Fire in the Heir

2.

Salmon was indeed what my mom made for dinner and I swear that my dad and Monika had their claws out and were about to fight over the last piece.

Until thankfully, mom went into the kitchen and took out the second filet from the oven and quickly brought it over to the table.

Once we had finished eating our amazing dinner, my mom had packed a small to-go box for Monika.

Her dad had come not too much longer after we finished and picked her up. To my surprise, my dad had ended up going back with them for a late night meeting with Alpha Riese.

It wasn’t often that they had to meet this late, but it wasn’t so rare an occurrence that either me or my mother were suspicious.

In fact, I quite liked it when he went to the pack house for late night meetings because it never failed that the cook would send him home with some of the left-over sweets that they had from dinner.

It also left mom and I to enjoy having some girl time. Mom would always make us coffee and sit and watch an episode or two of my favorite television drama with me.

I didn’t watch much TV, so when we got to watch it together it always felt special. While she cleaned the kitchen and prepared lunches for us all tomorrow, I went to my room to finish my homework.

I was just getting out of the shower when mom had finished cleaning the kitchen. Just as I was wrapping up my hair, I could smell the aroma of the coffee beans.

She ground them up in her fancy machine that neither I, nor my dad dared to touch. Honestly, that thing looked like it might grind my fingers if I touched it, so for my own safety, I stayed far away from it.

I braided up my hair, pulled on my favorite snowflake pajamas, and grabbed my favorite throw from the end of my bed before making my way to the living room.

Mom was already putting our mugs on the coffee table and grabbing the remote from the mantle to turn on the TV.

Though she only watched the shows that I liked, it was funny how invested in them she actually was.

In reality, I was fascinated by how she never failed to remember every plot, relationship, and crazy scheme the main characters had gotten themselves into along the way.

Jumping in, we ended up watching two episodes by the time dad walked in the door.

He began laughing almost immediately when he saw both me and my mom cross-legged, on the couch with our cups in our hands and tears rolling down our cheeks.

Walking over, he threw himself backwards to sit right between us and we both had to throw our legs out before he sat on us.

“So, who died,” he laughed out as he reached over and plucked my cup from my hands.

Dad always finished my coffee because we drank it exactly the same way, light and sweet. Mom always joked that we liked a little bit of coffee with our cream and sugar.

“No one died dad. She was about to tell her friend that she wanted to go out on a date. When out of no where, another girl that they knew from school came up and asked him out for coffee right in front of her. Before she had the chance to tell him how she felt, he had accepted the invitation.”

Mom was just shaking her head as he reached over and clasped my dad's other hand with her own and they both drank their coffee.

“Oh, I forgot to give you this,” he said as he leaned forward and grabbed the large white paper bag from the table in front of us.

I hadn’t even noticed that he had something in his hand when he walked in, but I knew exactly what it was when he handed it over.

The moment I looked inside, I was hit with a decadent chocolate smell and my mouth practically watered.

I imagined that I looked the same way that Monika’s did every time anyone even mentioned food.

Passing out the chocolate chip cookies to both my parents and then quickly swallowing one, I eased contently back onto the couch.

We sat there for a few more minutes talking about the show and how my day was without Monika’s running commentary before I finally kissed them goodnight and went to my room to get ready for school before going to bed.

I asked him how his meeting went and couldn’t shake the nerves that plunged into my not-so empty stomach at the way him and mom had locked eyes. “It was nice and boring T bear, goodnight. I love you!”

It had been a long time since he called me by my childhood nickname and, instead of putting me at some kind of ease, I felt more on edge.

Our house was not overly large, but my bedroom was on the opposite side of the house to my parents'. When I was younger, I had always thought that I had quite a bit of privacy, though as I got older, I realized that the reason for this was definitely more for them than it was for me.

My parents were extremely affectionate and not just with me, but with each other. Wolves mate for life and when they find their mates, they usually wind up expecting their first cub within a month of their first mating and marking.

Learning this at school was easy, but coming home and realizing that I knew exactly what they were doing is another thing I did not want to think about.

Finally, in my room, I went to my duffle and got my notebook out. I remembered that I had a permission slip in my bag for my parents to sign for our upcoming senior trip.

Grabbing it, I made sure to get a pen and I turned quickly to run back out to the living room to have my mom sign it really quickly. But I stopped dead in my tracks though when I heard my parents talking softly to each other.

For some reason, I paused in the hallway to listen to their conversation. “Are they sure that this is a good idea, what if something goes wrong,” my mother asked.

“It’s a good way for us to get a feel of the other packs and let others see how strong our compound is without being overly aggressive.”

I heard my father reply to her, but I could hear the trepidation in his voice and he never sounded like that.

They were quiet for a few seconds, so I decided I would just go pop my head in and give them the form until I heard my mom whisper, “what if someone gets curious about her, what are we going to do, what is he going to do?”

That stopped me and for some reason, even though she didn’t say my name, I instinctively knew, I just knew that she was talking about me.

I couldn’t move a muscle, I wasn’t even sure that I was breathing. By the goddess, who is this person that they are talking about coming to our pack and why would they have to hide me from them?

Questions filled my head and the same uneasy sensations I had been feeling earlier were starting to creep back in.

Everyone knew that I was their adopted daughter. It was no secret to anyone in our pack or any of the surrounding ones at this point either.

My parents had always taken me with them when they went to meetings both on the pack lands and off when it was allowed.

The sounds of fabric rustling were the only noises that were coming from the entire house.

It was as if dad had either pulled her close or they were embracing, but I heard him finally say, “we knew that this day would eventually come, we can’t hide her forever and neither can he.”

What was he talking about? Things just were not making sense and I was both angry and scared at the words I had just heard come out of his mouth.

How do you hide something in plain sight? I was clearly visible to everyone, goddess. I was the daughter of the pack beta for crying out loud.

A soft whimper escaped my mother’s mouth and, though it sounded a bit muffled, I clearly heard the pain there. I was absolutely certain that they were talking about me, but I couldn’t fathom what any of those things meant.

Hearing all that now, I had completely lost the nerve to go to them and have them sign the form. My heart raced and I felt an ache in my chest because I knew that they had never intended me to hear any of this.