Palm to Paw

Chapter Nine

"I can't believe your Rose's Mum!" Brad exclaimed. "I can't believe you mated on my daughter!" she cried back.

"Woah, hold up! How do you two know each other?" I cried, jumping up from the bed. Brad's eyes slid to Mum, "You didn't tell her?".

"I didn't want to remember it myself, do you think I would be able to to talk about it to her? She was two years old!" she cried.

"Didn't tell me what?" I demanded. Mum sighed, "You better sit down honey."

I did as I was told, perching on the end of the bed. Brad sat down next to me and Mum was nestled in my armchair.

"How to begin..." she wondered. "From the beginning," Brad stated with a helpful smile. I rolled my eyes because I know he was just being a smart ass. She nodded and began, "Well, your father was a werewolf." My eyes enlarged to the size of golf balls, "What?! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Just let me tell my story and everything will make sense at the end," she said coolly. I shut my mouth and let her continue.

"I had recently moved to his town. We met at the lake in the summer, I was nineteen and he was twenty. He started acting really strangely and I recognised the symptoms of mating as my father was a werewolf too.

He took me into the forest and told me and we shared our first kiss. About a year later we got married.

Brad's father, Steve, was his best man and Brad's mother, Holly, was my maid of honour. They were our best friends, Brad's father was the Alpha, your father his Beta. Brad was three.

Nine months later, you came along. Everything was so perfect. That was until Draken," she paused.

"Who's Draken?" I pressed.

"He's a half breed, part vampire and part demon," Brad explained. My head spun, "Wait, so vampires and demons exist too?"

"Of course, and faeries, witches, warlocks and heaps more. Basically any magical creature you have read in fairytales and seen in horror movies exist," he answered.

"But, how are they created?" I asked, all of this was so confusing. "Imagination. It's the most powerful thing in the world besides magic. When someone imagines or creates a creature in their mind, lots of them come to life somewhere in the world. But the thing is, only a human can create a magical being. That's why it's against magical law to kill a human, because if we lose human imagination, we die," he explained.

"Anyway," Mum continued, "Draken had an obsession with cross breeds, being one himself. He saw us all down by the lake one day and became obsessed with Holly. He believed that Holly's beauty and emotional strength, combined with his physical strength and powers would make the most indestructible creature.

He asked Steve if he could plant his seed in Holly to make his invincible baby. Of course, you never say anything like that to a werewolf about his mate and Steve became furious. They fought over it and Steve won, but Draken vowed that Steve would regret it.

It turned out Draken was right, because about a week later, he kidnapped Holly. Steve led the whole pack into battle against Draken, your father at his side. Unfortunately, Draken had summoned an army to fight against us.

While we were fighting, Draken fertilised Holly and sped the process up, so that she actually gave birth to his monster child in front of the battle.

After she gave birth, Draken killed Holly in front of us. Steve became furious and he attacked Draken, your father jumping in to help. They fought tremendously, but were no match for Draken and eventually he killed them.

We fled, Steve's brother Joe got me out of there, he saved my life. When we got back, Brad went to live with Joe and his wife, May. I decided there was nothing left for me there so I took you and moved to the next town over.

I was so devastated, I was angry at your father for trying to protect me and if it weren't for you, I probably would've killed myself. You see, a mate can live on without her werewolf with lots of grief, but if a mate dies, so does the werewolf," she finished.

I sat there in silence, so many emotions washed over me like a tsunami. Grief for the loss of my father, anger at Draken for killing him and sympathy for Brad losing both his parents at such a young age.

"So, Draken and the child survived?" I asked. Brad nodded, "Yes, somewhere he's raising my monstrous half brother," he spat.

"Rosie, are you ok?" Mum asked worriedly. "Yeah," I sighed, "I'm fine, just trying to process it all."

She nodded in understanding, "I'll leave you two to talk. Brad, you can stay the night if you want, I know how much it hurts to be away from your mate."

She quietly shut the door and I could hear her entering her art room. Typical, she always painted when she was upset.

I turned to Brad, "Are you ok?".

"Yeah, I accepted this a long time ago. In fact, I used to feel more sorry for you," he replied.

"Really? Why?" I asked, confused.

"Because you were going to grow up without a father and without knowing who you really were," he replied.

"Oh. Have you met Draken's son?" I asked, I didn't want to call him his half brother in case Brad got mad.

"No, I haven't met him or Draken. They both left our pack alone after the battle," he answered without expression.

He clearly didn't want to talk about it, so I decided to change the subject, "So, I can't believe Mum's letting you stay the night."

A cheeky smile entered his face, "Yeah, maybe we can have some fun later?"

"Are you kidding? Not with my Mum in the apartment, it would be weird!" I replied.

"So, if your Mum wasn't here, you would do it?" he pressed. I rolled my eyes, "Possibly."

He growled and rolled on top of me, pushing me on my back, "Give me a straight answer."

"Yes, I would," I said seriously.

He smirked and kissed my collarbone again, slowly traveling down to the top of my shirt, and along the top of my cleavage. I moaned, "If you keep going you'll make it difficult to stop."

Brad slowly sat up. "You're no fun," he pouted. I giggled, "I'm sure you'll be fine."

He kissed me again, slowly, deeply. Brad slid his tongue along my bottom lip, requesting entrance. I opened my mouth and he ran it along the walls of my mouth. I moaned again as our tongues touch and Brad began to run his hands up and down my sides again.

My breathing became laboured and hitches as his thumbs gently brush the underneath of my beasts, each time he goes up. Then he goes down again and his hands go under my top.

I pull away, if we went to far, I was afraid we wouldn't stop and we couldn't do that while Mum was here. Brad growls again, and sits up.

"Rosie, I'm really sorry honey. The hospital called, they want me to do a night shift. You two will just have to fend for yourselves," Mum called through the door. "Okay, see you tomorrow Mum," I call back.

I hear the front door shut. That was way too coincidental, but Brad didn't care. He rolled back on top of me and I didn't have time to think about it as I became very busy.