Chapter 2 A Chat Under The Showers

• Bianca’s POV:
• The showers poured heavily outside after the benediction of the feast. Alpha Ethan stood innocently and waited for his sons and me to get properly acquainted.
• “Do you guys already know each other?” Alpha Ethan inquired calmly, the rain almost shadowing his voice.
• Then, I stretch my arms forward to receive a handshake from either of them.
• “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Bianca,” the one Alpha Ethan introduced as Kel said.
• “A pleasure too, Kel,” I replied.
• Something was absolutely off about how he shook me with gloves. His eyes changed colour within a flash from blue to bright gold while he shook me.
• “Aren’t you guys going to greet her too?” Alpha Ethan questioned his boys.
• “It’ll be absurd if we stood here and let the sky sprinkle its tears of doom on us. I suggest we make legal acquaintances over a nice and warm dinner. Don’t you forget, my girlfriend’s coming over,” Jonah said, getting ready to excuse himself from the gathering.
• Alpha Ethan nodded his head in affirmation after his brilliant son, Jonah, finished speaking. He held up the expression of defeat and made it lucid that his ego was bruised.
• “Okay, that’ll be great, Jonah. Your opinion is vastly better than mine,” he spoke while the boys began walking into the house.
• “There’s a spot reserved for you, Bianca. You know, you’re a part of the family now,” Alpha Ethan said and began walking away.
• “You have to be quick before the food gets cold,” Alpha Ethan said and eventually walked into the enormous mansion.
• I searched for my mother everywhere. The discomfort swirled tempestuously within me with mild intentions of leaving soon. I was quite abashed by my crybaby attitude and convinced myself to take up the challenge of having to see my rivals daily.
• My mother stood between a group of women. They were all laughing at each other’s jokes and hugging warmly. There was something uncanny in the way a woman amongst them touched my mother’s hair: it was the same way my mother stroked my hair. The suspicion I had for my mother flashed a little.
• “Mom!” I called out to her.
• She was so engulfed in exchanging pleasantries with women I presumed she had never met before. It took quite some time before she could notice my drenched blouse and soaked hair.
• “Darling,” my mother called out softly, “Why’re you not in yet? Are you worried about me?”
• “I’m worried about you and myself. I don’t think I’d be able to live with these guys,” I said, gazing at the floor and tapping my foot a little nervously.
• “Bianca, darling,” my mother said calmly, “You do know who your father is and there’s no way I’d let you go meet him again. He threatened to kill us, you know that, right?”
• “It’s not just that. I’ve been haunted by this pack for some time now. I don’t want that to continue happening,” I convinced.
• “Are you sure this is the right pack? The Moon Goddess would never mate me with someone from this pack if she knew that my daughter had been haunted,” my mother said almost indifferently, suppressing a soft chuckle from escaping her throat.
• “I wasn’t born yesterday, mother. I’m very sure this is the right pack. I met the sons,” I tried to convince my mother.
• “I’m sorry, but I can’t question the authorities and fate of the Moon Goddess. You saw it today, the moon goddess bonded me and Alpha Ethan,” my mother said.
• “You can’t question the authorities of the moon goddess but you can question your daughter telling you her experience about certain people. That’s great,” I said with evident sarcasm.
• “No, baby, darling,” my mother flattered, “I care so much about you and you’re the most important person to me in the world, but right now…”
• “Right now, what? You’re gonna keep tricking me into believing how much you’ve always been there for me. Look, Mom, I’ve been there for you more than you’ve been there for me. There’s no damn need to keep blabbing about how wonderful you’ve been to me.”
• “What are you talking about, Bianca?” my mother questioned with furrowed brows.
• “I’m telling the truth, mother. I don’t care how you see it, but to my analysis, everything I’m saying is entirely true,” I said bluntly.
• My mother gazed at me in pity and a little bit of disgust. She wiped away tears that clouded her eyeballs and held her purse up against her shoulders. She nodded severally quietly before turning to leave my presence.
• “What secret was Dad talking about?” I broke the short silence between us.
• My mother turned to me slowly and fervently perturbed by my question. She held her purse nervously and cleaned the teardrops that surrounded her eyes.
• “There’s no secret between your dad and I. He was just being ridiculous, Bianca. You need to forget that,” she convinced with a tear-filled voice.
• “He seemed serious about the secret and you had this look on your face that totally translated ‘fear’. I doubt if that’s a fake secret,” I said incredulously.
• “So, now you trust your father over me? For Christ’s sake, your father had always wanted to molest you. All of his actions were purposeful. He just waited for your eighteenth birthday so he could strike, Bianca,” my mother said and let tears fall freely down her cheeks.
• “I know he would look for you on your eighteenth birthday. Remember he threatened to kill us when we were a distance away from him and your birthday is not far away. He is going to come with an army, a gang. Our very lives are at stake, Bianca,” my mother narrated.
• “I do know about these. But I might not even get to experience my eighteenth birthday while I’m in this house. These guys have tried to kill me tons of times,” I proceeded with my persuasion.
• “Enough with this delusional speech of yours, Bianca. Ethan would never let his kids hurt you if what you’re saying is actually true,” my mother said out of anger and began walking away.
• “Why was that woman stroking your hair in that manner?” I asked irrationally.
• My mother paused briefly, perhaps she was irritated by my question.
• “Seriously? Another ridiculous question,” she said, grimacing and walked as fast as she could.
• The curiosities I had against my mother still floated in the air. Her unwillingness to give me a reply only added to its intensity and my undue assumptions. I grasped the courage to walk into the enormous building that was supposedly my new home.
• I had a decent perspective of where Alpha Ethan had told me my room was. I walked quietly and shivered sombrely towards the mansion.
• It was a blurred figure initially, but as I walked closer to the mansion the figure revealed itself gradually. I prayed to the moon goddess that it wouldn’t be my expectation. Yet my nightmare was all I beheld. The wicked stature right before me was a childhood frenemy who eventually turned into a nightmare named Teresa Oak.
• “It’s been a very long time since we met each other, Bianca Andre. How’s your leg?” she questioned sarcastically.
• “You must be in for more bone-crushing, Bianca.”