Raise

Eleven

The dinner is nothing like I expected. For one, Gia hates me. How the most jovial, sweet and full of love Ellena got stuck with a sullen, spoilt and sulking daughter like Gia, I have no clue.

But her absolute and pure hatred for me is spilling out across the table like gasoline on a fire. Everything I say fuels her negativity more. Every kind word from her mother towards me or Rox just fans the flames.

It's a ticking time bomb and I'm the ignition.

I make polite conversation with the rest of the guests which includes Benji who sits to my right and Ellena of course. There is also Gia's mate Oliver, who is very nice and is making polite attempts at getting to know me. But since Gia sends me the daggers each time I answer one of his questions or even so much as glance in his direction as I pass the gravy; I find myself now avoiding him like the broccoli that sits next to him on the table.

Benji leans in closer to me as the conversation at the other end of the table gets louder;

"You have to forgive my sister, she is.... how can I say this...?" He starts, looking to me for the right word to
complete his sentence.

"Interesting?" I finish for him, sticking to the politically correct road, rather than the other path that leads to a plethora swear words I could use to describe her. How I would love to.

He shakes his head.

"A bitch." He says flatly and I all but spit out my mashed potato, earning yet another glare from Gia.
She probably made said potato and my spitting is most likely offensive and is taken as a sign of aggression.

Benji's chuckling throws me off and I laugh too, covering my mouth before more of my food escapes and causes a declaration of war.

Ellena walks by and slaps both of us up the back side of the head and when I look over at Gia, she wears a stupidly large grin. Smug fits her well, until she too gets a smack on the head from her mother.

"Ouch, mom, what the hell was that for?"' She whines, looking to her mate for support but he seems rather strangely fascinated by the table cloth all of a sudden.

"That, my darling Gia, was for being such an outright nightmare this entire dinner. Why don't you stop your snide comments and under the table remarks and just come out with what is bothering you like you normally do." Ellena puts the law down at the same time as she does dessert.

No one moves or makes a sound, all of our eyes are on the floor. Gia makes a squawking sound in the back of her throat and her face turns a beet shade of red. And then she finally combusts;

With a finger pointed at me she begins to shout;

"No way should she be here, with us, at this table. She is a rogue. An un mated rogue with a bastard baby." She belts out, pointing her finger all the while accusingly at me and then a sleeping Rox in the rocker behind me.

I feel the earthquake inside me shuffle. How dare she call him a bastard. I can care less what she thinks of me. But If she knew. If she only knew the name this boy bares. What we have already been through. Who he really is. My fingers clench and un clench Into a fist under the table and I edge my chair back slowly, eyes on the prize as i move to a stand.

Benji puts his hand on my shoulder as he stands beside me.

Gia shifts her gaze between the two of us, her resolve a little frayed at the edges now. Her mate does not stand to support her and her mother stands opposite me, her face white as a ghost and her mouth a wide open circle.

Before Ellena or Benji can say anything, I lay it out for Gia to pick up;

"I'm just going to say this once, Gia, so listen very carefully. I did not grow up a sheltered spoilt princess who gets to pout and shout and get my own way. No. I had to fight, tooth and claw. Literally. I eat cowardly bitches like you for dinner every day of the week. It's only out of respect for your poor mother, whom I adore and for your Alpha, whom I respect, that I haven't jumped across this table and forced your words back into your big mouth using your foot."