“Ah, my sweet child, I would love to be your Godmother. My name is Jenna. Where are you taking me?” Jenna asked in a whisper when I put my finger to my lips and jerked them toward the ground.
“Ssh, we must be quiet, or I’ll be sent back to my room. I don’t like being in there during the day.” I wiggled closer. My new friend stayed quiet while several children’s voices carried to us as they ran past.
“Why can’t she play with us?” One child asked, while another said, “She thinks she’s better than us.” Another defended me, saying my parents were the alphas and, as such, made the rules.
“Well, I saw her out here playing in the field yesterday. I bet she’d get another whipping if she were caught again.” They all laughed.
I shivered at the remembered pain. I couldn’t sit for an entire day without the constant reminder. No matter, I refused to stay away from the sights of the festivities. Surely, I’d be allowed to attend this year. I wasn’t a baby anymore. I’d lost my first tooth and was in school. Well, I was being taught lessons, because it wouldn’t look right if the only child of the alphas didn’t know how to read and write, I silently amended.
Assured the other children were gone, I tapped my new friend and motioned it was safe to stand. We moved closer to the hall where the music was playing. Inside, I slipped through without anyone noticing, gasping at the beauty.
“Let’s hide under the table and watch. You can see how beautiful my parents are. They are the most beautiful in all the world.” Crouched, I waited, watching the party, wishing I could be a part of it. One day I would be. One day, I’d be older, and my parents wouldn’t be ashamed of me. I’d make them proud to call me their daughter, and I’d dance.
I closed my eyes until I was jerked out from under the table.
Jenna ran her hand over my shivering form. “Easy, it’s okay. You’re safe.’
Lying my wolven head back down, I was shocked to find Slater sitting where I was, his thighs the perfect place to rest. Too tired to fight it, I allowed him to stroke my fur.
I was such a mess. Stuck in one form, remembering things I wished I could forget. Little girls should have had parents who loved them. All these years, I’d thought I’d had parents who loved me, but the memories that had slammed into my mind told a different story. I’d been made to stay away while they partied. So, what did I do? Runaway like a spoiled brat?
Goddess, were my parents even now living blissfully happy without the child they didn’t want? Had they sent the pack after me, hoping to run me off, only they’d failed because of one nice trucker? I let out a defeated sigh. My hopes of regaining my memories and my life seemed to have come crashing down. Did I want to remember why my family had sent me, a six-year-old girl, off on my own? Questions flew at me. Why had Rasmund taken me in?
“Sleep, LeeLee. We will go a little further later,” Jenna’s voice sounded strained.
Too tired to look at those eyes I wished I had, I let sleep claim me.
Chapter Three
“That child suffered...a lot.” Jenna motioned for me to get up. I looked down, not wanting to wake LeeLee.
“Will she be okay?’
Talia knelt on the floor. “We will make sure of it.’
Payton Glade glided over with another woman I’d never met, but from her scent, I guessed they were related. They confirmed my thought a moment later.
“My name is Adalynn, I’m Payton’s sister. My daughter mated to your alpha.” She had a sweet voice with a steel undertone, very similar to Payton’s. I liked her immediately.
“Between the four of us, she will be right as rain in no time...physically. The mental is going to be the hard part, son.” Payton ran her hand over my head, the way she did anytime I’d seen her. She was like a mama to all of the Mystic Wolves Pack.
Nodding, I knew what they were saying. None of them were privy to exactly what she’d gone through, but it had to have been something major for her to have escaped into her wolf and not come out for years. Now, they were going to try to force or coax her out. The outcome was really going to be up in the air.
“As long as she is alive and healthy, we can deal with it together.” And I meant her and me. I was one hundred percent sure she was my mate. Damn, fate was a fickle bitch. Mating me with a woman I had yet to meet, but my wolf called to hers.
I thought back to the way I’d found her. I’d been invited up to Keanu and Cammie’s by Hal Aldridge and his fiancée Felicity, who I’d helped save from an underground compound. Had I notaccepted their invitation and shown up early, my wolf wouldn’t have scented LeeLee and forced me to search for her. Yeah, fate sure had a strange way of working. I hoped like hell I hadn’t pissed the Goddess off, and she decided I wasn’t worthy of a mate.
“Don’t go doubting your worth,” Jenna said, sounding like she’d swallowed gravel.
I looked at her. Really looked and saw shadows beneath her eyes. “You should go rest. Can’t the other Fey do what you do? You don’t look, um, too good.’
She smiled, and I swore the room lit up. “Is that your nice way of saying I look like shit?’
“I’d never say that to a woman. I treasure my manly parts.” I placed my hand over my heart.
Standing, she patted my shoulder. “I’m going to take a small siesta. Time flows differently here. You should eat something. You will need it when you reenter your world.” With that, she left, leaving me with the other three women seated around the table.
I looked down at a sleeping LeeLee. “Come, you will be of no help if you are falling over from exhaustion,” Payton murmured.
