Her Legacy (Royal Wolves #1)

Chapter Eighteen: Family...

The woman stared at me with tears in her eyes. The lightening of the room and the glistening tears in her eyes gave them the appearance of sparkling emeralds. Her eyes were full of emotion and I knew that it was all related to me. This woman no doubt about it was my mother. The resemblances were too uncanny to not be true. She was the identical image of me as Lance as told me before. I couldn’t help the hurt that went through me. My whole life was a lie. The family I grew up with was not my own family. I had been raised by people who had willingly lied to me. I wasn’t the daughter of David and Jillian Scott. Ryan wasn’t my brother and I wasn’t next in line to be Alpha of the Meirde Pack. I was an outsider that they had taken in.

I didn’t belong to anyone or pack. I was just another werewolf out there who was able to shift and see visions of the past and future. I was a misfit. They clearly hadn’t wanted anything to do with me. I had to be realistic if my whole life was a lie then there was a good chance that I was the missing royal wolf. Even I was the missing royal wolf it didn’t explain why my parents had abandoned me to others who weren’t my real parents. It didn’t explain why they had chosen to give me away and keep my brother. What had been so special about him that he had gotten to stay with them? What had he done differently? I couldn’t deny the unbearable hurt that filled me. If it was true and I was from the other royal family then there were supposed to be a total of seven children and I was the youngest.

“Jade,” the woman said a small sob escaping her throat as she came down the stairs.

Before I could say a word I was engulfed in her arms and she was hugging me tightly.

“Oh my precious child,” she said running her hand soothingly down my back all the while holding me tightly.

I stood frozen in her arms. I didn’t move to hug her or anything I just stood there. A rush of emotions filled me, but none of them were what she probably expected. I was hurt and I couldn’t even begin to look at her as my mother. Jillian Scott may have lied to me for my own protection or whatever the hell it was that they had thought that this was about but she had been there for me. She had raised me as her own child. She had fed me, comforted me at night and provided for me. She was the mother that this woman would never be to me.

“What is going on?”  a man asked from upstairs. “I heard you screaming at Cam, Lilliana.”

She was silent as she held me a sob broke from her throat. I stood there not knowing what to feel. Surely I couldn’t cry over a woman I didn’t know? I couldn’t cry over a woman who I hadn’t known existed, could I?

“Lily?” he asked coming down the stairs.

I looked over her shoulder and saw a man with golden blonde hair and dark grey eyes. He stared at me with shock and then he too was downstairs calling for the others to come down. A few minutes later six others came down stairs. They were all girls. Four had his golden blonde hair and the other two had my trademark white blonde hair. I stood awkwardly and for the first time in my life felt shy. I was surrounded by people who were my blood family but I had never met.

“Jade?” was all that the man said into the silence of the room.

“It’s her,” Lilliana said. “She’s our daughter.”

One moment she was hugging me the next I was being squished by her and him. They were both hugging me tightly. The room was silent and my eyes collided with Cameron’s again. He had gone over to one of the girls. Into the silence of the room I finally found my voice.

“Why did you do it?” I asked unable to keep the hurt from my voice.

Obviously everyone in this room and had grown up together as a family. I was the oddball. I had been given away to strangers for no logical reasoning. They had bonded together like a tight knit family, while I was the outsider. The comfort and ease they all had around each confirmed that. I didn’t feel comfortable with them. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat in a soap opera waiting to see what else was going to happen. I couldn’t believe that I had been naïve my whole life and actually believed my parents. I respected them, gave them my full trust. I never thought they would lie to me or deceive me. Knowing that my parents had known about this my entire life and kept it secret hurt me.

“Why did we do what?”

“Give me away to someone else,” I said quietly.

“We had no choice, sweetie, we were in danger. We had to hide and give the appearance of having six children. We wore wigs and a variety of other things to hide our appearance for a long time. Cameron is your twin brother. We separated you at birth. You were sent to the Scotts and he was sent to the Jacobsons’ until we were able to find somewhere that we could live safely. We stayed away from werewolves knowing they would recognize us. In the process we ended up crossing paths with a set of vampires and they took us into their territory. No one would expect a royal family of werewolves to hide out with vampires but we did.   It kept us out of sight of Mikhail and his family.”

“So you took him back in when?” I asked.

“When he was three—“

“But you couldn’t take me back?” I asked.

“We wanted to but we decided that it would be best to let you grow up without the possibility of Mikhail finding or harming you. We let you go for your own protection,” the man said.

I looked down to hide the pain in my eyes. They had taken him back in at the age of four and left me with the Scotts because they were paranoid about Mikhail. How ironic was it that the very one they had been trying to hide me from was my mate and the one that I was running from? Their plan hadn’t worked. Obviously Mother Nature had intertwined the destinies of Mikhail and I.

“Mikhail is looking for me in this very instance,” I said smoothly.

Lilliana gasped. “Why?”

“He’s my mate,” I said with a smirk.

My hurt was being replaced with anger. They didn’t care that they hadn’t been able to watch me grow up. They weren’t remorseful that they didn’t know me. They were all just here to gawk at me.

“Mate?!” Lilliana cried. “We’re trying to protect you from him. He’ll never let you go now.”

“He’s already called the Alphas of North America to help find me,” I said.

“He’s going to find you,” the man said. “And us along with you.”

I arched an eyebrow.

“He’ll wage war with all of us,” one of the women said.

“It’s forbidden to interfere with the bonding of mates anyway,” Cameron said. “It’s against all were laws. By the law no werewolf can interfere or hide another werewolf from their mate. The sentence to that is harsh.”

I huffed loudly. Why did I get the feeling that no matter what angle I turned or what I did that I wasn’t going to get any help from anyone? I didn’t want to place innocents in the way of Mikhail’s wrath. Maybe it’d be best if I just went back to him. I didn’t have to like him or do anything he said. I’d just be living with him. I shook my head. It wasn’t going to happen. Mikhail was too arrogant and self-centered for me. Going back would be like going under lock and key, not to mention the fact that he’d clamp his mark down on me as soon he saw me again. I was young. I deserved to choose who I wanted to e with.