Chapter 261

“No sir, once we got here, I’ve been feeling safe, I mean even when we were on the helicopter I’ve known we were going to be alright, that the Elders wouldn’t find daddy here,” and while those words should have brought a smile to my face a natural one, it didn’t, I nodded and she went back to her not eating, but with each bit I swallowed, the food seemed to get heavier and heavier, struggling to swallow. “Lynn, how about we go back to your house?” I heard Claudia ask her and I was thankful, because things were settling in right, things were making sense and I could only hope we hadn’t done the wrong thing, but whatever happened, Lynn would still be getting hurt in this situation because I knew my son. Or I thought I did… but when the time came for us to disappear, we had no reason too… not really… but we had been getting more visits from the Elders, until we knew for sure we were in danger and fled. When Lynn and Claudia left I dropped my fork abruptly, my eyes focused on my eldest, his mate right next to him, “Is it possible that you have any children with some girl, some one night event that you just don’t know about Son?” I asked pointblank, because now with what Walter was saying I hated to think of the mess that had been created here. Shocked, Theo, coughed on some food in his mouth, Jenny, his mate, patted him on the back, but I could see it in her eyes before she covered it up, that disappointment that he may have a child out in the world, one she didn’t give him… “No!” he said to me, “No!” he turned to face Jenny, reassuring his mate, I closed my eyes, hoping to dear god that it was this and not the other because I’m not sure how we would survive this, how or where the lines would be drawn. My own mate – Scoria – gazed at me, it wasn’t possible, but it was. “What’s going on here?” Teresa Hellmann asked, I just shook my head. Claudia had already given up on her brother, building a nice friendship with Lynn; they were the same age after all. Then when Lynn shifted and Walter rejected her, it seemed to make Claudia distance herself from Walter, picking sides, not understanding why her brother would reject a beautiful, kind and smart girl like Lynn? We had all wondered, me the most assuming that this was his way at getting back at us, for bringing him hear against his will, for faking our deaths to hide away. I had failed him as a parent in this aspect, not seeing clearly all the pieces before I made this decision; one I do not think he would forgive me for. “When we called Walter at his school in England, he didn’t want to come back to the states, he said nothing had been happening to him, like us. He wasn’t being followed and that was that. He didn’t give us much reason so when we decided it would be safer to have him here under any condition, he was brought here unconscious, they had to sedate him immediately, before he was even in the car driving him to the airport hanger. When he woke up here, he was confused, thrashed, you all remember?” I said my Scoria nodded. “We know that Lynn is his mate, but I do not believe that Walter is her mate…” I said resting back, “I believe that Walter had found his true mate, and for whatever reason he didn’t tell us,” Scoria brought her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide and ready filled to the brim, her mind, the memories of Walters behavior over the year making better sense. His hatred toward us, the door opened, we all turned to it, watching his defeated form enter, the rage in his eyes killing me inside, “She was human…” he whispered. “I – I didn’t know for sure, all the signs were there but I wasn’t sure if she would – I didn’t tell her… I was going too but – but then…” his eyes filled, wet, broken, his entire being reflective of a man losing his mate. He lifts his hand to his chest, rubbing, to remove the ache… my wolf answered. No one answered, I wouldn’t dare finish my belief right now, that we were never the targets of the Elders, but it was Walters mate they had been after all along, an innocent girl we forced him to abandon, but was tied to tightly. “Right… but…” Jenny, Lynns older sister started, “you’re here and Lynn is here… you were given a second chance-” she stopped cold when Walter growled but didn’t approach her, his eyes blue eyes turning gray, not enough fight in him to reach black, “I can feel her… when she’s scared, which is all the time. I can feel how confused and sad she is, and I don’t know why, she’s hungry… I can eat for days, non-stop but I feel like my stomach is folding inside itself, I’m here, where I have plenty of food, where I’m safe, and should be happy but I’m terrified and I can’t sleep, I’m anxious to the point where it feels like my sick is crawling,” he shouts. “You think I want your sister? That I’m just going to have her because she’s here? She’s available? That’s what you want for her? To be second best?” he said in disgust, pointing it out in a way I hadn’t thought of. “What if it was Theo, Jenny? What if he was gone, hurting, scared, hungry somewhere, you think you could just replace him with someone here on the island? What type of person would that make you? You’re that finicky that if my brother were missing you’d just replace him like he was an empty box? The love you felt, the pain you couldn’t explain because it wasn’t your own, you’d ignore it? Knowing it was he suffering? Really enduring what you were just feeling?” Jenny shook her head once, her eyes drifting back to her half empty plate, “that’s what I thought,” Walter muttered under his breath. “So do me a favor, stop helping her win me over, because I can’t be won. I’m not hers, and I don’t want her. Making me breakfast to gain – gain I don’t know what they fuck you think she could gain by cooking for me, but just – just stop,” Walter heaved deeply, shaking his head. Then he turned to me, “You brought me here against my will dad… and my mate, when I found her, she had no one, she was alone. I was all she had, all she could count on. We aren’t going to be here forever, soon we will leave and mark my words, if I don’t find her alive, you will be dead to me. Do you understand that?” I blinked the urgency and promise behind his words took my breath away. . . . Chelsea POV (Six Years ago)