Okay, y'all. Here's the next part! Sorry for taking so long, but it was Halloween, and that's my favorite holiday, so I spent A LOT of time getting ready and decorating for it. We always have a spectacular display and, of course, we like to scare the ish out of the (big) trick-or-treaters (little ones are off limits!). I was a zombie (I was gruesome! XD) and it was awesome. Did any of you do anything for Halloween? Dress up and scare, or take anyone out? Did you score any goodies?
Anyways, time to get on to the good stuff! I hope you enjoy!
~Kera~
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18
Angel sat across from the man claiming to be her father and studied him. She tried to see if there was something about him that set off her inner alarms, telling her that he was something other than what he came across as. But try as she may, the only thing she felt coming off of him was his total sincerity that he was her father, and that he wanted to be a part of her life.
She was not used to someone wanting her as a valued family member.
Derrick was just as interested in studying her as she was. "You look just like your mother," he said, finally breaking the silence. "We were just about your age when we met- well, she was anyways. I'm a couple years older than her."
"How much older?" Angel asked, curiously.
"She wasn't quite yet eighteen when we met, and I was twenty, nearly twenty-one," he said. Angel watched Derrick's eyes glazed over as he sank into his memories. She watched as a look of complete and utter devotion crossed his face, quickly followed by heart wrenching sorrow, and she had to look away, swallowing to stop the flow of tears that threatened to overwhelm her.
Jared squeezed her hand with his, and smiled at her when she met his gaze. She might have been acting like her father's expression wasn't affecting her, but he knew better. She smiled back at him as she felt a blush creep up her neck.
'Luna, dinner is ready whenever you are ready for me to serve,' Angel heard Abner mind link to her. She cleared her throat as she sent him a silent 'Thank You' to the pack's head chef.
"Gentleman," she said, addressing the man she was sure was her father and his two nephews, "I'm sure you're all starving. Our chef, Abner, has prepared something for us. If you would, please follow us."
She stood and took Jared's hand as he lead them all out of the small sitting room by the front door she had only glimpsed when she followed Tommy earlier that morning when they'd gone looking for Rachel and Tiffany. She could hardly believe everything that had happened that day. Meeting the douche bag claiming to be her uncle, then the marshmallow fight, claiming her mate, and meeting her father. Yes, it had certainly been a long and interesting day.
*
After they had dinner, the delicious chicken parmesan Abner had made from scratch with pineapple upside down cake for dessert, Jared invited them all back to his office. When Tommy followed them, Angel sent a questioning look at him before turning to face Jared.
'What's Tommy doing here, baby?' she asked him through their link.
'Guard duty,' was Jared's reply.
"Derrick," he spoke to Angel's father, before she could ask him to elaborate. "I have no doubt that you are, indeed, Angel's father, so I must ask. When the test results come out, what are your intentions towards her?"
"Well, naturally, I'd like to get to know her," Alpha Williamson replied while gazing at Angel, "but seeing as you two are mates, I'll have to ask permission to stay in your territory for a little while longer. At least as long as you allow. I've spent the last eighteen years thinking my Rebecca was lost to me, and now I see her beautiful daughter before me, and I'm not sure I can just walk away from her."
Angel felt her heart lurch as she watched the pain of loss cross her father's face at the thought of losing her mother. Before she could stop herself, she found herself wrapping her arms around the man she knew the test results would confirm was her father.
Jared nodded at Tommy as he watched his mate hold her father. He saw his brother take his cell phone out of his pocket and dial a number as his heart held onto her long lost relation. A moment later, a knock sounded on the door, and Tommy ushered the doctor into the room. She was by herself this time.
"Derrick, this is our Pack Doctor. She's here to take a sample from you to compare to Angel's."
"Why isn't he taking a sample from Angel?" he asked after the woman had swabbed the inside of his cheek and was sealing the container that held his sample.
"Elena already took a sample from me this morning," Angel replied, smiling at the woman.
"Why would she do that? I only emailed Jared this afternoon."
"I had to take a sample from Alpha Jordan," Elena told him before she turned towards Jared. "His sample shouldn't take me as long at Alpha Jordan's to determine, because of it being a paternal test, instead of extended family. I'll have his and Luna Angel's results by the morning. I've got a rush in for all of theirs."
"Alpha Jordan's?" Derrick asked, a frown marring his brow. "Has Duncan been here? Did he leave already?"
"Who's Duncan?" Angel asked her father.
Derrick smiled at his daughter as he answered her. "Duncan was Rebecca's father. He'd be your grandfather." He turned to look at Jared. "So, if Angel doesn't know who Duncan is, then who is Alpha Jordan?"
"Robert Jord-" Jared began, but was cut off when Alpha Williamson's nephews growled low in their throats.
Derrick frowned and glanced over his shoulder at the two men standing behind him. Instantly, they both stopped growling, but neither one of them backed down.
"I'm sorry about that, Alpha," he said as he turned back towards Jared. "Robert was Rebecca's brother. He got upset when she met me because she planned on keeping the pack. She was the oldest. When she met me, he tried to convince, then coerce her into rejecting me. When she refused him, and we mated and started planning our wedding, he threw a terrible fit. He screamed at her, and me, and warned her she would regret it."
Derrick walked towards the couch and his nephews followed him. When he sat down, they followed suit and sat beside him, leaving Angel and Jared to sit in the remaining arm chair, Angel sitting in her mate's lap. Tommy grabbed a chair from in front of Jared's desk and joined them.
"And then," he continued, "when she went missing, he tried to convince his father that she had had second thoughts and had just ran off to get away from me. He didn't want any of us to look for her. He even tried to say I was the one who had abducted her. He said so many terrible and disgusting things about me in the days following her disappearance, that I'm still shocked that her father continued to search for her. We never found her.
"My heart still longs for her, but there is no love lost between my pack and Robert. I even quit talking to Duncan when a few years went by and no trace of her was found. I guess Robert was made Alpha after all, if you know him as Alpha Jordan."
Angel swallowed past the lump in her throat before she could speak. "You don't think she's dead, do you, Derrick?"
The older man slowly shook his head. "No, I don't think she's dead. For the first few months I could feel her, and hear her occasionally. But eventually, I'd only dream of her. She was always in a small dark room. I could never tell where she was. But now, it's only the fact that I haven't felt the bond break that has let me know she still lives."
"What do you mean?" Angel asked as she glanced at Jared. "How could a bond break?"
"When someone loses their mate, they can physically feel it. Mated wolves don't usually survive the death of their mates, Little One," Jared told her as he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. The thought of losing her made him want to hold her and never let her go.
"Wait, you can feel your mate?" Angel asked both alphas.
"Yes, Little One," Jared nodded. "Ever since we completed the bond, I've been able to feel you. I'm sure you've felt me, as well, you just didn't know what it was or what it meant. It's like a small buzzing or tingling sensation at the back of your consciousness. That's the connection between us. If we somehow got separated, or if you decide to go to the store or something and leave me at home, I'd still be able to sense you. I'd even be able to follow the connection back to you, no matter how far away you were."
"So how come you didn't try following the connection back to Rebecca?" Angel asked her father.
"I suspect she was kept drugged and weakened during those first few years," he told her as he gazed down at his clasped hands. Hearing Jared explain the mate bond to his daughter, knowing he should have been the one to raise her, to train her in the ways of the wolf, hurt. He hadn't thought to look for her. He had only ever concerned himself with finding Rebecca. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he assumed she would still be carrying his child when he found her, even nearly two decades later.
"I did try to follow the link between us, but it got me no where," Derrick continued, finally looking up at Angel. "I've never stopped looking for her. I shared her picture with the surrounding packs, shared her scent, searched hospitals, even posted her picture along with a reward on several missing persons websites. So far, no one has seen her."
He took a deep breath, and Angel saw guilt enter his eyes and settle next to the pain and grief already lurking there. "I am so sorry, baby. I should have searched for you, too. I should have found you, should have raised you, comforted you. Taught you the ways of our people." He took a deep shuddering breath as tears once again filled his eyes. "I should have been there for you all those years."
Angel extracted herself from Jared's arms and walked over to kneel before the man she had no doubt was her father and took him in her arms as he sobbed.
"It's okay, Daddy," she murmured as she stroked his hair. "You didn't know. You didn't know..."
"But I should have!" He said vehemently. "I knew she was pregnant when she went missing! I knew she was expecting a child, but it never crossed my mind that she would have delivered before I found her again! I should have known. Werewolf pregnancies aren't as long as normal human pregnancies. I should have known..."
Angel continued to hold her father as his voice trailed off, questions circling her brain, but she held them in check as the man responsible for her existence cried on her shoulder.