Lilly's POV
"What's going on?" Brad asks and I glare at him. "Nothing...Daniel let's just leave. You guys we'll meet you back at home, ok?" I tell them and they nod. "Becareful beautiful." Nathan whispers in my ear before kissing me goodbye. Danny is gloomy and his eyes were shattered. Something was definitely going on and he wasn't going to tell me anytime soon. "Don't you need to do more shopping?" He asks me faigning interest where there wasn't any and followed up with a fake laugh. I saw right through it.
"No, I got everything." I answer him and we dump everything into the car before getting in. The ride home was silent but the tension was excrutiating and Dannys hollowed expression forcasted tears. Then right before we got home I turned around and drove up to a little pond thirty minutes from home. "Where are we going?" He asks his voice empty. "You'll see." Is all I tell him after all I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.
When we arrive I park the car and lock it. "We have to walk five minutes to get there." I tell him and start making my way through the trees and shrubbery until finally I see it. "Its as beautiful as I remember it." I whisper, "Daniel, do you see this pond surrounded almost entirely by trees?" I ask him and he nods slowly. I sit down next to it and he does the same, "Once a long long time ago a wonderful king met a young maiden and instantly he knew she was to be his queen. She was beautiful and he was handsome, kind and generous with his people but yet the maiden refused to marry the king." I pause and picked up a pebble beside the pond.
"The maiden was thought to be crazy after all she was just a peasant orphaned girl who barely had enough to survive and yet here she was refusing the king. Nobody understood why or how she could refuse such a wonderful king such as him. The king wasn't perfect mind you. He had been scarred at a young age after a war that ravaged the kindom where he lost both his parents and yet he wasn't hidered by it."
"He was empowered to never give up and fight for what he belived in just like his parents. So he fought for his fair maiden who day after day, year after year refused him but there was something nobody knew about the girl. Every night since she met the king and refused him she would come here to this very place to cry. Nobody heard her pain and nobody saw her cry not here in the forest away from the town. As the years passed her tears formed this pool of sweet water. You can drink it you know. It tastes like peaches no lie." I tell him knowing he probably thought I was lying to him.
"Did they ever get together?" He asks me. His voice low and chocked up. "Yes, actually they did." I add, "How." He asks me as I cast the pebble into the pond and it skims across it before sinking into the cool water. "Well, the maiden had know suffering much like the king had. She too had lost her parents and her brothers to the war. She had been decited by the man she once loved who mistreated her and left her near death because of this her heart had grown cold."
"She was hurt and bleeding but nobody saw and she told no one. After all nobody seemed to care for her. She was alone in the world she was blinded by her suffering and because of this she rejected the king. She didn't feel worthy of him. She felt dirty because her previous fiance, the man she loved had robbed her of her innocence and then left her to die to marry someone of higher status. She feared that once the king found out she was no longer pure he would cast her out and that would kill her."
"She had fallen deeply and madly in love with the king who she had watched from afar. She knew he was sweet and kind and nobody could deny how handsome he was not even her but the fear controlled her. So for many years she declined her love just as many times he proffessed his love for her but one day something happened. The king was injured and near death with no queen and no heir."
"The maiden was in town when she heard the news that the king was in his death bed. She ran to the pool of her own tears and fell down to her knees to pray because it was only when the king was at the verge of death that she realized that she couldn't live another moment without him. She spent a week praying for his health and well being besides the pool without food or drink hoping that the king would live. Miraculously the king got better and completely recovered from his injury. Immediatly afterwards he went into town in search of his beloved but she was nowhere to be found."
"He sent his troops in search of her until he found her by the pool laying on her back her eyes open to the sky laying as still as a corpse. He ran to her thinking she was dead but she wasn't. He cried over her and slowly she stirred and asked him if she was dead which he promptly denied. Tearfully she told him her story as he cradled her on his lap and when she was done he kissed her. She was confused but he told her that nothing from her past mattered anymore because he would be her future. She was taken to the castle where she was nursed back to health before finally marrying the good king."
"They married here beside the pool of tears a pool where there ashes where scattered over after there deaths. They died together for one couldn't live without the other. These soft stones and the sand where brought here by them to there own secret haven from the world." I whisper and dig my hands into the sand. I turned for a moment and glanced at him only to see tears making there way down his cheeks, "I never heard that story." He murmurs and I nod.
"You wouldn't have since its a human myth a bit like the legend of Arthur. But some swear that its the truth. Personally I believe its real. What I'm trying to tell you is that you should never give up trying to woe Ashley because she will eventually be yours. It might take awhile but you shouldn't give up and you shouldn't let yourself become too distressed over not having her because even if one day she changes her mind. You probably won't be there to be with her and then you'll regret not fighting for her love."
My voice came out harsher than I meant for it to sound but I couldn't help it. I got up and then helped him stand before wiping his tears away and hugging him. "We're friends, Daniel and I will never let you give up on her even if she acts like she doesn't want you I know she does. She has a story and we just need to find out what it is." I remarked. We start heading back to the car in silence until we got in the car and I turned on the radio.
He stared out the window and I looked forward letting the music wash over me before the nerves settled in...I was going to be late for dinner. "Where have you been? Your parents will be here soon and there's nothing ready." Where Brads first words to me the moment I slammed the car door shut. "Yea, yea, yea, I know and I'm on it." The next fourty minutes where spent making spaghettie, meatballs, a home-made sauce, mixing a salad, baking dessert and getting ready.
I take a quick five minute shower and run around choosing the perfect outfit when the doorbell rings. "Dam it!" I yell and hear as someone opens the door welcoming our guests inside. I'm still in just a towel trying to decide what to wear until I get fustrated and shrug my shoulders. "F*ck this." I murmur and step into some navy blue shorts, a white cross-back tank top and flats. I quickly blow dry my hair, brush it and rush down stairs not wanting to keep my guests waiting.
But of course even walking down the stairs could become an event. Probably, shouldn't have run on the stairs... "Crash!" I ran directly onto him and we both fall down in a heap of bodies. I hear someone walking towards and Nathan growling as he pulls me up from atop Alpha Maddox's lap were just seconds before I sat stradling him. I blushed, "Forgive me I really shouldn't have run down the stairs...Are you, ok? Alpha." I ask him as he stands up and dusts himself off.
"I'm fine. Don't worry but you really shouldn't run on stairs. Its not safe even for us." He answers me and I laugh from pure nervousness. "Am I early?" He asks and I shake my head, "Oh, god, sorry but no your right on time come in. Nathan will show you the way will I wait for my parents." I explained as they both walked off into the house. A couple minutes later the door bell rang again and I welcome in my parents and my little sister, Daisy.
"Welcome to my new house. Isn't it wonderful? My brother had it built for me." I tell them as they look around. "Lots of windows aren't there." My mom states and I nod. "Yes, Brads mom is a philanthropist and environmentalist so she wanted a green house. Its good for the environment and doesn't relly solely on electrical energy. It also uses solar energy." I explain, "Come on. The dining room is this way." I add and lead them to dining room where everyon is already at.
"Mom, Dad and Daisy, you all know Alpha Maddox. But these are my friends. Tom, Jerry, Ashley, Casey, Jay, Marcus he's seven, Caleb, Jersey, Daniel, Brad my brother, And Nathan my mate." I introduce everyone as they take there seats on the table where there steaming hot plates of spaghettie are already served. "Dinner is ready and I made it myself so I hope you enjoy it."
"This is delicious." I hear the Alpha exclaims and I smile. "Thank you." I reply. "Wait till you taste dessert. I could swear its heaven." Nathan add's and I blush. "Its alright." I state. "Oh, come on we all know you are one amazing cook." He declared and squeezes my hand. "So how did you two meet?" My mom asks me and we smile. "At the airport actually. We traveled together and he took me in when I had nowhere else to go." I tell them but give them nothing else.
"You could've come home. We would've love to have you back." She tells me and I squeeze Nathans hand till my knuckles grow white. Yet he doesn't wince or pull away he does the exact opposite and stays there unmoving. "No, mom you were expecting little Daisy and I didn't want to intrude." I reply and keep eating what's left of the main dish before bringing in dessert. It was a chocolate and flan cake topped with fruit and nuts. It was my favorite dessert.
I served everyone and they start eating but the tension mustve been palpativable because the moment they were done they left except for Nathan, Brad and of course Daniel. Daniel was on high alert his hair on end but he sat silently and slowly eating his slice of cake. "You wouldn't have intruded. We love you and you know that." My dad exclaims and I can't help but burst out laughing in anger. "Yeah right." I reply sarcasticlly and he raises an eyebrow.
"Look, mom and dad, let's just not go there, ok? I know you love me and the past is the past. It should stay there." I tell them angriely because even though the words were leaving my mouth I didn't and couldn't believe any of it. I thought I had gotten over the rejection I felt when they found out they were expecting there first pup but apperantly I hadn't. 'Baby, Lilly, calm down the table is smoking.' I hear Nathans voice as he absorbs my anger and hurt so that I don't burn down the house.
"Is anything burning? I smell smoke." The Alpha asks trying to turn the attention away from the tension filled conversation at hand. "That would be..." I begin but Nathan intercepts. "Nothing don't worry about it, sir. I like the smell of burning cedar." He says and I smile. 'What are you doing?' I ask him. 'I don't know what you're talking about.' he says. "You like the smell of smoke?" Alpha Maddox asks him and Nathan nods. "I don't think that's healthy." My mom adds and I get up drop my fork and walked away.
Things aren't that easy so of course my mom follows me and my dad stays with Daisy. "Thank you for inviting me to dinner but I think ill be going now. After all this is a family matter. Tell Lilly I'll talk with her sometime later." I hear the Alpha saying before I'm out of hearing range. I walk to the back yard and gaze at the moon. My mom walks up behind me "Sweetheart." Her voice is soft and I flinch away detecting a hint of pity in her tone.
"No, you know what don't just don't." I tell her. "But sweety...Sweety talk to me." She tells me and I laugh. "Now you want to talk? Mom when you got pregnant both you and dad completely forgot about me. You ignored me most of the time and when you did pay attention to me it was to talk about the baby." I told her. "Swe..." I didn't let her finish her sentence much less the word. "No mom listen to me. It was horrible I felt rejected by my own parents. The same rejection I felt with everyone else in our pack. But for you it was the baby this and the baby that while I watched you from the otherside."
"I understand that you were having a pup of your own but did you have to treat me like I didn't exist?" I ask her and she hugs me. This time I don't push her away. "Lilly I'm sorry you felt that way because of us. I...We never meant to make you feel such pain." My moms words are comforting but I'm still hurt. I can't just let it go. I push myself away slowly and look at her. Tears and sadness are now marring her face and somehow I feel joy.
"Did you leave because of us?" She asks and I shake my head. "No, I left for another reason that had nothing to do with you." I sneer and instantly want to take it back but I couldn't. "Talk to me, please." Her voice is pleading but I don't want to hear her anymore. "Mom, please leave. We'll talk some other time." I whisper and she nods. "Ok, but remember we're here for you." Her words are meant to be reassuring but there not. She turns around and walks away from me. For a moment I want to stop her but I don't instead I just let her walk away...
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Ok, here's Chapter 62! I hope you like the story so far and for those Ashel (Ashley/Daniel) fans out there I'm sorry to keep you waiting but its part of the plot. In this chapter you will find an important clue about Ashel's future. Can you find it and figure out what it means? Unfortunately when it is revealed the subject will only be touched but since its not a mayor key to this story it won't be mentioned in its entirety. However it will be mentioned in the sub-stories. VOTE, COMMENT, SHARE AND ADD TO YOUR LIBRARIES!!! The italics are important but not all italics are thoughts.