The Goddess and The King

Chapter Three

Two days later, I was standing in the middle of a foreign living room, in foreign pack lands, in front of a beautiful woman who looked to be no older than thirty-five. The smile that filled her face was contagious and spread to me like a wildfire.

“She is here,” She exclaimed as she rushed and pulled me into a warm embrace. All the tension in my body dissipated. I did not dare to hug her back.

She loosened her grip and pulled back, looking me in the eyes. “My name is Susan, but I hope you just call me mom.”

I smiled at her and shook my head. There was no way I could call her mom. She was nothing like my mother. She was so much sweeter.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just hope at some point you will consider it.” She looked up to her mate, Gamma Reynold, who had appeared behind me. “She is beautiful,” She said to him, excited.

“She is,” he replied. “And she has been through a lot. I think she should have a nice meal and maybe some time to settle down. Susan,” he said pointedly, smiling at his mate as he lifted his eyebrows. “Don’t smother her on her first day home.”

Susan giggled and stepped back, putting me at arms length. “It’s just been a long time since I have had a child to care for.” She looked at me wistfully.

I tried to smile at her reassuringly, but I was sure it came out as a grimace.

Susan showed me to my room on the second floor. It was huge compared to the room I had back home. There was a large queen four-poster bed in the middle of the room with a standing mirror and a large six-drawer dresser off the left of the bed. All the furniture was a beautiful antique white.

“This will be your room dear,” Susan said as I walked around in a daze. “The bathroom is through that door there.”

“I have my own bathroom,” I asked, speaking for the first time since I arrived.

“Of course. I am not going to make you share a bathroom with anyone. What do you think? That we are heathens?” I knew she was joking but I still felt as if I had offended her.

“Thank you,” I said as I sniffled. The kindness these strangers were showing me made me uncomfortable, but also very grateful.

“Of course, sweetheart,” She said and walked back to the room door. “Settle in, Rey and I will be downstairs when you are ready.”

With that, she shut the door and I listened as her footsteps retreated down the steps.

Silence filled the void uncomfortably. My wolf was still very much absent. I looked in the mirror as I had done prior to leaving the hospital. This time I was not surprised when I saw that I did not have any dagger scars anywhere. The only thing was the faint tattoo of the pendant that I was wearing before I woke up in the hospital.

The blast must have etched it into my skin, I thought as I lightly traced the outline. A slight smile appeared on my lips. Killian, I thought.

I shook my head and decided I needed to get on with my new life. And as sad as it seemed, Killian was part of my old life.

A shower was a good start for the day.

Quickly, I showered and put back on the clothes I wore out of the hospital. I needed to go to a*****e and get some clothes and items for myself.

Susan was two steps ahead of me though. As I stumbled down the stairs she said, “I know you just got here, but why don’t we go into town and do some shopping? I am sure you need some clothing and other items to settle in.”

I smiled. “Great minds think alike,” I said.

She smiled back as if we were co-conspirators. “They do, don’t they?”

We piled into a small blue SUV and made our way to the town square of the town of Blue Moon where there were dozens of little quaint shops and a few diners. All looking more like an old town shop in a movie than a real life location.

We walked around the square, darting in and out of clothing shops talking about clothing and my preferences more than anything else. Susan was very strategic about the conversation. If it veered off of clothing, she would look at a different rack of clothes and ask me what I thought about it, re-centering it to not get too into anything that would be so deep.

When we walked into a diner called The Raven, a guy with light brown shaggy hair and a large frame smiled when he recognized Susen.

“Ms Susan,” he greeted her as he waved her over to the table he was sitting at with two other guys who were slightly smaller than he was.

“That is Jake, the Alpha’s son,” she whispered to me as she waved back and called, “Jake! How are you?”

I stood frozen in place. The. Alpha’s. Son.

Suddenly, flash backs of James and his cronies circling around me as he snickered at the pain he was going ot inflict upon me circled in my head. I started to shake, slightly, not daring to move toward the table.

Susan noticed my hesitation when she looked back at me and I was in the same spot. Her smile faltered. She rushed back towards me.

“Dear, what’s wrong,” she asked, concern dripping in her tone.

“N-n-nothing,” I stammered. “Just a bad memory.” She had no idea of the crap I lived through. If only I had been born her daughter instead of mine.

“Is it because you are meeting new people,” She asked. “Because I can tell you that Jake doesn’t bite.

“Will you jake,” She raised her voice as she rolled her eyes, knowing the boy was listening to our who conversation.

“I don’t bite much,” he snickered.

“See. He won’t bite. He is a good boy”

She grabbed my hand and started to lead me to the table. The shaking continued but died down slowly as Jake smiled and started talking.

“I’m Jake, but just because my dad is the Alpha doesn’t mean I have privileges to be a jerk. He’d kill me if I was a jerk to a beautiful girl like you.” His smile was dazzling and put me instantly at ease. “Plus, he taught me what getting respect and earning respect means and I prefer earning it. It is much more rewarding and people trust you that way.

He was disarming me, one word at a time. The shaking slowly stopped and my relaxed as the other guys moved over to let Susan and I sit. Jake insisted that I sit next to him.

“This is Danica,” she looked toward the guys as she introduced me. “She is my foster daughter. So you guys need to be especially nice to her or Rey will give you extra hell in training.” The looked on the four boys’ faces as she wiggled her eyebrows at them with the threat, was priceless.

“Why would we not be nice to her,” the red head that was sitting next to Jake asked. His murky green eyes gazed respectfully at Susan. He looked as though she had offended him.

“She will be in your class to graduate, Gabe. If any of those bitchy she-wolves, and I know there are some bitchy she-wolves, who hang around you idiots, give her some trouble, I trust you will be chivalrous and protect her.

“Her wolf is scared and hiding right now. She won’t be able to protect herself if they have a vendetta against the new girl.” She finished and looked at me, concerned.

My face lit up as red as a Christmas light. Humiliation took over my body as I tried to curl as far into myself as I could.

Jake snaked his arm around my shoulder.

“That is okay,” he said, pulling me in closer to him. “I will make sure to protect you until your wolf can.” He smiled, something unknown laid behind those words. Something caring?

“Thank you,” I said quietly. “I appreciate that.”

Susan looked at Jake curiously. Then she turned to the other boys and smiled. “Why don’t you guys introduce yourselves? I’m sure she is confused.”

She looked back towards me and gripped my hand and quickly squeezed it once as she started scooting out of the booth. “I am going to go to the little girls' room real quick and then order us something yummy. I will be right back,” she added the last bit as she saw the panic rising in my eyes. She looked at me knowingly, trying to reassure me that everything would be fine.

I tried to smile but it came out as a grimace again. All of this was difficult. She was leaving me with the alpha’s son and his friends. It was not her fault I had not opened up about my past with my pack and how James would…

I shook my head. No! I would not think about him. I would not think about the past. I would embrace the future I was walking into.

I set my shoulders and looked at the men sitting around me. They all smiled at me, trying to assure me that they were gentlemen.

“My wolf is weak,” I blurted out, tired of waiting for someone to talk.

The redhead snorted. . “Is that why she retreated,” he asked.

I shrugged. “Could be. But honestly, from what I understand, I should be dead.”

The smiles on their faces started to slide off.

Jake cleared his throat. “Well then, I think I should introduce you to my future Beta, Gabe.” He pointed to the red head. “ My future Gamma, Markis.” He pointed to the guy sitting on the outside edge of the booth. His hair was just as sandy as Jake’s, except it looked much thicker as his hair was much longer and pulled into a hair tie.

“And that is the top warrior in our class, Todd.” He pointed to the dark-haired guy next to Markis. His golden eyes bore into me as he smiled.

I looked at each of the guys, one by one, gauging them. Seeing if they would make me feel as terrified as James and my brothers did.

But they did not.

The sparkle in their eyes held a warmness in them that instantly made me feel like I was being looked after. As if I was a delicate flower they did not want to blow away with the wind.

“It is nice to meet you guys,” I said as I settled into my seat. I could feel Jake relaxing. “I’m sorry if I don’t seem like it. I did not have a great experience with the future leaders of my pack in the past.”

Maybe if I explain in as little detail as I can, they won’t feel that I am snubbing them.

Just maybe, they may actually accept me and all my pieces.