4

“What the hell were you thinking, Eve? We trusted you to go to your Rema’s, have a fun vacation with your sister for the summer, and not be called out in the middle of the night to search for you and rescue you from inside a mountain you were told never to go anywhere near. What is wrong with you?”

My dad is yelling at my sister, his voice echoing through the dimly lit sitting room and echoing around the hall. He's trying to keep his cool and simmer the bristling rage I can feel coming from him in droves while my friends and I stand over here against the wall, waiting for it to be our turn. Inwardly uptight and fidgeting like crazy, eyes on the floor because I know his anger will come our way soon.

Both my parents and my grandparents are beyond mad at us, and having to be hauled out of that dark, eerie place when help finally arrived has left me rattled. It was an awful experience, even if I am totally regretful about ever going there and getting into that mess when I had tried to rescue my sister first.

“Colton…. Take a breath. Let me talk to them. I’m more capable of staying calm than you are.” My mom’s gentle touch on his arm soothes the growling amber of his eyes, and he surrenders to her almost instantly. Dipping to her height, he is gentler the moment he looks at her, as his fire dampens, and instead, his relief and anxiety from the last hours show in the fine lines of his face.

The power she has always held over him has always been obvious to me, and it makes me long for my own mate one day who shares the connection my parents do. Someone who looks at me like my Father looks at my mom and hangs on every word.

“Does she not understand how stupid and dangerous that was?” He sounds almost deflated with frustration. “That we’re angry because they scared us, and this was such a ridiculous thing to do.”

His panic was evident when he showed up tonight to drag us out of that hellhole. The place was pitch-black, cloying with dust, and lacking freshness. It was like inhaling the musty air of an old attic. Only worse. Like an attic that had once been used to turn all things into fiery ash.

It took several of them and ropes to create a pulley that could lift us out one at a time, and even that took longer than it should. My mom wanted to lift us with her telekinesis, but it was dark down where we were. Even with her night vision, she couldn’t navigate us out without banging us into the walls, so in the end, we used ropes.

I’m still grazed and scratched up from hitting rocks and debris, regardless of the method of retrieval, both falling in and getting hauled out. Normally, I would ask my dad to heal me when I have small wounds, but I don’t dare tonight. His manner scares me. I don’t think I have ever seen him this mad.

“Not dangerous when you can’t die,” Eve murmurs under her breath, getting a glare from me at making this worse and a snap of my Father's head back to her.

“What did you say?..... Don’t fucking sass me!” His temper gives way, his voice hits volcanic when it rarely does, and even though he never swears, never at us, it comes out like a slap. More effective than an actual hit, and even Eve flinches at his raspy retort. His body is bristling with energy, and his wolf is trying hard to stay within him. Eyes blazing amber, teeth peeking. He’s fighting to stay in control.

“You should have the sense to stand there and be silent if you have no groveling in you to do. Do you have any idea how many wolves died in that mountain? We’re not immortal…We can be killed. You disrespected a place where we lost pack. Warriors much more skilled than you perished in that place, and you shouldn’t be so cocky about being untouchable. You are capable of dying, Eve…. that is a fact.” His voice breaks, emotion at bringing up a raw memory, and I see my mom's hand on his chest slide over his heart impulsively as though to take his pain.

“Enough…go walk it off. You’re too wound up, too caught in the moment. Let me handle them for a little while and come back in when you’re calm. Go clean up. You’re filthy from that mountain. You smell like my bad dreams and awful memories.”

“Make her understand…. that this was too far. That this time we’re not just mad, we’re beyond fucking livid.”

“I know…I know. I’ll talk to them while you cool down. Go.” My mom all but shoves my dad to the door. Gently manhandling the hulking beast he can be when angry, and he sighs with dramatic effect. He seems hesitant and keeps glancing from me to Eve, and I can almost taste his unwillingness to part.

“Colton.” My mom drags his attention back to her, sensing his emotions and knowing instinctively what he needs to let go. “They’re safe… they're home…. They are unharmed. You can breathe…. You can relax. We have them. They’re here with me and not going anywhere. Your anger can hold.”

It hits me in the chest the way she whispers it, and it slowly registers on his tight, taut body, seeming to bring him down to a sag. Like he needed that reminder, the ordeal was over, and his job as dad and Alpha was done. He got us home in one piece.

I never really thought of it from their point of view or the effect it could have on them. Her Luna gift is on display as she uses her stable emotion to bring his down and effectively manipulates her mate bond. My mom has always been quick to recover and calm as Luna because she has to be the wisdom and security for the pack. She is the heart. My dad is the safety and the fist.

We’re their babies, their children, and they live to protect us. I'm so ashamed to make them feel that kind of fear and panic.

“Why did they have to grow up? It was easier when they only ever wanted to hold our hand and stay by our side. Where we could always see them and shelter them.” His words are for her, even though we hear them, too. Hushed and raw, like he’s holding back tears, he swallows hard as she pats his cheek lovingly.

Eve does not react to this scene. My friends are too busy staring at their feet in silent, statue-like fear. Knowing they are next to get yelled at by someone, if not my dad. Like me, they are wishing the ground would swallow them up. For them, being dragged in before the Alpha and Luna is literally the worst thing they could ever experience in their life.

“Let me talk to them. I’ll make them understand. It won’t happen again.” My mom soothes his ruffled feathers and walks him to the door of the room. Almost pushes him out and nods for Meadow, who is standing simmering and waiting to chew Toya out with him.

She’s as fierce as my dad, and her presence alone was making the air crackle. Toya, standing here with her head hung low, didn’t actually seem bothered that her mom was spitting fury our way. Little affects Toya on any deep level. She is more afraid of my dad and mom, and being in this room with Rema standing close by, with her disapproving look, is worse than being yelled at.

Meadow is biding her time, and even though I know my dad will give us a good reminder never to do this again when he comes back, Meadow will still say something to us when everything calms down. She’s our aunt, after all.

“I’ll go too…I need to calm Radar down and tell the pack they are safe and well. Many were asking about them.” Rema nods our way with a sigh, showing love but also disappointment, and follows our dad out of the room, leaving us alone with Mom. The air is tense and crackling in their absence.

“Girls…..Why? You know the mountain was out of bounds, and for good reason. The war may be over, but stray vampire ferals survived the battles and sought refuge in such places. We can’t guarantee that we have cleared the entire mountain and forest of them. That’s why we have perimeter markings with sigils and runes to stop them from crossing. We have guards. They are not governed by your grandfather's coven any more than other packs out there are run by your Father. We are still the enemy to those who survived.”

My mom's words hit home as I think about the possibility that some of those creatures might lurk out there, and I shudder at the thought. In our naivety, we never thought of that. They have never touched our lives in our safe bubble, so we forgot they existed.

I know they were mindless, feral vampires, more like wild animals who sought only blood and death, and not like the vampires we know or my grandfather. I just assumed they were all dead.

“We’re sorry. We just wanted to see it for ourselves. The place where it happened. There’s so much mystery about the past. We didn’t think about the consequences, and we didn’t know we would have to be rescued.” I step in front of my mom to draw her attention and anger, since Eve is glaring at the floor where she’s standing, apart from us. Caked from head to toe in ash and filth from getting herself stuck in the belly of that hollowed-out mountain, much like I am when I was stupid enough to go looking for her.

A blanket covers most of Eve, given that she turned wolf and never got her clothes back, so she looks like a homeless child with hair so dirty that it's brown instead of the warm blonde we normally sport.

We held off as long as we could until Simon ran back for help as the sun went down, knowing something was wrong. It was too deep, and once inside, she couldn’t find a way back up to get out. Something I found out when I climbed that damn mountain and fell in after her.

“You know, if you have questions, you can come to me. I won’t hide anything from you….. If you wanted to see it, I would have taken you with your Father so we could protect you. We just want to shelter you from the horrors of the past and the dangers that we once lived with. You girls should be looking forward to a happy life where none of those concerns will ever affect you. We live in peaceful times now. That mountain holds nothing but sad memories of a time that we’ll never see again. Of the many we lost that still linger in our hearts. We closed it off to make it a sacred resting place for the ones who fell.”

“What future?” Eve spits, finding her own anger in that ever-present attitude she has. She’s a spoiled diva who, from a very young age, seemed to be angry at the world, and I have never understood it. I don’t know where it came from, and sometimes I resent her for it, although I would never say that to her. I'm the polar opposite, and I find joy in everything. I like our life, our parents, and our safe world where nothing bad ever happens.

“Eve..” My mom sighs. Pinching the bridge of her nose as though she has a stress headache beginning, and I want to smother my sister into silence. This isn’t a new complaint.