AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So, youareagreeing to marrying and marking, Ava?”
“No, dad, but I think I have a solution to our little issue.”
“Valen, thisisthe solution. You need a mate, and this is a good idea—it will calm the packs.”
“I said we will talk about it later. I'll see you soon,” I tell him before hanging up on him.
“Now what?” Marcus asks.
“Now I need to find a way to get Everly to send her kid away for a bit, so my father doesn’t find out about him, and convince her to let me mark her.”
“Yeah, right. As if that's going to happen,” Marcus laughs. I shake my head. I have no options; either the kid disappears for a bit or I forcibly mark her and order him away.
ChapterThirty-Five
Valarian
A few hours earlier
“Valarian, are you dressed yet?” Mom yells out to me. I grab the piece of paper with my dad’s address and a small list I made of his description. Mom said I would recognize him, and the funny feeling I get in my tummy should tell me he’s my dad.
“Coming, mom,” I call back to her. I unfold the paper again because the corners don’t match. Why won’t they match? I refold it. Casey walks into the room. I hate how she taps on my door—two taps. It should be three: odd numbers, odd numbers. I try to refold the paper, but her knock irritates me, making me mess the corners up again.
“Valarian, we’re gonna be late!” mom calls again.
“Casey, knock,” I snap. I don’t mean to—Casey is my best friend.
“I forgot. You’re so weird, Vally,” Casey laughs but knocks on the door again anyway, and I let out a breath. I know the other kids think I’m weird; they all do, but I don’t mind when Casey says it; she doesn’t say it in a mean way.
“Did you get it?” I whisper to Casey, and she kneels, pulling her bag off her shoulder and pulling out torn pieces of paper.
“I tore them out,” she says excitedly before stuffing them back in her bag when we hear footsteps.
“Valarian, come on, come on,” Mom says, ushering us out of the bedroom. Casey giggles at our little secret. Today I find my dad. Mom is getting sick. I know she hides it, but I see the puffiness under her eyes, how she’s always too tired to play, and lately, she’s been falling asleep when she reads to me. She never has time. Time. Time. Never enough time to play with me anymore. Dad will have time for me. I know he’ll have time. Or I hope he does; then maybe he can make mom not so tired no more. Maybe then she’ll play more. I miss when mom played, but now she gets tired too quickly and needs to rest. She thinks I don’t notice, but I notice everything about mom—she’s the best mommy.
I follow her out of the house, trying not to think of the torn-out phone book pages—I want the maps. I’m sure how to read the maps, but it can’t be that hard. Like a pirate’s map, Dad is the golden chest at the end, and I’m gonna find him and surprise Mom. I can’t wait to make her smile.
“Valarian, seatbelt,” Mom hisses; she’s always rushing. I clip my belt in, and Casey does hers. Mom puts the car stick on the D, and the car moves, and we are on our way to school.
We stop at the front of my school. My teacher is waiting out the front. I don’t like her, and she always smells funny, like burned grass and cigarette smoke. Plus, she talks too slow. Mom gets out of the car and opens my door before walking me to the gate.
“Auntie Macey is picking you and Casey up. I have roster meetings this afternoon, okay? But I should be home for dinner,” Mom tells me with a kiss on the cheek before she rushes back to the car, honking the horn as she leaves. I hate when she does that; the other kids stare.
“Come, come,” my teacher calls and tries to take my hand, but I don’t let her. Her hands stink bad, like the rest of her, and she always looks like a poodle with her weird puffy hair and big round glasses making her eyes too big for her thin face.
* * *
Casey slides the scrunched-up phone book pages to me on the seat at recess. I try to flatten the pages out, looking for the street name that matches the one on the paper, but I can’t find it.
“Are you sure these are the right pages?” I ask Casey, and she shrugs.
“How am I supposed to know? You said get the maps, I got the maps.”
I huff, trying to think of another way to find my dad. Diego’s and Dora’s maps weren’t this hard to follow, these ones have lots of lines and cross-bits, and none say ‘Alpha Valen’s home’.
“It’s fine. Someone must know where my dad lives,” I tell Casey.
“Can I come to find the pirate treasure?”
