"What?"I question. "Did you-"

"No," he interrupts. "I didn't tell him. I love my father but I don't tell him everything. That was more my mom's job..." I was silent, unsure on if he wanted to talk about his mom or the fact that his father wanted to meet me. Either one made me uncomfortable but I was willing to do it for the sake of the relationship. One was just going to be profoundly harder than the other. "Anyways, he was able to sense that I was withdrawn and that it was taking a toll on me..."

"And he wants to meet me?" he nods. I was silent. I knew that once I met his father the question would rise about my whereabouts and what pack I originated from and why my natural scent wasn't evident. It was all questions that I had yet to answer for Garret. He was being very patient about it and I appreciated that very much, but I knew time was winding up for me to reveal that part of my life that I had buried for so long. "Are you free tonight?" I question. 

He looked at me confused. "For you?" he questioned, me nodding in response. "Absolutely."

Nodding my head again, still deep in thought. "Can you be at my place at seven?"

"Why not no-"

"Because I need to get everything ready," I interrupted. 

"Ready for what?"

"For me to tell you my truth," I answer. 

He looked shocked. "Emerald," he says seriously. "You don't need to feel obligated."

"It's not fair to you to reveal myself to your father before you."

"Why would you need to reveal yourself to my father?"

"Just... come over at seven. Please."

He looked over my face before nodding his head. "You have my word."

Smiling softly, I stood, him following my action. Not being able to help myself, I reached up to grab his face and bring his lips closer to mine. Once they meet, it was electrifying and something that I wasn't willing to release just yet but I knew I had to. For the sake of getting everything prepared for tonight. 

When we released, I leaned my forehead against his. "I love you," I whisper, knowing he heard. 

"I love you too," he responded, determined.

I felt him enter the building.

I felt him in the elevator to my floor.

I felt him walking to my door.

I felt his confusion. I felt his anxiousness. I felt his peace of finally being back with me. 

I resembled his feelings in all cases. 

Before he could even knock on my door, I opened it. I probably looked horrible because I had been cooking ever since I left him at the diner. It wasn't precisely for this evening. I wasn't trying to impress him. It was to help me think of what I would say to him about my life. How I could word it just right. 

Stepping inside, he brings me into him, him sniffing my hair and then my neck. My scent was masked yet again so I wasn't entirely sure of what he was looking for. 

"Chicken Alfredo," he begins. "Buttered biscuits. Brownies. Cookies... and..." he sniffed harder. 

"Chicken pot pie," I say. "I burned it... hence why I have chicken alfredo."

"Distracted?" he questioned, pressing his lips against my neck. "Or needed a distraction?"

I sigh softly as he peppered his lips around the area where he'd bite me once we mate. "Both," I say softly. 

"Care to explain," his lips moved up to over my pulse that was hammering with want and desire. 

I grabbed a hold of his face and brought it in front of me. His eyes met my briefly before I brought my lips to his. The days apart made me yearn for this. Constantly wanting his lips on me. Constantly wanting him around me. To feel against me. 

"You're not hungry?" I questioned, removing my lips briefly before he placed them back on his. 

"Mmmm," he says, meeting me in another one. "Not for food."

I felt my cheeks heat up. Not in embarrassment but because I wanted the same thing. But knew I couldn't. Not yet. Not until he knew everything. 

"I need to show you something," I say as I pulled away, seeing his lustful eyes hold some confusion and wonder. "Like I said before, I can't meet your father yet without you truly knowing everything about me. It wouldn't be fair to you."

"Okay," he responds softly. 

Sitting down on the Victorian pink couch, I face him, him facing me. I grabbed a hold of his head, my hands on either side of his face, and brought his forehead to mine. Closing my eyes, I focused on the memories that I tried so hard to suppress. 

I started from the beginning. 

The views I had as a child. 

The ones of my mother singing in the kitchen while preparing whatever meal she felt like preparing. While she sang and softly danced, the ingredients magically flew around the workspace. Flour was magically poured into the mixing bowl, she'd turn around in song and dance and add more herself. 

My father would watch from the kitchen doorway, smiling at her like he was seeing her for the first time. It almost matched the look I had of wonder and amazement and just how beautiful she was. 

"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to kiss me Alpha?" she asked my father teasingly. Chuckling, he didn't waste a minute before he came over to her and brought her into a kiss.

While they kissed, the ingredients froze and only started back up again when they released. 

"What are you cooking my love?" he questions. 

"Cookies for the pups," she answers. "If I can just find the chocolate chips."

She looks around for it and I glanced at the cupboard where they were, she had forgotten to take them out. With one look, the door opened and the levitated to in front of her, softly being placed on the counter. 

They both looked at it for a brief second before looking at me. Surprised. 

"When did she get her powers?" my dad asked, smiling nonetheless. 

"I don't know," my mom responded coming over to me, squatting down to my level. "It was a matter of time but honey, you're a natural."

"Is that good?" I questioned. 

She laughed. "Yes baby, it's a wonderful thing."

Kissing my forehead then all over my face, I giggled, and eventually, my dad got in on the affection and tickled me softly. 

The vision then shifted to that night. 

My brother's and I were watching The Wizard of Oz with our parents, enthralled with the tornado taking up the house with her in it. I was in between my mom and my brother Leo, wide-eyed and unblinking. 

And then I felt it. 

The tension of someone crossing the border. Someone unwelcoming. 

"Daddy," I say. 

"Yes baby," he says softly, watching the movie. 

"Something's wrong."

He looked at me quickly and then at my mom before a faraway look came over his eyes. No doubt it was one of the warriors at the border, alerting him that someone did, in fact, cross the border. He didn't question me as to how I knew, he simply went into Alpha mode. 

"Rose," he said urgently, her now sensing that something was wrong. "Take the kids somewhere safe."

She didn't question him and instantly scooped me and Leo up had my other two brothers follow close behind her. I was quiet, but my brothers asked a lot of questions, confused about what was going on. My mom didn't respond, just quickly went to the top of the staircase to the attic. 

Opening the door that revealed her witch chambers, she placed Leo and me down. Getting ahold of my other two brothers, she brought all of us together, looking at each of us individually. 

"Mommy, what's going on?" Trent asked. 

"We just have some pack business to take care of," she said softly. "Nothing big. But I need you all to stay in here for me, can you do that?" we nodded our heads. Little did we know what we were agreeing to. "Mommy will be right back."

"With daddy?" Phillip asked. 

She smiled. "With daddy," she responds. "And we can finish watching the movie, kay?" We nodded our heads again and she individually kissed our foreheads. I was the last one and she kissed my head longer than the others. "Be good for me?" she questioned. 

"Yes mommy," I said, it is the first thing I said since the intrusion. 

She smiled at me and was soon leaving us alone to help my dad. We heard their small fight of him wanting her to stay with us and her wanting to be alongside him. In the end, she won and they fought together. 

The fight was epic. 

They worked together, my father in wolf form, my mother in her human form, fighting off the rogues with her powers. They looked to be winning. They were winning. 

And then something, something I couldn't see, shifted throughout the atmosphere and penetrated everyone who was in battle. Everyone fell. The rogues, the warriors, my parents. Some laid lifeless, too weak to fight off whatever it was that happened, and some, like my parents, remained alive. But not for long. 

My parents were a good few feet apart from each other but my mother, against her body's will I'm sure, went over to my father and held his wolf in her arms. Her hands were over his body, trying to take his pain, trying to heal him. But it didn't work. 

A figure came from the woods. Hooded. Moving slow. 

At this time, my brothers were growing scared and screaming. 

My mother looked up to me, sensing the distraught feeling everyone felt. She met my eye, me being the only one who was emotionless. She smiled, weakly yet softly, at me. She muttered something and even though I didn't have my wolf senses, I was able to hear her. 

"Protect them," she said. 

The hooded figure moved through the bodies slowly, and with a movement of their hand, my mother and father became lifeless, along with the other remaining warriors. It moved to the house and inside, making its way towards my brothers and me. 

I began to mutter something. In the vision itself, it was incomprehensible. 

When the door opened to reveal the figure, a bright white light shone and that was it. Nothing else. 

The vision shifted again to the nights of my brother's beating me up in the room they had tucked away for me. It altered quickly between each beating. Showing me growing weaker and weaker with each one. 

Their screams of anger and frustration all seemed to muster together, creating a vision of chaos and made me cringe. I wanted out at this point but I kept going. 

The vision showed my death. Showed me being taken to Malena, something that I didn't see myself, and showed me becoming reborn in her home. It showed the masking, the burning of my clothes before I officially left the territory and my witch and werewolf training. 

It even had a glimpse of me in France before I ended up here, with him, on this couch. 

And that was it.