"It was a man and the next second, he turned into a.....wolf!"

Emily heard the sharp intakes of breath from those who were sitting around the dining table, closely listening to her.

"A....w-werewolf?"

It was Rylan who asked the question and when she turned her eyes towards him she recognized the uncertainty hidden in his eyes.

She slowly nodded her head as she replied, "Yeah! A werewolf. There was even a panther, and then there were....Vampires!"

As soon as the last word rolled out of her tongue, it was Sam who cursed out loud this time.

"Emily, how did you end up stumbling on these people? And when did it happen?" Sam asked her while the others also waited to hear the answer.

She was silent for a few seconds, contemplating how much to share or to be precise, how much she could share without triggering her memories.

After thinking for a few more seconds she finally replied, "It was a couple of years ago. As for how I end up there - I did not like those new foster parents that had adopted me and they never let me talk to the orphanage authorities, so I decided to run away and ended up stumbling on a truck that actually belonged to those monsters."

She was aware that her revelations were affecting everyone in more ways than she predicted.

She still remembered that dark night very clearly when she ended up making one of the worst decisions of her life.

Either her timing was poor or her luck had run out that night because who would have thought that when she ran away from one monster, she ended up in the hands of another.

"Emmy, look at me, sweetheart. Now tell me exactly what happened. Why I'm having a feeling that it's not as simple as you are trying to portray."

Simon had left his seat as he kneeled in front of her, making her turn to face him while he waited to hear her reply.

Emily found Simon's hands that were resting on her knees as she grasped them tightly.

Her eyes turned to look at Domenic who had been observing her silently all this time. Though he did not react or said anything, she somehow knew that he was just as desperate as Simon to hear her answer.

Then her gaze slowly traveled towards the three men who were not a part of the Alessandro family.

But before her eyes could linger on any one of them, she returned her attention to Simon as she replied, "I promise to give you the answers but can you please give me some time? I think I'm not ready yet."

Her voice was so small and vulnerable that Simon could not help but pull the little girl in his arms as he stroked her head before planting a soft kiss on her temple.

"You can take as much time as you want. We will always be ready to hear you, Em." He told her softly as his eyes found his brother who gave him a soft nod.

Of course, neither of the Sullivan brothers was happy to see that they lost the chance of hearing more about her story.

But neither of them wanted to pressure the girl. Rylan could not make himself hurt her as he was supposed to keep her safe from pain and sadness while Kaiden knew that the past she was keeping hidden was too much for her to reveal so easily.

If he needed to wait for her to reveal everything in her own comfort time then he was more than ready to wait, just like her brothers.

"Why did you stab me?"

The sudden question made Rylan bite on his tongue as his misery returned.

He was tired of answering that question. Of course, he needed to sort the misunderstanding out with her since she was the victim but that did not make him feel any better.

Even though, except Emily, everyone now knew that he did not do anything on purpose, but the glares that he received along with her innocent question made him realize that he still was considered a culprit in their eyes.

The worst part was that his own brother was not bothering to save him from the wrath of the Alessandro brothers.

Kaiden literally told them that as long as they did not kill him or cripple him, it was totally fine with him if they wanted to take their anger out on Rylan.

It was a blessing that Domenic was far more sensible than his cold-blooded brother and stopped Simon from punching him.

Even Emily helped him in some way when she fainted because Sam told everyone that she could not handle violence and that helped in cooling down Simon a little.

Rylan took in a deep breath as he turned his attention towards the girl before answering her question or probably the accusation.

"Look, Emily, I swear I was not going to stab you. It all happened so suddenly that I was left totally confused. I mean why would have I saved you and healed your wound if I wanted to hurt you in the first place? I seriously have no idea what happened back there but it was like something forced my mind and body to do it and by the time I realized it was too late. So I just did what I thought would save you."

The silence that followed Rylan's answer made Emily turn her attention towards the rest of the people present in the room.

Did they believe him? She was not sure whether he was telling the truth or not, but the fact that he still was in one piece and her brothers had not beaten the crap out of him meant that they believed his story to some extent.

"Such a nice backup story." She could not help but scoff even though it was clear that she no longer held the incident against him.

However, she's not letting her guard down around him. She would pretend like she was fine and when he would finally reveal his true colors, she would expose him in front of everyone.

Just wait!