Kaliko (Children of the Moon 2)

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Rafa, all grown up ^^
(Cameron Dallas)
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Ira

"Do you have everything you need?", Ronan asked me, as he threw the bag into the back of my truck.
I nodded from my place on the porch, feeling unable to move. It suddenly dawned on me that this may be the last time I would see this house and the notion almost paralyzed me. This house has, over the years, become my sanctuary, the place where I got over my past and where I had and raised my child; so to think about never coming back to it, was devastating.

Maybe I was over dramatic since I only agreed to go and help them and not move back permanently, but that was a thing about War; nothing was set in stone.
I sure as hell, wasn't expecting Milo, the great Alpha to die during the last one, but he did, so the thought of never coming back here was honestly, just having a common sense.

I ran my hand over the front door one last time, the knocker with multicolor bells that Milan and I had made from scratch two years ago sounding off at the contact, before taking a big breath and walking over to the car slowly.
"Let's go."

*

I knew it, the moment we crossed pack line, the old sensation of complete peace coming back full force and sweeping through my body, rendering me speechless.
I had almost forgotten just how strong that feeling was; to belong somewhere. It has been five years but to me, it felt like an eternity since the last time I felt that way.

A movement to the left caught my attention and I trained my eyes to the woods surrounding the dirt path. They were fast and discreet, blending almost completely into the trees but I managed to see them; wolves.
They were out on a patrol, most likely, but if my memory served me correctly, there were now at least three times more of them than when I was Luna.
Even when there was a rogue and Hunters threat, there hasn't been so much of them, which just further proved the abysmal state of things.

The Pack house came into view and my stomach starte rolling in on itself as we came closer and closer to it until we finally stopped and Ronan turned the car off.
I could feel my hands starting to shake, as a member after member came out of the house to welcome the newcomers. I recognized a lot of them, from my relatively short time there, but there was also a lot of new faces as well as children of Milan's age or younger.

"You okay?", Ronan asked me and I looked at him for a second, trying to calm down my heart that was beating so fast that I thought it will jump out of my chest, before nodding slowly.
"Let's go, then."

We climbed out of the car, and I went around them and opened the door for Milan to get out, after unbuckling him from his booster seat, all the while avoiding eye contact with anyone, while Ronan got our bags.
After making sure that Milan was okay and not finding anything else to prolong the inevitable I took a big breath and turned to face the, now, quite a big crowd.

I was happy to notice that Alpha Simone, the woman that was chosen to succeed Milo, was still the acting Alpha, as she was one of the rare ones that hadn't treated me as plague before I moved away.
She was standing in front of the other members, a small smile on her usually stern face and I felt myself relax just a bit, to know that at least someone other than Ronan was happy to see me there.

"Welcome back, Luna.", Simone said; the name she used taking me by surprise as I was no longer Luna and the correction almost out of my mouth before I stomped on it and smiled.
"Hello, Alpha Simone. It's good to see you again, although I wish it could have been under better circumstances."
"Yes, you and me both, Ira. But it is, nevertheless, good to see you and I can not express how grateful we all are for your help.", she said and I just waived it off, feeling uncomfortable at being the center of the attention.
"Jorge will show you to your room, and you can rest and eat, since you must feel exhausted by the trip, and we can talk some more, later.", Simone said and with one last quirk of her lips turned around and left.

The anxiety that has quieted during our conversation, returned full force as I stood there in the middle of the yard with everyone's eyes on me.
I didn't know if they were expecting me to say anything or apologize for the way I left and the reason behind it, but if they did, there will be left sorely disappointed.
If there was one thing I regretted, and after everything I have been through, I regretted a lot of things, it would be not freeing Rafa sooner and not the other way around.

So I put my big boys pants on and looked up, training my face to not give up just how nervous I actually was, as I looked at them.
But the sneers and distaste on their faces I expected were completely missing, in their place careful smiles and, in some cases, teary eyes.

Betty, the old woman that used to feed me until I was ready to burst, was the first one to approach me, her wrinkly arms wrapping around me and pulling me into a bone-crushing hug, which left me wondering just what was she taking to still be so strong in her old age.
"Welcome home, dear. We are so sorry.", she whispered, those words being the last drop in my emotional turmoil, and I suddenly found myself crying silently into her chests, only then realizing just how much I needed to hear them say it.

They were my family, much more than the Clan ever was, and not having them around and thinking that they hated me for years was a burden I never even knew I carried until that very moment when it was taken off my chest.

After I managed to calm down and unglue myself from Betty, the others approached us, greeting me and apologizing for how they treated me.
I then introduced them to Milan, which turned into another round of tears and by the time I managed to get to my room, which was thoughtfully on the other side of the house than Milo's apartment had been, I was feeling more exhausted than ever in my life. So the moment my head hit the pillow, I was out.

*

"This is the best place ever! The other kids let me play with them and it was so much fun! And guess what!?", Milan exclaimed, talking a mile a minute with the biggest smile on his face. I smiled too, my heart full at his obvious excitement, happy to see him finally feel accepted.
Back home, he didn't really have friends with our neighbors being old people and all, so to see him excited and joyful was great.
"What?"
"They have huge wolves here! Like millions of them! And they are all friendly, unlike the ones at the zoo, and let me pet them, daddy! It was awesome!"

I laughed a bit at his words, making a mental note to have a talk with him about his origin soon.
I knew that I should have done it sooner, but he was still so young and we lived in the human's only area, so I was afraid that he would blurt it to someone.
But now, with everything that was going on, I knew that it was time.

He continued to babble about his day during his bath and dinner and after two more hours, he finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.
I tucked him in and made my way to Alpha's office where the meeting was to be held in a few minutes.

Once I entered I noticed that the room was packed to the brim with not only pack members but what were obviously Alphas from the other packs.
The energy and the sheer power emanating in the room was almost too much to bear, as I slowly moved within the crowd toward the big table.
I saw Simone sitting at the head of it, with big, burly man to her left, her mate and the new Luna.
Next to them were, what I assumed we're Alphas from other packs, some alone and some with their mates, talking between themselves and waiting for the meeting to start.

And that's when I saw him. His hair was styled differently and he had a small scrub but he was still him, just all grown up.
He was sitting at the table next to a good looking woman who was a bit older than him, and looking at me with a small smile on his face.
"Rafa...", I whispered and in the next moment, he was in front of me. I hugged him tightly and he hugged me back, as my body shook from repressed emotions at seeing my friend after so long.

"Welcome home, Ira.", he said and I laughed out loud for the first time in forever, because I was; I was finally home.

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A/N:
Hello, darlings! A new chapter is here!
It's more of a filler even though it's longer than the previous one, but I had to set the stage for what's to come... Hope you like it and I'll see you in the next one with some new faces joining in☺️

Don't forget to vote and comment!
Love Ya,
Tikka ❤️