Chapter 18

Eighteen

ALANA

A fter the family gathering and lots of hugs with bogus explanations on my part of where I'd been- I was glad to be finally sitting in Grandma's house in my favorite spot. It was tough fending off my family's questions, but I had told them that I was stranded in a cave system on the beach, which was partially true. My mother had cooked a gourmet meal with the help of my sisters, so I spent the entire day there catching up with everyone while Adam hid out in the basement with his computers.

But now I leaned back in Grandpa's old armchair, drinking hot chocolate and absorbing the smell of the apple pie that Grandma was making in the kitchen. As I sat in the armchair, I watched the sunset from the living room, sitting in wonderful silence.

Alone at last.

Everything that happened to me in the last couple of weeks felt like it was all a dream. I took a sip of the hot chocolate, the sweetness of it settling on my tongue. I couldn't believe I was back home again. I would check on my beloved shop tomorrow. Setting my drink down on the coffee table in front of me, I opened my diary on my lap and began writing:

08/03/14

Dear diary,

I finally found the guy I was looking for. He was a vampire, out of all freaking creatures. Do I still think about him? Yes, I do. He has a hold on my heart that I can't escape. A hold that no one else would understand. He understood the darkest parts of my soul. He was there the night I was attacked. The night we slept together in his tiny bed with the rain dripping into his hut was magical. The way he gently touched me when he realized I was scared of him. And I will never forget the way he caught the shower bucket from falling on me. My heart just beats faster thinking about it.

Lio…where do I start with him? How do I sort out my complicated feelings for him?

If I had never met the vampire- Lio would undoubtedly be my forever mate. Him, Markus and Owen, my forever pack. I would be content. But is that enough? Without James?

"Alana," said Grandma, breaking me out of my writing trance.

"Mhm?" I asked, still trying to write, but gave up, closing the book.

"Here's a little treat to go with your hot chocolate," sang Grandma, handing me a plate with a scrumptious slice of apple pie.

"Oh god, it looks so good," I said, digging into it with a fork. It felt amazing to finally be home and return to normal life as quickly as possible. I had everything in my life under control, and I needed it to go back that way.

"Your parents are thinking about going on vacation," said Grandma, leaning back in her rocking chair and taking a bite of the apple pie with her green tea.

"To where?"

"I think they said, hawayy or something like that," said Grandma.

I was confused for a moment.

"Do you mean Hawaii?"

"Yes," said Grandma. "It's amazing that omegas can travel now."

"But only with their alpha packs," I said, rolling my eyes, and she laughed out loud. The living room was getting darker, so I got up and flipped on the light switch. As I made my way back to the chair, I noticed Grandma staring at my neck.

I braced myself for her question.

"How did you get that mark?" she asked, with her mouth full.

"It's nothing," I said.

"Don't expect me to believe it was some animal like you told everyone else today," said Grandma. "Tell me the truth, granddaughter."

"Well, you wouldn't believe me if I told you," I said, debating whether or not to tell. I knew she was lonely here and wasn't really close to anyone but me.

"Try me," she said.

"It was a vampire," I said simply. "He bit me on the neck."

"Don't play around," she warned. "Are you lying?"

"No, I'm not," I said, conveying honesty in my tone. I took another sip of the hot chocolate. "There's a whole freaking clan of them hiding in the mountains."

Her eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets.

"That's unbelievable," she said. "Vampires are believed to be no longer around. I may be a beta, but I'm not stupid. I've seen a lot growing up on Howl's Edge but not vampires. Tell me what happened to you."

"I didn't have my heat suppressants, so I went into heat," I said, without going into detail about what happened. "Then a vampire helped me escape and dropped me off at the heat clinic."

"Oh wow," said Grandma. "Don't ever tell a soul that you've seen vampires. And you need to cover up that bite mark tomorrow with makeup."

"Why?"

"If anyone ever finds out you were involved with a vampire, the punishment is death," said Grandma, fearfully. "Several years ago, way before any one of us was born, it is said that vampires would steal omegas and use them for their blood. If an omega willingly gave herself to a vampire, she was hanged for her crimes. There isn't anything documented about those creatures, and saying the word ‘vampires' out loud is trouble as it is."

Oh, crap. I didn't know how serious this was .

"I'll be careful," I said, sipping the hot chocolate. "And I definitely won't tell a soul. It's something I want to forget about forever."

Then Grandma leaned forward in her chair, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"Tell me about them. What do they look like? How do they survive?"

And the rest of the evening passed with me telling her everything I could about their eating habits and how they lived. I was fearful of talking loudly, so we whispered in the living room through the night, like we were being watched.

Two-Weeks Later

I was at my shop wiping down the counters with a feather duster. It was a quiet day today, with only a few customers shopping on a Monday. It was a great start to the week, and I was glad to see that nothing had gone awry with me being away. Grandma had handled things well, with the merchandise neatly put away.

As I worked, I tried not to think about what had happened to me and all the knotting I'd had within the past few days. It was time to forget about all that and concentrate on today. But for some reason, I would get lost in thought, constantly thinking about James and where he could be.

"Excuse me," said a customer, and I looked up from the other side of the counter.

"How can I help you?" I asked.

"I have a couple of questions about a piece," she said, walking towards a shelf. As I walked to follow her, a wave of nausea hit me, and I felt the bile rising to my mouth. I tapped Grandma on the shoulder, who was organizing the books.

"Can you please take care of that customer?" I said quickly. Then I rushed to the back of the shop to the bathroom, hurling into the toilet. I gasped for breath, vomiting some more.

Rinsing my mouth in the sink, I wondered if it was something I had eaten. I didn't feel like I had a stomach bug since the nauseous feeling had passed. Splashing water on my face, I looked into the tiny cloudy mirror at my reflection. My face was blotchy, and strands of my hair were loose from my ponytail. I had been feeling more tired recently for no reason, but I attributed it to being taken by several males last month. More than I could count.

But this was worrying. Not enough to set off alarm bells, though.

Later, Grandma met me in the backroom while I sat on a chair, dizzy and feeling sick.

"You don't look well," said Grandma, feeling my forehead. "No fever."

"I've been throwing up," I said, closing my eyes to steady the motion sickness that went through me. She looked worried, sliding over her chair to sit beside me and rubbing my back.

"Take a pregnancy test," she said.

My eyes snapped open in shock.

"There's no way," I said, placing a hand on my stomach. "The heat clinic uses protection."

What if Markus's dream came true, and a condom did break along the way? But if it wasn't the alphas…no, my mind couldn't go there. I couldn't be pregnant with a vampire's child. Or my grandma was jumping to conclusions. There was no way in hell that I was pregnant.

"It's good to be prepared," said Grandma. "I've learned my lesson hiding everything from your mother. She never knew she was an omega, and I hid that fact for a long time until she went into heat. Tiana wasn't prepared at all, and I cried many nights through my guilt. She would have had a choice of her alpha pack, but thankfully things turned out okay for her."

"Mom never told me," I said, surprised.

"She was trapped in the middle of the ocean with four alphas who could think of nothing but rutting her," said Grandma. My stomach twisted, and I suddenly remembered how I was violated when I was sixteen. The innocence that was taken away from me in one horrible night. "She didn't have a choice but to accept, or else she would die."

My head spun thinking of my poor mother lost and trapped on a ship. Clutching her stomach in pain from her heat. She would have understood me if I had confided in her instead of running away from home as a teen. Tears sprung to my eyes at how distant I treated her.

"I need to see Mom," I said, filled with an overwhelming desire to hug her.

"The point I'm trying to make is that you need to be prepared for anything that life throws at you," said Grandma. "Buy yourself a pregnancy test and take the rest of the day off, Alana. I will stay at the shop until closing."

"Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"I've run your shop for many days now, have I not?" she asked, winking at me.

"Of course, you did an amazing job taking care of the shop. See you later then, Grandma."

"Let's hope to moons you're not pregnant, or else things could get a lot more complicated," she said ominously.