Your past does not define you.
"Emily - Emily baby, wake up,"
I groaned, throwing my elbow to nudge Andrew hard in his side so that he would stop trying to wake me up. "Shut up, Andrew! I'm trying to sleep." He chuckled at my tone, rubbing his hands and lips over my skin until my body was buzzing with energy. I rolled over and forced my eyes to open, glaring at him. "What do you want?"
Andrew nodded to an outfit spread at the bottom of the bed, my eyes recognizing that those were my clothes meant for me to wear. "I've laid out your clothes and I'm going to grab us breakfast. Meet me downstairs when you're done."
I looked back at him, my eyes once filled with sleep now widening with excitement as I noticed Andrew was wearing nicer clothes, fitted in a nice black dress shirt and slim fitting slacks. "Where are we going?" I had to swallow the extra saliva forming in my mouth to ask him.
"I can't tell you." Andrew winked at me, kissing my knuckles before rolling off the bed. I sat up with a groan as he rushed out of the room with a laugh, looking down at the clothes he had laid out for me.
We would be matching today, the thought brought a smile to my face as I looked at the nice black blouse laid out for me and a pair of ripped jeans beside them. I grimaced at the thought of wearing heels, pulling myself from the bed before I began my routine in the bathroom.
Brush my teeth - fight off morning sickness - fail at fighting off morning sickness - brush my teeth again.
I fixed my hair and dressed myself, carrying the heels with me as I left the room barefoot, rushing down the stairs before I saw Andrew hurrying to meet me. Jumping the last four steps, Andrew had caught me at the bottom with a groan. "Easy killer. I need you to not hurt yourself today."
"As you wish Alpha, I will do my best to please you." I rolled my eyes at the sarcasm lacing my words, smiling at his reaction and felt my feet skim the cold floor.
Andrew twirled us in a circle with a smile. "You look dazzling, my moon."
I leaned forward to kiss his cheek, Andrew turning his face just in time so that our lips met. "You look dazzling yourself, honey."
He groaned very dramatically, throwing his head back in exaggeration. "I love it when you call me that." My hand was filled with an apple that Andrew had snagged for me from the kitchen, I took it gratefully and bit into the fruit. "The next pet name I want you to call me is Big Daddy Andrew."
I laughed in his face and he looked offended, "That will never happen." Andrew held open the doors leading outside, letting me walk through first though he scowled at me.
"I'm sure somewhere in my wedding vows I had said that I would only marry the woman if she called me Big Daddy Andrew."
"I think you may have missed adding it in there." I continued to tease him as we made it out to the car, Andrew holding open the passenger door for me. I raised my eyebrow before climbing inside. "What? No royal pack driver today?"
"Ha ha, very funny. I'll have you know, I am very capable of driving myself." Andrew climbed into the driver's side, cranking the vehicle. I had never seen him look so human before. He looked over at me with a smirk before he pulled the car into drive. "Just like I can drive many other things, right baby?"
"Yeah, you drive me crazy all the time."
He pushed the car above sixty and sped through the forest with a pout, "You never let me talk dirty."
I rolled my eyes at him, "You always talk dirty, Andrew."
Andrew gave me a look, his eyes running over my face before they narrowed. He turned his attention back to the road with a 'tsk'. "That bad habit of yours, rolling your eyes at me - I may have to punish my bunny for it later."
Chills ran down my body and I had to resituate myself in the seat, folding my hands in my lap as a nervous smile crawled onto my lips. I watched the trees race past us as we continued to climb in speed, "Will you give me some hints?" Andrew glanced at me with a smirk before turning on the radio, blatantly ignoring me. "Ignoring me will get you nowhere."
Andrew held the steering wheel with one hand, resting the other against my thigh as he began to trail up my body. "Oh baby, I could never ignore you. But if I keep giving you all of my attention - I'll get hard again."
My eyes widened and I turned to look at him, his laughter bubbling in the car at my expression. I shook my head, holding his hand that rested against my leg before I looked back out the window. We were creeping into the city now, back into the human world. My curiosity was overflowing at this point, turning to ask Andrew again about where we were going.
"Not even a little hint?"
He shook his head 'no' then started singing along to the music, drowning my questions with the lyrics. I rested my head against the seat and played with his fingers in my hold, trying to notice or recognize the street signs we were passing.
A pair of sunglasses were tossed into my lap and I looked at Andrew to see him with a matching pair already on. I put on the glasses too, "Let me see you." I looked over at Andrew as he gave me a nod of approval, distracting me while he made a turn and I missed reading the street sign. I wanted to comment on how much I didn't like surprises but I got distracted by the road we were taking, recognizing where we were going.
"Andrew -" I stared in disbelief as we neared a familiar driveway, my hand on Andrew's tightening instinctively. He didn't say anything as we pulled closer towards the house, the lawn freshly cut which only left me more bewildered. I was the one to always do it before, and it didn't seem like he would do it even if he was forced to. "Why are we here?"
He parked the car and killed the ignition, leaving me with little options to flee. My stomach rolled with sickness and I wrapped my arms around myself as the panic began to seep into me. Every instinct in me was telling me to run and keep the baby safe, to go back to the pack house so that I could lock myself away in a room.
"Emily -"
"It's not safe here Andrew." I wanted to leave this place, never expecting to return here.
Andrew opened his car door and jumped from the vehicle, slamming it shut before he came around to my side. I had half a mind to lock the door so he couldn't open it, but knowing Andrew he would either command me to open it or just break the door open. He was also my only ally here, clearly bringing me back here for a reason.
Unless he was trying to get rid of me...
I hadn't locked the door fast enough before Andrew swung it open with a wild look in his eyes, glaring at me as he whispered and yelled at the same time. "Do you think I'd really leave you here?!"
"Maybe?!"
Andrew wrapped his arms around me and sighed his frustrations with the shake of his head. I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face into his chest as I also sighed.
"Emily, my love." He took a deep breath and rubbed his hands over my arms and back to soothe my shaking. Andrew kissed the top of my head and got rid the headache pulling at my temples. "I will protect you this time. Nothing will hurt my family."
"Why? Why are we here?" I held onto his arms firmly while we stood from the vehicle. My eyes were on surveillance for any signs that my father was home, not finding his vehicle anywhere near the house.
He smoothed my hair as a means to comfort me, realizing that I had no time to prepare myself for this. "I wanted to give you a chance to say goodbye the way you wanted, and to take any belongings you were forced to leave behind." I looked up at him to see him already looking back at me, Andrew clearing his throat and rubbing the back of his neck. "He's not here for now if you wanted to just run in and out."
Taking a deep breath to reassure myself, I linked my arms around Andrew's as we began walking towards the door. He didn't wait for me to knock and instead did it himself, smiling at the woman who opened the door that I didn't recognize. My blood felt like ice now while I worried about who she was - or rather who she was to my father.
"Welcome my leaders! I worried you'd never come in!" Her black hair was braided beautifully into a bun and she wore pastel nurse scrubs with little patterns. Andrew tugged me along as we followed her into the house but it was like I was walking through cement, struggling to move with every step. We halted in the doorway and Andrew pulled me closer into his hold.
"How are you holding up?"
"You sent a pack member to take care of my father? I just - can't believe it." I looked around the living room, peeking over Andrew's looming shoulders to see while I tried to sneak some glances at the arrangement. This place had been kept up, cleaned really well and looked like a functioning home.
"Luna Blood, your father is out of the house at the moment and there's still work to be done so I will have to dismiss myself." She offered me a smile. "I'm sure you don't need me to show you around your old home."
I smiled even though my body fought against it. This was never my home.
"Agreed." Andrew smiled too as she let us be, pulling me up the stairs as he made his way through my memories to find my room. On the way, we had passed my mother's personal room, one she slept in unless my father physically pulled her by the hair and dragged her to sleep in his. Most of the time, even with my room being the furthest away from theirs, I could hear the very angry and often times forced sex.
I didn't assume then, but I bet my mother wanted to die.
We hesitated at her door, still on the way to mine. I peered in and noticed that it was mostly empty like how I had left it. There were some of her personal items laying around like jewelry, photos and a few material items. I hadn't expected to see it still here, assuming my father would sell them for money.
We didn't stay long, Andrew's excitement to see my room urged us to continue and he pushed me out-of-the-way as he jumped into the abandoned room. Turning on the light with a laugh, Andrew's eyes lit up at the room and he ventured closer to the bed. Running his fingers along it, he looked back at me with a smile before flopping himself down.
"This is where my little baby Emily slept." Glancing back at me, his eyes roamed over the room before his excitement only grew. "This is where my Emily grew up! I can smell the stale scents of you here - of all ages."
As he continued to gush about the room, I went to the most important collection hidden away under my bed. Andrew sat up with interest, hands running over the dust on the book covers. He grimaced away from the textbooks and small novels. "Where's the smut and romance?"
"There was no time for me to dream about romance." I laughed and held my books close to me. "On some occasions, they saved my life."
"Yeah? Like how?"
I sat next to him on the bed and felt his hand loop around my waist. "When I was taken away," I knew this was still a sore topic to talk about and I watched him drop the book he was holding onto the bed. He gave me his full attention now as he held me close to his side. "- I had to adapt to the differences between werewolves and humans, paying attention to their behavior and their talents. It helped me see a way around some obstacles, and I even got to break someone's wrists!"
Andrew pulled away from me in surprise, his eyes widened in shock. "The hell? Whose wrist did you break?"
I smirked, recalling the memory so that he could see how it happened in my mind. "Morgan Solomon's."
He whistled lowly, looking at me and clearly impressed. "The Moon Goddess has given me a badass."
I kissed his cheek, watching his eyes soften before he glanced above my head. I turned to see what he was looking at, my closet door left slightly ajar just enough to see that it was empty inside. I stood from the bed, pulling Andrew along with me as we neared it and I opened the door completely. All that was left in this gutted closet were the peeling walls of secrets and the small drawings I hid made on the walls. Without my clothes to hide them, I realized I had nearly colored the entire space.
"This is it?" The space looked a lot different from the memory Andrew had seen before and I nodded, looking down at the floorboards and seeing a smaller version of myself sitting there.
"This is it."
The front door from downstairs was slammed, making me jump completely into Andrew's embrace from surprise. Andrew did his best to smile while I was looking at him, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Daddy's home."
I swallowed a lump in my throat.
"I guess he is."