Lunar Distance

4 - When the Record Scratches.

—

There he was sitting and smiling at the dining table. Mom was smiling while putting some snacks on said table as Maris carelessly dropped her bag and went to give the man a big hug.

"Hey hey, sweetheart." He mumbled into her hair. "Damaris, you've grown into a lovely woman." He pushed her hair behind her shoulders, taking a long glance into her brown eyes. Warm, maple reflecting the sunlight on dark brown bark, just like his own.

"Dad." She drawled. "Call me Maris. Damaris sounds like a fifties jazz singer who did cocaine." She rolled her eyes, sitting on the chair beside his.

Leonardo Bernardi was a tall man. So tall he casted large, cold shadows everywhere he went, but his warm smile accompanied with his dimples left people happy. He was fit and strong, and the Avramidis sisters hadn't seen him for four years.

Avem could've gone a decade without seeing him and she would've been happier. But here he was, in her home, eating the food their mom prepared with love and thoughtfulness, smiling and smiling and smiling.

It was a picture perfect scene of a family. Then she entered.

"Dad." She acknowledged briefly.

He looked up mid-laugh. "Avem...how are you." His smile dimmed the slightest, but he quickly recovered his façade.

"I'm good. And you." She was civil, but to hell if she had to pretend more than that. She didn't wait for his response and asked a follow up question, "where's mom?" She looked around. Obviously she could smell exactly where she was and what she was doing; beginning to make her famous stew with duck.

"Kitchen. We're having duck for dinner. Caught the slippery fucker this morning." He sounded proud. But all be did was the easy bit. What about the hours in a hot kitchen, waiting and tasting, sweating and aching, basically slaving away to to make something delicious. Time and effort and love, is what their mom put into that duck, all this man did was fetch the damn thing.

Her only reply was a curt nod and her farewell was her exit towards the wooden doors that led to the kitchen.

And there she was, the strongest woman and wolf she knew, fussing over the amount of salt she put into the broth. Was it too much? Too little? She couldn't tell anymore. Maybe she should ask Leo real quick, he'd know—

"Mom!" The blonde woman flinched and turned to the entrance only to see her eldest daughter standing there with her arms crossed.

"Oh, Avem. You scared me." She shouldn't have scared her. What happened to being able to smell an intruder before they could even think about intruding.

Avem briskly walked over to the record player in the corner of the room, her mom's prized possession, and changed the vinyl to that of an Elvis Presley album before allowing the sweet, shallow tune to blanket them.

And it felt like her daughter could see right through her all of a sudden. Sol Avramidis stood still as she watched her daughter walk to the stove and turn the temperature all the way down to low.

They could hear Leo and Maris speaking engagingly. And with the volume of the music, Avem felt free to talk.

"What's he doing here?"

"What do you mean, he's your father, he missed you." Sol turned to the stove again, turning the heat up, thereby dismissing her daughter.

"Yeah, right. Now why is he really here?" She stopped stirring the pot.

Sol sighed, wiped her hands then placed one on her daughter's shoulder. "It's only for a few days until he finds another pack."

"He got kicked out of grandpa's pack? Why?" Avem was confused. Their grandparents were huge on family relationships, they used to come by twice a month when their dad still lived with them. Her grandpa taught her how to hunt, her grandma taught her how to hunt better, and above all they both would do anything for their family.