was solidified when a small squeaking gasp passed through Olivia’s lips.

I look at her, trying not to glare or squirm under her wide eyes. I roll my lips, pinching them between my teeth.

“I didn’t know you guys were that serious this soon?” Olivia raises an eyebrow in question.

“Well…” I fumble for the right wording. “We have discussed it, but nothing is set in stone. We were waiting to announce it after the coronation.” I give her an honest answer, even though Mike is adamant about marking, mating, and holding a ceremony as soon as possible.

I’m okay with this plan. Except, there's one little hiccup I need to reveal to Mike. One I wasn’t looking forward to divulging. One I’m ashamed of. A dark secret that has been plaguing me for a month now, eating away at my conscious.

I still can’t for the life of me understand why I would cheat on Mike. A stranger from a shitty-assed seedy bar of all places and people.

The betrayal has been harboring and feeding my guilt ever since the moment I walked out of my motel room that night. As soon as the guy fell asleep, I gathered my shit and ran.

I love Mike, I’m not a cheater. But I did. I did the worst thing I could ever do to him. The honest thing would have been to confess my sin immediately upon returning home.

But Mike made it so damn hard. With the wining and dining, the attention and the sex. Oh, the sex. One day passed and before I knew it, it was a week. Then I could never find the right time to tell him. And of course, planning the coronation and ball has taken up a lot of time.

All these are just excuses. I know this. I just can't find it in my heart to break his. He’ll hate me. I hate me so how could he not? I wouldn’t forgive myself, so I don’t expect Mike too.

It's fear of rejection. Afraid he will realize what an unfaithful bitch I am.

“Are you alright Jonda?” Olivia startles me from my self-loathing.

I wiped the tear from my cheek that I didn’t know had fallen until that moment. “Oh… um… yeah.” I try for a weak smile knowing it won’t reach my eyes. “I was just thinking about how beautiful Tala will look. I guess I got a little emotional is all.”

Nice save! I think hoping she buys it. Yeah, not so much. I backtrack when I see Olivia wearing a skeptical look on her face. She wasn’t the Beta female to the Queen for nothing.

Whatever she sees in my eyes, she lets it go. Thankfully. “You are right, let’s call it day.” She closes our binder with all the information, color swatches, and lists. And hands it to me. “Give these to Trudy, she will make sure her staff has everything taken care of.” Trudy was one of the head maids in the palace and ran a tight ship. She was the one who would make all our visions come to life, and like a matron would whip her girls (figuratively speaking – I hope) if there was one little kink in the tablecloths.

Olivia leaves me to pack everything away, reminding me once more to hand the detailed folder to Trudy. Once alone, I get lost in my thoughts again.

Thoughts about that one night with a stranger a month ago. It was amazing. I can’t lie about that. The way I felt, the way he made me feel. But he wasn’t Mike.

I had started to question how much I actually love Mike. I would say, I love him everything. Yet, how can that be true when I cheated on him? If you love someone you wouldn’t risk your relationship, you wouldn’t blatantly fuck a stranger who you had tried to walk away from.

Goddess, what was wrong with me? I had everything! A perfect man, a perfect life. So what if I didn’t have a connection with my wolf? I had come to terms that I would never feel her or shift. After my visit to the Kodiak Kingdom and meeting with Morgan Artos, I was disappointed, but I had excepted that the curse was for life.

I had come to terms with it.

Or so I thought. I have been over that night in the bar a thousand and one times. Wracking my brain, trying to figure out when it was, I said ‘yes’. The fact is, I didn’t. My brain said no but my body begged for his touch.

It was as if the whole situation was out of my hands. I had no control over my own actions, and I was drawn to the stranger like a month to a flame.

I knew I had to come clean. There was no way I could go into our mating with this betrayal hanging over our heads. I hadn't told a soul and it was eating me from the inside out. I had briefly thought about confiding in Tala, or my mother. Even my brother. But I just couldn’t do it. If I was going to confess to anyone, it had to be Mike. I couldn’t bear the thought of someone else knowing before I fessed up my mistake to him.

I found Trudy in the maid's quarters where she had a small shared office. As a head maid, she needed a place to schedule the staff and do her paperwork for the weekly spending and budget.

“Hey Trudy,” I shrugged off the dampening thoughts and plastered a fake smile on my face as I entered her little space. “This is the details for the pre-ball and the for the day of the coronation. Let me or Mrs. Pike know if you have questions.”

I drop the file on the desk and turn, hoping to get out of there and not be drawn into a long conversation. No such luck.

“Of course, Miss MacTire. Just one quick question.” I roll my eyes and turn back to her, plastering on that fake-as-shit smile again. “Beta Mike said Enforcers will be staying in the capital, will they be staying in the palace or the warrior wings?”

My head slowly nods from side to side, “I honestly don’t know. But I will definitely find out and get that information to you by the end of the day.”

Trudy grunts, she likes to have all the facts and can be quite impatient. “I hate surprises, you’ve been around long enough that you should know that.”

“Of course,” I reply keeping that plastic façade in place. “I’m waiting for a final count of guests and additional security myself. I will make it a priority to find out how many enforcers we are accommodating and where.”

Trudy looks satisfied with my reply and offers me a “Thank you,”.

I quickly leave her be and weave my way back to the heart of the New Moon Palace, climbing the stairs to find my sister.

*****

MIKE

I slap a hand over my forehead, not wanting to hear what my father is about to spew out from his mouth. I’ve already heard it. Not just from him, but my mother, Kellen, Lamia…

“It’s not that we don’t like Jonda. She is a wonderful young lady. It’s just, son…” I remove my hand to see my father pin me with a stare full of judgment.

“I know what I want and it’s her.”

“Right now, it might be, but you have only known each other for six months. What happens when your mate comes along Michael?”

I groan, “Then I will reject her.”

“You say that now, but believe me when I tell you, it's not that easy.” A far-off look crosses his eyes. “Did I ever tell you about how your mother and I met?”

“Yesss… It was love at first sight. You mated and had me.” My father scoffs and lets out a light chuckle.

I frown because every story I have heard of my mother and father meeting was about true love and love at first sight and mating immediately after they accepted the bond between them.

The older Beta shakes his head, a wry smile forming on his lips. “No,” He says “I wish it was like that. I was a playboy just like you, and your mother, well, she had her own ideas. We couldn’t stand each other and we had full intentions of rejecting each other.”

I gasp at my father's admission. I had never heard this part of their story.

“For three weeks we fought the bond, both of us intent on rejecting one another. Me, because I didn’t want to give up my bachelor lifestyle and her because she thought she was in love.

“We fought like cats and dogs, and the only thing we agreed on was that we didn’t want each other. Now, your mother happened to already be best friends with Queen Sarah, and I had already been chosen to become the Royal Beta. So, we found ourselves attending the same functions too frequently.

“We finally set a day and time so we could get the rejection over and done with, except the day I was meant to meet her, I came upon another male who had his hands all over her as she tried to fight him off. My wolf, of course, went all possessive and I ended up beating the warrior to a pulp for hurting her. I cleaned her up, and as I tended to her I saw her beauty not just on the outside but on the inside too. And when our eyes met, I knew she was mine.”

“That’s great dad, but what does that have to do with me?” I sigh, not seeing the point of his story.

“Because your mother was already a chosen mate to another wolf, son.”

Shocked I gasp out “No!” My eyes just about popped out of my head when my father said that. “How have I not heard about this before now?”

“Because it’s all water under the bridge. Your mother and I tried to fight the bond. Even with her mated to another male by the time I met her, it still brought us together. I just don’t want to see your heart get broken and I don’t want Jonda to suffer a broken heart either. I guess what I’m saying is… just wait.” My father stands, lips stretched tight across his mouth and eyes that look at me with sympathy. He doesn’t say any more until he gets to the door and before he leaves, he turns to say, “Just think about it.”

I didn’t need to think about it. Jonda was it for me. Mate or not, I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life with anyone but her.

I thought Duke, my wolf, would have given me hassle about choosing to mate with her. Surprisingly he had nothing to say about it. He was just as content to be with Jonda as I was.

That had to be a good sign, right? The fact my wolf wasn’t fighting me on it.

“Beta,” I looked up to see one of our Elite warriors with a package in his hands, “This arrived for you, I was told to bring it straight to you.”

I motioned for him to bring it in. He set it on the desk and left with me telling him to close the door on his way out.

I stared at the package for a while. I had been waiting on this for months now. The return address was for Alpha Jasper Otxoa of Bhakhil.

They were the diaries of Tala’s other sister, Shayna. The Alchemist behind all Orion’s inhibitor chips and the Crawlers. Tala had come across her diaries back in Bhakhil, she had asked her long-time friend and his Luna to send these to us. Either it was snail mail from the other continent, or they had taken their sweet ass time.

Even if everything had been done and dusted with Orion, I was still curious. The investigative side of me never settles. I hoped to get some kind of answer from Shayna's diaries. I was still curious about Silas and Orion's acquaintance.

It had become clear when Kellen spent his time in Bhakhil that Orion and Silas knew each other very well. I wanted to know how well. It didn’t matter that they were all dead. Silas by Lamia’s hands. Orion by his own son, Mathias's hand. Oliver killed Jack and Travis had Oliver executed. And Shayna, well she died by my hand. Blade if you want to get technical.

A claw from my index finger extended and slit the box open, revealing a stack of leather-bound books. I ran a finger over the top one as if it were something delicate and precious. It wasn’t. Not in the least. But I was intrigued by them, by what this Shayna had accomplished and how she was able to configure and construct the inhibitors with her gift of alchemy. Tala was unsure if her late sister had been part witch or not.

In my experience, which wasn’t much except for what I had read, anyone who possessed a gift of alchemy was a witch - Whether be metal, blood, nature, or something else.

“Hey, handsome,” The voice of the most beautiful woman in the realm pulled me from my thought and away from the diaries. So lost in thoughts I hadn't even noticed my love had entered my office.

The corners of my lips turn up into a playful and mischievous smile at the sight of Jonda. “Come here gorgeous,” I tell her, pushing back my chair and patting my lap.

She saunters across the room and around my desk. I take the opportunity to let my eyes wander over her lush figure. The way her tight jeans cling to her thighs and hug her ass. The way her cream blouse stretches across her more than full tits. My cock stirs at the sight of her and the thought of my hands peeling her clothes off, bending her over my desk, finding that bliss that only comes when I’m inside her.

I’m whipped. One hundred percent whipped, and I couldn’t give a shit. I was in love.

Before Jonda, I found my thrill in women by the handful. I had always been a lady’s man. Or manwhore as Lamia called me. Now though, Not one other woman got my attention but my love. She was the only one I wanted.