Finally Free

Chapter 1

This chapter is dedicated to @TrilliumAngel for the beautiful cover! Thanks again! :)

Sapphire sat in the kitchen, watching her uncle Al and her cousin Mandy hustle around trying to make breakfast. She tried hard to hide her smirk, as she knew that her uncle and cousin had no sense whatsoever in the kitchen.

Her Uncle was trying to scramble some eggs while mixing up some pancake batter. Her cousin Mandy on the other hand was trying to make some french toast which was not coming together in the way it was supposed to.

"No Mandy! That looks too runny! Even the bread is falling apart!" Uncle Al reprimanded Mandy. Mandy just stopped what she was doing and glared at her father.

"Dad, you and I both know we can't do this! Sapph is the only one in this family who could ever cook something eatable," she said throwing her hands up in the air in frustration.

As he began to convince her to keep on trying, a burning smell emanated through the air. Al sniffed the air and realized what it was that was burning. "Crap! My eggs," he began to try to salvage the now burnt eggs, and eventually gave up realizing that it was hopeless.

At this point, Sapphire couldn't control her laughter. She began to laugh even louder when she saw the disappointed look on her uncle's face. "Oh I missed you guys so much!" she said, still laughing. She got up from her seat and immediately took over.

Al and Mandy watched Sapphire as she worked with smiles on their faces. This was familiar, this was the same old Sapphire they had known. The girl who fit completely into their lives. Although they still had a lot to discuss, they couldn't help but forget it all to bask in the comfort of finally having a complete family.

As Sapphire worked, they helped set the table and watched how she easily prepared the eggs and french toast without any mistakes in the process. This had been routine for her before her world had suddenly been torn apart. Although she didn't regret her decision to leave, Sapphire still felt a pang of regret for how it all happened to work out.

Pushing these thoughts to the back of her mind, Sapphire made sure that everything was cooked perfectly before taking it off the stove. Once done, she realized that both her Uncle Al and Mandy had gotten strangely quiet. Turning to look at them, she found that they were staring at her.

Feeling nervous under the scrutiny of their gazes, Sapphire walked over to the table and whilst putting the food down broke the silence with "Who's ready to eat?"

Unexpectedly those few words changed the atmosphere once again. Al and Mandy quickly loaded their plates with food, without bothering to check if any was left for her, and immediately began wolfing down the food. Sapphire just smiled, as she knew that they had desperately missed her cooking. In fact, if Al and Mandy had been the ones making food for each other, she had no idea how they had survived.

She was caught smiling at them when Al glanced at her. "Aren't you going to eat something Saph?" He looked at her questioningly since her plate was still empty, and she was staring off into space. Sapphire smiled at her uncle and loaded her plate to begin eating.

As they ate, Al and Mandy made small talk about the pack, and caught Sapphire up on all she had missed. While she had thought 3 years wasn't enough for things to drastically change, apparently she was wrong. There was so much that had changed, that Al and Mandy only gave her the important information. The rest, they said, she would see for herself.

According to Al, the whole pack leadership had changed. While this was uncommon, the old alpha, Malcolm, had not had a successor. His mate had died when she was young and Malcolm had never found someone else. Since he didn't have a child to pass the position on to, he had to hand pick a successor. While Al didn't really go into details about the new alpha, Sapphire got that he was a good alpha, and apparently a good looking one according to Mandy.