The moment she saw the twins, I knew that she was happier than she'd been in a long time. Happier than I had ever seen her before. Despite what we were going through, despite how many times we've almost died, this moment was her happiest. I had given her moments of joy; particularly last night when I proposed again, but that didn't compare to what I felt from her now.
I studied her as she hugged them. I saw the tears well up in her eyes. I saw the realization hit her when she smelled the wolf in the twins. She had never been happier.
Her mom got the credit for my idea. Lynn received the gold star for bringing the twins to her. I felt a little resentful and saw something in Ceres's eyes change when she noticed it. She was still so happy to see the twins that it didn't seem to matter much right then.
Then she turned to her father and greeted him as if she didn't know him, which was accurate. They didn't speak on a regular basis. Ceres had almost no contact with him, so they didn't have a relationship for her to base anything from. She gave him the hug a daughter should give her father, but it was a hug of two strangers.
Then, she turned to her brother and picked him up. When I saw her hold her brother, I couldn't help but picture her in our apartment, standing in what will be the nursery, holding our child. It was the most beautiful sight that I had ever seen, and I couldn't wait for the real deal. I wouldn't have to wait long.
I walked up to her, feeling the twins' eyes on me. I kissed her and looked down at Killian. Like Mira, he had amber eyes. All our infants did during the first year of life. Then, the color faded to a normal human color. Looking at Lynn and Derek, I knew that the baby's eyes would be the same chocolate that Ceres's were. His hair was already the same platinum. Looking at him, I wished Ceres had been able to grow up knowing both of her parents. Like her, I hoped that Lynn was a better mother to him than she had been the first time around. Like Ceres, I prayed that they would not experience the same loss that they struggled through with their first son.
"You must be Wolfgang," Lynn said with a smile. "It's nice to finally have a face to go with the name."
I smiled at her and nodded before I looked at Derek. "Vanilla Moon greets you as friends and family," I said. It was important that I spoke to him first, as the highest-ranking wolf in the vicinity. "You are welcome in our home and lands for as long as you're here, unless you should prove unworthy of the honor."
I bowed my head to him. I knew that he was stronger than I was, though I wouldn't know how much stronger he was until he touched me.
When he reached out and clasped his hand on my shoulder, I felt his wolf. I had said that, on average, children grew up to be stronger than their parents were. Ceres wasn't currently stronger than her father was, but if she turned out to be, she would be the strongest wolf I would ever meet.
"Bura thanks you for your hospitality and offers a warm bed and good hunt if you are in need of one," he replied.
At this moment, we were the sole representations of our respective packs. He had more authorization to offer promises than I did, of course, but I could accept the message and pass it along. While it wasn't likely that our people would be in Scotland, it opened a vacation spot for us that we didn't have before.
"Vanilla Moon thanks you for your generosity," I replied. Derek nodded. It was only then that I looked at Lynn. "It's nice to meet you too," I said.
She smiled. "You're taking care of my little girl?" she asked.
I sighed as I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "As well as I can," I promised. "I try," I said.
She nodded before she looked at the twins. "I might be mom, but they're the ones you need to impress," she said. Lynn turned me toward the twins. "Girls?" she asked. Ceres laughed as the redheads converged and began to circle me. I focused on that laugh. It was musical to me. I didn't hear it enough. I made a vow, in that moment, to hear it more often.
The twins were identical, almost right down to their scent. I studied them, looking for any tale-tell sign that made them unique from each other that wasn't an article of clothing. They looked like the kind of twins who kept their looks the same just because it meant they could mess with people. I needed something that they couldn't remove or alter in order to know them by sight.
Their hair was the same cut. They had bangs that went to their eyebrows and their hair went to their shoulders. One had her hair pulled up in a ponytail while the other wore a headband. Their eyes were the same, though one used a lot more makeup than the other.
One dressed modest, in a t-shirt that said, "I'd rather be reading” and jeans. She wore a couple of bracelets and rings and a necklace with a charm that was a puzzle piece. I glanced at Ceres and saw she was also wearing a puzzle piece necklace.
The twin with the ponytail was wearing two tank tops, one black and the other red. She had a jacket on over them that looked more like decoration than that it served any sort of purpose. She also wore low-cut jeans and I saw that she had a tattoo peeking out of the waistband. That tattoo would work, but only if I saw it on a regular basis.
I finally found it as the meeker of the twins came to my front again. She had a mole on the left side of her neck. The other one didn't.
"Well," the wild one began with a smirk, "he looks good enough for our girl."
"Lena..." Ceres muttered with a note of exasperation. I glanced over and saw her looking at Selena with anger in her gaze. Something about this bothered her. Something about the twins looking me over from top to bottom bothered her.
When she met my eyes, I realized what it was. If she hadn't been holding her brother in an airport, she would have done to the twins what I had threatened to do to any unmated male near her. She wanted to prove that I was her territory. The girls were violating something she didn't even know existed.
"What?" the redhead asked, her tone defensive. She turned her face to her best friend. I realized that was Selena, the older of the twins. Ceres had informed me that I would know them based on personality alone. Looking at the way they dressed, I believed her.
Sophia, the calmer twin, moved in close to smell me. I noticed her eyes widen and change from green to amber before she pulled away from me. She grabbed Selena's arm. "He is good, trust me," she said. "In fact, I'd go as far as to say that he's perfect."
Selena scoffed at her. "No one's perfect," she argued.
"Smell him," Sophia said. "Then Ceres."
Selena let out an exasperated sigh before she held out her hand for mine. I gave her my wrist, fleshy side up, so that she could smell me. She brought my wrist up to her nose and sniffed before she stared at me in utter shock. "Oh my god," she said.
"What?" Ceres and I asked.
"You smell like you're the same person," Selena replied. "I mean, there's a slight difference between you, but the overall scent is the same. You're true mates."
Ceres and I stared at each other for a moment before Derek spoke. "While it's common in mated couples to smell a lot like the other person, it is more so common in the case of true mates,” he said. "The fact alone that you two found each other says that you're destined to be together for whatever reason. Your souls are mates along with your bodies. In addition to that, your wolves are also mates. Far too often, couples only mate because they are settling. True mates are rare. Now that you've exchanged blood and merged your souls, you smell almost identical."
"We hadn't noticed," Ceres said, looking back at him.
Derek smiled. "You and most of the people around you won't," he said, looking more at Ceres than at me. "Your scents have blended together. You still smell like yourself, but there's a mix of Wolfgang with it. To the people around you most, especially those who live with you, you smell as if you spend almost all your time together. That change in scent is part of what establishes your bond to others. Other males, for instance, will smell Wolfgang on you and back away because of it."
"Interesting," I said. "It's hard to remember that there are still things that I don't know."
Derek nodded. "As it is for us
all," he said. "Shall we?" he asked, gesturing for the doors. Ceres and I nodded before she put Killian back into his car seat. We made the trek to the baggage claim, where Lynn took over carrying Killian and everyone else grabbed bags. From there, we loaded up into the van and then began the long journey back to Adamsville.
While I drove, I spent more of my time listening to Ceres talk to her friends and family than I did joining the conversation. She was a completely different person around the twins than she was before their arrival. It was as if she had blossomed. I'd never seen her so full of light and energy. I felt a little cheated, but I had to keep reminding myself that we'd had less than two months together. There hasn't been much time for fun considering everything else going on.
"So, I have to ask," one of the twins began, "How did you get the scar on your neck?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ceres's hand go up to cover the scar left on her neck by Alan's blade. It was light enough that most people didn't notice it. That didn't matter when you were with someone who had been there almost every day for more than twenty years, it was hard to hide things.
Ceres sighed and stared out through the passenger window. "Alan held a silver dagger to my throat," she whispered. "The others kept telling him to kill me and get it over with, so he held the blade there to demand if that was what they wanted. It only scarred because he ended up cutting me with it as he pulled it away..."
"How many other injuries have you had since you've been out here?" Sophia asked.
Ceres sighed and let out a bitter chuckle. "More than I've ever had before," she said. She listed off her injuries starting at the beginning: the concussion in the motel room. She skipped the one I'd given her when I showed her how to heal, but the list still bothered me. The fact that bothered me most was that I was the cause of the first one.
A concussion. A fractured skull from Alan's rock. A cut on the neck from his blade. A sprained and a broken wrist from when he kicked her. A broken nose from when she hit the floor. Road rash from my explosion. Silver burns... The list was far too long for a woman who had only been a wolf for seven weeks.
"It's so hard for me to think of Alan as a Witch," one of the twins said. I think it was Sophia, but I couldn't be sure. Their voices were so close to identical that I couldn't tell the difference yet; assuming there was a difference. "I mean, I knew he was a bastard, but I didn't know he was that much of one! I can't believe we never smelled it on him."
Ceres looked back at them. "None of you?" she asked. Through the rearview mirror, I saw Lynn and the twins shake their heads. That explained a lot. "How did he hide it?" she asked. "I smell it on him every time I'm near him."
"It may have been a spell," Derek provided from the back of the van. "Some Witches have spells that have enabled them to hide the identifying scent from Lycans."
"Is that why you never knew?" Ceres asked. I assumed she was looking at her mother, but I didn't take my eyes away from the road to check.
I heard Lynn sigh. "Honey, my relationship with Alan was always strained. He always took trips back to Utah for reasons he wouldn't tell me about. I was always keeping the fact that I was hunting and protecting my old Skaapie a secret."
"You were a Guardian?" Ceres asked.
"Scythia, yes," Lynn replied. "I had a lot of secrets to keep from Alan and almost all of them were ones that he would have killed me for."
"But... you didn't smell the herbs and things?" Ceres asked.
"No," Lynn said. "He didn't practice his craft in the house and he never came home smelling like herbs and wax. I assume that wherever he did go to join the coven in New York had a shower. He may also have gone somewhere else afterward to disguise any remnants that may have clung to him. He is intelligent," Lynn emphasized. "The only reason he never suspected that you weren't his daughter was because you were just as smart as him."
Ceres sighed and shook her head. She looked up at me for a moment before she rubbed her eyes. She was quiet for a moment, staring out through the window at the trees. For a moment, I wondered if, like me, she thought about running through those trees as a wolf. I often did when I was driving. Part of me wondered if I could keep pace with the traffic, even though the speed limit on this road was sixty-five.
She felt withdrawn to me; almost as if she was attempting to shut down. I reached across the gap between us and ran my fingers through her hair. I left my hand around her neck and she smiled at me. Touch, between a mated pair, was sometimes the only thing that mattered. It helped us heal, it calmed us, and it uplifted us. Right now, it was exactly what Ceres needed.
She kissed my wrist before she looked back at our guests. "So," she sighed, "are you guys looking forward to being stuck in a tiny town for the next two weeks?"
I saw the twins exchange glances. I don't think that they were as excited about this as Ceres was to have them around. Lynn and Derek lived in a pretty small town already, so it wouldn't be much of a change for them. As Selena and Sophia hadn't been to a town this small before, they were about to get a culture shock.
"How small is Adamsville?" Selena asked.
Ceres chuckled. "There are only about three-thousand people," she informed the twins. "There is one bar. Two clothing outlets. No malls."
"Oh my god, I'm going to die," Selena whispered.
Ceres laughed. "No you're not," she said. She gave me a look and I returned it with confusion. What was she planning?
"I hate to wreck the mood, but how likely is it that the coven will attack while we're in town?" Sophia asked. "Is it still pretty volatile?"
I sighed. "We're not quite sure right now," I confessed. "The last time the coven attacked was the full moon when they managed to capture us. They've been quiet the last three weeks, which tells me that they're planning something big. Whether it'll happen while you guys are in town or not, I can't say. In Adamsville, Alan is a notorious jackass and bastard, and everyone hates him except for his people."
"So, he might try to kill all of us, or he might leave us alone?" Selena asked. "God, that sounds so much like that bastard."
"Yeah," Ceres whispered. She closed her eyes as she turned away again.
I reached across for her hand. I knew she didn't hate Alan, no matter how much he'd done to her so far. Yes, he was a bastard, but he was still the man who raised her. She had the love of a child to a parent for him and I knew that if he hadn't destroyed it by now, it never would be.
Chapter 26 ~Ceres~
A bastard wasn't the way I would often describe Alan, but, in this case, it worked. Yes, he was a bastard. He was also a thousand times worse than that, but in lieu of a better word, I was willing to settle for it. It didn't help that I still felt guilty about calling him that. That part of me who looked at him like he was still my father hated the thought that I had turned against him. I hated the thought that I found him more enemy than father after one conversation. He had lied to me. He had manipulated me. He had tortured me. He had tried to kill me.
So why did I always feel like I was the one who had done something wrong?
"So, what happened?" Selena asked.
I wasn't ready to tell them. I didn't trust it and part of me felt like it was too easy. I remembered talking to Wolfgang about needing to be able to talk to them about everything, but now that I knew I could... It just didn't feel believable.
Wolfgang's hand moved from mine to my knee where he gave me a gentile squeeze. I was sitting sideways in my seat, so it was easy for him to reach me. I knew it wasn't the safest way to sit in a moving vehicle, but I figured that if a vengeful ex-stepfather couldn't kill me, a car accident wouldn't either. Pregnant or not.
I glanced up at Wolfgang and he nodded. He understood my hesitance and encouraged me to talk. Everyone in this van deserved to know the truth.
I hesitated. "He found me at the grocery store and made me follow him to his car where he hit me in the back of the head with a rock. He took me to Addie's old house and tied me up in a chair before he blindfolded me and
then shoved a rag in my mouth to gag me. When I came to, I was still gagged, blindfolded, and sitting in the chair. Alan was arguing with Addie and a few other Witches about whether they should just kill me and get it over with. I guess they figured that there was no point in trying to cast the spell because it would just kill me anyway. Addie said he should just do it. Alan, on the other hand, wanted to keep me alive. He said that there might be a way to save my life and turn me into a Witch. He figured that he could find a way to channel the magic that makes us what we are into spellcraft.
"Anyway, their argument escalated, and he put the knife to my throat. The burn was instant, and it hurt more than I ever imagined. It wasn't until he was pulling the knife away that he cut me. I remember thinking that it was a rather passive aggressive way to try to kill me."
"And was this before or after the full moon?" Selena asked.
"Before," I replied.
"Son of a bitch!" she cried. "Was it cursed or something?"
I nodded but didn't say anything. Wolfgang had the best answer for this one. "Yeah," he said. "We've been dealing with Fallen Star for decades," he continued. "They have cursed every tool to deal more than double the damage it does when coming against the other Races. They even have gold veins in the silver so that it harms Vamps as well. They cursed them to leave deposits of silver in our bloodstream so that it continues to poison after the wound is there."
"How does one little town have all three species in it?" Mom asked, looking astonished that our tiny town could have what she thought only large cities were capable of. "It isn't even a metropolitan area."
"There are three towns in the area," I said.
Wolfgang nodded. "The Vamps were out in the Vernal area first. They moved in right after the humans settled the area. About two hundred or so years ago, my great grandfather settled here with his wife. As word got around that there were two Vargulfs out here, others began coming to the area since there weren't many humans out here yet. After some time, the pack came together, and my great grandfather fought his way to the top.
Vanilla Moon: Awakening Page 24