BLOOD and Revenge

Chapter 39: Blood's Promise

"Our precious girl! I can't believe you're okay," my mother cooed as she squeezed me as hard as she could. Her arms were tight enough that my ribs that were still recovering from the stake being shoved in them were crying out in pain. It was only when James patted her shoulder and cleared his throat that she took a step back.

"Sorry Janine. I just couldn't help myself. No word from you in over a year and here you are back home, and now a full fledged wolf." I had explained to them why I had left and what happened to me with Tobias Valakut and the war on the pack. Between my sweet mother and my quiet father, I believe they thought I'd just had a meltdown.

"Still getting used to that last part. It's not exactly a part of myself I am familiar in dealing with. Especially the sunlight. I don't think I've seen a sunrise in almost fifteen months." Even my flesh that had been pale was finally gaining back color under the rays of the burning star in the sky.

"A vampire... I cannot believe that my baby girl was a vampire. And now you are a wolf. How are you so sure that you too didn't become a hybrid?" I had tested that theory as well. I hadn't felt a hunger for blood or the repulsion of the daylight. If that didn't confirm things, then the pack members not smelling like a wet dog covered in trash definitely confirmed my suspicions as well.

"Full wolf mom. No worries there." James came to my side and watched my wound carefully, his mind urging me to sit down and relax. My parents had made the hour and a half drive down to see me as soon as I had called the morning after the battle. I had rested for a few hours but there was much to discuss with the Alpha King and how Alpha Cole felt about me staying alive when there had been a mutual agreement between them all, excluding my mate of course, that I was to be killed for being a vampire.

Gratefully, they no longer found a reason for my demise and instead I was being offered a friendly hand from the kind neighboring Alpha, and a job from the leader of all werewolf kind. I had never anticipated this with the outcome of this fight.

"Oh my daughter, why didn't you just tell us you had been turned into a vampire?" I sat down on a couch, ironically the same one that I had 'forced' James to buy in my time as a furniture mover. It kind of did fit in with the coloring of the room.

"And have you respond the same way everyone else did? Have my own mother and father wish to plunge a stake into my heart... It was easier to just slip away until I either figured out how to change myself back or just stay as I was and live life under the darkness of night. As annoying as the sun was, it wasn't the worst being a vampire. It was only bad because of-" I paused and reminded myself once more that he was no longer a threat to my freedom, "Tobias Valakut."

"We would never had wanted our own child to die, vampire or not. We knew something was different when you started wearing large amounts of perfume and refused to go to school. Dark times or not, we never once stopped supporting you." They truly were amazing. So much of my worries would have been relieved had I just spoken to them. But instead of my problem being my own, it would have become much worse had they stepped in and caused stress in packs. Who wouldn't notice a vampire roaming around and a pair of wolves who refused to comment?

Bringing them into that would have put a target on their backs by not only the pack they had transferred to but also by the elder vampire who had changed me. Baggage wasn't something he had approved of. Adam was a perfect example of that.

"Those times are over now. Let's just focus on the future. I'm a wolf, mates with James, and newly employed by the Alpha King himself." My father, who had mostly remained silent up to this point, glanced over to the Alpha at my side and grunted.

"The same mate who hurt you years ago? The same wolf that was the sole focus of our moving away?" There was a challenge in his voice, directed at James. And the young Alpha was not pleased.

"If you remember sir, we were just children. Things have since changed and I have marked her as mine and intend to have a ceremony within the week once she heals enough to run." There was no mistaking the possessive undertone in his voice, a part of me heating up at him calling me his. There was a time not long ago that I would have killed him for even suggesting saying that to me.

How time flies.

"Good. Then my mate and I would like a transfer back to our home pack effective immediately. And preferably within the next two years see grand-pups." I started coughing profusely, my father's lewd words causing my cheeks to flame up.

"Dad!" He grinned and moved to stand behind my mother, hoping to use her as a shield. He knew the pot he just stirred.