Fighting her instincts to protect her freedom

Chapter 23

Author's Note: This chapter is shorter than the last, but there's a lot of information. Hope you like it. Please vote and/or comment!

Fighting her instincts to protect her freedom - Chapter 23

The next day, Ariel woke up alone, she looked around and faintly heard the voice of Sebastian coming from the living room. He was already hanging up when she arrived.

- Good morning Seb.

- Oh, Ace, I woke you up, didn't I? Sorry. My mom called this morning to yell at me, so I came here to take her call.

- Why would she yell at you?

Ariel was intrigued. They had never talked much about his family, only general stuff.

- Well, apparently, someone told her that I had marked a beautiful woman and now of course she's mad because I hadn't told her before and she had to find out from her friend. 

- Why hadn't you told her?

- Because I knew she'd ask to meet you, which of course she did. I know you want to take things slow and meeting the parents isn't slow, so yeah. Sorry, but I have to ask: would you like to come have lunch with us today?

Ariel knew this had to happen sooner or later. She tried to smile while giving her answer.

- Sure.

- Wait, what?! It's OK? I don't want you to go out of obligation...

- No, it's ok.

Ariel gave him her most reassuring smile, but as soon he hit the showers, she started to hyperventilate.

When he came out of the bathroom wearing just a towel, he saw her and gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead.

- We don't have to do this if you don't want to. I haven't told her your answer yet. I wanted to give you time to think about it. 

- No, no, no. Tell her I'll go. It'll happen sooner or later, right? C'mon, call her.

After giving her another kiss, Seb called her mother to tell her that Ariel was going with him. While he was talking, Ariel went to take a shower. 

When she came out, she started running like a mad woman while Sebastian prepared breakfast.

- Ace, do you want scramble eggs?

- No time for breakfast!

No time for breakfast? Sebastian took a look at his watch. 10am. Lunch was at 1pm Peruvian time (so really at 2pm), why wasn't there time for breakfast? He went to check on her in the bedroom and that's when he saw it: the entire room was covered with clothes while Ariel screamed that she had nothing to wear. Having lived with a mother and a sister, Sebastian recognized the signs and carefully went back to the kitchen. 

Every five minutes, Ariel would come out with an outfit asking Seb for his advice. He'd say "great", "perfect", "very nice", but Ariel wasn't satisfied. Finally at noon, he came into her room, picked a pair of jeans a cute t-shirt and a jacket and gave them at her.

- Wear, this. Trust me. Besides, we need to go out in 20 minutes.

Ariel opened her eyes in terror, changed quickly and started styling her hair. She was dragged from the apartment before she could apply make-up so she had to do it in the car, on the way to Sebastian's parent's house.

- So, huh, Sebastian, before we arrive, would you mind telling me something about your family?

- Like what?

Ariel had a lot of questions, but there was one that was really intriguing. So she asked that one.

- Well, why weren't they at the party last night?

Sebastian seemed more tense. He obviously didn't want to talk about that but answered anyway.

- My dad is still angry at his brother, so...

- Who is his brother?

Sebastian sighed.

- Alpha Rafael.

- The Alpha is your uncle and you never told me?!

Ariel was both shocked and mad. Why hadn't he told her?!

- Well, we don't actually have a nephew-uncle kind of relationship. See, my mom is human, and he never really accepted her, he thought she was a weak beta female.

- Wait, the beta female is Adriana. I'm confused.

- My dad used to be beta. Then he lost his leg in a rogue attack and the Alpha fired him saying he wasn't strong enough anymore. Dad knew it was just an excuse, the Alpha wanted my mom out of the pack house and he got it. Since then, they severed ties. Dad didn't want to see a man that was disrespectful to his wife and Alpha Rafael didn't care. I never saw him as a kid until I started winning international awards and suddenly he was interested. Mom was battling cancer at the time, I needed the money, so I started working for him. That's why he said I'd come back. He doesn't know mom has been in remission for five years now.

Ariel was in shock. That was a lot of information to take in so little time. She stayed quiet the rest of the way trying to process the information. She hadn't thought Alpha Rafael could be so uncaring. No wonder why Sebastian didn't want to work for him anymore. The war was over, he had saved enough money and her mom was in remission. 

Sebastian stopped on the way to buy a cake. Then, they went straight to his parent's house which was in Chorrillos.

She was beyond nervous even though Sebastian had assured her that it would be ok and that she didn't have anything to worry about. However, Ariel knew it couldn't be that simple. They were werewolves, having his mark was a big deal. They were bound to ask questions and she didn't know how prepared she was for them.

Ariel sighed, they hadn't even mated and yet there she was, meeting the parents! She started remembering why she hadn't wanted to be with Sebastian at the beginning. This was one of the reasons. She already had a family questioning her decisions and now another one would be doing it too. What would they say when they knew they hadn't performed the mating ceremony? And didn't parents always push their kids to get married? No, no, no! She wasn't ready for marriage! This was bad, very bad.

She wanted to run away, but she knew it was too late, so she stood her ground. She might as well meet them, but she wouldn't let them make decisions about her life.

When they arrived, she saw a nice house with a garden on the front. The house wasn't huge nor flashy, but it was well taken care of and situated near the sea. She liked the house, it gave her a good impression of the family living inside, but she was still nervous.

Sebastian stared at her for a moment, sensing her fear. He took her hand, gave her a soft kiss, and walked her to the door. 

When he rang the bell the laughter hear d from inside the house was replaced by excited screams of joy.