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Chapter 3: An Attempt To Tip The Scale
Always wear your invisble crown.
Stand up for yourself,
believe me,
it'll be worth it.
*****
The following morning I woke up at about 6:30 to get ready and for Liam to get ready to have lunch with Luna Nat. It was a bit chilly outside so I put Liam into warmer clothing and a little baby hat and gloves just in case the temperature would drop later on. I put him into his stroller and started to make my way to the pack house. I didn’t even make it to the porch yet and Nat already swung the door open with a huge smile on her face which was directly aimed at Liam.
“Goodmorning Nat.” I smiled softly at her.
“Morning Nikki! And you too Liam!” she cooed. She pointed her finger to go inside the house. “Shall we?”
“We shall!” I laughed a bit of her enthusiastic ways.
We all made our way inside the pack house and into the kitchen where people were gathered around the table. I frowned in my mind, expecting that it would just be the three of us eating breakfast, not about 20 people.
“Let me just get our plates and we will sit outside! Oh, but don’t worry it’s an inside patio.” Luna Nat turned her head around to tell me. I sighed in relief and followed her through the kitchen smiling at the pack members that were seated around the table.
I nodded and said my hellos to the pack members when I walked into something hard. Scratch that, I walked into Eric; I could smell his scent right when I hit him. I refused to meet his eyes and just pretended that I didn’t know it was him and went on my way, but that was before he grabbed my upper arm a little too roughly.
“Apologize. Now.” He gritted out at me. I furrowed my eyebrows at him and he was glaring at me through his thick eyelashes. His hazel eyes connected with my lifeless dull brown ones and I got stuck in them.
"See what you like?" He turned from his angry tone into a cocky tone. I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Oh yeah, I like the cubbords that are behind you. Those are a nice shade of your shit." I sneered back at him.
I don't think he liked that one bit. "Listen here, you slut, at least I'm not the one who is getting knocked up and having a child with someone else that isn't my mate!"
By now, everyone in the kitchen was dead silent. Everyone who was in the room, their eyes were on Eric and I. It was eerily quiet before the Luna came back into the room and everyone went back to what they were doing before any of this started.
“Back off Er. She has done nothing to you. She just walked into you. No big deal. Back off or else I will tell your father to reconsider giving you the Alpha title.” She spat out to him. I guess that knowing her only son rejected his one and only mate, she wasn’t so fond of.
Eric released my arm and grinded his teeth together. I smirked up at him when Nat turned around and his eyes were cutting me to pieces the way he glared at me. “We’re not done here.” He said through the mind link.
“I think your mother has made it clear that it is. Goodbye.” I said back in the mind link as I put up my walls again. I could feel him trying to burst through my mind-link walls, but I made sure that he couldn't get in. I think my wolf helped me in that too. I followed Nat into one of the indoor patios and sat down seated across from her.
She looked at me all sad, filled with guilt and possibly pity. She sighed deeply and brought her hands together. “Nikki,” she started. “I just want to apologize on my behalf of the way that things went down between you and my son Eric. He is just so stubborn and hard-headed sometimes and I blame his father. They share the same trait. Damn those Alphas.” She laughed to ease the seriousness.
She continued on. “Now, from last night I could tell that you and Eric were mates. And that he had rejected you. I'm sure that you have heard that my son gets around, that he's cocky and concieted, but what Alpha male wouldn't be like that? Yes, he gets around but he confided in me that he wanted a mate. And here you come, and he rejects you out of the blue, after telling me he wanted a mate. Why? I don’t know.”
“I think I know why.” I said, looking down at Liam. “He thinks that Liam is my child. He said, ‘what kind of man would want the left overs of another man’s remains?’ Yesterday he got mad that Jack said the word love to me, so I thought that he would be okay with the whole being mates situation, but then he came over to my house a couple minutes later and rejected me. I asked me why and he said that he didn't want a mate and it was just basically a waste of his time. And that I wouldn't be a good Luna.”
Nat just looked at me as if I just shot her with a silver bullet. Her face softened even more than it already was and she probably felt remorseful. And probably pissed off because her son decided to just judge right away without learning the full story. The truth behind everything.
“Do not listen to what he says to you. He is completely wrong about you. You would make a wonderful Luna. But, I did talk to Eric last night. He said he had to do what he had to do and that he didn’t want you as a mate. But he refused to tell me why. Now I know. And I apologize once more.”
“Well, that was the story and the reason behind the rejection. But I guess I’m okay with that.”
“Are you?” She asked with an eyebrow raised, like she didn't believe a word that came out of my mouth. Hell, I wouldn't believe myself either.
“Yes.” Lie, lie, lie.
“Nikki…” She pestered. And I breathed in a whole lot of air.
“Okay, I guess I’m not okay with that. Because having a mate is supposed to make both of you stronger. Having a mate is supposed to be your other half for living. And without mine, I just feel incomplete. But I just have to accept it, you know? I have Liam to worry and take care of. Liam makes me stronger every day that he smiles his dimple smile up at me. He makes me a better person.”
I grabbed Liam from his stroller and hugged him in my arms. He nuzzled his head in my neck and I felt relieved. “My son is such an idiot.” Nat said, and I chuckled a bit. “No, seriously. He is such a blind idiot. You are a great woman, you are going to be a great mother, and in all seriousness, you would be a great Luna.” She told me again.
She pulled me and Liam into a warm embrace and I could feel the love that was radiating off of her. “Thank you, Nat.”
She smiled lovingly at me. “Well anyway! Back to the good stuff. Tomorrow you will be starting school! I’m guessing that you haven’t been in school since you ran away, correct?” I nodded. “Very well then. You will be getting an education! I do not want anyone from my pack not having an education, because that is very important.”
“Who will watch Liam while I’m at school?” I asked, as a huge smile crept up her face.
“Me of course! Honey, I will watch Liam for you. I love the little bugger already! He is such an adorable baby.” She said, and then she started to whisper. “Maybe even cuter than Eric when he was a baby.”
I laughed so hard that Liam looked up at me with a confused expression before turning his confusion into a smile. I laid him down on my legs and lifted up his shirt, as I blew tummy bubbles into his stomach while he laughed uncontrollably. “Bbbbbb, you like that Li? Bbbbbb, who’s the cute baby? Bbbbbb, you are!”
Nat and I started laughing before she reached out and I placed Liam in her arms. “Now, go on and get your car seat for Liam! We are going school supply shopping for you!”
-----
Nat, Liam, and I ended up going to Target to buy all of the school supplies that I needed for school tomorrow. Notebooks, pencils, pens, folders, yadda, yadda, yadda. I wanted to pay, but Nat kept insisting that she should pay as a welcoming present into the pack. But of course, I wasn’t having that so I refused to let her pay, but then she used her Luna tone on me to let her pay, and I couldn’t do anything after that.
She bought Liam new toys and clothes that she happily paid for, again, because this is the first child that has been born within the last 1-2 years. I think she ended up racking up a $1,000 dollar bill at Target. I felt bad for the employees at Target who was following us around like puppies with shopping carts to shopping carts. Yes, that's how much stuff that we had. We ended up spending the entire day together and she even convinced me to let her sleep in my house so I could just get ready for school and not have to worry about Liam in the morning.
So now here I am, standing in front of the school with students filing in from every direction. It was a human school, that I could sense and smell, while there was a good chunk of werewolves who went here too.
“Hey Nikki, how’s it going?” Jack came standing next to me. He looked good in his low rise jeans, Nikes, and a plain white shirt. “See what you like?” Oh dear lord, he caught me checking him out.
Cover it up! Cover it up! “Mhhm, the egg bits in your mouth are so attractive, really.”
His arm immediately shot up to his mouth and picked a piece of egg out of his mouth and flicked it at me. “Ahhh, ew Jack!” I chuckled and he put his arm around my shoulder.
“Ready to go to class?” He asked, looking down at me.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Awh, Nik! Don’t be so sad! Going back to school can't be all that bad. What classes do you have?”
Oh but it was. I haven't been to school in such a long time, I forgot how to write. Okay, that may be a little extreme, but it's true! I put all my time and effort into making sure that Liam was put first before I was. He was my top priority. I pulled out my schedule that Nat gave me yesterday. “Umm, Physics first, Math second, Food Econ third, English fourth, Lunch fifth, Government sixth, Spanish seventh, and Ceramics eighth.”
“You have Math, English, Lunch, and Spanish with me! As well as Noah and Spencer and Elena and Megan and Tara. I should probably warn you that Eric is in your Physics, Food Econ, Government, Lunch, and Ceramics class.”
I groaned. “So basically except for Lunch, he’s in my classes that you aren’t in.”
He nodded. “Basically. And I should also warn you that you should watch out for Eric’s crazy ex-trio-of-girlfriends. Caroline, Bethany, and Nina. They’re all crazy she-wolves. But Nina is the worst of them all.”
“Thanks for the heads up, Jack.” I said as I was looking for my Physics class, but he dragged me to a different hallway.
“Here’s your first period class. Wait for me here afterwards and I’ll walk you to all of your classes.”
“Sounds good! Thanks again Jack for being so nice to me. I appreciate it.”
“No problem, Nikki. I’m going to be the future Beta, gotta watch out for my future Luna and my new best friend.” He nudged me on the shoulder.
I pursed my lips and decided to tell him that Eric rejected me. “Eric and I…” I started but trailed off.
“I know. And he’s such a hard-headed shit-face. But he’s going to see reason and he’s going to take you back. But don’t give in too easily.” He winked at me and I laughed and went in for a side hug.
"Thanks for helping me not get lost, Jack. I owe ya!" I said, smiling up at him.
“See you after this class!” Jack said, as he turned around and walked away.
I turned around and I took a seat in the middle of the classroom when I heard a growl erupt from a wolf. A wolf I already knew whose growl it was. Oh boy, here we go.