Chapter Six

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I go back to Mason's cabin, and watch TV, but I don't see him for the rest of the day or the next morning.  Last night I cried myself to sleep.  I was crushed.  This wasn't what I planned my wedding to be.  It wasn't what I wanted for my life.  I don't bother going to breakfast in the pack house, or lunch.  I can't eat. 
My parents come to drop off my stuff after that.
"You couldn't wait for us to get here before you got married!?" My mother says angrily.
"They didn't really give me the option.  The Luna wanted it right away to speed up the healing process."
"Mason said it was your decision!"  Mason said that huh?  "He's charming, your father took to him right away.  He's such a catch!  Don't screw this up!"
What kind of magic spell did Mason weave over my parents?  My father doesn't say anything, but then he's more the silent disciplinarian than a friend.
"Mason was wrong.  You know I always wanted a big wedding.  I would have invited both packs, and had a party.  I've been dreaming of my wedding dress all my life!"  I snap at her.
"Don't lie about this!  I can't believe you're so ungrateful."  Her words cut me to the bone, but I put on a brave face.  "We're going back to the pack house.  Get your stuff out of the truck.  We'll be back to get the truck in an hour and it all better be gone."  She and dad leave out the front door.  They didn't even bother to sit down.
I unload the truck.  They packed my clothes, toiletries and memorabilia, but not my furniture or appliances I'd bought with my own money to fix up the bunk house.  Even my laptop was missing, though I wasn't really expecting it.  We'd been using it for the store records.  I was pissed off, but calmed myself.  I wouldn't have been able to use my bed or microwave anyway as Mason's house was furnished, but it would have been nice to have a TV for my room.
I didn't have any brothers or sisters to say goodbye to.  Were women only get pregnant once.  The number of babies they have corresponds to the number of babies the mother's animal would have gotten pregnant with in the wild.  Tigers don't have big batches so I'm an only child.  Mason and Connor have a bunch of sisters, but they've all moved away.  Were pregnancies aren't what a human would expect.  The fetus mirrors the mothers form, human when the mother's a human, changed when the mother's changed, and until the umbilical cord is cut our animal form is the same as our mother's.  After the birth we change into which ever animal form we'll have for the rest of our lives.  With animals like wolves who give birth to big litters the mother generally has to stay in animal form for her third trimester to accommodate the many babies.
Sometime while I'm unpacking my parents come back and get the truck, but don't say goodbye.  It hurts me to know that they've let go of me that easily.  My loneliness is like a void in my chest.  I don't turn on the TV, but sit and stare at it anyway with tears in my eyes, and imagine the wedding I would have liked to have.  Warm with candle light and the love of my family.  The many cruelties I've faced lately are starting to pile up in my heart.  I hear Mason's car in the driveway, and go wash my face in my bathroom with cold water to get rid of the red around my eyes.  By the time I open the door to my bedroom to go and greet him he's closing the door to his without a word.

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