Chapter 9

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Lilac's P.O.V

"Stop stalling," I growl at Katrina, my hands gripping the edge of the table as I glare at her disinterested facial expression.

She picks with her nails lazily. "You want to know about Mason?" She suddenly looks me straight in the eye, "then you'll know about Mason."

Landon wraps an arm around my waist and tugs me towards the door gently. "Come on, Love. We have a lot to talk about and learning Mason's history really isn't work our time," He insists.

I rip his arm from my waist. "No, it's not worth your time, but it's worth mine," I hiss.

Landon leans into my ear. "This isn't you; calm down," He whispers.

Shock consumes me, along with disgust with myself for being so... crude to my own grandmother, being so disrespectful as to call her by her first name.

I look Katrina in the eyes. "I apologize for my behavior."

Maybe it's pre-menstrual hormones?

Katrina rolls her eyes before motioning for Landon to sit down again. " This has to be quick considering your..." She scans over Landon and me, "mate has something to tell you,'' She finishes.

I look at Landon. "What is she-"

"There's no time for that!" Katrina shouts exasperatedly. She swallows harshly. "Mason's father, Nolan Pruitt, was my first love you could say. For the most part, we intended on staying together once Mason was born.

"Mason's pregnancy was complicated--don't even get me started on giving birth to him--so I constantly needed Nolan's support in more ways than one. He wasn't exactly the most compliant father-to-be."

Katrina sighs. "He was defiant and stubborn, even perverse sometimes. We slowly drifted from each other, and, if that wasn't bad enough, I found my mate. Nolan strongly suggested we break-up and that I even keep Mason, but... I found myself, sadly, starting to resent him," She whispers, tears bubbling up in her eyes. "The truth is: I didn't send him away so you could have your best chance, I sent him away so he could have his best chance."

The shock about her being able to send her own son off consumes me. Even if Landon and I did break up, I would never suggest leaving the babies to be cared for by the pack.

Clearing my throat, I grip onto Landon's tense hand. "That's not how Mason perceived it," I utter uncertainly.

Katrina shrugs, once again partaking in her disinterested facial expression. "I would assume so. The actions I took to insure his future also insured his emotional annihilation," She comments, almost as if she spelling to herself.

"You said something about Eden," I changed the subject. "What about her?"

Katrina smiles, a small laugh escaping her lips. "That's rather complicated, something so complicated that I can't fully explain it because I wasn't wholly in control of her death. Nolan was."

Landon and I share a look of confusion, but before I can continue my interrogation, he answers for me. "Why the hell would Nolan want to kill his own grandchild and daughter-in-mating?"

Katrina stands up like she's about to leave. She swings her coat over her shoulders. "Ask Nolan," She says simply before walking to the door. She stops abruptly. "I would suggest you just stay in our family business. Nolan isn't family."

••

Landon and I's driving continued until it was time to fuel up, at that point, he suggested that we call it a night. Not only for the sake of his tired body, but also the babies'.

We found another much more professional motel this time, which I was quite happy about.

There was no illusions in the bathroom mirror, no having to kill cockroaches every five minutes, no having to deal with a bitchy receptions; The list goes on.

Carefully, I pull my wet hair--the shower was even better than the last motel's!--into a ponytail. "What do you have to tell me?" I wonder.

Landon doesn't hesitate to pull out a rectangular packet, which looks like it's filled with plane tickets, and some jewelry. "I think we should fly to New Zealand for the sake of our babies and my father," He blurts.

I lazily pull a pair of silky underwear on under my towel before pulling on one of Landon's large t-shirts. "What? We've been running to get away from your fate of being an alpha, and now you just want to run straight into it?

He nods hesitantly.

Oh my God. He's going crazy!

Why the hell would he want to deliberately walk into this war? I'm pretty sure he's heard how brutal the council can be when they don't get their way.

I motion towards the twins that are playing on the ground with their sister that's fruitlessly trying to roll over on the blanket so she could play with them. "Did you even think about our kids?"

Before Landon can reply, I crouch beside Lucy and roll her over onto her stomach, effectively stopping her quivering lip.

"Of course I did," Landon points to the jewelry. "So much that I promised my mother that I would go to New Zealand for those prices of jewelry and five plane tickets," He admits, his voice lowering at the end.

He stares at me with a perverse look in his brown eyes, as he does this, his hands always run through his hair.

I walk up to him and poke his muscles chest. "Let me get this straight," I laugh humorlessly, "you promised you would be an alpha for pieces of jewelry?" I whisper yell.

Landon doesn't lose his cool composure though, despite me stating the facts, all he does is grab my shoulder gently. "The jewelry is enchanted with dark magic, a protection spell you could say. It kills the person that intends to hurt the wearer before they can act on those actions. Lilac, I said I would protect this family at all cost, and, until you can learn to defend yourself, I have a huge task on my shoulders."

He has a point.

I can't argue with him about that because I don't know how to defend myself, and it pains me everyday that I can't protect my own children. It makes me feel weak, like a coward.

Who knows? Maybe Landon becoming an alpha is a good thing, because I know for a fact that the alpha's mate has to learn self defense.

Maybe this is the perfect opportunity to learn, to not be afraid of unknown and be able to protect not only myself, but also my family.

Landon scans over my face before taking my hand into his and running his fingers over the large jewel on my ring finger. "But, this of course means planning our wedding will difficult, our family planning-"

"Actually," I cut Landon off. "I've been thinking that... six children is too much. I have my eyes set on just five now, and if you become an alpha, having six kids and a mate that's your daughter will be quite hard to manage," I confess, my lips straightening into a thin line.

Smiling, Landon kisses me. "We'll get through this, we always get through adversities together."

I kiss back eagerly, willing myself to believe that Landon is correct, that we will get through this together, but something deep down inside of me, a burning in my spine, told me otherwise.

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