Chapter Thirteen
My palms were sweaty and I was certain I was close to hyperventilating as I watched Emory glide across the room towards the door. How would all of this go once they knew that I knew what and who we were. Would they be apologetic, remorseful or would they even care? I could not believe that they would not want to embrace who they were or more importantly who we all were. I wasn't even sure I could come to terms with all that they had kept from me or my family. Could I even forgive them or Ian for completely allowing each of us including them to live a lie? We always knew something was not quite right but we never told our parents that we felt different; like something was missing. We always thought it was because we moved to America at such an early age but for the parts of my family that never knew anything but American to feel the same missing link spoke volumes. Sighing loudly, I looked up to see those stormy gray eyes staring back at me brimming with concern.
"We can wait until you are ready" Emory said quietly.
"No, I am ready to get it over with and move on" I told her never letting our eyes loose contact.
Watching her watch me was enchanting and made me feel like I could not live without her. Reaching out towards her I strode to her and pulled her into my arms, burying my nose into her hair. Sighing I felt myself calm as I took in her sent of fresh flowers which seemed to relax me to my core. I felt her shift in my arms to look up at me and smile as I smiled back at her. Thinking about everything she risked to find me, bring me home and turn me back into a vampire made me appreciate her even more. For everything she did made me feel such a gratefulness that I didn't ever think I could repay. She was my mate, the person I longed for but had not realized what I was missing but knew there was a void so deep that it effected every one of my past relationships. This was like coming home and no one was going to take this away from me.
Running my arms down to her hips and pulling her even closer I bent down and whispered "Thank you" in her ear. Seeing a look of confusion in her beautiful stormy grey eyes I knew she didn't expect a thank you from me.
"Thank you for never giving up on finding me and never giving up hope that I would be yours" I said softly never looking away from her eyes.
A look of relief passed over her face as she beamed up at me.
"I could not have if I wanted to, the heart wants what the heart wants. Now that I have you I am not letting you go mate" she said playfully.
"On a serious note you are what I always felt was missing but could never figure it out because I knew nothing of my vampire side. It totally makes sense now" I told her.
"Yea it does but unfortunately we will have to put us getting to really know each other until we clear up this other matter" she said sadly.
"No, we will make time no matter what to work on us while we fix this other problem. I have to learn about my vampire heritage, rule a kingdom, fix the rest of my family and kill my uncle" I said matter of factly.
"We will fix it all including your uncle but first let's hear your parents side before you go off killing Ian, even if he deserves it" she replied to me.
Pulling her back into me I began to place feathery kisses down her jaw line until my lips found hers. Hearing her moan as she moved closer into me I deepened the kiss, tongues battling each other for dominancy. I could feel both of us struggling to control our growing need for each other and being here right now was fanning flames that wanted to ignite into a raging fire. A sudden knock and the turning of the knob on the door startled us back to reality causing us both to jump back and gasp for air.
"Good thing I locked that" Emory giggled.
Running a hand through her hair I gave her a quick kiss and murmured "I guess we forgot they were there".
"Yes unfortunately" she said playfully. "But it's to be continued" she laughed.
"Definitely to be continued" I said as I let go of her. "If this was not so important to deal with I'd say we ignore them, but we need to get this over with" I said.
Nodding at me she headed toward the door and placed her hand on the knob. Before opening it up she looked back at me.
"You ready" she asked.
"As ready as I will ever be" I told her and with that she opened the door revealing my mother, father, Aggie and Fiona standing in the doorway.
"Ethan, please let us explain" my mother pleaded.
Holding up my hand towards her I motioned for her to stop.
"Before we even talk I want to know where Ian is" I asked to anyone who wanted to answer. Everyone looked around to each other nervously before Fiona answered.
"Well he is sort of indisposed" she said.
"Let me quess, he is in transition" I inquired.
"Well that was his desire, but I might have just put him in limbo until we can figure it out, but we don't really have much time" Aggie volunteered.
I could always count on Aggie to do the right thing which caused me to smile catching them all off guard.
"Good let's get this handled and then we can decide if I should kill him for treason towards our family" I deadpanned.
My mother gasped, my father had a frozen look of dread on his face and Aggie giggled. Fiona just looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here and Emory smiled at me.
"I need to speak to my parents first then I will discuss what we do about the rest of my family including my rat bastard uncle" I told everyone.
Motioning to everyone to go downstairs I began to head out of my room, when both my parents stopped me.
"I think this is a very private matter Ethan, we should really just discuss everything here" my dad volunteered.
"No not really, we are amongst for the most part people that are loyal to me, the heir to the throne." I told him. "And just in case you are wondering I am planning on taking my rightful place along with my mate, your future queen"
My mother's mouth dropped open and my father's face began to turn beet red.
"Ethan, you don't know the first thing about any of this, you're not ready" my father said.
"I know enough to understand that you fell for what Ian was selling and sacrificed your entire heritage and tucked tail and ran. You deprived me, my brothers and sisters, hell my entire family of who we are for what, to cave to a man that always wanted what you had" I said loudly. My voice was probably booming with authority but at this point I did not care.
Looking at Emory her eyes were shining with tears but I saw in them complete trust and support for me. That was more than my parents were offering right now and it was making me furious with them. For two individuals that prided themselves with respect and family values they really dropped the ball on all of it at this moment. For a moment I closed my eyes to get my anger under control because the human side of me wanted to believe that they were innocent in all of this but the vampire side of me was royally pissed. I felt for Emory through my mind and was rewarded with a surge of peace and feeling of control washed over me.
"Let's just go downstairs and talk this out like a family should so nobody gets any more upset" I told them and moved past them, I grabbed Emory's hand and made my way down the stairs. Looking back, I saw both my parents share a look that I could not quite pin point but it looked like both of them were terrified.
Making our way to the living room both Emory and I sat down and watched as my parents file in and take the opposite seats from us.
"Now why don't we talk about why we are even in this situation and you can start as to why Ian has been covering all of this up. Why did he even try to beat you both here to try to stop me from being turned back into a vampire" I asked.
My mother looked to my dad with tears in her eyes. She took her time before she looked me in the eye and said what I had expected her to.
"We did all of this to protect you from Ian, he tried to kill you numerous times. We thought if we followed all of his demands then we would save you. But because of her now we can no longer protect you" she said with tears falling down her cheeks.
"Well good now it will be easy for me to kill him" I said with conviction.
This chapter is dedicated to my good friend "reetilicious!!! I would not have been able to stay inspired without her constant support to write this chapter and continue even though life got in the way!! Hope you enjoy!!