This chapter is complete. I am dedicating this chapter to gabokiki
Because her dad is named Zoltan ahahaha
"Hmm..." The doc hummed before scribbling something else down on his clipboard.
I huffed out another breath, trying to regulate my breathing. I wiped the sweat off my face with the back of my wrists sweatband. I had lost track for how long I had been running on the treadmill. The heart monitor kept a loud and steady beat as I kept my speed constant.
"Subject seems unresponsive." Zoltan murmured before looking away from my vitals to also write something down on his cliboard.
I nearly stopped running, "hey! I'm not just some subject."
"Hey Planet girl, did you know that a day on Venus lasts longer than a year?"
"No," I huffed out. How long had I been running? I barely had any breath to speak.
"It takes two hundred and forty-three days to rotate on its axis but the planets orbit around the Sun takes two hundred twenty-five days. Pretty cool, huh?"
"Aria stop distracting her. She needs to focus." Zoltan scolded her before going back to check on my vitals, again.
Aria harrumphed before lying her head down on the Doc's table, "maybe if I had been fed I wouldn't be so cranky like—"
Doc snapped his head up and swiftly cut in, "Listen here you little goblin! I offered you food!"
I let out a loud laugh that distracted everyone from the impending fight. They all turned to look at me with exhausted faces. We had been at it since early in the morning. I had snuck out under the pretenses that I would be staying with Robin in the hospital. But they didn't even bother to check that visiting hours weren't even open yet.
Nick, luckily, had to meet me later since he had to run the perimeter. Alpha Henny had upped the security since the rogue rumor.
"Wow," Aria breathed, "I don't think I've ever seen you laugh before."
"You've only known me three days." I deadpanned.
"She has a point. You're not usually one so vocal with your emotions." Doc added in.
I stayed quiet and looked back towards the window. I knew it was because I shut out my emotions but I never actually thought it was noticeable. I had emotions. I just didn't really show them all that much.
"Alright. Stop running." Doc slowly lowered the speed on the treadmill and when I came to complete stop he gestured to me to lift up my arm. I did. He pealed back the gauze to look at the shot he had given me earlier today when I had arrived.
Doc and Zoltan had stayed up all night formulating, recalculating, and finally agreeing on a safe dose. It felt like I was in an episode of House M.D.
"No discoloration, discharge, or irritation." Doc commented carefully moving my arm back and forth to make sure he wasn't missing anything. Zoltan nodded and dutifully wrote down what he said.
They were an efficient team, I noticed.
A loud grumbling noise came from my abdomen diverting the attention from my arm to my empty stomach.
"Maybe you should go grab something to eat." Doc commented, worried that he was starving out his "Luna".
"Yeah, I skipped breakfast." I agreed.
Aria hopped up and gracefully landed on the tips of her feet. "I'll come with!" Zoltans head shot up from whatever he was writing. Aria noticed and batted her eyelashes at him, "Please Zoltan!"
"Yeah, Zoltan," I said breathing heavily, "please."
He made an unpleased face but grumbled out a yes.
"Both of you be back quickly. I do not want to explain why two teens are loitering in the café."
"Yeah, yeah Doc," Aria waved him off with one hand while she pushed me out the door with the other. Once we were in the hallway Aria turned to look at me with a wicked grin.
"I was gonna go whether he agreed to it or not." She quietly cackled.
It wasn't long before we found a place to sit in the outside patio. I had grabbed a salad and orange juice, while Aria had somehow managed to snatch up a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, country potatoes, and a juicy-looking apple.
"I wanted to thank you." Aria said softly. I looked up from pushing a tomato around on my salad plate. She wasn't looking at me but instead looking at the potato she was twirling around on her fork.
"Thank me? For what?" I asked, piercing a piece of lettuce with my plastic fork, and softly chomping down on it.
She shrugged and shoved the potato into her mouth, " just for helping. You coulda easily said no and that would've been the end of that, but instead you took a chance on us."
"Oh," I blinked, "Actually, I should be thanking you guys. No one's ever really decided to help me like you guys have."
She smiled, but it seemed as though there was something else to her smile. Something I didn't know. "No, no, you don't know how grateful I am, how much I appreciate you agreeing to everything."
I gave a soft smile back, "you're welcome." I guess, even if I didn't really do anything special.
It wasn't until towards the end of our meal that my phone pinged. I had received a text message from Nick. I drank from my orange juice while clicking it open:
On my way. Btw would you happen to have any food w you?
"Who's that?" Aria asked, mouth so full of potatoes she couldn't even properly close it.
I swallowed my juice, "Nick. He's coming and he's hungry."
"Oh," she hummed and loudly swallowed her food. "Does it get annoying having him follow you 'round all the time?"
"Sometimes." I shrug softly.
She blinked at me, "then why let him?"
"Uh," I looked down at my empty plate. No one had asked me something that directly before, "Because it makes Alpha Henry happy."
"So?" she asked, drinking from her water bottle.
"It's for my safety." I added in weakly.
"From what?" she pulled the water bottle away from her mouth, "Are you guys going to war or something?"
I felt myself shrink in my chair. "No," I mumbled.
"Like, I get having someone when you're at school or somewhere potentially dangerous like the city at night, but all the time?"
I wanted to say something against it, but the only thing coming up was that it was true. I had no real threat. Kelsey wasn't a threat to me anymore.
" And you're not even happy about it, like why? Doesn't what you want matter?"
My mouth was open but no words were getting out.
"Don't allow things that make you unhappy. You're the Luna, tell him to, like, chill out."
"I'm not." I whispered.
"Not what?" she asked absentmindedly gathering her trash.
"Not..." I clenched my fists, should I tell her? "I'm not Luna." I whispered so quietly I could barely hear myself.
"Sorry, what was that?" she stopped moving to lean her ear closer to me.
So, I repeated myself.
"Eh?" she stuck her ear even closer to me.
I leaned forward and whispered quietly again, "I'm not the Luna."
Those were the words that caused me to spill the beans on how I wasn't his true mate, yet he wanted me to pass off as if I was.
Aria sat there, absolutely dumbfounded. "You know there's a rumor that second-chance mates exist?"
I leaned back in my chair, "we don't even know if I have a wolf."
"Do you know why werewolves and witches are at each others throats all the time?"
I shook my head.
"It's because, a long time ago, a young femme wolf went to a witch and told her that this man had marked her against her will. Which, you may or may not know, it's super taboo." She started playing with the edge of her napkin.
"I didn't know that." I sighed. After the Eldon ceremony, I wasn't really taught the ways of the wolf.
"Oh, to humans... it's the equivalent to... rape." She rubbed the back of her neck, looking incredibly uncomfortable. "You're forcing yourself on someone without their consent. Its, like, the same thing you know?"
I nodded.
"Anyways, feeling pity and anger the witch helped mask her mark, and even scent. Almost completely removing the mark, which is essentially impossible. As it turned out, the wolf was lying. He did have her permission. He had just done something to really anger her so she went to have it removed."
I didn't know any of this.
"He found out, and blamed the witch. Long story short, a whole war happened and we've never seen eye to eye since then. The wolf never believed the witch, and pretty soon we were all forbidden to use that method."
We both stayed quiet for a while.
"But, second chance mates. Those can happen." She gave me a wide smile. I couldn't help but laugh at how cheesy her smile looked, and son she joined me in my laughter.
We were broken out of laughter when my phone started ringing. It was Nick. Both Aria and I sighed. Our time together was over.
"Here," she tossed me her apple, "go feed your starving lackey."
I smiled at her and left to go throw my trash away. Then I made my way up the stairs and to Ms. Rhodes room. I didn't bother picking up my phone.
When I entered the room, Nick was pacing back and forth and before he could say anything I tossed him the apple. He caught it with one hand, took a big bite out of it and plopped right down into his seat.
While Nick munched on his apple, I went and gave Mayra and Robin a welcoming hug. I turned to her mom and gently touching her hand I asked, "How're feeling Ms. Rhodes?"
"Venus," she smiled, "I'm gettin' better."
I smiled back at her, "I'm glad."
I sat down next to Mayra and we all spoke quietly. It was mostly just Ms. Rhodes asking questions about whatever was on the T.V. and Robin answering them. They were watching some sort of teen pregnancy show.
Nick was texting furiously on his phone.
It wasn't even an hour later when my phone pinged. It was from Alpha Henry:
Need you home right now. At your parents home. Urgent.
I sucked in a breath. I didn't want to go anywhere near that home.
" And you're not even happy about it, like why? Doesn't what you want matter?"
Right now, all that mattered was what Alpha Henry wanted. I could cry, and scream, and throw things around, but I was going to be forced back to my parents home. at the end of the day, what Alpha wanted, Alpha got.
Alpha word was law.
"Right then, I suppose we really should start thinking about possibly making a move." Nick stood up and I followed his example.
Mayra looked at us surprised, "I thought you were going to stay?"
The text message from Alpha Henry sounded really important. Like whatever it was couldn't possibly wait.
"No," I shook my head, "Henry's expecting me to be home soon."
"Henry?" she quizzed. I nodded. She gave me a smile. But it wasn't genuine; it was her customer service smile—fake. "Really? I'll walk you out then."
Nick didn't catch on though, and he began to stroll out. Mayra and I followed shortly after him. We were walking down the hall to the exit when Mayra suddenly went, "Oh! I need to use the toilet. Come with me." and with one arm she hauled me inside the ladies room.
Nick's confused face was the last thing I saw until the door swung closed.
Mayra tugged me into the furthest corner of the bathroom. Through the mirror, I watched her short blonde hair bob with every step. When she thought we were far enough that Nick couldn't eavesdrop she stopped walking and turned to face me.
"I'm going to be blunt about this." She wasn't looking me in the eyes.
"I don't feel comfortable with you staying at a man's house." She began, "he's older and new to this town and I'm not quite sure how your parents are okay with this."
I opened my mouth to say that they didn't care, but after yesterdays fiasco I decided that wouldn't be a bright idea. "I'm not sure—it's fine-he's fine. Don't worry."
"No." she looked me right in the eye, "I will worry. He's older, what is he? Twenty-five?"
"Twenty-three."
"A twenty-three year old man and a seventeen year old kid? Venus, on what planet does that sound fine to you?"
"I-I-" Werewolf customs were way different from human customs. But she had a point. Many mates were only a couple years apart. Not six. Are there mates with huge age gaps? But wait, he's not even my mate!
I shrugged, not finding the right words.
"I'm not your mom, nor your guardian, so I can't tell you who you can or can't date." She gave me a timid smile, "But you are my sister, I am your family, and I care about you very much. I don't want to see you get hurt."
"I can't tell Robin anything about not dating 'cause she's well over eighteen, and Zak still hasn't turned twenty-three but still. I gave her the exact same chat. Just be safe. Think twice about your actions, their motives."
She sighed before continuing, "guys who are significantly older than the girl are whatever way, are usually trying to take advantage. There's a reason why they're not dating people their own age. I mean Henry's not a bad guy, but what's he hiding you know?"
"I'll think about it." I returned her smile.
Her grin brightened and she launched herself to hug me. I wrapped my arms around her, and she tightened her hold on me. We were around the same height so my face ended up near her ear, and hers in mine.
"You've quickly become family to me and Rob. We're a small family, but we take care of our own."
With that we both pulled away. She wiped at the tears in her eyes. We both laughed once we saw what messes we were. Once we had re-gathered ourselves we went off back out. Nick was leaning back on the wall.
I wasn't sure if he had been listening in on our conversation.
After another round of goodbyes, Nick and I were in the car. He turned on the car, and he said to me, "Don't worry about age gaps. The Moon Goddess knows what she's doing."
I didn't comment as he pulled onto the road.
Twiddling my fingers I asked him, "Do you believe in second chance mates?"
He shrugged, "not really. You don't have to worry about that though. He's not going anywhere any time soon."
He didn't know.
He casted a quick glance at me, I caught a quick smile, "you and Henry are the real thing."
He really didn't know.
I turned on the radio to mask the silence drifting between us. It was suffocating me. If Alpha Henry had no problem lying to Nick, then he'd have no problem lying to the pack, or even lying to... me.
The rest of the ride was spent with me drowning in my thoughts.
I didn't realize we had arrived until Nick opened the car door for me. "You alright?" he asked, helping me out the car.
"I don't think the hospital food is settling well with me." I mumbled, truly feeling sick.
"Oh, don't worry this should be quick," he closed the car door and guided me to the front door, "after this you can go lie down."
Unable to form words, I simply nodded.
Nick didn't bother knocking because the moment we stepped onto the front steps, the door opened. My mother stood on the other side looking important in her pearls, red button up, and slacks. She was wearing the heels that almost made her as tall as my father.
It wasn't the sight of her that cause dread to bloom in my stomach. It was the forced, tight, smile adorning her face.
"Venus, darling, you're finally home."
"Hello Mother."
Her smile widened and she ushered me in. I was expecting Nick to follow me in, instead I heard. "Thank you for driving her home Nick."
"Anytime Mrs. Ballentyne."
"Bye Venus," Nick gave me reassuring thumbs up, but the look on his face told me he wasn't going to leave the area. His head had quickly gestured his head to the backyard and I knew he would be listening out for me. Then the door closed.
"Venus," Mother placed a hand on my shoulder, I didn't move. "Someone is here to meet you." She squeezed my shoulder and I turned around.
There stood a man and women. Both who were not familiar to me in any way. They were both stern looking and holding clipboards. The man wore a suit and tie, while the women had on a serious pantsuit.
It was the women who stepped forward and gave me a kind smile. Removing her hand from her clipboard she stuck it out to me. I gently shook hers and the mans behind her. He had also given me a soft smile.
The women pushed a lock from her bangs behind her ear. Her hair had been pulle back into a tight bun. "I'm Ellen Davis. I'm from social services. We would just like to ask you some questions Venus, if that's all right?"
I felt the blood drain from my face. Social services was here. Someone had shouted child abuse at my parents. If Ms. Davis found anything, even the slightest sign of abuse, Andromeda and I will be out of this home—this town, and sent off to foster homes.
We would have to leave the pack. Become rogues.
"Yeah," I gave a weak smile, "its okay with me."
**
I sat with a rim rod straight back. Would hunching over mean something bad to them?
Andromeda fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. I could feel her leg twitching besides mine. My father, mother, Andromeda, and I were all sitting on the couch. Ellen Davis sat on a chair across from us while the man stood behind her.
I still didn't know his name. Or why they were even here.
Had the guidance counselor finally gotten fed up and called them?
But I never said a word to her. I don't understand who—could it have been Mayra?
"We'll just take a tour around your home, if that's alright?"
They had already finished questioning us individually. My nerves were already shot and I don't think I could find it in me to stand up. I rubbed my hands down my patns. They were clammy.
"Oh," my father quickly stood up, he smoothed down his dress pants, "come, I will show you the way."
I felt Andromeda slowly letting out the breath she was holding in when suddenly Ms. Davis said, "Actually. We were wondering if Venus could be the one to show us."
Me?
"Honey, are you fine with that?" my mother asked, the undertone in her voice told me she was scared. She should be, because I sure was.
"Around the house?"
Ms. Davis gave me a soft smile, "yes, we could start with your room if you like."
Show them around? Show them my room?
My empty room?
"Yes." I whispered pale faced. I stood up and walked to the stairs, "it's-it's upstairs." I gestured lamely. Ms. Davis and her partner followed me up the steps.
Every step closer I took to my room felt like I was walking closer to my doom.
My heart was throwing a miniature rave in my ribcage – thump-thump-thump-thump.
I don't want to leave. Brady's, Robin's, Criss' and Mayras smiling faces flashed din my mind and I knew that I would miss them terrible. I don't think I can leave them.
Nick's loud laughter, the way he throws his head back and places a hand on his stomach.
I even thought of Tristan and his stupid smirk, and even of the soft smiles Kelseys throws at me when we make eye contact in the hallways.
I can't leave them.
"Here it is." I murmur and slowly open my door.
I was surprised to open the door to a not vacant room, but to a regular teens room. My bed was still there. Messy, and not made since the last time I slept in it, but there. Ms. Davis and her partner walked further in while I stood at the door.
The walls were still a soft purple. My photographs.
I quickly stepped over to my photographs; they were still taped to the wall in no particular order.
I quickly glanced out my window and saw Nicks broad back. He was standing in the middle of the backyard standing guard. The idiot was going to be spotted so quickly if they decided to look out.
Ms. Davis' partner eyed my wall of pictures. "This your work?" he asked in awe.
"Yeah," I breathed, "I really like photography."
"Yeah?" he raised an eyebrow, still trying to take in all of my photos, "I can tell. You're good."
"Thanks," I spoke in a stronger voice.
Ms. Davis and him shared a look before they both nodded. It was Ms. Davis who spoke, "Alright. Thank you Venus. You have a very neat room."
I smiled at her.
The rest of the visit went by quickly. Andromeda's room was spotless, her closet bulging with clothes. My parent's room was classy and bare. Then I showed them my father's office. They both had impressed looks on their faces.
When we walked back downstairs, Alpha Henry was waiting for me at the base of the steps. He was smiling but like everyone else, it was fake. His body stance spoke of his true anger.
Did he find out about Zoltan?
Ms. Davis informed us that everything seemed to checked out and that they'd be taking their leave. While she was speaking to my family members, her partner discreetly slipped me his card. On the card, in a messy scrawl, was written Call for anything.
I slipped it into my pants pocket.
With one more smile, Ms. Davis and her partner were out the door. Nick watched them leave from the window; he had entered through the back door at the last moment.
"Clear." He confirmed.
That's when Alpha Henry stood tall and pointed a very angry finger at Andromeda, "You have tried to meddle in your Alpha's private life for the last time."
"What?" I asked, "what are you talking about?"
He turned to look at me, breathing heavily he said, "Andromeda ran to your guidance counselor. Hinted at that fact that you were abused at home. She brought the humans here."
"I cried to a human, so what?" she shouted her face was quickly becoming red, "why does she get to become Luna?"
I swear Alpha Henry wanted to slap her head right off her shoulders. I ran in front of Andromeda, in fear that he might actually do that. The way he rolled his shoulders back warned me that he really wanted to.
"You do not get to meddle between my mate and I!" he growled out.
"What does crying to the guidance counselor do with anything?" I shouted trying to shove him back, and failing.
"If they found anything then you'd be sent away and
"She wouldn't do that!"
My father stepped in and tried to pull Alpha Henry back, Nick was grabbing onto the other arm, but he was still pushing forward yelling.
"She already admitted to it!"
"No!" Andromeda wouldn't do that. She wouldn't be stupid enough to risk exposing her kind, and destroying our family in the process.
My mother was trying to pull me back, but I was standing strong.
"Why are you defending her?" He roared right in my face.
The doorbell rung.
All of the voices quieted down and we stared down the door in fear that Ms. Davis had heard all of the arguing and was coming back to take us away.
The doorbell rang again.
No one moved an inch.
"Well," a strong old voice boomed through the wood, " are you going to let me in or let me die of old age out here?"
It was my father who franticly ran to open the door. He nearly crashed
I looked at him confused. Why was he so anxious?
Then the door open and we all got a good view of the elderly couple at the door.
"Grandfather." Andromeda sucked in a breath.
We all quickly bowed once we noticed who it was. With our heads still down I heard Alpha Henry's deep voice greet him, "Elder Gregory."
"Alpha Colt."
"May I ask-?"
"When your granddaughter calls you, you go to her."
And that's when I knew, that shit was just about to hit the fan.
(Who remembers her and Brady sneaking into her home to get her grandpa's number?)
Today. Is a magnificent day. Because it is the day that #LoveWins.
You bet I'm celebrating!