Drowning In Shallow Water

~16~

I was groggy when I came to. My head was pounding and I was dizzy when I sat up. The room was dark with a little bit of light coming in through the curtains. I noticed someone sitting on a chair next to my bed and they shoved a glass and pills into my hands.

"Drink this. It will make you feel better."

It did, and I was out like a light. I woke up again, the hammering of my head now better. I slipped out of bed and followed the smell of food as I remembered that I hadn't had breakfast when all that fiasco happened.

I didn't expect my mother to be cosy with another man in the kitchen, however. Maya was there too and they hadn't noticed me yet.

"He came last night? Did he see her?" Maya was asking.

"No, he just wanted to make sure everything is alright. And he wants to track Martha. He won't come for Nicola until he's dealt with Martha," Mom replied.

Maya hummed. "I almost feel sorry for Martha. He must have been furious."

"He was," Mom replied. "And he wasn't happy about Kaden either. He didn't say anything though."

"Oh," Maya said. "He won't do anything,will he?"

"Don't worry. I'll make sure of it."

I finally decided to make an entrance. "Who are you talking about?"

"Oh, good morning. Did you sleep well?" Mom said as she slipped away from the man to get closer to me.

I shrugged. "A little. Did you say morning?"

"You all slept for the rest of the day yesterday," she explained. "There was quite a lot of magic. I'm afraid it's even worse for others."

"So Martha really was..."

"She was a witch who has been playing games for way too long. I'm afraid the pack will need some more time to recover," Maya said.

I frowned. "I don't understand. She was so nice and caring. Why would she need to do that?"

"Come sit down and have some breakfast," Mom urged me, going around the island to grab me a plate.

I found an empty seat next to Maya but did not bother to acknowledge her. I was still bitter over her being Kaden's mate so ignoring her was the best option. Bacon, eggs and toast was placed in front of me as well as a cup of tea with lemon, my favourite. Mom sat beside me, the man leaving the room.

"Who's he?" I couldn't help but ask.

"His name is Mark," she replied with a smile. "Let me tell you everything from the beginning. Your father was born in this pack and was a close friend of Andrew. He met me when visiting family in my pack and we fell in love. So I came here and we started a family."

"When you were born, you were different. Your scent was different and you didn't have a wolf. You were basically a human. We didn't understand it since we were full wolves. We couldn't find a plausible reason so we just raised you up as best as we could. We still loved our baby girl."

"One day, I had left you playing on your own and went to get you a snack. When I came back, you were laughing because of the toys floating in the air. As soon as I arrived, the toys all fell down. I thought I was out of my mind. I tried to ignore it but it drove me insane. Nothing else happened until I went to check up on you one night. This time, you were the one floating in the air."

"His name is Edmund. He had finally decided to show himself to me. He said he came by to play with you. I was terrified because I had no idea what he was. He didn't tell me either. All he said was that he had to take you with him. That's when I freaked out and told your father. He believed me because of how afraid I was. We told Andrew and Martha so they could help us. But it was hard to protect you when he just came out of nowhere and disappeared just as easily."