Resisting The Alpha (Werebear Shifter Romance) (The Crane Curse) (10 page)

"My own mother gave this to me," Pea said then paused as sadness spread across her face. "She wasn't a very kind woman. She was cruel and...it's not important but I swore I would never be like her. And I wasn't, but in some ways I was worse.

"You have an older sister. Her name is Eliza and the two of you should have been the world to me but you're right, I was selfish. I thought I was protecting the two of you but I only caused you harm. I only thought about how easy I was making things for myself.

"When Eliza fell in love with a shifter I knew she would give birth to the thirteenth daughter from the curse. I still didn't try to find you. I wasn't even sure what the curse was, yet I wanted nothing to do with it. I kept Eliza from her love because I wanted so little to do with shifters and that damned curse, but I had no real reason why.

"After Hannah was born, I gave her all the love and support I should have given you and Eliza. I don't know why I did the things I did but there's your truth. I suppose I've gotten what I deserved all those years. I'm trapped here in this plane, frozen in time and space. Left alone to think about my many wrongdoings. Hannah doesn't even visit me anymore. She was the one bright spot in my life and now even that is gone."

Pea held up the crane pendant and it flew into the sky before landing at Faith's feet.
 

"I'm sorry," Faith said, "but I have no pity for you. It's not just what you did to me but what you also did to the daughter you did keep. You don't deserve to have anyone come visit you and make you feel better."

Pea vanished. Faith waited for a gust of wind or anything from Pea, but nothing happened. From behind she heard footsteps entering the clearing but she was too overwhelmed and worn out to turn around. Her legs couldn't support her anymore and she collapsed onto the soft earth beneath her.

"Oh! Are you ok?"

A girl in a dark cloak with auburn hair knelt beside her. Faith recognized Hannah immediately, but remembering their last encounter, Faith scooted back and tried to move away while grabbing for her pendant at the same time.

"No, it's ok," Hannah said, "I heard everything. I was visiting my mom and saw this crazy huge light come from the forest. I can't believe that was you! No wonder you fell! How on earth did you do that?"

Faith laughed and shook her head. "I wish I could tell you. I was just so angry with her everything just seemed to shoot out of me. I'm Faith by the way. And I guess I'm your aunt."

"Let me help you to your feet, Aunt Faith," Hannah said smiling.
 

"No, thanks but I'm fine."

Faith stood up and was eye to eye with Hannah. She never met anyone she was related to before and her mind spun as she soaked in their similarities, their height, body type, long wild hair, but especially their eyes. For the first time Faith felt like she belonged.
 

"You really do have Pea's eyes," Hannah said. "I always thought it was weird that I had them but my mom didn't."

"I'm sorry you had to hear all of that."

"Nah, it's fine really. Seems I'm learning more about Pea all the time. It's a shame really. She was everything to me and now...I'm just really hurt by how she was. I feel like maybe how she was with me was a sham."

"Don't think like that, Hannah. Maybe of all the things she said tonight you should hold onto that she did one thing right. What she did to me and your mom had nothing to do with you. Just remember how she was with you. She can't change anything now."

Hannah smiled at her and nodded. "You're right. And I really do miss talking to her. I guess you're feeling better?"

Faith nodded. "Better than I have in a long time. I guess I just needed to get it all off my chest. Plus now I have a niece and a sister to get to know."

"Come, you've got to meet my mom. She's going to be thrilled to meet you."

As Faith and Hannah left the clearing Faith couldn't shake the feeling they were being followed. She tried to look into the trees to see if she could make out anyone or anything, but nothing was there. Convincing herself Hannah's wolf senses would have told her if they weren't alone, Faith didn't say anything as they followed the path out of the woods.

Once they were closer to the cottage Faith stopped like she had many times over the past month.

"What is it?" Hannah asked.

"This is all too crazy. Your mom isn't going to want to meet me. I can't go there."

"No, you're crazy," Hannah said laughing. "Trust me, strange things happen in our family all the time. My mom is going to be thrilled. Just the other day she was saying she wished it wasn't just the two of us. She's just so happy now she wants to share that with everyone."

Hannah hooked her arm through Faith's and they walked up to the small cottage together. Hannah opened the door and pulled Faith into the house with her. Ahead of them stood three people in the kitchen, a beautiful woman with dark hair several years older than Faith, and two handsome wolf shifters, one with sandy hair and one with dark blond hair, Faith recognized both of them as Knox and Caleb.

Caleb stepped in front of Faith, his nose lengthened and jaws snapped like a wolf while the rest of him remained human. As he moved closer to her, Faith stepped back out of fear. He had every right to hate her for helping Abel. Hannah stepped between them and pushed Caleb back gently.

"Stop. She's ok. She's more than ok, she's my aunt."

"What are you talking about?" Caleb demanded as he shifted completely back to human. "She's with that coyote, you saw her that night. She can't be trusted."

"I know its complicated, but you have to trust me. I heard her and Pea in the clearing."

"She's a charmer and you're a wolf," Caleb said. "You don't know what you heard."

"I didn't charm her," Faith said stepping out from behind Hannah. "What she told you is true. At least hear me out."

Eliza pushed past Knox who had moved into a protective stance in front of her and stepped closer. "She has Pea's eyes," Eliza whispered. "I've never seen anyone else besides Pea and Hannah with those eyes. Let her in."

Faith stepped further into the house and entered the warm kitchen where they all stood. In her hand she held her crane pendant on the broken chain and fiddled with it between her fingers like she did whenever she was nervous.

"I'm sorry to come here and I know you have no reason to trust me," she said.

"Wait," Eliza said, "what's in your hand?"

"My mother left me at the hospital shortly after I was born. This was the only thing she left with me. She didn't even give me a name. I always hoped she'd come back for it."

Faith opened her hand and showed the silver crane pendant to Eliza. Eliza grabbed her hand and smiled as she touched the pendant, then almost caught Faith off balance when she gave her a strong hug.

"I remember this pendant when I was little," Eliza said. "My mother, Pea had it made for me. She knew an old silversmith in Barnegat and asked him to make it for me so it would match hers. She said it would always protect me." She pushed Faith's hair back from her shoulders and smiled at her. "I was little. I barely remember anything. I was maybe three? But I remember this pendant because I loved it so much. I swear my mother used to make it fly for me," she said smiling as she blinked back happy tears. "Then one day it was gone. I looked everywhere for it. Pea told me it must've flown to another little girl who needed it more. For once she wasn't lying."

Eliza pulled a chair out from the kitchen table and motioned for Faith to sit and she sat with Knox across from her. Caleb stood by the door with his arms folded across his chest.

"I'm sorry but after hearing Pea earlier I'm really needing a run to clear my mind," Hannah said.

"I'll come with you," Caleb said walking towards the door.

"No, I just really want to be alone and Faith doesn't need an audience," Hannah said before turning to Faith. "I always wanted a bigger family even though I was happy with the small one I got. I can't wait to get to know you better."

Faith stood and gave Hannah a hug. Hannah patted Caleb on the chest and whispered something to him that made him smile before he bent down to kiss her as she walked out the door.

"I guess I'll wait for her at home," Caleb said. "She's right as usual, you ladies need time to talk and get to know each other."

Caleb left the cottage and the roar of his motorcycle faded into the distance. Faith looked across the table at her new sister and an old friend and remembered the real reason she was there.

"Knox, I'm sure you don't remember me but we were friends a long time ago," Faith said. "I was reminded of it about a month ago when I first learned I might have a real family."

"What do you mean?" Knox asked.

Faith was quiet for a moment as she chose her words. She didn't know how sensitive a subject this was to Knox, but she wanted to tell him everything.

"I first ended up in the clearing because I followed a woman in white. It ended up she was Miranda Whitman, your mom. I know how crazy that must sound."

Eliza laughed. "You're talking to the family who visits their dead in that clearing. Trust me, nothing you could say to us will sound crazy."

"Please Faith," Knox said, "go on. I need to hear everything."

Faith took a deep breath and then explained everything that happened from meeting Miranda, to later seeing Pea and knowing she was her mother, to everything Pea said in the forest earlier that night. At the end, she circled back to Miranda and why she appeared to her to begin with.

"She said she's always been with you, always watched over you. She's so proud of the man you became despite what happened when you were so young. She misses you so much and said she knows how happy and in love you are right now and what you're planning and she wanted me to give you this."

Faith pulled the glittery ring from her pocket and held it out to Knox.

"I can't believe it," he said. "I remember this ring. I only have little memories of my mother, but they're all of her being very loving. Sometimes when I dream I can't even see her, but I remember her warmth and I remember this ring."

He took the ring from Faith, pushed his chair back from the table and dropped down to one knee facing Eliza.

"Eliza, you know I love you. I've loved you from the moment we met over twenty years ago. I never stopped loving you despite the many obstacles we faced. Fate brought us back together, but I want to be sure we are never apart again. Will you marry me?"

Eliza squealed and jumped out of her chair, knocking Knox backwards. Laughing, she kissed him repeatedly before pressing her forehead to his. "Yes! Oh yes yes yes!"

As the three of them laughed, Faith stood up. "I really should be going. This evening has just been amazing for me and... Thank you. I just... Thank you. You have no idea how much all of this means to me."

She hugged Eliza and Knox before heading to the door, Eliza following her.

"Please come back again soon," Eliza said. "We have so much to learn about each other. You're welcome here anytime."

Faith hugged her again, happy to have a family of her own. "I'll be back again soon. I promise." After waving to Knox, Faith left and headed towards the path through the woods, back to the shack she shared with Abel.
 

CHAPTER NINE

Heading back to the house, Faith listened to the chirps of the crickets in the woods. They grew silent as she passed where they were and filled in behind her as she walked. A cloud passed over the moon, darkening the path and everything went quiet, the crickets were gone.

Her eyes widened out of fear and her body trembled involuntarily. Something was following her. She needed to get back to the house as soon as possible, but the worse thing she could do was run if she was being tracked by an animal.

The snap of a twig towards her right made her jump and as the moon peeked out from behind the cloud again, she saw a mangy grey coyote. Each step he took was balanced and purposeful as he shadowed her, his head hanging low with his teeth bared.

Faith's breathing quickened. If this was an ordinary coyote she could scare it away, but she knew by its glowing eyes this was a shifter, and not one she could charm into submission. A dry leaf crunched behind her and she spun around to see another coyote stepping out of the tree line and onto the path beside her.

Continuing down the path she tried to estimate how far she was from the house as her heart pounded in her ears. Another coyote appeared on the path ahead of her and as she wondered if she'd be safer off the path and deeper into the forest more coyotes stepped out from the trees.