Caine

Chapter 35

“The land is huge, and from what we saw, it looks beautiful,” my mom said, her eyes staying on my dad until he nodded in agreement.

“The moment we found out you were alive, we wanted to see you, Charlotte. Alpha Tristan was not too happy, so we had to stay put,” she continued.

I knew my mom had missed me. She was loud and opinionated, but she cared. She started to sniffle, and Caine ended up walking her towards the bathroom.

It wasn’t like he had much of a choice. She didn’t listen when I told her where it was, and then she had asked Caine to walk her. She was either going to speak with him or she wanted to give me some time alone with my dad. Whatever it was, I really appreciated it.

As soon as they were out of the room, I wrapped my arms around my dad and pulled myself as close to him as I could get.

“I missed you so much,” I told him.

My dad tightened his arms around me. I was mostly sitting on him than on my chair, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“You’re stronger now, physically. In every other aspect, you were always stronger than your mother and me,” he said. I didn’t agree, but the proud and sad look my dad was giving me broke my heart. “We had no idea, Charlotte.”

I could hear my mom and Caine in the hallway. She was telling him that my dad and I needed to talk. It was then that I knew she had been trying to give us time, and I loved her even more for that. I only laughed in my mind because Caine was going to have to put up with her however long they stayed away.

“Tristan told us you were dead. He told us a Rogue had killed you—Liam. Just this morning when Caine’s men went to pick us up, I got a call from Derek. He told me everything.”

“Dad…” I whispered, hearing so much emotion in his voice, it was making me want to break down.

“We thought you were dead…” he said, and my dad was crying. I held him tight, comforting him.

I had missed him. I had missed my mom. But I always knew they were in Knight Pack. I couldn’t see them, but I knew they were alright. I could not imagine how they must’ve felt thinking I was dead.

It wasn’t like I had never thought about it before. I had. I had just felt like they were better off without me.

There was nothing I could do about it. Derek and Tristan had threatened me. I couldn’t return. But I had tried really hard not to think what my absence had done to my parents. I was now realizing it was worse than I had thought.

My mom and Caine returned only when my dad had calmed down, and we were laughing at some memories about us in the pack—most of them making a little fun of my mom.

“Everything was okay, though, right?” I asked, looking at him, and then at my mom, who was walking into the room. Caine was following after her.

He had remained quiet while my mom had talked her head off.

“Do you mean if we’re okay?” my mom asked.

“Yes, they didn’t hurt you?”

“They didn’t,” my father replied, shaking his head. “We didn’t know that they were threatening you with us. Tristan invited us on the trip because he said we would get to see you.”

“He kept the details to himself, Charlotte. We would not have come if we’d known that he was threatening you,” my mother told me. “But good thing we did. Locus is an upgrade, and you are the Luna,” my mom said, grinning at me.