Alone: My Cursed Fate

Story Time

*Vienna*

We start walking in the direction of a nearby neighborhood. Keeta and I are still on high alert, not fully comfortable with the idea of going to a strangers' house, but desperately wanting a shower and clean clothes.

"Mama Junie, how do you know so much about werewolves? Most humans can't pick us out so quickly", I ask once we are out of earshot of other passersby.

"That is a long story. A story that I have not spoken a word of in quite some time. Let me start from the beginning...

I had a daughter. Her name was Adelaide, but we called her Dela. Dela was the light of my life. I raised Dela myself. Her father was just passing through town when we met. We clicked instantly and I fell for him hard and fast. By the time I found out I was pregnant with Dela, he was already gone. I had no way of contacting him to let him know. I tried my best to give Dela the life that she deserved. She was a sweetheart, kind to everyone she met, and had an adventurous spirit. She was beautiful inside and out. She had baby-blue eyes and wild brown hair that was always so hard to brush, she hated it.

When she turned 19, she decided to move across the state for school. She wanted to study psychology. At college, she started dating a man and they got married soon after that. I didn't really know the guy, they got married so soon after they started dating and they lived hours away. As the months went by, I heard from Dela less and less. We used to talk on the phone every day and it soon became a rarity. When I did talk to her, she seemed distant, like she was too busy to talk and her mind was elsewhere. I started asking about this change that I noticed in her, but she just cut me off further. I didn't know what I had done wrong, we were always so close before that.

One night, I get a phone call from her. She was crying and sounded so scared. She was calling me from the hospital. Her husband had beat her up real bad and she ended up in the hospital with a concussion and some broken ribs. I drove there and picked her up and brought my baby home. As it turns out, he had been abusing her since they had gotten married and things had progressively worsened over the past 5 years. She got a divorce and a restraining order and moved back in with me after that. He ended up in prison not long after and that was the last we had heard from him.

After time spent healing at home, she decided to travel the U.S. to gain back her confidence and rediscover herself. One day, she was walking down a street near her hotel when a gorgeous young man quite literally swept her off of her feet. She fell in love instantly, but this time it was different- He worshipped the ground that she walked on. I have never seen anyone look at someone with such love and adoration as he looked at her. I always thought she was exaggerating when she would tell me that she felt sparkles when they touched.

As I am sure you have already pieced together, they were fated mates. He soon told her that he was a werewolf, and an Alpha at that. She was already so in love with him that it didn't even faze her. I, on the other hand, was a little wary, especially after all that she had gone through with her last marriage. He won me over eventually though- he continuously proved to me how caring he was and I knew that he would never harm my baby girl. She decided to join his pack and become their Luna. I decided to move there to be closer to her and lived among their pack for several years, hence why I could easily tell what you were.

I loved my life there. I got to see my daughter turn into a strong leader, she truly was a force to be reckoned with. She decided that she wanted him to turn her into a werewolf. Her wolf was beautiful and fierce. They had a son together, my beautiful grandson. We were happy.

When my grandson was just a baby, he started showing signs that he was gifted. The theory was that my daughter's father was not entirely human. We don't know what he was, but we believe that some gifts passed to my grandson, but not my daughter. Word got out that he was a special hybrid wolf with powers. My daughter and her mate started getting anxious, they thought that someone was after him. They were constantly looking over their shoulders, thinking that danger was nearby.

One day, they decided to take a day off and go to the lake to bring my grandson swimming. He was 12 months old and my daughter was pregnant with her second child at the time. They never returned home from that trip. All three of them just disappeared. The pack looked for them but never found anything. We think that they were discovered by whoever was after my grandson and murdered.

After they were gone, I left the pack. It was a lovely place and they said I could stay. It just didn't feel like home without my family, my Dela. I moved back into the home that I raised Dela in. It is where I feel closest to her. They disappeared 7 years ago and not a day goes by that I don't think about them."

We come to a stop in front of a little blue house with white shutters and bright flowers in the flower boxes. Mama Junie goes quiet as she finishes her story. Silent tears stream down her cheeks matching my own.

"I am sorry for your loss, Mama Junie. Your daughter seemed like a wonderful person."

"Thanks, dear. She was. She really was", she replies as she takes out a tissue and dabs her eyes.

"Lets go inside and get you cleaned up".