We had put some distance between us when I saw Stormie appear in the door. It only took a moment for grandmother to notice her and a moment more before Mia turned to see her. Stormie motioned for both women to approach and soon grandmother had disappeared into the cabin with her leaving the door open and Mia standing near the door listening.
When I saw them disappear inside I turned my attention back to Gammon. I had questions and I really hoped, being as we were practically family now, he would give me answers. I wasted no time at all in bombarding both he and grandfather with my questions. I frequented used grandfather as my go to person when it came to questions a proper Alpha should have answers to, and now, Gammon was going to serve the same purpose. He could insist Alphas need to learn to lead on their own as much as he wanted, I had a weapon to use to get answers now and that weapon was sitting in the cabin, niece to his mate. I would bet my entire territory if Gammon had not already thought of it, his mate would soon ensure he thought of the fact the safer my territory was the safer Gabby would be and the happier Mia would be. I was decades too young for the position of Alpha and Gammon was going to finally help me understand many of the things I would know if I had the years behind me other Alphas have. Even David, raised by our old Alpha, did not receive the training he should have. He father felt he was too young to be taught anything about the position. David picked up a few things over the years, and what he knew he passed to me, but that was scant help.
Grandfather had been a great help over the years, but some things even he was unsure of, he had never held position of Alpha of a pack. He had the ability to be an Alpha, he just did not have the desire, he never had the desire. His mentality was more suited to the position on the council. I asked him once how so many Alpha potential males could coexist on the council and he could not explain it to me in what I considered a satisfactory manner. He had finally given up and just said some people are born to be council members. He guessed something about the oath of office gave them the ability to live as a pack. I personally think he has no idea himself. I am not stupid though, I never told him of my belief.
As I question the two I keep my ears open to what is going on in the cabin. When Gabby finally comes around I move closer to the porch, grandfather and Gammon right behind me. Mia was still staying just out of sight of the door on the porch. The three of us sat on the edge of the porch facing the road just watching and listening. We were not talking now, we did not want to scare Gabby and we did not know how much, if anything she might know about our kind. I thought she must know very little, if anything. Gammon and grandfather had disagreed until I told them about the shopping incident where she did not recognize my wolf as such. After that bit of information both of the men agreed she was ignorant of what we were. Maybe ignorant of what she was considering she had not once asked for help from the Alpha of the territory she invaded.
As we sat an listened to what was happening in the cabin I heard Gammon quietly mutter, “Vampires.” Just before he turned once more to glare at me.
I did not return his look or acknowledge his muttered comment.
Chapter Seventeen
Gabriella
My head is aching. My thoughts are a little fuzzy as I open my eyes. I have had the craziest nightmare. Something about vampires and werewolves and my mother. As I open my eyes I see Stormie’s worry filled face above me. The events of the last few days come crashing down on me. I don’t know if I had a nightmare or maybe I have been sick. That might explain why Stormie is wiping my face with a wet cloth. I struggle to sit up. I dreamed my mother came to the cabin. Since my mother is dead I can be almost certain I have been dreaming. I glance over at my door wondering how Stormie got in my house.
That is when I see her. I don’t know this strange woman in my home but she looks familiar. I can not for the life of me remember where I have met her before. I look back at Stormie. She had helped me up but she has not lost that look of worry, almost fright on her face. The strange lady is holding out a glass to me. I recoil away from the glass.
“It is just water dear, you need to drink it. You have had a dreadful fright.”
The voice sounds familiar also. I look back and forth between Stormie and this strange woman. She looks a bit like Stormie, and a whole lot like Stormie’s mother. She sounds like Stormie’s mother and smells like her also. I reach to take the glass and notice my hands are trembling too much to hold it. The lady, Stormie’s grandmother if I had to guess, gently helps me guide it to my mouth. The dizziness I woke with seems to be fading. Before I can ask if I have been sick the lady speaks again.
“I should introduce myself. I am Tamia. I am Trey and Stormie’s grandmother. I understand my daughter went shopping with you the other day. Now dear how are you feeling?”
I was right about who she was, but I am so confused. This lady does not look old enough to be a grandmother to Stormie. Of course, Stormie’s mother looked too young to be a mother to two grown children also. I shook my head, both Stormie and her grandmother were watching me, waiting for my answer. I searched within me for an answer as to how I felt. How did I feel? Confused? Lost? Certainly both of those, plus a host of other emotions.
Finally I told them, “Fine, I think. I don’t understand what is happening. I had a rather strange dream, I think.”
Stormie looked at her grandmother as though waiting for her to speak. I looked back at the grandmother also. Maybe I could get some answers.
“Oh dear. Perhaps you should tell us about your dream.” The grandmother, no Tamia, suggested. The only problem was, I had no idea where to start. I guess my face must have given my confusion away. Stormie still looked worried but Tamia’s face was calm. That calm was just what I needed, Stormie’s worry was scaring me so I focused my attention on her grandmother.
“I keep dreaming of people turning into wolves and my mother and vampires, no wait, I think, maybe there was not a vampire?” I could not keep the question from my voice.
“Well, what say we start with the dream of your mother? I understand you have a twin sister. Did you know that your mother also had a twin sister?” I did not know this about my mother and the first thing I thought was to wonder how this woman knew my mother had a twin.
“How do you know? Do you, I mean did you know my mother?”
Tamia was shaking her head almost before I finished my question. “No dear, I never had the pleasure of meeting your mother. I have met your aunt, her twin, many times. I did not know until today that she had a twin though. My grandson was worried about what might have brought you to his territory so obviously frightened of other people so he did what any good, um, leader would do. He called in a few favors to try to find your family and he was able to locate your aunt.”
By the time Tamia was done talking I was speechless. Trey, who I had never even met, went to the trouble of trying to find my family for me? He located an aunt? I did not even know I had an aunt and he located her in just a matter of a few days? What kind of power did this one man wield and how did he use it to find my aunt, if that is indeed who he found, when I was not even using my real name. Flashes of memory came rushing in. My mother and two men and a jeep. Stormie’s voice echoes through my memory, “my brother Trey and beside him is Gammon and” that is when my memory catches up and I remember, I remember seeing my mother. As clear as day I remember seeing my mother standing by that jeep.
Cold flashes though my body and from far away I hear, “Oh dear, I think she is going into shock, again. Gabby sweetie, I need you to stay with us. Look at me. Look. At. Me.” The voice, so demanding, calling me back to the here and now.
I focus on Tamia again. “My mother, I saw my mother.”
Sadness radiates from Tamia and Stormie both, I can see it, almost feel it. This time it is not Tamia who speaks though, it is Stormie.
“No, you saw your aunt. Remember grandmother said she was a twin. Identical twin, and she wants so much to meet you. She has been looking for you for oh so long.”
“Looking for me?”
“Well, she was looking for your mom, but she felt her loss so she turned her attention to looking for you. She knew when she lost contact with your mom that she was pregnant with you. Well not you specifically, just pregnant. But since you are you then she was looking for you. But not you. And she did not know your mom was pregnant with twins so she was only looking for one child. But, now you can both look for your twin. And Gammon an Trey can help and then we can be one big happy family.” Stormie would have kept talking I think but her grandmother reached over and placed a hand across her mouth with a long suffering sigh as she did it. I was confused again. I turned to Tamia for answers.
“They will help me find Trina?” The only thing that really mattered was finding Trina. At the back of my mind was a little voice insisting I question how finding my twin would make all of us one big happy family but really, I did not care.
Tamia was nodding, “Of course they will help you. That is what family does. Your aunt, Mia, is outside waiting anxiously to meet you. Do you think you can meet her now, knowing she is your aunt and not your mother? Remember, they were identical twins, so everyone understands your shock at seeing her for the first time.”
Any embarrassment I may have felt about collapsing on the porch melts away with this reminder. I nod, not trusting myself to say anything. The emotional roller coaster I have been on, apparently am still on, is taking more of a toll on me than even the running I have had to do the last few years. An aunt, maybe I can get some answers. Unless, what if this is an elaborate trick? As I think this I remember the lady from outside. She was an exact duplicate of my mother. No one can stage an elaborate trick such as that in the short amount of time I have been here.
I watch Stormie walk over to the door and tell Mia to come inside. I listen as she demands someone “Stay right there. Just Mia.” This, this is why I accepted Stormie as my friend so quickly. She knows I can not handle other people right now. Even with everything going on she is protecting me. I love this new friend of mine.
Even though I have been warned I still gasp in shock when the one named Mia walks through the door. She looks exactly like I remember my mother looking. I have a picture of mother and father. It is in my go bag. I have more than one because I have duplicates of my pictures made. I always have a copy of my family pictures to put in frames when I believe I am going to be staying somewhere long enough to make a place feel a bit like mine. I have had to leave a few pictures behind over the years. But they were duplicates so the only thing that mattered about them is the fact someone would know I have a twin. Well, they would if they knew what to look for but I am not stupid by any means. All the pictures that have both of us remain in my go bag, always. I frame a picture of Trina and put it up, but really unless someone knows us well it would just look like I keep pictures of my parents and Uncle Josh and Nanny and myself. It would not do for the men chasing me to know there was two of us. They may not know it, they may not have seen Trina when they destroyed our house, and I have never taken a chance of them finding out from me.
My eyes go from the lady who just walked in the door to the small frame picture of my parents on the table in front of me. I put there just yesterday when I was puttering around the house. I felt calmer being able to look at pictures of my family and calmness was something I needed these last few days. I look back at the lady, then back to the picture. Tamia and Stormie, watching me, notice the picture. They both gasp, I guess even though they knew, or insisted, that my aunt, identical twin to my mother, was outside they had not realized identical really meant identical. Even the type of clothing my mother was wearing in the picture was similar to what Mia was wearing. Both Mia, and my mother, apparently favored jeans, black boots, and western style button up shirts. The only difference between the two women was the color of the shirt.
I know I look like my mom. Which meant I look so much like this lady standing in front of me I could have been her daughter. She did not really look old enough to be my mom though. Maybe more like an older sister. What is it with all these people looking so young? Before my mind can spiral back into the rabbit hole the woman, Mia, starts talking. Her voice, it was like listening to my mother again. I barely remember my mother but I can hear her voice sometimes. Maybe, I lost my mother so long ago, maybe my mind is just insisting they sound the same though, I don’t know what is real and what is not anymore.
“Oh my God, you look just like your mom. I wish, oh sweetheart, if you only knew. I have looked, we have looked for you for so very long. We did not know if your mom had a male or a female though so that made finding you so much harder. Where have you been? Can I” her voice broke, “Can I hug you?” The tears were streaming down her face as she asked.
My face equally wet, I reached for her. I did not trust myself to speak. She had been looking for me, for us. I had family. I was not alone anymore. Maybe they could help find Trina.
As she held me she told me how they lost contact with my mother. Some of the things she said made no sense but I did not care. I listened to her tell me how my mom and dad had fled a town when some thugs got after mom. Now that sounded so familiar, but I did not interrupt, time enough to tell my aunt I was also on the run from thugs. At some point Stormie and her grandmother had left us alone to catch up. I had not even noticed them leaving as I listened to my aunt sob and cry. I sobbed and cried right along with her as she told her tale. She had been looking for us for longer than I had been alive. I had only been without Trina for almost five years and even that felt like a lifetime. I can not imagine being so long without my twin and then feeling her die and having to continue living and looking for her child. Yet that is what Aunt Mia had done, and was still doing. Because I was only one half of the “child” she had been searching for so long. When she finally finished her story she asked me if I could still feel my twin. When I assured her I could she started crying again and swore they would move the world to find her.
I snuggled in her arms feeling safer than I had felt in years. I finally have family again, an aunt Amelia, called Mia for short because she said her and my mom could not pronounce her name and that was as close as they could get, and an uncle named Gammon. She said I can meet him when I feel up to it, or in a few minutes, which ever comes first. I giggled about that. I don’t even feel worried about meeting him, even though he is a stranger. And Trey, I can never repay him for finding Mia for me. This cabin, these people, the area, and now family made the feeling of coming home greater than ever.
Chapter Eighteen
Trey
Listening to Gammon’s mate tell her tale made me feel for her. And it looked like, unless we could find Trina before I mated Gabby it really looked like Gammon and Mia’s life would be my life. Always looking for a twin with no idea where to look. This was not what I expected when I found my mate. But I would stick by her just as Gammon stuck by Mia.
Maybe, with the information Gabby has about her past, and the resources both our packs have, maybe we can find the missing twin. We have more information now than they had just a few hours ago. Gammon had searched for his mate’s twin for over two decades, but he did not even know where to start. We have a starting place and hopefully the names we need to search. Before that could happen I needed to find out what Gammon and Mia planned to do about Gabby. And what Gabby would let them do. By pack law the closest relatives were responsible for all underage wolves. The law had a few flaws, everyone accepted the flaws. Although I was regretting one of those, the one that put Gabby’s safety in Gammon’s hands. I wanted to be responsible for Gabby. Me and my pack, not Gammon and his pack.
I know the reasons a young female is not entrusted to her mate and his pack until her twenty-first birthday if her mate was from a different pack. I even agreed with the law. But I can also see the situation from the other side. When Stormie was kidnapped I worried I would have to put David down. He went off the deep end, his wolf went a little insane that night while we searched. He would have
stayed at her side from the moment his wolf matched with her, she would certainly have been safe that night. But in many cases the wolf matches well before the female is of age.
The little idiot down the road at Sam’s was proof of how dangerous that could turn out. Well, to be fair, I did not know if he would be a danger to his mate by trying to claim her early or not. But since I did not trust him I would not be taking the chance of finding out any time soon. If the reactions of my wolf are anything to go by then being around your mate too soon can be dangerous. My wolf has been demanding I claim our mate for the last few days. I can not make him understand that what ever has happened to the wolf shifters, whatever has gone wrong, has been devastating in more ways than one. We don’t just lack females, if they are claimed to early they never shift. He would never have his mate if I claim my part of her too soon.
Grandfather, well all the elders I have spoken to and all the research I have done, agree on one thing, losing the wolf of the female by claiming her early is fairly new. If witches existed I would swear someone cast an evil spell on the wolf shifters. But witches, just like fairies, are myths born of stories told to children. As I thought this my thoughts flashed to Casey. I still had not discussed her with Gammon, I needed to make a point of doing that.
Gabby (Safe Haven Wolves Book 1) Page 13
