Isabelle - The Secrets of Avelina Chronicles 6

Chapter 1: Emmett

Year: 2333

"You cannot let him leave. He is still a child...he knows not how to protect himself." Lilian argued as she paced the floor of their cabin just a short distance from the clan camp. Emmett was being unreasonable, not for the first time in their last nineteen years of marriage. But this time he had gone too far. Eaven wasn't ready. He couldn't possibly go out into the world at the age of nineteen, a year before his coming of age ceremony and be expected to protect himself adequately. That was the whole reason all lycans were kept within the clan until they came of age, aged twenty, when they would no longer age and no longer have things to learn. He couldn't allow Eaven to leave.

"He is a man. We must allow him his freedom. He has not undergone the ceremony, but he knows his heart and we must accept he is not like the others. He does not wish to wait, he has heard the call and he must follow it." Emmett understood Lilian's concerns, but he couldn't fight Eaven. Ever since he'd been born, he hadn't been able to deny him anything. Not because he was their first child or because he was a son. It was because Eaven knew, deep down, even before he could talk, what he wanted and that it would end well. He had no hesitations about anything and never had his whole life.

If he wanted to leave the clan a year before it was permitted, it had to be important. He had never done a reckless, stupid thing in his life and Emmett trusted that he wasn't about to start aged nineteen. As worried as Lilian was, he needed her to understand that Eaven was old enough and smart enough to make his own choices. It didn't help that he had already left, without telling anyone, but at least it was done and couldn't be undone.

Lilian had discovered Eaven, missing from his bedroom early that morning when she had gone to wake him. They had argued about it ever since. A few hours had already passed, but no matter how she pleaded with him, to use his mental connection with Eaven to urge him to return home, Emmett couldn't do it. He didn't want Eaven to come home. The poor kid had heard the call for his mate since he was eleven years old. He knew instinctively that she was a long distance away and his special skills had enabled him to know she existed and was waiting for him. He couldn't have asked him to ignore that even if he thought it possible.

He had already waited eight years, he couldn't ask him to wait any longer.

Emmett had always been afraid that when Eaven was finally able to leave the clan, all he would find was heartache because his mate had died long ago. He was glad his son had continued to hear the call regularly, reassuring him that wasn't true.

"Lilian, my love...the boy has a strong heart and his bond with you is greater than even the bond of a father and son. He would not have left us lightly. Had he asked for permission, it would have ailed his heart to hear you deny him his mate when his heart is set on her. He continues to hear the call for her. We are lucky she has not fallen to an ill fate. Never has a call been ignored or discarded for such a time." Emmett reminded her of the most important thing. His mate still lived and therefore, Eaven would survive. If she had died, his life would have been ruined, all because he was special and had known of her existence before any other lycan would have. They needed to accept that they had kept him sheltered long enough.

"We have guarded him, taught him well and kept him safe. Now it is time for him to be free. As it will soon be time for them all. We yet have Lenora and Felicia to care for. Let them not think they come second to their brother because he is special. All our children need us, but we must accept that Eaven needs us not at this moment." With a sigh, Emmett sank back onto the edge of their bed, worried Lilian would never quite understand.

Although Eaven was special, it wasn't a bad thing. She worried day and night that someone would hurt him because he was the only hybrid in the world. That they would target him to use for evil and use his innocence against him. She had all kinds of crazy thoughts, but Emmett trusted that Eaven was smart enough to know who was good and who wasn't. It would be his decision who to trust.