Aleena’s POV
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In Evening!!
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After Leia’s outburst, Mom didn’t come to my room again to check on me. When I finished packing my things, I realized I had six bags. Everything was packed except for a few things, which I had left here knowingly so that I could use them whenever I would come here.
I smelt dad’s scent near me, so I walked toward the door to open it, wondering what brought him here!
“I hope I didn’t disturb you.”, Dad said, seeing me opening the door.
“No. Come in.”, I muttered, stepping aside so that he could walk inside my room. He looked at my bags and chuckled.
“Yeah! Yeah! I know what you are thinking.”, I muttered under my breath.
“Really? Tell me what am I thinking.”, He asked. I looked at his face wondering if he was mocking me or was serious with his words. And it looked like he was serious with her words.
“That when Eva was leaving, she hardly had two bags while I have five. But you see, dad. I’m not Eva. If she wanted to spend all her life in just ten clothes, then it's not my problem. Neither I’m plain like her. I loved using makeup, heels, short dresses, and to maintain my figure.”
He chuckled again before speaking, "You are talking like you have known me for years. That too from very closely. Can you remind me of the last time when we even spoke without any reason?" Dad asked with a smile.
I opened my mouth to answer it but then shut it. I didn't remember any such moment between us.
"We don't have any of such moments because you never had time for me. Your primary concern was always Eva, the girl who was not even your daughter." I couldn't help myself from pointing that out.
I would have pointed that out earlier, too, but just like he mentioned, we never talk to each other without any reason, so sharing the things which were in my heart always remained untouched.
"Complains the one who never had for me and always used to stay hidden behind her mother.", he said, arching his brow.
"So, now you're blaming me? Like seriously, dad? It's my last day here, and all you want to do is pick a fight?"
"It is not your last day, sweetheart. This is also our home. Just because you got married, that doesn't mean you no longer belong here. And trust me, I didn't want to pick a fight with you, and it was why I never talked to you about it until today when Stephen told me what you think and feel about me loving Eva more than you."
"He told you that?" I yelled. "I can't believe him. Now I doubt that I can trust him with anything.", I muttered under my breath, fuming in anger.
"Don't curse him, Aleena. I'm thankful to him that he told me about it. Do you know what he said after sharing that part with me?" he asked if I would have heard their conversation. "When a man can love someone else daughter more than anything else, then there is no chance he can love his own daughter any less. He was sure that there would be some communication gap or something because of which you think in this way.", he said, but it didn't calm down my anger. And I wouldn't calm down until I hit that Beta's face.
I laughed, mocking him a little. "Only if he knew that there's no such communication gap or misunderstanding between us.", I scoffed.
"We will see that. How about we talk about everything by sitting on the bed?"
"Your words can't change my thoughts for you, dad. I'm twenty-two, not a kid, so this brainwashing thing won't work on me." I remained with him.
"I know that you are young and smart now. But don't you think even I should get a chance to explain myself before you frame me for loving one daughter and ignoring the second?" he asked. I stared at him for a while and then closed the door, and I returned back to sit on the bed and patted my hand on the bed near me so that he could sit there.
"Fine! Let's start with each complaint that you have for me.", he said, sitting beside me.
"Did...did you really love me as much as you loved Eva?" I asked the very first question that always ran into my mind.
"If I will really have to tell my own daughter whether I loved her or not, then I failed as a father.", he said, something which I didn't want to hear.
"Seriously, dad? Is this the way we are going to sort out our problem between us? Then guess what, it will never work. Forget that I even asked something like that to you because I already know the answer to that question.", he muttered. "My next complaint, what did you always ask me to be like Eva? Why couldn't you just accept the way I was?"
He sighed before replying, "When I used to say to be like Eva, I meant to say cheerful, kind, generous, and friendly like her. It was not that I used to compare you both. I wanted you to have those qualities in you."
I rolled my eyes, not believing him again, "You sent me to the boarding school in other packs while keeping your favorite daughter with you. Not just did you send me there, but you also asked the warden and teacher to be super strict with me. Why was that? "
"I did that because you used to bully the kids of the pack members by showing the authority of being the daughter of Alpha. Each day I used to get complaints from the school and the pack members about you. For how long could I have ignored that part? I had to take strict against you for everyone and not to forget your better future. Being an Alpha kid is a responsibility, Aleena, because everyone looks up to you, thinking you will be their next leader. They have some expectations from you before you can even realize them. And a leader can't lead the pack for long if the reason behind his or her leadership is FEAR."
I laughed at his choice of words and mocked him, "If I would have been your place, dad, then I would have never done that to my pup. If he or she had been a bully at his or her young age, then first, I would have talked to my pup about it. Maybe this would have worked or not, I wasn't sure about it, but I would have kept trying to make him or she understand this fact instead of pushing him or her far away from me and ordering unknown people to bring him or her into the right path.", I resorted.
"I don't know what you were thinking back then.", I mumbled, shaking my head. "There is a high chance that a part of my pup's behavior will be like mine, but unlike you, I won't push him or her away; instead, I will spend more and more time with him or her to understand the reason my pup's behavior, and if required I would have also arranged special classes if required. But I would never have to repeat the same thing which you did to me.", I said with determination. "He or she will never be abandoned, or less loved ever in their life.", I added.
"I'm glad to know your thoughts on it, and I can't help but feel proud of you for having these thoughts. I wish I could do something to change what happened I did to you.", he said, feeling sorry, and his voice was laced with guilt. "I wish I would never have heard your mother. I wish I had handled the things in another way. I wish.... but I know that's impossible now.", he muttered.
"Why did you say that 'I would never have heard your mother'?" I asked, arching my brow.
"Because it was her suggestion.", Dad replied. "Do you think that I could have taken the decision of keeping our pup away from us alone?" he asked as an obvious fact.
I narrowed my eyes but didn't say a word about it.
As far as I remember, Mom told me that dad took this decision alone without consulting her and not just that he even threatened to reject her in case she went against his order!
It meant only one thing. Either of them was lying to me. To their own pup. To make their image good and ruin the image of others.
But why?
I knew I had to figure out that part without letting them know that I had already smelt something fishy, and for that, I knew which strategy should I use. Divide and Rule! First, break them into rules at them. I thought to use this one Daniel and Eva to create a misunderstanding between them and then break their relationship. Never did I think that I would use it on my parents. I knew one of the weaknesses of my parents. They used to keep a lot of things from each other, so filling their ears against each other was not a big deal.
"Mom told me you even used to physically abuse me when I was a kid. And the marks on my back are because you had beat the shit out of me.", I lied smoothly.
"What?" Dad screamed in shock. I knew by saying all this, I was sending my dad into a pure shock state, but I had to do this to know the truth. I had felt all my life that dad never loved me as much as he did to Eva, but that didn't mean he treated me like shit or abused me physically.
"Not only that, but she also told me that if she wouldn't have saved me, then you could have killed me."
"What rubbish!" Dad growled, and his wolf was on the surface. "When this incident happened with you, we were not even in the pack.", his wolf answered. "It was your kidnapper who did this to you, and heck, my mate, saved you. It was Eva who saved you from dying. If she wouldn't have saved you by giving her vampire blood that day to heal, then you would have been dead that day itself.", dad's wolf growled at me again. I flinched, not because of his growl but because of that piece of information.
It meant I was not born with all those marks on my back, which I had been hiding with makeup till now. I had those marks because I had gone through all those things.
It meant my blur memories were not some kind of imagination. It was fucking real. I looked back at dad. The color of his eyes returned to its original color.
"Why... why I don't have any memories of that time period then?" I asked in confusion. "Did I lose my memory in that incident? Or did you wipe my memories?"
"You went into some kind of trauma because of that incident, more like PTSD. You were not able to eat, sleep, or do anything except cry, beg, and shout for help, for letting you go, for not hurting you. That incident made me so mentally unbalanced that the pack doctor said that you might never be blessed with a wolf spirit in such a condition. That's why I took..." he paused for a while and looked at me impatiently, waiting for him to speak other things. "..... Eva's mother, Clara, helped in it. She had the power to control others' minds by either making anyone do the things that she wanted or by wiping anyone's memories. In short, she had the power to make any sane person insane and an insane person sane. She wiped that part of memories from your mind, returning you back to the life in which you were before all this incident."
"Why did you take your Ex-wife's help when you have the choice to visit the witches? Even they can do the same?" I asked.
"Because the spell of the witches could be broken through a lot of reason or by other witches, but the same theory doesn't apply in the case of vampires. Only that vampire has the power to break the spell with has done over him or her.”
“Why?” I asked in frustration. “Why did no one tell a thing about it when I grew older?”
“Because no one knew how it would affect you. I wouldn’t have told you about it even today if my wolf won’t have lost his mind.”, he responded. “I can’t believe that your mom fed all thee things against me.”
“Well, to be honest, she didn’t tell me anything like that. I lied to you to know the truth.” I cleared their misunderstanding before he started an argument with mom. Dad looked at me in disbelief while I just shrugged my shoulder casually, indicating that it was not a big deal for me. “By the way, why did you tell me about Clara being alive?”
“Because I’m pretty sure that you would have an idea about that part already. I don’t think Eva would have hidden anything from you when you would have asked her about her identity.”, he said, assuming the things. But he had no idea that I knew about her being alive from my other resources. I didn’t get a chance to talk about it with Eva, YET. “So, what are your other complain about me?” he asked, going back to the previous topic.
“I don’t know. I have always felt that you had been biased against me, so I have no idea how this conversation is going to help because everything has been rooted in my mind for years. Even if you’re telling the truth, it will take time.”, I mumbled. I was still having a hard time digesting that it was my mom who suggested dad send me to the boarding schools and act all innocent for all these years. And now that I had figured out that marks on my back were of this life and my blur memories were real, I was trying to understand whether my mother hid the actual truth and lied about those marks for my betterment or some other motive?
From now onwards, I couldn’t trust her.
And from now onwards, I would do what my mind and heart would say!
I wouldn’t say a single piece of advice from her.
“Fine with me. Take your time. By the way, I’m so happy that you chose Stephen because he is a gem, even if I would have searched in the entire world for a perfect mate for you.”
“I doubt that, dad. There are a lot of perfect mates out there in the whole world.”
“Maybe there are a lot of perfect mates out there, but not everyone can tackle smart she-wolf. That’s why I said that he is a perfect mate for you.”
I didn’t say a word about it because discussing Beta was the last thing in my mind because a lot of things were going on in my mind already.
“I hope you wouldn’t have said YES to him because you were interested in Alpha Daniel.”, he said, to which I tried not to react. “This is just my assumption. I’m not sure about it because Alpha Daniel might be the perfect bachelor in the state, but he is also known for his short temper. Someone with a lot of patience could only handle him, and I’m sorry to say that you are anything but is not a patient person. At the same time, Stephen can tolerate your anger, put up with your stubbornness and your attitude, and will still always be there for you.”
“Dad…” I said, getting annoyed. “I’m thankful for your advice, but I literally didn’t want one. At least, not now, I have my brain with me, and it works perfectly. Whether he is my Mr. Right or not, I will figure that out on my own. So, stop tutoring me about love lecture, not until I ask you about it, okay?”
“Okay, as you say.”, he agreed and then stood on his feet, probably to leave me alone.
Yes! That was what I wanted for a while.
I was overloaded with a lot of information and felt betrayed by mom.
I needed to stay alone to clear my mind and think about what I wanted to do next. Once he left, I locked the door from inside and laid down on the bed, bringing one of the pillows close to my heart. I didn’t have a clear memory, but I remember that little kid used to sit in the corner of the room, facing the wall, and scream in pain every time when that little kid’s back hurt because of whipping.
My fist tightened around the pillow at those memories. That kid, that tiny little kid, was ME.
I had one more blur memory. The same little kid used to run happily around a pregnant lady. The memories were so blurred that I could hardly see the face of that lady, leave the lady, I could hardly see the face of that little kid. Only if dad hadn’t told me about that incident, I wouldn’t have been able to relate to it.
Okay then! I had decided what I had to do next.
1.Just like I had planned before, I would talk with Eva and would take out all the details about her and her family, especially her mom. Theoretically, anyone at her place wouldn’t give the detail of any vampire to a vampire hunter, but practically she would when I would explain why I needed to meet her.
2.Get my memory back after meeting with Clara because right now, I couldn’t trust anyone except I, me, and myself. For a while, I could trust dad, but then he was not present when all these things happened to me. Mom and Eva could have an idea about it, but I couldn’t trust them.
3.Not to share a thing with Mom. Not until I finally figured out everything. As for now, I would keep the questions to myself that I wanted to ask her.
While I was thinking all this, my nose hit with the familiar scent. He was here. I sat on the bed and started waiting for him because I wouldn’t sit calmly, not until he first said hello to his face. How dare he share about our conversation with dad? After unlocking the door, I patiently waited for him to walk in. I saw the knob of the door turning slightly, and the moment he walked in. I threw my fist at him. But he was quick to grab my wrist and turned me around, pulling me closer to him. Now, my back was facing his chest.
"Wow! What a great way of welcoming your husband.", he said in an amused tone and kissed my cheek.
"Urgh," I tried to get my hand from his grip.
"I like when you get frustrated at me like this. You look so cute, and you look more adorable when you start crying in frustration and anger with a red nose and red cheeks.
"In short, you love to make me cry, don't you?"
"No, Lina. I want to make you realize that when you were learning hand-to-hand combat, I was not spending time playing cards.", he whispered in my ear. "By the way, this is for you.", Saying this, he showed a bouquet of red roses and some chocolate bar in front of me with his other hand and then left my wrist so that I take it. I still hit him at his abbs with my elbow before grabbing that bouquet in my hand.
It was beautiful. But I wouldn't say that to him.
"Do you like it?" he asked softly when he saw me admiring the bouquet.
"No. It's just a waste of money."
"Oh! Come on, Lina. Appreciate my little effort. I'm sure that just like others, you too would have hoped for this type of romantic gesture from your mate.", he mumbled before kissing my cheek again and walking inside the room.
Yes, I had hoped for this type of romantic gesture from my mate, whom I wanted to choose as Daniel, not you.
"Mind if I check your bags?" he asked, looking at my bags.
"Why? Do you think I'm taking weapons to kill your Alpha again?" I questioned.
"No. Just to ensure that others don't think about you in the same way which I did.", he explained.
"Still a big NO. If you check my luggage, then I'm not going to come with you to your...I mean OUR pack. You will have to trust me.", I said, ending the topic. I saw him thinking for a while before nodding his head.
"Fine, just like you wish, but you will have to come with on Date tonight if you don't want me to check your luggage.", he proposed.
"That's ridiculous. You're blackmailing me.", I pointed out furiously.
"Just like you did, don't you? hmm?" he asked, keeping his index finger, faking like he was thinking something. "If you want me to agree to your condition, then you will have to do the same."
"Fine!" I agreed.
"Great. I will pick you up in an hour. I'm going to our pack to wear something nice.", he chirped.
"Wait!" I stopped him. "In an hour? How can you manage everything in an hour for the date?" I asked, eyeing him suspiciously. "Unless you have planned about it for a while.", I added, on which he grinned.
"I like my mate knows how to use makeup and brain at the same time. By the way, wear something RED." he winked before leaving the room.
'I can't believe him.', I thought, shaking my date. I had kept my weapon in my bag. That's why I didn't want him to check my bags and agreed to the date. But now I wondered, who was the exact mastermind here? Stephen or Me?
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#TBC
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