A/N: not edited. Okay so I added 3,000 words to the last chapter... if you can't see the changes delete the story and then readd it.

Chapter 38 – Carla POV

Not again. My face fell and I pushed past my husband and children, running to Dominic’s room, only to find it empty. Hurriedly I burst into the kitchen, “When did he leave?” I ask the boys, and Tera. “He left around 1am mom,” Tera answered dryly sitting at the table her prior ire gone.



“Why didn’t you wake me?”



“What were you going to do? Touch him and him attack you?” she asked right back. “Plus, he took that bag Gabriel gave him and he didn’t head towards the mountains, I figured maybe he went to Oakley’s…” she shrugged. My bottom lip was shaking, “You need to go apologize to Oakley Connor,” she said to her brother, who growled. “Fine… but when the Luna remembers that she didn’t punish you, don’t expect me to be there for you saying she shouldn’t reprimand you.”



My eyes flashed over to Tony, I think she’s experiencing maybe already even channeling her wolf… he said glancing her way, trying to not be too startled by our little girl talking this way. Her wolf was loyal to Oakley… or maybe the Luna… we could already see the signs. “You can’t have it both ways brat, you can’t say be loyal to family, but want to hang me out to dry.”



“Well if you thought things through you’d see I was right on both counts. You tried to hit Oakley, so she called your mate stupid. I see it her way, why on earth would she tackle Kieran? What was she going to do when she got her hands on him? There was no reason why she should have even looked in his direction Connor and if she wasn’t your mate you’d see it that way,” she swallowed a few sips of milk Tony gave her, “And as for family I’m still helping you by telling you what to do. Since you’re deciding not to do what I said, I can’t support your when the time comes…” she sighs looking at him sadly.



“Where do you think he went?” I asked going to the mixing bowl, no longer feeling that euphoria from earlier but continue to make breakfast for us, “probably to Oakley…” Dominic answers for the first time.



No one speaks and I use this time to think, noting all our mistakes, and how badly I – Tony and I – needed to speak to Kieran straightaway. There were so many things that I needed to tell him, “But I think he needs to be ready to hear it Carla,” Tony murmurs coming around the island to my side. I shake my head, “it’s been months since we’ve practically abandoned him, but he needs to know that we let him be – go staying where he does because we wanted him to be protected. Marlon, we are unable to find Kieran… I send to him.



Kieran has decided to stay with Gabriel and Chelsea… I’m stunned for a moment, before my wits come back to me. Surely Kieran knows and saw all the uproar the other families made, demanding that Marlon do something for his attack against Taryn,” I tell him teary eyed, we hadn’t meant to push Kieran away, but in order to protect him, it probably appeared that way.



I just don’t want to wait too long, Kieran needs to know how much we love him, I’m proud to be his mother, and I know Connor and the kids don’t know what he had to endure, but I’m still so angry that they treated him so horribly, I continued over our bond-link. He nods, turning away from me taking dishes to the table, until I turn the burner off and take a seat at the table. “Before we eat,” Tony starts, giving me a tight smile, “I want to discuss a few things. You children aren’t truly to blame in all this, you see us letting Kieran live on the mountain, and that’s made you believe that he wasn’t a part of this family. I’m going to set the record straight. We came here and in the moment of safety, realizing we had all of you here we loosened the reigns but it seems that we did so too soon.”



I know what’s coming, and I brace myself for the argument that’s going to come, the shouting and the sheer anger. “You have no respect for the Luna, but that doesn’t surprise me because you seem to have no respect for your mother and I, Connor. For the next two weeks neither Connor nor you Dominic are allowed to see your mates. You go to school, do your island chores, and you come home. That’s it. You don’t get to watch Tv. No games. Nothing.”



“What?” – “No way!” both my sons say at once, “What about when my mate goes into heat?” Dominic asks, “It’s her first-”



“Don’t interrupt me when I am speaking,” Tony snaps, while Connor begins shaking in his seat, Dominic not much better, his eyes almost fully black.



“Kieran has done nothing to any of you,” Connor’s eye bulged out wider than ever, “we aren’t doing this again Connor, she attack him knowing he would react the way he did. He didn’t do something to her, she did this to herself.”



“Dominic, the Luna let you get away with teasing and bullying your own brother, you didn’t try to stop it, you may not have done anything to him physically like the others, but what you did was worse. You didn’t try to stop it, so while I hate and recognize that your mate is going to feel the errors of your ways, you think that actions or lack there of in this case makes you innocent. However in my eyes, it does not. You will not be seeing your mate for two weeks; I’ll be your sitter if you need me too, so that you follow my punishment. You see her at school, and I will be telling Marlon to have you or her moved to different training groups, perimeter run as well as chores. You will be doing them with me, as will you Connor.”



“I’m eighteen you can’t-” my husbands’ eyes darken, his wolf most likely fighting for dominance, “You live in this house. You eat because your mother and I do more than you children here so you get the supplies you need, and this house you live in. You have no money to say you can ask to board alone. Your chores certain don’t add up to giving you the option of getting a house. You know that everyone – as one of the rules here – must be in a home during the night. They made an exception for Kieran, they won’t make it for you,” Tony pauses, “You can’t just build your own home, here because even making our home larger needs to be approved before so much less building your own from materials found in the forests.”



Growling, face red and lips pressed tightly together my two sons, were raging, as Tony calmly dictated what would be happening now, my eyes flickered over to Tera, who was gazing down at her plate, a small smile on her lips.



“This isn’t fair! Why does my mate have to suffer?”



“Because of your decisions Dominic. The two of you need to learn to accept responsibility for your actions,” Tony says and I can’t help but wonder if this was our fault, no I didn’t need to wonder, I was fairly certain that it was. “So what about Kieran? He snuck out-”



“Now you’re-” Tera begins to say something but I cut her off, “he left and decided – d- decided to live with the Luna-”



A loud scrape, the chair being pushed back forcibly against concrete, sounds and echoes in the room, “This is crap! He – so what if Kieran was kidnapped, God he survived and made it back home. You guys are bending over backwards to have him fit in here; you don’t do that for us. He left the house and still he isn’t punished. He acts us and nothing, in fact we are told to stay away from him and now, you’re preventing me from seeing my mate because I let him be teased? How is anything that you’re saying now fair?” Dominic said bolting up and stalking out of the room.



“He’s right… you can’t punish us just so you look good to the Luna,” Connor sneered, “and you… you think your princess is going to continue being your friend when she realizes what a weirdo you are Tera? She didn’t know how special she is, but once she does, see if she stays friends with you. Don’t you remember back home, when wait what was her name again-”



“That is enough!” I shout standing, Tera looking at her brother, with wide watery eyes, before biting her lip and looking down. “What mom it’s true… don’t you see the house that they are in, compared to ours?” he waves his hands around at the room, rolling his eyes, and leaving the room. My daughters brown hair fell to the sides of her face, as she toyed with her fork, not lifting her head to meet my face nor Tony’s.



“Tera…” she only lifts her head enough to look at me through her eyelashes, “Don’t listen to what your brother is saying. Things don’t make a person; it’s whom you are inside… I know it happened before, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen with Oakley. I happen to believe that she enjoys being your friend and I’m she doesn’t believe that she is better than you.”



She nods turning back to her empty plate, “Did you know that she does advanced school work, compared to Kiley and your self? But she still came when you invited her here,” I added, while Tony left the table to go after the boys. “Kiley was the daughter of someone in charge and they have house like Oakley’s here, but she’s your friend right? Doesn’t make you feel like she’s better than you?” Tera doesn’t answer right away, but after some minutes she nods.

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Chris POV

I woke with a start from my short nap, my heart racing as a bloodcurdling scream sounded in the house, my breathing calming for a minute, as I rise from the couch, stumbling along to go to Kayla. Her cries piercing my heart, a knife with the dullest blade, twisting, as I sprint my way to her room. By the time I open the door slowly, knowing that bursting in wouldn’t help, she was sitting up, crying, heaving, fat tears dropping down her face, as she panted. Her small frame shaking, “Oh, cucciola,” I said feeling someone come in I glanced over my shoulder, to see Rainy, “I’ve got her,” I say and I’m approaching Kayla slowly. Until I’ve reached her and pulled her from her bed, against my body and walked into the large fluffy rocking chair in the corner of her room.

“It’s okay, you’re okay cucciola,” her tears socking my shirt, the bright sun dulled by her window treatments, I rock us back and forth. “You’re here. You’re safe. No one can hurt you Kayla,” I don’t ask if she had a nightmare, I don’t say anything else, I murmur what has become a mantra not just for her but also for my sons, other daughters and Rainy. It’s nearing 10am, but in the last twenty-four hours she’s had two terrors. I can’t call them nightmares, because it’s closing in on the afternoon. She already doesn’t sleep much, getting the odd nap here and there, her body tired and drained; I note the dark circles under her eyes. Although I note the tiredness, night terrors after two hours of sleeping always seem to wake her.

So now, I just rock my child, I don’t mind that she never fully relaxes, that she holds her body rigid for longer than she should with the lack of energy she has. I just listen to her heart, I concentrate on it, as it slows down, and I can’t help but wonder if her lack of sleep is because she’s found her mate. Already dealing with enough, are her thoughts creating more stress now than ever? “Kayla…” I murmur, waiting for something, a hum, or slight push against my front, and when I feel her nod her head I take a deep breath, “Did you know I’m your momma’s mate?” I wait for something, a push, a nod or hum. I don’t get it but I continue, “When you meet your mate, they smell a certain way to you. You like the smell. But do you want to know something else?” I get a slight nudge. “Mates never hurt each other, they can be your best friends. They never make you do something you don’t want to do.” I stressed my main point leaving it at that, not wanting to overload her with information. So I plant the seed and wait. Rocking watching as minutes go by.

Then finally, “Never?” the whisper and longing in her voice, breaks me, but I push that aside, Kayla first. “Never, cucciola. They want to make you laugh, and they want to play and be friends, but never hurt. Never anything you don’t want to do, and just like I won’t hurt you, they won’t hurt you either,” I add on.

After more time, Kayla decides to go outside, exhausted, and very lethargic, she takes her tablet and toy wolf with her. Out of all our children, Kayla, Fiona and Quinn were the only ones that got to go outside, the other their eyes not able to hand the sun just yet were getting used to just being inside the house with light curtains. Kayla enjoyed it here, dressing in her cotton clothes and just being in the warm air, while inside we had the air conditioner on low. I saw the soccer ball on the corner of the porch, snorting as Kayla climbed into the wicker egg pod, of course he left it on purpose, Ben was giving himself a reason to come back.

I couldn’t hold a grudge though, for such a young child, he seemed to gaze at Kayla with care when he thought no one was looking, when Kayla wasn’t looking. I watched him the day before, eyeing her hands, the scars and I could see the questions in his eyes, and even after noting the slight differences in my baby, he still left something here. A reason to come back. “How is she?” Rainy said coming up behind me, Fiona and Quinn trotting behind her, looking around the room, for Kayla I’m sure. It was crazy just how much they stuck to her, but she never got tired of them, she never pushed them away, and she showed them so much love, that the girls always sought their ‘Wawa,’ out. “She didn’t sleep well, tried to take a nap but… she looks… she’s-” she’s outside but I don’t think we can let the girls with her now, she’s too exhausted, I pointed my chin, outwards at the window. Rainy nodded, sitting and pulling Quinn up to her lap, “you ready for lunch?” she asked brightly, I followed her lead with Fiona.



After feeding the girls, and putting them down for their afternoon nap, I kept my eyes out for Kayla on the porch alone, bringing her snacks and a water bottle, watching her fight her sleep, her eyes making me tired. As I went to the sink to fill my glass with water, I notice Ben come up, backpack on his back, paper in his hands, stopping near the pod, holding out a paper to Kayla. He doesn’t come closer, he doesn’t drop his hand, and he keeps his bright smile on his face and blue eyes on her. It’s slow. It’s painfully slow. But eventually Kayla comes form the pod reaching for the paper and opening it, giving me a slight glimpse of a picture of a boat, I hear Ben rambling, gazing at her face.

He takes a few steps back, and then goes off the porch, shifting into a white, wolf, with gray patches and a few taps of black on the points of his ears. His clothes however become a problem, wrapped, tangled and twisted around him, he only makes it worse with each move he makes, until he’s trapped in cloth and can only roll around. I duck out from my spot, heading to the sitting room, still with a view of the porch, waiting to see what happens. “Spying dad?” my sister Lucy teases me, coming over to watch, snorting when she sees the dilemma Ben is in.

But what I’m focused on is the true smile on my baby’s face, the ends of her lips turned up, she glances towards the kitchen, before turning back to Ben. Slowly going down the porch steps. Guarded, her body stiff. “You need to relax,” Lucy murmurs, but I’m both relieved and proud when Kayla stretches her hands to help Ben out of his clothes. I throw my head back in laughter, leaving my spot when as soon as Ben is free he leaps up and into Kayla’s pod. Eventually I leave my spot when I note Kayla crawling back in, resting her tablet against a pillow.

Going to the playroom, I watch Lily have her guitar lesson; its short but calms her and head back to check on Kayla and Ben outside. Hearing nothing, not even the tablet, I peer outside to see Kayla, curled up next to Ben in his wolf form still, fast a sleep as he appears to be. I stand at the window and wavier between going out there and waking her, so that Ben doesn’t witness the terror that is surely going to come within an hour’s time. Her head right on his torso, her wolf toy held against her chest, I note she isn’t as restless, twisting and turning.

I left an hour go by, and begin to make dinner, keeping a careful eye on this, tense as ever when the minutes add up and I know, a terror is going to come. I lower the burner and stand near the door, waiting to jump out there and recuse Kayla at the precise moment. My mom and dad come to the kitchen casting curious gazes at me, as my eyes flicker to the clock and back to Kayla and Ben. I rest back, letting my mom take over the cooking as I waited. Minutes pass by. And two hours turns into two hours and twenty minutes. Dinner is ready and everyone that helps with getting each child food comes to help while I am rooted to my spot. On the third hour I’m gaping, unsure what to do. I had known my daughter for less than six months and I had never once witnessed her sleep longer than two hours without a night terror.

She was in the same spot, her head still on Ben, asleep… longer than I had known her to be. I wanted her to sleep. Knew she needed it. Knew that it would keep us awake, but we didn’t have regular sleeping patterns anyways. I ate my dinner in the same spot as three hours turned to four… as Kayla stretched out, sitting up, rubbing her eyes, blinking and watching her surroundings. Hugging her wolf to her chest, she ran her hands over Ben’s fur, before doing the same to her wolf. Making some noise, I made my way out to the porch; I brought a plate for Kayla, a juice cup as well. “How did you sleep cucciola?” she didn’t speak much, but the small smile on her lips said enough as I lowered the tray. The silverware clinking woke Ben, who shook, went around Kayla, grabbing his bag in his mouth he trotted around the house. A few moments later he returned in human form, a small smile on his red face. Avoiding my eyes, he came up to the first step on the porch, “Thank you for napping with me Kayla and watching Arthur, it was fun. I have to go to Chelsea’s for dinner,” Kayla nodded. “Goodnight,” he said waving ignoring me all together.

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