Over the last half an hour or so, the forest had become denser. That was the only revelation Fleur had come to over the last five-hour car ride. Andrew really wasn't kidding when he said Bennington was remote. The last time she had seen any civilization was hours ago, and she was slowly but surely becoming desperate to use the bathroom. At least the weather wasn't as bad as everyone had warned her it would be; if anything, Fleur was enjoying the feeling of the sun on her face. She had become bored of her countless playlists a while ago, and the connection wasn't good enough for her to download another podcast episode. So that left her to stare out the window and analyze the forest dumbly. With an exasperated sigh, she turned to the front of the car.
"We're almost there now, pup," Andrew, her stepdad's voice softly cut through the silence. His eye shone affectionately in the rear-view mirror's reflection as he took in the teenager. Fleur gave him a tight-lipped smile, but internally, she was incredibly relieved, for her butt had become numb from all the sitting, and the gradual increasing pressure of her bladder slowly became painful. Fleur didn't want to ask to stop, not wanting to be an inconvenience; if Andrew said they were close, then she would tough it out.
Andrew held her mother's hand in his right hand and the steering wheel with the other. Fleur's mother, Sabine, had fallen asleep hours ago, and Fleur could not have been more envious because she would simply get to arrive without having to take in hours of forest which frankly all looked the same to Fleur from the car window.
However, it was no surprise to anyone that Sabine would have been out like a light as soon as they hit the road. Sabine had managed to sell their home, pack up their belongings, tie up all loose ends and get the family moved in a matter of four weeks. As soon as she and Andrew had decided to relocate back to his pack and out of the human settlement that Fleur had been born and raised in; there was no stopping the women. Now that all her efforts had come to fruition, what else was there for her to do but crash.
Throughout the drive, Fleur would catch Andrew looking over at her Mother lovingly, and a content expression would settle on his face the further into the woods they drove. Fleur was happy for her mom, and she did like Andrew, or at least he was growing on her more and more. But of course, the thought of leaving behind everything she's ever known was an incredibly daunting for a seventeen-year-old. Never really having left the human settlement before being uprooted from one day to the next had left Fleur in fits of anxiety, and the week leading up to the move, she had cried herself to sleep every night.
"It'll be great! Just you wait; you'll feel at home in the pack in no time," Andrew continued with his usual lecture on the benefits of pack life over those of the way the human civilizations conducted themselves. Andrew was a huge advocate for how packs cared for each other.
"Everyone there is family; we truly care for one another," he kept saying. "Not in a weird Alabama way, I swear," He would add with a wink, and Sabine would dissolve in fits of laughter. Fleur thought that Andrew had a good sense of humor, but to Sabine, any remark he'd make was of groundbreaking comedic value.
After hearing them the third time, Fleur has learned to blend his jokes out. It's not that she was trying to be rude by any means, but since she was a child, Fleur had had the habit of getting lost in her mind. So, it was easy for her to nod along to what Andrew was going on about.
Sabine had often been worried for her daughter as Fleur had always been somewhat of a recluse, preferring her mother's company and books to spending time with people her own age. When Fleur was a child, her mother would set up playdates for her, and she could almost set a timer that within the hour, Sabine would get a call from other child's mother with the request from her daughter to be picked up. The older Fleur got, the more it just became clear to her mother that Fleur was just an introvert.
At seventeen, she was shy and a bit awkward, and Sabine was worried that this move would cause her to retrieve even more into her shell. But then she thought of Andrew and his need to return to his family, his pack, and the nature his wolf so craved. Andrew was her mate, the man Sabine had unknowingly waited for her whole life. After spending two years living together in a metropolitan human civilization, it was only fair to give his way of life a chance.
Andrew had crashed into their lives almost two years ago now. Sabine had worked as an ER nurse when Andrew had carried his Beta into the hospital. Andrew had been part of a regiment from the North Atlantic Pack, which was headed by the packs Beta Phillip Hunt. The regiment had come to the only human settlement in the northeast to discuss trade with the human politicians when an assassination attempt occurred on the Beta. Luckily Andrew had been there to throw the Beta out of the line of fire and carry him to the ER with only a graze wound. This led to political tension between the North Atlantic Pack and the human settlement.
Not that Andrew and Sabine were aware of it. As soon as Andrew locked eyes with her pale blue ones, all thoughts of politics were long lost. After transferring the Beta into the care of her coworkers, Andrew took Sabine to the break room, where they first got acquainted with one another. Andrew believed that Sabine had been an angel sent from the moon goddess who was rewarding him for saving his Beta. At the age of forty-five, he had long given up the idea of finding his mate. Andrew and his wolf had come to accept that his mate either lived at the opposite end of the world or had passed on already. But now, here she was in scrubs and staring back at him with an easy smile on her lips. It would be an understatement to say that it was love at first sight.
Sabine herself was aware of what a mate was as the human settlement was in close exchange with the packs surrounding it. Humans often would find their mates and leave the settlement to join them in their packs. Sabine herself had a distant cousin who had done so some odd five years earlier and followed her mate to his pack in Texas. But now, here he was, her chosen one, and Sabine had to admit that he was well worth the wait. Andrew had dark hair, which had been trimmed in a buzzcut, and when he wasn't smiling, he could look quite stern. But as soon as he graced someone with a smile, a light would brighten in his eyes, and deep smile lines would appear next to his eyes and mouth. He laughed deeply and generously, and there was almost a contagious nature to his baritone voice.
They had spent the entire day walking and talking that when the evening came, and Andrew asked to bring her home, Sabine knew it was time to tell him about Fleur. If this was the man she was destined to spend the rest of her earthly life with, he would also need to get along with her daughter. To Sabine, it was clear that Fleur would always come first. So as they stood there next to her old Subaru, she faced him, and he took her hands into his; she took a deep breath and told him everything.
"I have to tell you something, and if you cannot accept this part of me, then I'm afraid I see no future for this relationship" Sabine was still smiling although it was a bit forced. Still, there was a finality to her words that made Andrew understand the gravity of what she was about to share with him.
"I have her daughter, her name if Fleur, and she is the center of my universe."
Andrew was definitely surprised but also relieved he had been scared that Sabine had some kind of underlying health condition which would shorten their time together on this earth even more than it had been already. So in relief, he smiled at his mate.
"A pup! Tell me everything about her" He wrapped his arms around Sabine as she began her story.
Sabine had come from very simple circumstances and survived a very turbulent youth with her parents splitting up and getting back together every so often. She was an only child, and not having a reliable parent to turn to led her to turn to the kids in her neighborhood for support, but they were all just children what did they know. She was intelligent and charismatic, which led to her doing well at school. Once Sabine realized where her brain could take her, she committed to school and soon was awarded a scholarship to a prestigious university where she was set to study nursing. In her final year, she received a call from a boy she had known when she was a child; he had moved into the same human settlement where she was studying and wanted to see if she wanted to meet up. One thing led to another, and they fell in love.
Five months after the start of the relationship Sabine found out she was pregnant. It was at that moment that Sabine knew she had to leave him. While on his good days, he would kiss the floor Sabine walked on; it was his bad days she was scared of. He was never violent towards her, but he had a bad temper and would grow irrationally angry at her for minor inconveniences. This raised all the red flags necessary in Sabine's mind. She would do better for her daughter, even if that meant doing it as a single mother.
"He overdosed when Fleur was seven," Sabine concluded. His death had saddened her. They had shared custody over Fleur at the beginning. When Fleur told her that her Dad had made her sit in a car with him and a friend for three hours, waiting for more of their friends to join him, Sabine caught wind of what her ex-partner was involved in. Several stints in rehab later proved not to be helping, and Sabine was sad to admit that it wasn't a surprise to her when the Police contacted her about his death.
Andrew took all this information in patiently. He was aware of the fact that Sabine was forty. What did he expect her to live in celibacy for a mate she didn't even know she had. No, he had to look at this as a blessing. Not only was he granted a mate but a whole family.
When her mother had told her they were expecting her mate for dinner; Fleur was shocked. As long as she could remember, it had always been them two. They were a team, where Sabine was loud and social Fleur was more demure and reserved. They balanced each other out, and Fleur believed she was the voice of sanity to her mother's crazy. But that evening at seven-thirty, the shrill doorbell of their apartment was heard. To Fleur, it was almost an omen to the permanent change which was about to occur in their life.
Andrew kissed Sabine deeply at the door, it had been four weeks that they had been seeing each other, and still, every time felt like the first time. Sabine accepted the flowers Andrew held in his hand and shouted out for her daughter while passing into the kitchen. Andrew heard a door open and fall close and saw a figure emerge from one of the doors down the hall. If Andrew were to guess what Sabine looked like twenty years ago, he could easily find that answer when looking at Fleur. Long blond locks cascaded around her slim shoulders, and the same feline blue eyes analyzed him as she stood before him. It was their body language that could not have been more different. While Sabine stood proud with her shoulders squared, Fleur retreated into herself and had many nervous habits to help her cope with social situations.
"Hello, pup. I'm Andrew, and I'm delighted to finally meet you" He gave her his kindest smile. Sabine had told Andrew what Fleur was like in great detail, and he knew not to overwhelm or touch her without giving her a chance to get to know him first. But now, looking at her, Andrew was shocked at just how much the two women truly looked alike; he could not find anything that would indicate any paternity other than Sabine. The only difference was that a pair of thick-rimmed brown glasses that rested on the bridge of Fleur's small nose.
"Hi, I'm Fleur," Fleur replied nervously, playing with her fingers and hiding behind her long hair, not quite meeting his gaze and only briefly looking at him through her lashes. However, Andrew was shocked at the elven-like whisper of her voice; it was soft and melodic as it carried throughout the room. Instantly his wolf rejoiced at the sight of his pup, and even if he did not believe it possible, his heart grew that night and encompassed Fleur in it.
From then on, Andrew had become a stable presence in Fleur's life. He had asked his pack to be on leave from his duties and represent them abroad while he moved in with Sabine and Fleur. He knew he couldn't just expect them to pack up their lives for him and join him in the capital of Bennington. But almost two years later, the Beta was getting impatient with having his most trusted advisor back, and since Sabine and Fleur didn't have any family which tied them to the human settlement, they decided to move.
"Here we are!" Andrew's deep voice awoke Fleur from the light sleep she had slipped into, and as she gazed out of the window, she saw that the car had pulled into the driveway of a small cabin surrounded by nothing but woods. Her mom and Andrew had already started getting out of the vehicle while Fleur still felt tied to her seat as her heart began to flutter with anxiety. She was trying to focus on her breathing when her car door opened.
"What do you say, my love? Don't you want to explore the house with me" Her mother had a hopeful smile on her lips as she held out her hand towards Fleur. With one last deep breath Fleur undid her seatbelt and took her mother's hand as she stepped out of the car.