Prince of Vampires
Page 7
“Never!” Her mother reached forward and gripped Belle’s hand between her own. “You could never be a disappointment Belle. It’s a well known fact that two shifters don’t always produce a shifter. There is a part of us that is human and those genes, if given from both parents, make a human child.”
“The whole shitty recessive traits,” Belle mumbled. “I know all about that. Even if they didn’t teach me that in Boulder I know it well enough here.”
“You were educated in both worlds,” Howard said again. “For good reason. We want you to know everything, to have the best possible advantage that you could ever have should this day ever arrive.”
“In case I turned out to be a failure.”
“Never a failure,” Howard said gently. “We couldn’t love you any more if you had been a son or a shifter. It doesn’t matter to us Belle. We want you to have the best out of life. We are going to help you through this no matter what. Just because you leave the Pack doesn’t mean that you’ll never shift. It may eventually happen and of course you would be welcomed back.”
“No one is shunning you honey,” Mary Anne continued. “You know that you can come visit anytime. Your father and I have already looked at some great apartments online. We’ll help get you settled and we’ll come to Boulder every single day to visit you if you want.”
Belle was unable to stem the tide of tears that poured down her cheeks in two hot, salty trails. Her parents really were trying their best to make this easier for her. She had two weeks until her eighteenth birthday, the middle of July. If she didn’t shift by then she now knew what the alternative was.
In truth, Belle had always known this day would come. As each birthday passed and still her powers as a Wolf didn’t make themselves known, she sensed she was running out of time. She had seen others thrown out of the Pack, their parents shunning them. Her own mother and father were going to take care of her no matter what. She didn’t have any doubts about their love for her but knowing it didn’t make the truth any easier to swallow. She still felt like a failure.
“Come here sweetie,” her mother sobbed.
Mary Anne and Howard moved as one. They both stood and opened their arms. Belle got off the chair with shaky, wooden legs and all but threw herself into her parent’s loving arms.
Whatever the future held, failure or not, at least they would face it together.
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