WILD

twenty one

Lorena was nervous. Meeting someone's parents meant something, even though in this instance, Orion tried to pretend that it didn't.

And from what she remembered about a conversation with Orion, the man was dying. She had never had anyone around her die or even come close to death, and she didn't think she could handle watching someone die right in front of her. She looked up at Orion as they walked hand in hand, him leading her to the room that his father was apparently dying in.

She didn't know Orion as well as she should, but she could tell he was scared. It was written all over his face and his body, and she wondered if he even realized it was that obvious.

Orion stopped in front of a door and took a deep breath before knocking and entering. He poked his head inside. "Dad?"

He opened the door and Lorena was met by the sight of what looked like an older Orion doing...jumping jacks?

"Dad!" Orion rushed in and grabbed his father's arm in midair, a horrified look on his face. "What are you doing?"

The older man gave his son an accusing look and snatched his arm away. "I'm dying in peace! Gotta get my blood flowing since you never come around to take me out of this room. You were the one who put me on bed rest!"

Orion groaned and ran his hand over his face. "That's not funny, Dad."

"I'm not laughing, son."

Lorena laughed and laughed hard. She couldn't help herself. The whole scene was comical: Orion was arguing with what basically looked like a mirror image of himself and said mirror image was taking the fact that he was dying in stride. If Orion hadn't told her that his dad was dying, she never would've been able to tell.

Both men looked over at her and Orion's father immediately stopped hopping up and down, looking over to her. She must have looked ridiculous the way she was leaning on the doorframe, her hair a mess because she hadn't bothered to fix it after making out with Orion.

She waved her hand in the air and sighed. It felt so good to laugh. "Sorry, I just-"

"Is this her?" She stopped laughing long enough to realize that the former alpha was walking over to her, and she sobered up almost immediately.

Orion nodded. "Yep." He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at her like he wanted to put her to bed right there.

Which, he did.

Lorena caught Orion's gaze and blushed, her whole face turning red. "Sir." She nodded her head to Orion's father, a sign of respect.

She found herself taking a step back as he got closer, and when he saw that, he stopped. He looked at her in awe, his lips slightly parted in wonder.

"You're beautiful. You remind me of..." he trailed off and exhaled. "Wow, Orion."

Orion nodded. "I know."

Now she was starting to feel a little bit weird. It was odd to be fawned over like she was the prettiest girl in school when she knew for a fact she never was. "Thank you, sir."

He shook his head. "Call me Ares. I'm Orion's father."

She nodded. "He's told me about you. Um..." What was she supposed to say? She couldn't say sorry for your loss. "I'm sorry you're...dying?"

The man chuckled. "Its fine. I don't feel like I'm dying. And I certainly don't look like it either, if I do say so myself." Ares was attempting to lighten the mood a bit, and it worked. Lorena let out a small chuckle at that.

"Come sit down. I want to talk to you."

He went to sit down on his bed and his son went to sit down on a chair at his side. Lorena took a seat at the side of the bed next to Orion, feeling less nervous about talking to Ares. He was really nice and he reminded her a bit of her own father.

"What's your name?"

"Lorena, sir."

He looked at her and smiled sweetly. "I've been waiting for years for Orion to find a mate...all those other girls-"

"Dad! Oh my god! She doesn't need to know about all that right now."

Ares held his hands up in defense. "Whoa! Okay, okay."

Lorena raised an eyebrow at Orion and gave him a pointed look. She was going to force him to elaborate on that later.

"Regardless, I'm glad he found you. He told me about you. You sound like quite a handful."

Lorena looked down and her face flushed red. Everyone else telling her that she was a lot to handle was one thing, but her mate's father? It was embarrassing. "Well, I don't mean to be-"

"No, no, that's a good thing. He needs to be given a run for his money at times. Everyone needs to be checked sometimes and this mate thing isn't going to be easy. Trust me."

Ares ignored his son grumbling under his breath about how he was encouraging bad behavior.

"Also, I want to apologize."

Lorena's head snapped up to look him in the eyes. "W-why?"

He reached out for her hand, holding her small on in his and rubbing his thumb gently over the back of her wrist. "I can't say I know what you've been through, but I can't even begin to imagine either. You were ripped away from your family and brought here against your will, and you're still so young. You probably miss your old pack, but you're trying to focus on being here and making yourself happy even when it's hard. So thank you for trying. Thank you for attempting to be happy and making those around you feel the same, even though that isn't your responsibility. The second I laid eyes on you, you were like a beacon of light."

Lorena hadn't even noticed that she was crying. She wiped her tears and sighed. It felt good to be recognized.

Ares gave her a kind smile and let her hand go. He turned to that he could speak to the couple head on. "You two are a team now. I won't be here much longer. You guys have what it takes, okay? I believe in the both of you. There's something special here."

Orion felt deflated. It was so hard to watch while his dad looked fine, but in reality he was dying. He thought that he had come to terms with it, but if he was truly honest with himself, he knew he wasn't going to be ready for the day his dad wasn't with him anymore.

Lorena was still crying softly, and Orion placed a hand on her back, running his hand up and down soothingly. "We'll make you proud, Dad."