QUILLA
"Ugh!"
I stomp out of my room and down to the kitchen.
The delicious aroma of Aunt Mishka's cooking fills the kitchen with warmth and my turbulent emotions start to settle as I go to stand beside her.
"I was going to cook your favorite borscht but it felt too much like goodbye so you get beef stew instead."
"I haven't decided what I'm doing Aunt Mishka, it's not goodbye yet," I reply picking up some dirty utensils and taking them to the sink.
"Are you sure? You know no one in this family will judge you for wanting to be with your birth parents. Plus you have a very determined mate out there, who I hear from your mother is the Alpha King. Now that is something, sweetie. Or is it Alpha Queen?" Aunt Mishka jokes in her usual teasing manner.
I almost drop the glass I'm about to put away, surpised Uncle Borra let her anywhere near the wolves.
"You spoke to Neo?"
"Of course I did, and to Sebastian."
I shake my head and marvel at my aunt. She has always carried herself like a dutiful housewife, but it is her strength that has kept this famiy together.
"Your mother is remarkable." Aunt Mishka continues as she slowly stirs the stew. "I've never met an Alpha female before, and she's so much like you, and not just in appearance. If you want my advice, Kyra, you would be doing yourself a disservice by not taking the chance to go with them and spend time just being a wolf. That is after all who you are."
I slide into a seat at the dining table leaning onto my palm as she sets out the hot pot of stew.
"If I'm honest, I do want to get to know Neo and Sebastian," I say quietly.
"But?" Aunt Mishka prods hearing my unspoken hesitation.
"But Viggo," I reply kicking the tiles under the table. "He's so damn arrogant and conceited and hot and confusing and I just don't want him thinking I'm doing this for him."
Aunt Mishka chuckles, lifting my chin with her finger.
"Then don't do it for him. Do it for you," she says with a smile.
"Now get off your pretty tush and set the table. Being a wolf Queen doesn't mean diddly in this den."
By the time everyone joins us my decision sits firmly in my heart. The fluctuating emotions in the center of my chest settle with Kyra's contentment and I know I have made the right decision.
When I tell my family the only response I get is acceptance and quiet love, even when I know my decision is hurting them all.
In true Karruk fashion, dinner proceeds with laughter, not-so-gentle teasing, and spectacularly foul language as if this dinner was like any other and there weren't lycans and wolves waiting to take me away. I love my family all the more for it.
Only Udyr does not attempt to hide the pain in his eyes every time he looks at me. More than once I see him staring at my neck with a scowl. We all ignore him, not attempting to draw him out. Udyr is Udyr.
He retires to his study as he always does after dinner and I potter through the house collecting a few of my scattered possessions lying about.
As I make my way up to my room I detour to Udyr's bedroom and into his wardrobe. He'll be pissed but I'll be far away by the time he finds out.
I yank his favorite thick woolen cardigan off the rack then make haste back to my bedroom, with a smile warming my cracking heart as I nuzzle into the cardigan drawing his heavy bear scent. It may irritate my wolf but Udyr will always be home, the center of my safety and I shove Kyra aside and tuck the cardigan into the bottom of my rucksack.
"Luna Queen huh," Dayani teases as she bursts into my room throwing herself on my bed with a bounce of blonde curls.
I groan walking to my chest of drawers. I toss a t-shirt blindly towards the rucksack on my bed and miss by a mile.
"Whatever the heck that means," I sigh.
"Gosh, what part of Queen don't you get?" she mocks picking up the top and holding it up with a disdainful raise of her pretty blonde brows.
"I don't think this is very Queenly attire." she wrinkles her nose at the Green Day t-shirt. I snatch it from her grubby little hands and shove it into the bag.
"It's vintage," I snap.
"It's rank. Your mate is too hot for you to be dressing like a nineties throwback."
Dayani jolts back with her arms raised as Kyra bursts a growl from my throat and flashes heat into my eyes at my cousin.
"Hey, not stepping in anyone's territory here, just stating the obvious." She tosses her blonde mane with a dramatic roll of her eyes. "Geeze chill your wolf,"
I sigh and slump on the bed next to her.
"Sorry. I don't know what's happening to me. My wolf and I are not really in sync right now." I rub my knuckles against the warmth crackling beneath my breastbone.
"Mate bond. Duh." she rolls her eyes again and gets up to draw me into a hug. "I'm gonna miss you Ky," she whispers into my ear.
My chest constricts as I draw on her familiar woody bear scent, squeezing her back. Tears sting my eyes but I blink them away.
"I'm not falling off the face of the earth you know, I'll be back."
I'm glad when she doesn't say what we both instinctively know, but hugs me tighter.
"Tell me all about your lycan when you do the deed, I hear Alpha wolves are quite impressive." she snickers in my ear then dashes out of my room.
"You little shit!" I call after her, her echoing giggle mocking me back.
The ridiculous day I've had gets the better of me and the second I lay my head on my pillow I'm out like a light.
I wake in the morning with a jolt and Kyra pushes me through my morning ablutions, her excitement almost uncontainable. When we are done I grab my rucksack and throw it over my shoulder as I head down to the tavern.
The finality of my decision to go with the wolves comes to the fore as I step in and find the familiar space full of wolves and bears and pin-drop silence all around.
Every eye turns to me as I walk over to my bear family who hover together on one side of the room facing off the sixteen wolves on the other side.
Viggo has his back to me facing the bar but somehow I know he is fully aware of my presence as much as I am of his.
His broad shoulders stretch yet another suit and I wonder if he has a whole vehicle full of them.
Neo and Sebastian rise from the stools they are on and head over to me staring at the bag on my shoulder.
"You've decided? You're coming with us?" Sebastian asks looking down at me with a gentle smile full of happiness and hope.
I nod, feeling surreal as I stare into his hazel green eyes identical to mine.
"Yes," I reply. It's the only word I can get out of the constricting emotions choking my throat.
Neo reaches to run her hand down my arm.
"Thank you Quilla," She whispers.
I nod then walk over to Aunt Mishka who draws me into a soft hug and kisses my cheek, Dayani does the same and the water in her eyes makes me choke.
"Don't you dare cry you ugly sow,"
"Get out of here you crazy bitch." she replies then hugs me hard before letting me go sniffling.
"We are here for you Kyra, we always will be." Uncle Borra says patting my head but he does not hug me as I expected. Neither does Jensen who nods with a smile.
"I miss you already drool bucket," he says ruffling my hair and I swat his hand away.
"Yeah, yeah Pooh Bear. Good luck with your mate hunt. Call me when you find her." I smile as he beams.
"You'll get my first call sis."
Udyr stares down at me with guarded eyes. We've already said our goodbyes and my chest aches as I catch the sadness in his scent mirroring my own.
"You will always be my daughter Kyra. This will always be your home. If he does not earn that mark you come back to me."
A low growl carried from across the room from the bar announces Viggo's displeasure at Udyr's pointed barb.
"I love you, Udyr," I say and step forward to hug him but he steps back and I frown, about to question what is going on when Boaz grunts angrily and steps forward, drawing me into a massive bear-scented hug.
"You heard what Udyr said. You come home to us." There is an undertone in Boaz's voice and scent I don't understand, something I've never come across before, but before I can examine it another reverberating growl shakes the bottles behind the bar and shocks me and Boaz, causing him to let me go with a defiant glare in Viggo's direction.
The lycans around the bar look at me and then at Viggo with concern.
Viggo leans over the bar, nonchalantly staring at his glass like he didn't just scare the shit out of everyone here.
My wolf gets a little weak in the knees at the sight of her mate. He does not even look like he spent the night standing in the woods sleepless. I know I look like shit, I can feel the Gucci bags under my eyes from the emotional roller coaster I've been on the last couple of days. Viggo on the other hand looks like a God.
His head snaps suddenly in my direction. Golden eyes burning with anger make me take a step back and bump into Boaz's chest. His arms automatically grab my waist to steady me.
Viggo pushes himself off the bar and his lycans part as he makes his way to stand facing me. Every inch of my skin burns as he scans me from head to toe, before looking over my head at Boaz behind me.
The switch between heated warmth and flaming anger is breathtaking as his canines flash.
"You should follow the example of the other males in your clan. They clearly have more sense than you. It's considered the height of rudeness for an unmated male to touch a marked female."
Viggo's eyes rake me with a possessiveness that leaves no doubt in my mind how he feels about me. He looks back to Boaz.
"Now, touching the Alpha King's mate, that is another story. That is asking for a death sentence. I'll make an exception this one last time, but remember this the next time you see her."
"She's not your fucking property, she's my family," Boaz growls from behind me.
Viggo's canines lengthen, his handsome face taking on a feral glare."You're not even the same species."
"Stop," I demand glaring at Viggo who swings his eyes down to me.
"You don't get to make decisions about me."
I feel ice descend around the room, his wolves shuffle nervously behind him.
Viggo's canine-filled smile sends a shiver down my spine as he bends to whisper in my ear.
It takes all my strength not to step away or swoon as his smokey scent engulfs me.
"You go ahead and pretend you are anything less than mine and watch me pile the bodies around you. Starting with him."
He straightens and while my brain and heart try to find sanity in the discordant emotions storming inside of me, Viggo turns to leave, the tavern door rattling as he slams it behind him.
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