Chapter Twelve

I wake up in my back garden, I sit up totally confused on how the heck I got here. I fell asleep in the woods with that friendly wolf, did I somehow imagine that? No, I definitely fell asleep with that wolf in the woods, but how in the heck did I end up here? Maybe I woke up earlier and walked myself here, but I would have remembered that and I wouldn't have just stopped in my back garden. Could I have sleep walked? I've never done that before so I think it's highly unlikely that I would do it now, how the heck did I get here?! I rise to my feet looking around, I couldn't see anyone or anything, such as the friendly wolf, around me. It was a foggy morning which meant I couldn't see further than the tree line, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't see anyone there. I look down at myself and become even more confused, I was wearing a jacket! Now, that sentence probably doesn't sound too confusing right? It will when I tell you I wasn't wearing a jacket when I left last night and this wasn't my jacket! How the heck am I wearing this? And who the heck does this jacket belong to?! Before I had time to overthink how I got here and who's coat I was wearing, a worried Reece comes bounding out the back door and basically tackles me into a hug. I was just stand there totally confused on what the heck is going on, can we all just remember that I only woke up maybe a minute ago. "I've found you" he whispers still holding me so tightly, I didn't know I was even lost for him to find me, he pulls out his walkie-talkie holding it up "I've found Erika, I repeat I have found Erika" he says into it before going back in for a hug, wait was everyone looking for me? He soon releases me from the tight hug where I hear a car pull up outside my house, that's probably my dad. Reece held my arms just looking at me, we both knew what my dad was about to say and do. In seconds my dad came from the back door, followed by Justin and Ethan who I hadn't saw in awhile. "Where have you been? You've had nearly the whole town looking for you!" My dad shouts as he got closer, okay why does he have to yell when I've literally just woke up?! "Please it's too early for you to shout, I went for a walk last night to get away from the shouting" I sigh taking a seat at the bench, which just makes a question soon arise in my mind. Now, if I were to have sleep walked here or even walked here myself, but for some reason I can't remember doing so. I would have chosen to lay on the bench rather than the ground, even my asleep mind would have made that decision. This just begs the question on how I got here? "With the matter of the wolves roaming the town, maybe going on a late night walk isn't the best decision" Ethan chimes in from behind our dad, great everyone is lecturing me about this! "Maybe it wasn't, but I did so let's just get over it" I sigh laying my head back, I was still in a sleep daze at that present moment in time. "No, we cannot just get over, you have been told to stay in your home until 7am but you went out, way past 9 pm without your buddy" my dad shouts being annoying, this causes something in me to change and I get rather annoyed out of nowhere. "Okay you know what, I'm sick of you people trying to control me, you tell me I have to leave town because of some wolves!" I exclaim finally loosing my temper, I've held my tongue for far too long "You claim that you're doing all this to protect me, when really you know I'm getting in your way by stopping you killing innocent people!" I shout getting up from the bench as I spoke, out the corner of my eye I see Reece with a smile on his face, he also knew how long I've been holding all these feelings. "I just don't want you to end up like your mother-" my dad tries to say but I just cut him off, I knew what he was trying to do. "I'm not falling for the all the crap you're trying to pull, whenever I say I don't like something you always bring mum up, back when you were fragile I was scared that it would make you go backwards, but now I see all this time you've done it to help yourself!" I scream which actually takes my dad by surprise, I was really getting a lot off my chest "with the werewolves around that has given you an excuse, but instead of being like a dictator to your family you've now changed gears and are doing it to the whole town!" I shout which makes everyone just look down, everyone was thinking the same thing but were too scared to say. "But I'm sorry to tell you, I'm not living under this dictatorship any longer, I'm your daughter not some kind of property" I say crossing my arms as I spoke, I don't think I was really processing what was coming out of my mouth, I was just saying what was on my mind. My dad doesn't speak for a little while, like he was trying to take in what I just said and form a sentence. I take a look to Ethan who looked worried at my dad, but my dad soon looks up also looking at Ethan. "Tell her, tell her what you've found out" he says to over to Ethan, I now look confused at Ethan who doesn't seem to move "your brother found some information on your mum and her disappearance, we were waiting to tell you because we knew how hard this would be for you to hear" my dad continues looking over at me with sad eyes, I now take a look to Justin knowing if my dad knew he would know, he also gave me a sad look. Ethan didn't go to speak at all yet, I can read him like a book and he just looked beyond nervous. Did he found out that she died? I mean yeah that of course would upset me, but I think that's what I've thought for awhile now. "You know when mum went missing, dad started to look for her, he pulled any record that he could find to see if there was anything that would show what happened to her" Ethan finally speaks after being silent for awhile, I just nod my head not really understanding where he was trying to go with this. "Well I've always thought that there had to be something more to mums disappearance, there was this tiny thing that everyone was missing and if we worked out what that was, we'd work out what happened to her" he says starting to ramble and get off point, he also does this when he gets nervous "a few days ago I got this feeling just to look through them myself, I could be a fresh set of eyes, I was looking through all the documents when I landed on her phone records, now dad had requested to see the records of that week but I knew we needed to look at a few months" he explains as Justin goes into the house, quickly emerging with papers that he hands to Ethan. "I ended up getting the records from 6 months before she went missing, it's in looking at those records that I found something" he sighs looking down at the papers in front him, he was taking forever to explain and I was growing inpatient. "Okay can you just tell me? Please stop beating around the bush-" I start to say but my dad cuts me off. "Your mother was having an affair" he exclaims which immediately, shuts me up and I just look at him "but if that wasn't bad enough, she was having an affair with a werewolf!" He shouts which was the thing that made my eyes go wide, but as my brain was thinking it over I start to debunk it in my head. "That doesn't sound possible, one because the werewolves never had any type of contact with the town that we know of before this, and two werewolves get assigned mates who they stay with" I say but Ethan interjects walking over to me with other pieces of paper, he actually passes them to me which appears to be printed off text messages. "I've read the research that someone found which also made this not make any sense, but when I requested the phone records they sent her text messages from the same time frame, she sent many messages to this man and in them he says things like, I'm so glad that I got you as a second chance mate, and I cannot wait until you allow me to mark you so we can mind-link and not have to use your human ways of communicating" he explains which of course it starts to make sense in my head now, thanks stupid research. A werewolf is assigned a mate when they are born and they spend the first part of their lives looking for each other. If nothing happens to one of them they stay together, but if one of them end up dying some wolves are gifted with a second chance mate. Now if what is in these text messages are true, mum could have been some wolves second chance mate. "So all this time we have mourning the loss of your mother, when really she's been out there living it up with her new mate" my dad says from across the garden annoyed, tears begin to well in my eyes as I read the messages. "No, mum wouldn't do that she wouldn't have just left us, you must have just got this wrong" I say looking up at Ethan who was crying, this just makes the feeling for me to cry get stronger. "I didn't want to believe it either Erika, but your mum left us and never looked back, she doesn't care about me, you or your brother anymore, she left and made a new life and probably made a new family to replace us" my dad said walking over placing his hands on my shoulders "the werewolves that you are protecting are the ones that took your mother away, it's their fault that you felt all the pain that you have over the years, now you understand why I feel the need to attack them" my dad says as I just cry my eyes out but something clicks in my head, I know what he's trying to do. I move away from him ripping his arms from my shoulders, wow what kind of monster does this man really have to be to put me through that. "Good try dad, I'm still not allowing you to go kill them, mum made that decision to leave us not them!" I shout pointing out into the woods as I spoke, it was a clever move that he was trying to make but I'm smarter "you can't just blame a whole bunch of people for one thing, mum has her own mind and if she indeed decided to leave, that was her and not them and if you're still considering hurting those wolves because of that, well I really don't know who you are anymore" I say passing the pieces of paper back to Ethan, I don't want or need to hear about this anymore. I take a disgusted look at my dad before pushing past everyone and into the house, I hear him calling my name as I run up the stairs and towards my bedroom. As I enter I just start to pace up and down, everything my dad said back there replaying over and over again in my mind. Did my mum really not want us anymore? Has she really started a new life with a new family? While she's been living her best life we've been stuck here trying to pick the pieces back up. The things I remember about my mum, which is starting to fade now I'm older, she would have never done anything like that. Tears were just running down my cheeks and I continued to pace. Is it something I did? Could I have stopped her? I stop pacing a look out my bedroom window and the surrounding woods, my mum could be out there living her life and probably was all along. I soon hear my door opening a little which makes me turn around, Justin was stood by the door sending me a sad smile. "I know I'm the last person you want to see, but I still care so much about you that I had to see if you were okay" he says taking a cautious step into the room, but stops just as he got into the threshold. I immediately run into his open arms just holding him crying, he holds me tightly telling me it was all going to be okay. I was so worked up that I forgot about a lunch date I had, but the person I had it with certainly didn't.