Why He Calls

Chapter 8

Zeke’s POV

Sky and I were dancing, when all of sudden she started spinning around pulling me with her. She was looking for something. She seemed really confused, maybe even spooked. She tilted her head up and sniffed the air before letting go and moving through the crowd. It was like she was in a trance.

This would be weird if we weren’t both werewolves. When she sniffs again, I realize her mate is here. Just like earlier when Electra and Charlie realized each other. She’s trying to find him and the mate bond is pulling her towards him. Like magnets, when a wolf first discovers their mate, they’re drawn to each other. The bond snaps in place once we first touch and lay eyes on our mate and is complete when we mark each other.

I follow her, helping her avoid bumping into things and people, as she’s too focused on finding her mate. But then she stops dead in her tracks. I can tell she doesn’t see them. The look on her face is that of fear and sadness. And then she looks conflicted before she turns and runs the opposite direction.

I try to see if I can see who she was looking for but then realize, doh, I have no clue who this guy is. I race after her catching up to her as she is trying to find her way off pack grounds.

“Wait! Sky!” I yell and thankfully we’re far enough away that we don’t draw attention.

“Sky, please. What’s going on?” I ask. I gently grab her arm and spin her around to face me but I don’t release her wrist so she doesn’t go. Her body language is screaming flight risk.

“I’m sorry. I have to leave.” She apologizes.

I play dumb and respond with, “But the evening isn’t over yet.”

“Please. I can’t stay here.” She pleads with me.

“Tell me why.” I insist.

“I…” She hesitates and I see her trying to think of an excuse.

“You sensed your mate back there,” I say. Not a question, a statement.

“Yes.” She answers me anyhow.

“Then why did you stop trying to find him?” I ask.

“Because I can’t. I can’t handle any of it. I need more time.” She says and I see she’s fighting tears.

“Let me take you home.” I once again insist. She looks around nervously, probably checking if her mate has followed her or not. I guess he didn’t so she follows me to my car and we head out.

She stays silent until we’ve crossed the pack boarder. I don’t exactly know what to say so I just ask for directions after we cross. She gives me her address reluctantly. As we’re pulling onto her street she finally speaks.

“I can’t go home like this.” She says.

“What do you mean?” I ask parking near her house, cutting the engine but not getting out.

“My siblings are there with their nanny. They don’t know what I actually do for work. They think I’m on a business trip.” She explains. I turn my head towards her house and with my enhanced senses can tell there’s a pup, a very young werewolf and an adult human in her house. The red SVU in her driveway has her smell and the kiddos scent all over it. Werewolves can sense other werewolves even before we’ve shifted. You’re considered a pup until your first shift at thirteen.

I know she’s not lying and she’s right it wouldn’t make sense for her to go home now. But I also know there’s a lot she’s keeping secret.

“Where do you want to go then?” I ask her.

“Can we stop at the agency so I can change?” She asks hesitantly. Well, I definitely was not expecting that option.

“It’s like midnight, will they even be open?” I ask.

She gives me this look I can’t decipher. “When do you think most ‘dates’ happen?”

“I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way.” I say as I make a U-turn to get back on the road towards the agency. She puts the address into my GPS and I follow it.

“It’s just security and the overnight secretary this late though. Some of the girls who don’t stay till morning, stop at the agency before going home.” She explains.

“Okay.” I can’t believe I’m just going along with her but I’m determined to find out why. I know I just meet her, but I have a feeling she’s a good person. I can always tell if someone is good or bad just by my first contact with them.

She tells me where to park and then I follow her into the agency. It’s a huge office building with an underground parking garage. We go up to the seventh floor. She talks to the girl at the counter who punches some buttons on her desk phone before following her.

I follow behind both of them when they stop, Sky turns and says, “You can’t come in here. It’s the dressing room.”

“Your date is welcome to accompany you. He did pay through morning.” The secretary reprimands her. I can feel my face redden. I can’t believe she just said that. She even adds, “don’t worry we’ll have the room cleaned after.”

“No thanks. I’ll wait out here.” I respond and go to find somewhere to sit and wait. The lobby is decorated in a modern chromatic theme. I don’t think I could get behind all this black, white and grey. It would depress me. The secretary follows Sky inside and then leaves before she does. Sky comes out several minutes later wearing black leggings, a light grey loose V-neck, a black leather moto, and white low top converse.

“That’s a cute get up.” I compliment as she picks up a crossbody purse and then gestures for us to leave.

“Why’d the secretary go with you?” I ask curiously.

“To unzip me.” She laughs at my naiveté. We head back to my car and start driving out of town farther away from my pack. Good thing my Gamma duties don’t start tonight. Geez, I didn’t even think of letting anyone know I was leaving. I’m not supposed to be out of pack lands without the Alpha knowing.

“I need to call my brother.” I finally say.

“Did I get you in trouble?” she asks.

“I don’t think so. He might not have realized I’m gone yet.” I say ignorantly. Of course he has. I dial his cell using my hands free. He picks up on the second ring. “Hey Morgan.” I start but before I get anything out he cuts me off.

“Where are you bro?”

“I’m out with my date. I’m going to drop her off and then head back. Sorry I didn’t tell you before we left.” I answer.

“Okay. Glad you’re okay. When you get back, one of our alliance pack leaders showed up kind of last minute. Give them a tour and show them to where they’ll be staying before you crash for the night.”

“I’m not going to be back probably for another hour.”

“That’s okay. The party’s still winding down. Not all the guests have left or retired for the night yet.”

“See you then.” I say and hang up.

“You need to get back, Zeke. I’ll be okay.” She looks down at her hands and then looks around trying to see where we are. “Pull in there.” She points out a building coming up with a big sign. It’s a bed and breakfast.

“How do you know they’re still open this late?” I ask as we get out of the car and head to the door.

“I stayed here when I was touring colleges. They have a night person.” She says.

We head inside and she talks to the receptionist. They start checking her in and then ask about payment. She reaches down for her bag but I beat her to the punch and hand the guy my card. He asks for ID to verify my card and then processes it. He hands her a key and tells her she’s room 8.

I follow her back to her room. She plops on the little couch in the room and I sit on the chair across from her. “Sky, please tell me what’s going on? I don’t understand why you’d run from your mate.”

“What if he doesn’t want to reject me?” She asks, looking stressed, as if that’s maybe a bad thing.

“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to reject you.” I say but I know why she thinks it’s a possibility.

“It’s not just about being a call girl. I’m only 21 and a guardian of 2 kids. One of which has been sick for most of her life. That’s a lot of baggage.” She says.

“That’s true I guess. But mates are a gift from the goddess. We’re supposed to love and cherish our mates from the moment we meet them.” I point out.

“I know you think that having a mate is a fairy tale but that’s not always how things turn out.” She says.

“You’ll never know if you don’t try.” I say getting kind of angry about the situation. I don’t even know this guy, but I feel bad for him, that she won’t even give him a chance. “Why else won’t you even see him? You’re just assuming he won’t want you without even trying.”

“I’m also scared he will want me.” She whispers and this time I see her shell breaking. Her tough walls she built up falling.

“Wouldn’t that be best case scenario though?” I ask, confused.

She takes a deep breath and then says. “Do you know why I became an escort?”

“Uhm no.” I admit but I know that’s her point. The obvious answer. “Easy money, I guess.”

“You think this is easy?” She laughs and then resumes being serious. “Yeah I needed the money. I couldn’t go to college. Didn’t have the time. Wouldn’t have been able to pay the bills if I went. So the highest paying job I could get was as a waitress.”

“I thought servers made like nothing.” I pointed out.

“My other choices were retail, fast food, or a manual labor job. You make more in tips as a server if you work at an expensive busy restaurant.”

“Oh I guess that makes sense.”

“Yeah, and I was able to line up that job before moving out. But I was still struggling. I was barely keeping us above water for 2 years. Barely sleeping, barely breathing, just scraping by.

It wasn’t a life. I was living to work and take care of my siblings and nothing else. And my sister’s medical bills were piling up. Then her doctor got her into this amazing clinical trial. It was her last chance. Otherwise they gave her another year, at most.”

“I’m sorry you had to deal with all of that.” I said giving her a moment, she was struggling to explain. I could tell she hasn’t had anyone to talk to about all this. “So what happened?”

“Insurance wouldn’t cover it. And without payment, hospitals will only treat emergency cases or insurance approved care plans only. That’s when I meet Odette. She runs the agency. Now I make enough to afford all of Kate’s bills and provide a nice life for my siblings.” She explains and then finally gets to her point. “If I meet my mate, and he doesn’t reject me, either I’d have to reject him, or I’d have to quit.”

“You’re seriously considering avoiding your mate so you don’t have to quit escorting?” I blurt out angrily. “That’s ridiculous. If he accepted you, baggage and all, he’d help you. That’s what I would do. If I found out my mate was struggling, I’d do anything to take care of her and family.” I say.

“Not every guy would. Or can. And he shouldn’t have to have that burden forced on him!” She defends. “It’s not right. I can’t ruin someone else’s dream, someone else’s entire future just because I got dealt a bad lot. That’s just selfish.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way. But I still think he should have the choice. What happens in the future? If either your sister recovers or goddess forbid, she dies? Either scenario, you’ll no longer be saddled with a sick kid and all the medical bills anymore. You could just get a part time job or something to get by at that point now that you’re more set up. Are you waiting until one of those things happen before you find him? How long would you keep him waiting?”

“If she’s ever cured, then I still have the next eleven and a half years of raising a kid that’s not mine!” Her voice raises higher not angry just exasperated that I didn’t see the obvious issue.

“Not yours? You’re her guardian. You chose her even if you didn’t give birth to her.” I angrily raise my voice to match hers.

“I had no choice!” She stands up from the couch. This time, she’s the one who’s angry.

“What do you mean? There’s always a choice. Just because your parents died, what about other family? Like grandparents? Aunts, uncles, cousins? Or even just leaving them in the pack orphanage.” I inquire.

“She has no other family. And Kate would have died if she stayed in the pack.” She blurts out and the look on her face says it all. She never meant to reveal that much to me.

“What do you mean by that?” I ask my angry instantly evaporating.

“I… I didn’t mean to say that. I can’t…” She says and then she starts crying. I pull her into a hug and then sit us down on the couch. I try calming her down, telling her it’s going to be okay.

“It’s never going to be okay.” She says. “Kate, she’s only my half sister.”

“Okay, still your sister.” I say. “Wait you said earlier, parents died when Kate got sick.”

“Her parents died around the time that she got sick. My… father…. Is still alive.” She says and the way she had to bite out the word father I can tell it’s hard for her to even say the word.

“Wait so did you parents reject each other after your brother was born or something?” I ask feeling more confused.

“No.” she says. And then it all clicks.

“Your mom had an affair?” I ask and she nods.

“She cheated on him. She broke the law by doing so. My father was away helping an ally pack for most of her pregnancy. With werewolves having shorter pregnancies he couldn’t make her terminate. So, when he came home, and she had given birth, he had all 3 of us DNA tested. Kate was the only one not his. But at that point she was a pup, she was separate from our mother. She couldn’t legally be punished like our mom and mom’s affair partner.”

“What was their punishment?” I ask her.

“They weren’t punished right away. He immediately demanded to know who the guy was. But our mom wouldn’t tell him. She feared for his life. That he’d be killed instantly. So our father said that when he found out, they would both be punished together. He said no matter how long it took, he would wait until he found out who the guy was. He hired a private investigator, he questioned everyone he could think of including my brother and I. We didn’t know who he was either.

At first, Aden thought that ‘punishment’ meant she’d get a time out or grounded. He was only five and a half when Kate was born. And my father hated Kate. He became volatile and eventually violent whenever our mom showed more care and attention for Kate than for him. It got to the point she could only be around Kate when our father was away. But then Kate was growing too attached to her. She would cry without her. So I was forced to secretly take care of Kate all the time.

Mother was given less duties to attend to and mostly kept out of the public eye. He started taking her to work with him and destroyed her private office. So that he could constantly keep tabs on her. He didn’t trust her at all anymore no matter how much she begged for forgiveness. By the time Kate was 2, whenever they were both home, we were expected to act like Kate didn’t exist. He never laid a hand on Kate but….” She paused not explaining more. And I could insinuate what she left out. But what about the rest of them? Sky and her brother were only kids then too.

“I get the picture. How did your mother and Kate’s dad die?” I ask.

“When Kate got sick, she needed a donor. The doctor said her best chance would be a matching relative. But that just meant our mother, Kate’s dad, or his family. And before you ask, I wasn’t a match.” She explains. “Neither was our mom. She was desperate.”

“She reached out to Kate’s dad, didn’t she? That’s how your dad found out who he was.” I ask piecing together what happened next.

“Yes.”

“So then they were both tried?”

“Yes. They were both charged with desecrating a mate bond. He had a mate too. It was a public trial, in front of most of the pack. Obviously, some of the kids were too young and stayed home.

And my father was very thorough. He provided all the evidence. The date he felt the pain of her cheating. The DNA evidence both from when Kate was born showing she wasn’t his. And the paternity test he ran after he found out who mom slept with proving who Kate’s real dad was. The vote was unanimously made. She was found guilty beyond any reasonable doubt.” She explained taking a deep breath to calm down.

“He choose to make it a capital punishment didn’t he?” I ask but I already know the answer.

“Capital punishment, that just feels so hollow, less than what it was. So political and lame. They were executed, eliminated. Kate’s dad tried fighting back. He tried to escape. My father didn’t let anyone else touch him. He let him get a few hits in and then he tore him to pieces and burned the remains.

Our mom didn’t try to run or fight. She didn’t even beg for her life. She apologized to the pack and prayed to the moon goddess. Making her peace before the end. That only angered him more. But what she didn’t do in that moment was apologize to him or to her kids. It was over quickly. He ripped her heart out like she was nothing. And then he admitted his only regret was letting her get away with it for that long.” The far away look in eyes was like she was reliving it over again before snapping out of it. But there was an emptiness in her voice while explaining, a distance she had to put to cope with what happened.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that. I can’t even imagine how horrible that was. I don’t know what I would ever do if I lost either of my parents. But what did you mean when you said Kate would have died if she stayed in the pack? Was it just because she was sick?” I apologized and then asked.

“From the moment she came home, father wouldn’t let mother spend any money on Kate. She couldn’t hire a nanny or babysitter to watch her, she couldn’t buy her toys or clothes or anything she needed. She had kept my baby clothes, some of my childhood toys and books, and still had her breast pump in storage. So she secretly pumped for the first year until Kate could eat solids and then we fed her leftovers. Kate lived with all hand me downs. And when she got sick, the hospital would only do so much without payment. He never added her to the family health insurance.

Legally because our parents were mates, and Kate’s dad didn’t claim her when she was born, Kate had to stay with us. Our dad couldn’t kill her like he did our mom, but he could treat her as less than because she was a bastard pup. And it didn’t get better after our mom was gone. His hatred of Kate only grew.

But she was a sick 3 year old who didn’t know any better. She cried from the pain, she made messes constantly. He tried keeping me from taking care of her. But I ended up using all of my extracurricular money to buy things she needed like medicine. And he made my life hell for trying to help her. The last straw was when he beat Aden over helping her.” She looked so broken when she talked about that last moment. Way more upset than all the horrible things she just told me happened to Kate. I must have been giving her a harsh look because she continued a little defensively.

“I know that’s a horrible way to look at it. That the last straw should have been years before that. But Kate wasn’t mine. She shouldn’t have been forced on me as my responsibility. And it wasn’t my fault she was being treated that way. He made an Alpha decree that no one else in the pack was allowed to take her in, not even the orphanage. So I couldn’t stop him without maybe killing him in his sleep. And then I would have been killed for murder.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone? Report what was happening. That was abuse.” I asked. I half expected a lame, ‘I was too scared to’ answer.

“Because he’s the Alpha. Who would I have told that could have done anything about it? The pack doctor would barely treat Kate just because she didn’t have insurance. And the doctor spent years treating our mom’s injuries and mine and didn’t do anything about it! The Beta knew what was happening, but he admitted to me, the only way he could have stopped it was by challenging him for the Alpha title.”

“Oh.” I said. I couldn’t believe an Alpha behaved like that. I couldn’t fathom it. My dad was loving and kind and would lay down his life for even an Omega wolf if it meant protecting his pack. My brother was raised knowing the Alpha was not only the leader but basically like the father to all of his pack and the Luna was like the pack’s mother.

“Couldn’t you have reported him to the council for abuse of power?” I asked.

“By the time the council did their investigation he most likely would have only been charged because of Kate’s death. His actions only affected us. Not the rest of the pack. The rest of the pack thought he already had his justice with the Luna’s death. But I did tell the council when I applied to be a lone wolf.”

“So you what? Just turned 18, took your siblings and left?” I asked.

“I lined up a job and an apartment, tricked my dad into signing away his parental rights and giving me guardianship. Then yeah, took my siblings and left.” She finished completely non chalantly. Like she was just giving the right answer in class.

“Wait, you tricked him into giving you guardianship? How did you manage that?” I ask curiously again.

“I asked him to sign several permission slips while he was drunk. He drank a lot after mom’s execution.”

“You know, you amaze me. You survived all that. You’re this badass who rescued her siblings and made a life for the 3 of you.”

“No. You don’t get to praise me for this.” She stood once again. “I’m left everyday since torn. Because for 14 years of my life my parents were amazing. I had the perfect happy life. I was naturally popular between my looks, personality and being next in line to be Alpha. I secretly loved our dorky family game nights or movies nights and family vacations. I actually liked my kid brother despite the age gap. They gave us everything we wanted. I had my whole life mapped out. I was going to study music and then travel for a year before taking over as Alpha.

My whole life was ruined over my mom’s one night stand. And because of that, I can’t completely hate my father. And I also can’t ever forgive my mother. It’s her fault too. She broke one of our most serious laws. And now she’s dead. That was her consequence for her choice.

My consequence is the last year I spent having meaningless s*x. A year I can never get back. And this, right now. Not even being able to face my mate.”

“Then that’s the problem. It’s so ingrained in our culture, how bad it is to cheat on your mate. And it is. I am not condoning it whatsoever. But it shouldn’t be punishable by death. Maybe change it to banish the cheaters instead?”

She laughed at my answer and then explained. “You do know that’s one of the options? It’s literally written as ‘up to death’. Whipping is an option, banishment is an option, prison time is an option. There’s many other options than death. But each pack’s Alpha is the judge. And my father always left the choice up to victim.”