My Resolution

Chapter 14

I stood there slack-jawed looking back and forth between the book, the alpha, and Donovan, waiting for someone to say something. They stole the written history of the fae goddess.  

“Are you sure no one knows you took it?” Alpha Fredrick asked Donovan sternly.  

“I’m positive. I didn’t even tell Valley,” he responded.  

This comment caused me to finally find my voice, “yeah, because I told you I want nothing to do with any of this! Why am I even here now?” I demanded.   

“I am sorry you were pulled into this Valerie, but I need to know anything you noticed. Anything could be important,” Alpha Frederick implored.   

“But why?” I asked, immediately followed by, “Wait! No, I don’t want to know.” All I want, at this moment, is to live a simple life in privacy where I am not caught up in the affairs of the Gods. My thoughts went to the glass orb in my bag. f**k! I know she was begging me for help, but I don’t know why.   

“Val, I just need you to tell me about your week. What happened? What did you notice? Who did you meet?” the alpha explained.  

“Okay, I can do that,” I agreed. I told Alpha Fredrick about the whole trip, leaving out Donovan and my private moment in the cave and my interaction with Luciana. I don’t know why, but I just wasn’t ready to share that yet. I couldn’t explain why, but something was holding me back.  

Alpha took notes while I spoke, occasionally stopping me to ask for clarity, but then having me continue. He did the same with Donovan, before finally saying we could leave.   

“What the hell, Donovan?” I yelled when we were finally back in the car.  

“I know,” he replied, “I know. I wasn’t going to tell you, but then dad insisted on hearing ‘your side’ of things.”  

“I know,” I was still annoyed, but I know he was telling the truth too, “What's he going to do?”  

“I honestly don’t know,” he sighed, “most gods and goddesses have transcended. They only work from the spiritual plane, you know, guiding up and fating mates. That kind of stuff. There are very few who still live amongst their people.”  

“Alright, well, all we can do is let it go,” I said simply, “My concern is Emma and Finn, that’s all.”   

“Right,” Donovan absently agreed, chewing on the inside of his lip. I could tell, he wasn’t going to easily let anything go.  

When he dropped me off at home, he was still distracted by his own thoughts. I told him goodnight and that I would text him tomorrow before he left. It was after nine-thirty, so all the kids were in bed, if not actually asleep. I found Mrs. Boone in the kitchen making herself a cup of tea.   

“Val! Oh, it's so good to have you home,” she said happily while wrapping me into a tight hug.  

“It's good to be home,” I yawned.   

“Oh, dear, you need to get some sleep. We can talk in the morning,” she said softly, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.  

“I nodded, “yes, ma’am. I just wanted to let you know I made it back.”  

I drug my bags up the stairs and to my room, making sure to secure the door behind me. I dug out the glass orb, finally having the chance to inspect it more thoroughly. I noticed that the light within danced as I turned the orb in my hands. It’s like it was alive. I pressed it to my ear and noticed a soft humming. “What am I supposed to do with this?” I thought, rolling it over and over in my palms. I considered seeing if breaking it open would do anything but decided against it since I didn’t want to destroy it altogether. I laid it on the bed next to me, staring into it until I finally fell asleep.  

The next morning, Donovan and I went to Emma’s house to share all the information we had gathered or lack thereof. It wasn’t much, but she seemed pleased to have it all to look over. Finn had grown a lot in the last few days. Not all that surprising, considering he’s a werewolf pup, but he was still such a big little guy. Emma scoffed when I told her my theory that she could be a descendent of royal blood, but I felt like I had a strong case, all things considered. We spent the rest of the day going over all of the notes and our own theories, even coming up with new theories as we went along. She would still be waiting on the DNA results for another week or two, so all we could do was wait.  

When we left late in the afternoon, Donovan suggested we grab some food and have a picnic in our clearing. We stopped at the store and grabbed several containers filled with salad, chicken, macaroni and cheese, and cake then headed to the park.  

“It’s been a weird year,” he said heavily, as we got settled beneath the maple.   

“That’s an understatement,” I agreed with a snort of laughter.  

“It’s got me thinking about some things,” he said, looking at the ground.  

“Like what?”  

“Choices and life and the future,” he replied vaguely.  

I waited, expecting him to continue, but when he didn’t, I said, “Care to elaborate?”  

“I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking about when I’ll take over as alpha and gaining my wolf next month, finding a mate, pups. Just different stuff,” he shrugged, “It’s a lot, you know. I’m lucky, at least my dad expects me to get a degree before I take over the pack, a lot of alphas take over as soon as they turn eighteen. I don’t know, it's just a lot.”  

“I think that’s fair,” I assured him, “I mean, sure there are probably wolves just falling over themselves to take over their packs, but I don’t think they’re necessarily thinking it through. They want to be the boss, but maybe they aren’t thinking about all the responsibilities that come with a job like that. I don’t know, I’m not a future alpha, but I think that the fact that you’re thinking about all that stuff is exactly why you will be a great alpha.”  

“Yeah, I guess,” he murmured.  

“Well, what about your wolf? You’ll be eighteen on Friday the twenty-sixth. Prom is Saturday,  

April 20th, if I’m not mistaken. We can party all night for prom, then again, the next weekend for your birthday. Or there's always Chinese and movies,” I said with a toothy grin, wiggling my eyebrows.   

“Moms throwing a party that Friday night,” he reminded me.  

“Yeah, yeah, well then Saturday night.”  

“Deal,” he laughed, “I was thinking about prom.”  

“Yeah? What about it?”  

“You want to go with me, but as my actual date, not just my friend?”   

“Donovan,” I said warily, “I know I haven’t exactly discouraged this, whatever this is, but you know I’m leaving, and I’m not coming back.”  

“I know,” he said softly, “but I thought maybe, just one night before eighteenth birthdays, and wolves, and mates, and life gets in the way...I don’t know, I thought we could just pretend for one night like none of the rest of it exists.”  

I took a deep breath, considering what he had just said. He was right, once we were of age, that would be it. “Let’s do it,” I smiled, “for one night, let's just pretend everything is perfect.”  

We finished our meal and Donovan dropped me off at home. I met Mrs. Boone in the foyer. She was holding a large white envelope and had a big grin on her face. “You got a letter today!” she announced, eagerly.  

I smiled at her enthusiasm, “Whose it from?” I asked as I reached for her to hand it to me.  

“The University of Kansas,” she chimed.  

I had been waiting for this letter. All the other schools had sent me letters, I had been accepted into several and had been offered a few partial scholarships. I was holding out for this last letter, hoping for a really good scholarship. I didn’t care where I went, I could get a business degree from a lot of schools, so the largest scholarship would win.  

I ripped the envelope open, “Dear Miss Warner. We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted...I got in!” My eyes continued to skim over the acceptance letter, “you are being offered a full-tuition scholarship that may be used toward...OH, MY GODDESS! They’re giving me a full-ride scholarship!”  

The excitement was palpable. I would be attending the University of Kansas. I had been holding up my end of the bargain with the alpha with training, and now, I’ve been offered a full scholarship. At that moment, my mind wandered to Donovan, I felt a twinge of pain in my heart.  

“It’s for the best,” I thought to myself.  

Things finally seemed to be coming together for me, but for Emma, they were becoming more and more confusing. The results of the blood tests came back two weeks later. Donovan’s aunt personally came to deliver the test results, this didn’t bode well for anyone involved. Emma was anxiously pacing in the exam room, waiting for the doctor to come in. Donovan and I were sitting in two chairs tucked in the corner beside the exam table, Finn was sleeping in his carrier, and Gavin was doing his best to calm Emma down, to no avail. Finally, there was a soft knock on the door and a tall, slender woman with chestnut hair cut into a bob around her oval face came in, “Good morning, I’m Dr. Goddard, but you can just call me Jeanie,” she greeted Emma warmly.  

“Hi,” Emma said barely above a whisper.  

“Aunt Jeanie,” Donovan waved.  

“Donnie. I was told we would have a room full,” she smiled.  

“What are the results?” Emma’s voice quaked.  

Dr. Jeanie nodded, “Right to it. My kind of lady. So, as you know we ran DNA tests on both you, Emma, and your son. We looked for every known marker we have, based on the information your alpha requested.”  

Gavin nodded and Emma was biting her lip while they both listened intently.  

“Well,” Dr. Jeanie continued,” your results show a pretty clear fifty-fifty split of wolf to faerie genetic markers.”  

“Okay,” Emma replied furrowing her brow, “but that doesn’t explain Finn’s eyes or breathing.”  

“I’ll get to that, I assure you, but let me get through yours first. So, supernatural creatures that have an ordered hierarchy like wolves and fae, there are others, but the point is those hierarchies show up in the genes,” she paused for a moment before continuing, “Well, you also have markers that are indicative of highly ranked faerie blood.”  

“Like royalty?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.  

The whole room turned to look at me. “Yes, those are there, but that’s not all. There are also trace markers that indicate the god gene.”  

“I’m sorry, what?” Emma demanded.  

“You have markers that indicate high ranking faerie royalty and markers for the god gene.”  

Emma said nothing, her face was relaxed and neutral, after several moments, she said, “Sure, okay, why not.” She started laughing, lightly at first then it grew to hysterics. Gavin wrapped his arms around her, pulling her face into his neck. She breathed in his scent, seeming to grow calmer as her mate helped her find her center.   

“It’s going to be okay, Gem,” he whispered softly. She nodded into his neck.  

“Are you ready to talk about Finn?” he asked her gently. She nodded once again, not pulling away from his neck.  

“I’m sorry. It’s a lot. I’m ready,” she mumbled.  

“It’s okay. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through,” Dr. Jeanie replied, “Little Finn, of course, shows very similar markers as you, Emma, and with dad’s genetics, he is around 75% wolf to 25% fae, but there’s something else that seems to have wrapped itself around his genes that we can’t identify. It isn’t an unknown code or marker. My best guess, at this point, is that it seems to be an unidentified amino acid that has formed a chain that is linked around every link of his genetic chain.”  

“So... okay, so...I mean...so...what?” Emma stammered.  

“Something is wrapped through his DNA, and I think that's what is causing his symptoms,” Dr. Jeanie explained.  

“Symptoms?” Gavin asked, “So, he’s sick?”  

“I say symptoms for lack of a better word. It's not a genetic trait, but I don’t think it’s as simple as an illness either. I would really like to run some more tests, but that’s up to you two, of course.”  

Emma and Gavin both looked at their snoring pup in his carrier, little puffs of smoke billowing with every breath. “We will consent to the tests,” Emma’s voice cracked. Gavin nodded in agreement, holding her tightly in his arms.  

“I’m glad, but you need to know, I want you to come back with me. That’s why I’m here. I don’t know how long this may take, and this hospital just doesn’t have the resources that mine does.”  

“We’re gonna have to talk to Alpha Fredrick,” Gavin said, seemingly unsure of everything,  

“Gemma, what do you...?” he trailed off, gesturing toward Finn.  

“We can’t do nothing,” she reasoned, “Talk to the alpha, but Finn and I are going, regardless.”   

Donovan and I excused ourselves to allow them to continue their conversation. I was stunned at the revelation, but mostly, concerned for Emma and her family. I knew Emma would call me if she needed or wanted anything, and the best thing I could do was be there whenever she needed me. My mind trailed back to the glass orb hidden safely in my bedroom. I need to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to do with that thing.