Two Halves of a Whole

Chapter 14

They had finished eating and Lugos’ parents excused themselves to deal with pack responsibilities. He was feeling guilty about keeping the information they got from the spy a secret from Sattira. He was sure she would want to know about a girl who was probably her cousin sitting in a cell this close to her. She would probably want to ask her why her parents were killed.

Suddenly an idea hit him. He sent a mind link to his father as he walked Sattira back to her room so she could charge her phone.

“I was wondering if we might be able to get more out of our prisoner if we let Sattira speak with her.” He wasn’t sure how Sattira would react but he would feel better if he didn’t have to keep something like this from her.

“That might be a good move. We will have to speak with her and go over what we know and what we still need to know before we let them speak,” his father sent back to him.

“So I can tell her what is going on and what we learned so far?” Lugos was relieved. The secret was already weighing heavily on him.

“I would rather we all do it together. I am worried about her reaction and with her not understanding our ways she might try to deal with it as if it were a human crime,” his father explained. “Oh, and I heard back from our pack members who work with the police. Apparently the break in at her parents home looked like a wild animal attack as far as the reports showed. One of our members managed to inspect the scene. Her parents were not found but there was a lot of blood and strangely it smelled as if a lot of very powerful magic was used.”

“Magic? I didn’t sense and traces of magic when I was at the house for the party. But then again it was an outside party and none of us were allowed inside her house.” Lugos considered this for a moment. “Maybe check with Nina and Kim. They were friends of hers since junior high. Maybe they witnessed something without realizing it.”

“I will do that. Let’s plan on meeting after dinner. And son,” his father paused to consider what he wanted to say but in the end only said, “keep a real close eye on Sattira. She seems to be at the center of something. I still have not figured out what but it could be dangerous if the mages are also involved.”

“Ok, father, I will be careful,” he reassured his father. He was starting to worry about his mate. Who was she really and what kind of an effect would it have on their bond?

“I found my charger and cord,” Sattira said as she walked out of her closet. Lugos couldn’t wait until they were mated so her things were in his room in the extra large walk in that had a whole side saved for her things. “Oh, I have a bunch of missed calls from my parents,” she said as she finally got her phone to power up.

“Did they leave you any messages?” He was wondering what excuse they would use for the break in at the house.

“They sent a message saying not to go to the house. Oh my god! Apparently some gang attacked. Must be something to do with my dad being a police officer.” He could hear the concern in her voice as she started to dial a number from her contact list.

“You can’t tell them about werewolves,” he warned her.

She looked at him for a moment as if she were thinking about it then nodded her acceptance.

“Hello,” a female voice called out from the other end of the line.

“Mom? Thank god. Is Dad alright? I just got your message. My phone died. I was having so much fun I didn’t realize until just now.” She explained to the woman Lugos now realized was her mother.

“I am here too, Sweetie. Your mom and I are fine. Just, whatever you do don’t go near the house. The people who attacked might be watching it. We don’t know what we would do if anything happened to you.” A male voice that could only be her father said.

“I love you both too,” she said back. “If I am not supposed to go home what do you want me to do? Am I supposed to stay here until school starts up? What about my birthday?”

“Sweetie, everything is going to be ok. We still plan to see you for your birthday. We have a lot to tell you but we were waiting for you to be old enough,” her mom said.

“What do you mean? What do you need to explain?” Sattira was shocked. Her parents never kept secrets from her.

“It’s better if we have this talk in person. You never know who might be listening in,” her father said. “We need to go, Sweetie. Just know we both love you and we will see you soon.”

“I love you too,” Sattira said before the phone call ended.

“Do you think they know what I am,” she asked Lugos.

“It is possible. Most humans don’t know about us and we work really hard to keep it that way,” he told her. He wasn’t entirely sure that her parents were human but he didn’t see the point in telling her this until they were sure.

“Why don’t you change into a bathing suit. We have an indoor salt water pool. A good swim might help. After dinner my Dad wants to meet with us to talk.” Lugos started towards his own room. “I will grab us a couple of towels from my room and meet you back in your room.”

“Ok,” she said. She was too lost in thoughts of her parents for the idea of speaking with his father to sink in. She didn’t even give the meeting a thought as she went to grab her bathing suit and put it on.

When she finally got done with changing and walked back into her room Lugos was already waiting for her in nothing but swim trunks. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at his perfectly chiseled chest and rock hard abs. He had a body the Greek gods would be jealous of.

He walked up to her with a look of pure lust in his eyes. His hand sent delicious sparks along her skin as he gently tilted her chin up so he could taste of her lips.

“You look simply stunning,” he said as he looked over the soft curves of her body that her tiny two piece did very little to hide.

“You don’t look bad yourself.” Her voice sounded as though she had just run a marathon and she silently cursed it for betraying her.

“We should get going or people might start to wonder why we are up here for so long,” he told her.

“Is someone waiting for us?” She wasn’t sure who would know if they didn’t leave her room.

“I know you haven’t been able to see your friends so I might have invited them and my beta and his wife, Cara, to join us,” he told her.

It warmed her heart to think how thoughtful it was of him to invite her friends. She really did feel bad about not hanging out with them as much as she had planned. They walked through the halls of the mansion until they reached the door to the front of the house.

“I thought you said it was an inside pool,” she said curious as to where they were going.

“It is. It has its own building.” He led her to a huge building and she could see a large pool with plenty of people splashing around and having fun through the glass double doors. Instead of allowing her to enter the front of the building he led her to the back, past the many tall mirrored glass windows that allowed plenty of light into the building.

They entered through a plain looking door after Lugos placed his hand on some kind of panel that scanned his palm to verify his identity. She was amazed at the scene inside the building. It looked as though the building had been built around a good sized lagoon complete with plants and a waterfall. The floor was paved with smooth stones as was the inside of the pool. There was what looked like a huge stone with a groove in it to allow for sliding down it into the water below. There was a pool at the bottom of the waterfall where it was shallow enough to stand and allowed the water to shower down onto them while there was a large stone formation that jutted out of the waterfall far enough to reach the deeper part of the pool so it could be used to dive from.

“Beta let us in so we could set up snacks and drinks,” Nina said as she motioned towards a bar that looked carved from the wall. There were platters of various snacks and a punch bowl made of an aqua colored carnival glass with a scoop and glasses to match.

“Thank you for getting it ready,” Lugos told them as he walked Sattira over to get a drink.

The punch had pieces of fruit floating in the top and when she took a drink Sattira felt the bubble from the ginger ale they added tickling her tongue as she savored the flavors of the tropical fruit juices.

“So, Danny is your mate?” She couldn’t help but ask the question that had been on her mind since she realized what the marks were that she had thought to be a tattoo.

“Yes, we got lucky. We dated since junior high. Some people date their whole life only to get their wolf and realize they are not mates.” Nina rubbed her mate mark fondly as she said this.

The mark was the silhouette of two wolves sitting together with their heads raised to howl at the moon. Though not large Sattira could clearly see from the color of the wolves that they were supposed to be Nina and Danny.

“How did a bite become such a beautiful tattoo?” She was truly curious as she would have thought a bite would leave fang marks.

“The mark is a gift from the moon goddess. She decides the design but it always shows your mate’s wolf and if it shows the moon it is her way of blessing the union, at least that is what the legends say,” Nina smiles with pride as she says the last.

“So all the designs don’t have the moon?” She was curious. She wondered what her mate mark would look like.

“No but the moon goddess picks our mates so I am sure all unions are blessed. It is just a myth, after all. I just like bring it up every chance I get. My parents gave me a really hard time about my relationship with Danny. They told me when I found my mate he would be more worthy of me than Danny and I would forget all about him’” She smiled at the irony of the whole thing.

“What? Why didn’t they like Danny?” Sattira was shocked. She knew Nina’s parents hadn’t been crazy about Danny but she always thought they were just protective of her because she was the baby of the family.

“He was from a different pack,” Nina said as if it explained everything.

“Why should that matter? Is this pack at war with that one or something?” She wasn’t sure how packs worked but it was one of the only reasons she could think of.

“Kind of, if you consider being business rivals being at war,” she giggled. “His parents were stunned when he chose to join our pack instead of staying to take over the family busy. He is the first born so it was heavily expected of him to run the business and he was groomed for it most of his life.”

“That seems unfair. They weren’t even going to give him a choice?” Sattira found a lot of things that werewolves did shocking but if she took a moment to think she had to admit that a lot of humans she knew were the same way.

“It was part of why he came to our pack once he realized we were mates. His younger brother really wanted to run the company anyway so Danny was happy with how things worked out. He and his brother are closer now that the family business isn’t standing in the way. And Danny gets to do the job he really wanted.” Nina watched her mate dive into the water.

“Oh, what is it he wanted to do?” Sattira asked. She was learning something about her friends that she felt bad for missing.

“He helps with the surveillance systems for a lot of important businesses, and of course for the pack too. The pack has a whole tech team that takes care or making sure the whole territory is wired. Nothing goes in or out without being caught on film.” Sattira was happy for her friend. She could tell from how Nina spoke of Danny how truly in love her friend was.

“Nice, they don’t watch the bedrooms and bathrooms though?” She was slightly concerned with what the answer might be.

“Of course not. Werewolves like their privacy when it comes to their bedrooms.” Nina laughed at the implication of what that would mean. “Ow, let’s go down the slide. We don’t get to use the Alpha’s pool very often.”

Nina was already headed for the slide and everyone else had already managed to make it into the pool. Sattira joined them, diving in from the side of the pool. They all continued to enjoy the pool, taking breaks to indulge in the snacks and punch, until it was time to get ready for dinner.