The world felt like it was spinning around me. The once harsh bitter cold air felt like nothing against my skin. I was numb. My stomach twisted with a nauseating sensation all the while bile threatened to make an appearance on the dusty white snow

My father grabbed a hold of my forearm as my balance briefly slipped my mind.

"I- I don't understand." I stuttered my eyes unfocused as they stared out into the wilderness.

"Sera, your mate would have marked you already. I'm talking from experience." He meant well but his word stung.

He didn't know how much I was broken-hearted. His words were like venom to my every nerve. It rendered me still, grounded in place, pained by the meaning.

"You don't know that." I rejected taking a step back.

"Listen to me Sera, I have nothing to gain by telling you this." He tried to assure me but it fell on deaf ears as I ripped my arm from his hold.

I felt like I had been slapped in the face with a hot frying pan. My blood felt like it had frozen itself in my veins but my skin was scalding hot.

"Of course you do. You have the perfect reason to tell me this just like you said I have no wolf. That means that I wouldn't know that you are lying." Tears begged to fall out of my eyes but I took a deep breath to ease the urge away. "You think that a man like Desmond, a beta, someone who has the potential to be an alpha would openly choose me, a mutated wolf as their mate? I'd be a weakness to him, he'd never choose me in any setting except if I were his mate."

I jerked my arm out of his reach as he tried to grab it again. I was furious at his words, this was not at all how I thought my parents' visit would go.

"Then why hasn't he marked you?" He took a cautious step closer to me like I was a fawn he didn't want to spook away.

I blinked my tears back as I listened to his question. "If he's your mate Sera he wouldn't he offer to take you out of the cabin and show you off? Why hasn't he "

"Maybe because he's ashamed of me?" I shouted. "Maybe because I'm not anything that he ever imagined his mate to be. Because I'm wolf-less dad because I have no heightened senses because I'm a fucking failure." I shouted. "There, you happy now? Is that what you wanted to hear?" I questioned with a huff.

He blinked unsure how to approach me now. His calculating eyes scanned me over trying no doubt to comfort me or prove his point. I wasn't sure which it was, regardless I didn't want either one.

I felt worthless. Admitting what I've always thought of myself out loud like I had left me feeling the whole weight of my inferiority. I had always known that I was never at the same level as werewolves, but I had always held on to the belief that something would change through the years. That someday I'd wake up and be a wolf.

As the years passed by however that drive to be optimistic dwindled until it became virtually nonexistent. Why continue to be hopeful when you repeatedly get the same results.

"Sera, that's not what I meant." My father reached out again to pull me into a hug. It was a hug I rejected.

I didn't want his touch. I didn't want his fatherly attempts at comfort to hinder my thinking anymore than it already was. It felt like manipulation, it felt like a scheme, a ploy to convince me of something I knew deep down not to be true.

It couldn't be.

"No, dad. I'm not listening to this. I can't believe that you'd come here just to spew these lies. Don't you want me to be happy?" I accused through narrowed eyes.

His mouth open and closed several times before eye squeezed his eye shut. A heavy breath that caused his nostrils to flare told me he was struggling to answer my question. His hesitation felt like an answer to my question.

I turned away unable to face him any longer.

"Stop." Though my back was still toward him, I stopped purely out of respect . "My biggest wish in life is to see my only daughter happy. Genuinely, happy."

"You think I'm not genuinely happy?"

"I think you are happier than you were before, but not in the way that you should be."

I couldn't help the humorless laugh that came from the back of my throat. "And what would that look like? Genuinely, happy."

It was quiet for a moment before he spoke up. "I know you weren't happy living in Dark Titan. I know that you tried to hide all the bad things from me. I know, Sera. But do you really think that you are happy? Being lied to?"

In the midst of his speech he had tried silently to approach me. I had heard him so when he moved closer I surprised him when I turned around to come face to face with him. His hand was suspended in the air, his eyes wide with surprise.

Crossing my arms I asked, "You didn't know. You didn't know how they'd corner me nearly every day after school my senior year." I jabbed my finger into his chest. "You didn't know all the nasty comments I heard and names I was called." I jabbed my finger into is chest again." You didn't know what it was like to be surrounded by people that were supposed to be like family treat you like dirt."

Another jab and he winced. "What you know is how anxious I became after not shift and first noticing my lip biting." A tear escaped. The salty droplet was cool against my fiery skin. " "What you know is seeing my busted lip and not ever asking me how I got it. What you know was how the entire pack talked about how the brave and undefeated Vander gave the world a frail and puny daughter with no damn wolf." I shoved him away with a heartsick scream.

"What is going on?" A male voice yelled from the front of the cabin.

I ignored it. I swiped away my tears as I starred up at my father. "You want to know what I know? I know that my father knew how miserable I was and still chose to deny it, for his own damn comfort. You did the bare minimum."

I didn't stand their any longer whirling around with my blurred vision. Disoriented I have turned into a broad and warm chest.

My cheek pressed against their chest as one of their arms settled around my waist like a protective shield. I felt more vulnerable than I had ever before. The comforting tingles that sparked against my skin lit up my nerves like a match to a candle.

There was an intoxicating smell that engulfed my nose. Instinctually I sniffed again trying desperately to smell what that mouth-watering scent was coming from. I noticed the smell was coming from the shirt that covered the chest I was pressed against. My hand collected the fabric in my fist and I buried my face in it more.

There was talking around, people shouting and low rumbles of growls. It was all muffled as the person holding me pressed their other hand gently against my ear.

My breathing quickened; I was on the verge of hyperventilating.

"Give her to me." Someone demanded through gritted teeth.

My eyes peeked through my watery lids as I looked for the source of the voice. The hand that rested on the side of my face pressed my head harder against their chest making it possible for me to look around.

A growl rumbled through the body and into mine. A sudden wave of warm travel with rumbling growl as it reverberated through my body given me more reassurance than I thought a noise could make.

"Osiris," Someone hissed with urgency. I pushed against the hard plan of the person with more strength than I had before. It was enough to let me lift my head off there chest.

I slowly peered up to lock eyes with him. I had no idea until now who was holding me and now that I was gazing up I felt both unsettled and relieved. It was an odd mix of feelings, it was nothing like I expected myself to act when I faced those familiar shadowy eyes.

"Osiris, I can take it from here. Please give me Sera." I heard Desmond grounded through his teeth and edge to his voice that I didn't normally hear.

Osiris's obsidian eyes darted around my face looking at every detail. A part of my brain screamed as me to back away from him, that his proximity to me and the way at which he held me was wrong. Then, there was another part of me that left my body frozen in its place. It was as if I were trying to absorb every fine detail and sensation to memory.

Above all I wanted to remember the mesmerizing smell that lingered around me. It was breath taking and left me craving more of it.

The cool texture of someone's rough hand wrapped around my upper arm. They pulled me away from Osiris and into their own warm chest. The aroma slowly dwindled away as I was pressed snug against them.

Training my neck up I looked up at my mate who held a tight clenched jaw and narrowed eyes. Though his eyes were dawn tight and narrow and were meant to give off a warning I could sense the unrest behind them.

Desmond looked frightened.

"Take her inside." Desmond ordered passing me along to another person.

I wiped vigorously at my eyes to clear up my vision. I didn't want to be left alone, I didn't want to part ways from Desmond.

My parents had just arrived and under an hour everything had turned to shit.

With my vision now clear I could see Ivy coming over to us. I rose my hand to stop her.

"What is going on out here?" My mother's voice was distant compared to everyone else.

"Get your hands off me."

I turned around to the ruckus that ensued behind me. Osiris had somehow gotten his hands around my father's throat. He wasn't strangling him or throwing him about, but the ease at which he maneuvered my dad was shocking.

Osiris was able to pin my father against the side of the cabin. One hand was secure around his throat the other locked his arm against the log wall.

Through blown out irises and poking canines Osiris lowered his face to the shorter height of my father. "You don't have to like who she is mated to but you will respect wishes when she tells you she tells you she's happy. You don't get to come here after I grant you approval and upset her. "

My father struggled under Osiris unbreakable grip. His brut strength dwarfing my father's. This was something that I had never seen before, someone out doing my father's skills and strength.

Osiris dug his forearm into his neck causing my dad to gasp when his head hit the wall. I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth as Ivy tugged me back when I made a tentative step forward.

"You wanted to see your daughter, so see her and spend some quality time with her. If I see her upset again, if I see a single tear and you had anything to do with it I'll revoke your approval immediately and forever." Osiris growled into his face.

His eyes flashed between black and amber like hazel. That color was striking.

"Do I make myself clear?" Osiris challenged.

My father grunted before gathering enough strength to push the alpha man off him. Dusting himself off he looked up at Osiris was a mistrustful expression.

My fathers gaze flashed between me and Osiris before he let out a calm breath of air when his eyes tightened when they rested on Osiris "I'm not the person that'll drive her to tears."

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