52

Manari reluctantly said. “Maybe…maybe I should give you both some privacy if-”

“No, Nari.” Nel cut her best friend off. “I want you here.”

“Well, what is this about?” Leana asked where concern was on her face, it quickly dissipated into frustration. “If it is about that alpha boy, I certainly hope that you have not decided to mate with him! Disrespectful, little…” She muttered curse words under her breath.

Before Nel could put a stop to her mother’s bantering, Manari started murmuring her breath as well.

“I shouldn’t be here. I definitely shouldn’t be here,” she remarked under her breath. “A packhouse full of wolves against a measly heretic.”

“Stop it!” Nel finally snapped. “Will you two stop speaking for one second. Please!” Leana and Manari immediately stopped. Suddenly racked with expressions of shame, the two’s attention immediately shifted to Neliyah. “First of all, mom, he’s just being overprotective. It’s the mating mark. You know that.”

“Well if he wants to play that game then how about he makes it official?” she snapped. “He has no right, Nel! I am your mother!”

“I get it, mom,” she said. “I do, and I will talk to him.” For the moment Leana was pacified so Nel turned to her best friend. “Manari, you are not some measly heretic. You’re the most powerful vampire I know. And one of the most powerful inhumans in Mystic Cove alone. There’s no doubt in my mind that you could take a great half of this packhouse down if it came down to it. That’s not to mention the fact that you wouldn’t be alone. I will not hesitate to put anyone down that goes against you.”

“That makes two of us,” Leana gingerly squeezed Manari’s shoulder with a small smile.

“Thank you.” She smiled.

“Of course, love.” Leana seemed to regain her concern for the situation. “So, what is it, Neliyah?” she returned ton the subject of what was going on with Neliyah.

“It’s about where I’ve been the last few hours.” Nel began to pace the floor. How was she to tell them what she needed to tell them?

“Nel? Leana approached her daughter and stopped her from pacing.

Neliyah glanced between her mother and her best friend. “I’ve been to Moon Mist.”

“Moo-what!?” Leana expressed incredulously.

Manari looked around confusedly. “Moon Mist?”

Leana glanced at Manari for a moment and then back at her daughter. “Nel you di-you didn’t!”

“Moon Mist, but…I thought that place was decimated. That it no longer existed.”

“Mystic Cove burned Moon Mist to cinders.” Leana could not believe this. “They massacred the Moon Mist Lycans. There was none left.”

“Well apparently there were survivors,” countered Nel. “You were there,” she began to surmise as her mother spoke with such conviction.

“I was,” she said with great guilt. “And the pillaging…and death-it was…” she dropped her stare to the floor. “After what happened, I…I had to leave the packhouse.”

“So, that’s why you live alone,” said Manari.

“Because I’m a disperser, my move is not considered desertion,” Leana said. “But after what Maven’s father had done…what he had ordered us to do, I…I just couldn’t deal with the aftermath of it all.”

“Tell me what happened, mom.”

Leana sighed, “I will,” she reassured her daughter. “But first, I’d like you to tell me exactly how you found what is even left of Moon Mist and its people let alone people at all.”

“i…” At this point during the conversation, Nel wasn’t sure whether she wanted to mention Liam’s name. Not yet.

She knew that even saying something as simple as ‘a friend’ would allude to him. Nel didn’t have many friends to start with and Liam was the only other person who willingly chose to interact with her. Colsin, Reece, and Ethan tolerated her but that was only because the fates forced them to acknowledge her existence.

“The how isn’t important right now.”

“But it is very important, Nel,” countered Leana with great concern. “Wherever you got this intel from-whoever you got this intel from could be dangerous. You just don’t know if this is true! If any of this is true.”

“So, you don’t believe me…then.”

There was something about her mother’s words that deeply offended Nel. Her feelings were hurt and now she was embarrassed. What if she was right? What if…for some reason, Liam was lying?

“He can’t be lying!” exclaimed Onyx in Nel’s mind. “Look at the evidence! That painting on the wall. That baby! That baby was you! That child is us! You cannot deny the resemblance! Do not let her cast doubt in our mind!”

Our mind? So then you must be having doubts too. When Nel said this to her beast, Onyx went silent but only for a moment.

“I’ve always had my doubts. We both have, but we do not need further help to concede to it.”

Onyx went silent, leaving Nel to think about what she said. “You’re right,” she whispered aloud.

“I’m glad you understand what I’m saying-”

“Not you, mom,” Nel interceded. “I was talking to Onyx.”

Leana repositioned herself, caught off guard by her daughter’s sudden retort. “I’m sorry?”

“I was talking to Onyx,” Nel repeated. “Mom, I’m not completely devoid of thinking for myself.”

“I never said that you were, sweetheart. I just meant that-”

“I know what you meant,” Nel said. “Mom, I already have my doubts. You’re not the only one. Why do you think I came back home after being offered to stay? I wouldn’t dare just take anyone’s word for it. I need my own proof.” She hesitated. “But my gut tells me that what I was shown…what was told to me…is true.”

Leana and Manari glanced at one another with curious concern before Leana resigned to argue against Nel and instead listened to what she had to say.

“Okay, well then tell us. What was it that was told to you?” she asked.

“I saw old, dilapidated shops, and homes. The homes and little stores with weathered burn marks.”

As her daughter further described this, Leana knew right away that what she was describing was a puzzle piece of a past that she desperately wanted to forget.

“All of it surrounded by a large barrier that I guess is meant to protect them. The inhabitants seem aimless and lost. Like…after the attack, they became lost and without use. The land is all but barren, and…almost desolate.” Nel sighed, sadness almost overtaking her as she recalled the sad scene. “There…was this…singed, and partially broken packhouse. I could tell it used to be something of high standing. I was led there, and as I was, they all followed me to the house; the men, the women, the children,” she further recollected. “It wasn’t until I reached the door that I realized that they were there. They…they even bowed to me.”

“Bowed?” Manari said. “They bowed to you?”

“Yeah,” Nel chuckled uneasily, sort of weary of even looking at her mom for fear of how she was taking this bit of news. “They did.”

“Did they say why?” Leana asked apprehensively.

Nel reluctantly nodded. “They did,” she answered. “They…they call me alpha,”

“Alpha…” Both Manari and Leana murmured. Leana took a step toward her daughter. “You…you’re…an alpha.”

Nel swallowed. “According to them…the alpha,”

“What do you mean?”

“Yeah,” said Manari. “There are some who carry the alpha gene but isn’t an alpha.” She rolled her eyes. “And believe me, she really lets it go to that noggin of hers.” She returned her regard to Nel. “Are you sure that that’s not what they meant when they said that you were…”

“No, Manari. They were pretty clear about who they thought I was…who I am.”

“And who…exactly is it that they say you are, Neliyah?” Leana asked.

“The daughter of who were once some very important people. Mom, what do you know about Donovan and Diana Moon?”

“Don…Dono Moon of the Moon Mist? Alpha…of the Moon Mist pack? We-that’s impossible.” Lena couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and the bewildered expression on her face.

There was something that her mother knew that Nel apparently “Why?” asked Nel. “Why is that so impossible? What are not saying?”

Leana sat there apprehensive about continuing this conversation. If Dono and Diana Moon were her parents, her heart would break completely for the girl. “If…they were your parents…” she sighed. “Nel the Mystic Cove wolf pack annihilated the alpha family. Even the baby.”

“Did you see their death? Did you see what happened? Or is all this just speculation-”

“I was there, Nel! I…”

Nel saw the guilt in her mother’s eyes along with the tears that she was trying to keep back. “Mom?” Nel took her mother’s hand into hers. “Tell me.” Leana shook her head. It was visibly evident that she didn’t want to talk about it, but Nel needed to hear it. “Please,” she begged.

“Nel, I don’t want to-”

“This is not just about what you want, mom! This is my life! I need to know. Please!”