The Alpha's Stolen Luna - Chapter 75: Chapter 75

: Sutton
Motty and I carried the grocery bags to the kitchen and set them down on the counter. She was going to teach me how to make one of her favorite dishes. Courtesy of Chef Nell’s secret recipe. With her approval, of course.
We unloaded everything and got started. It was a time-consuming recipe but I was taking the time to get to know Motty some more. Most of her stories revolved around spending time with her aunt. She didn’t dislike school and it didn’t sound like she had any problems, but at the same time, I didn’t think she had managed to make any close friendships since moving here.
I finally mustered the nerve to ask her the daunting question.
“You said you’ve been here for almost three years now?” I asked as we finished chopping vegetables.
“Yeah, just about,” she replied.
“Do you mind if I ask why came to live with Nell?”
Motty faltered. The knife in her hand slipping and barely missing her fingers. She cleared her throat, recovering as she put the knife in the sink.
“I only ask because I sense that something… painful happened,” I said. “And if you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to. I was just curious.”
“No, no, um… it’s fine,” she said. “It is hard to talk about, but Aunt Nell says it’s good for me. And I hate to say it, but she’s right. I’ve talked to a couple therapists. It has helped.” She swallowed, picking up the next ingredients. “My parents weren’t fated mates,” she began. “In the Hallowed Moon Pack, a female has until she is twenty to find her fated mate. Omegas and other non-ranking members can get away with older but not ranking members or their children. My mother was the daughter of the pack Gamma. Her twentieth birthday came around and… no mate. So, the pack Alpha assigned her one.”
“That must have been hard,” I said. “Are they allowed a say at all?”
Motty shrugged. “It depends on the situation,” she explained. “In this case, not much. She was matched with the Beta’s son. The pairing was announced and the plans for the mating ceremony were underway. Then… then she met him. Her fated mate. He was working for the contractor that was setting up the venue for the ceremony.”
My heart sank to my stomach. I knew what was coming next.
“But it was too late,” Motty continued. “The law is clear. She was forced to reject him. He refused to accept it but it didn’t matter. She was still forced to mate with the Beta’s son, my father.”
“That must have been really hard on her,” I said. “But at least she had you.”
Motty smiled gently. “Yeah,” she replied. “I think having me made things better. For a while, at least. Until my… until my father started cheating. It was terrible… having to watch her experience that.”
“Oh, Motty…” I pulled her into an embrace.
I knew very well what it meant for a lycan to cheat on their mate. The connection of their bond ensured the other party knew. I remembered the horrible pain that shot through my chest the first time Mason had taken a lover. It didn’t matter how I felt about him. He knew what he was doing to me. Motty’s father knew what he was doing to her mother.
She pulled away and went back to cooking.
“My mother put up with it for a few years,” she said. “As long as he was discrete, she wouldn’t make a fuss. She could handle the physical pain, but she wouldn’t tolerate the humiliation.”
“But he didn’t keep that bargain, did he?”
“He did, until he found his ‘true mate,’” she stated.
“Wait, how did that work?” I questioned. “I thought even a fated bond couldn’t form over an existing one?”
“They can’t,” she said. “There was no way he could know for sure they were fated. He just wanted to. Not that it should have mattered. He wouldn’t have been allowed to accept her regardless. But he didn’t care. He paraded her around the pack for months. He even tried to get me to like her. That would never happen.” She shoved the prepared dish in the oven aggressively. “Eventually, my mother couldn’t take it anymore. She had reconnected with her fated mate a couple years before that. Nothing ever happened between the two of them, of course, but it helped her deal with everything to have him in her life. But my father’s blatant disrespect got to be too much. She turned to him for comfort.”
“They had an affair as well,” I commented.
Motty nodded. “My father was furious but what put him over the edge was when he found out they planned to run away together. He wouldn’t let that happen. They wouldn’t humiliate HIM like that.” She scoffed in disgust. “So, he went after them. My father killed her mate right in front of her. Tore his throat out without flinching. It destroyed my mother. She lost control. Killing my father… then herself.”
Motty brushed a stray tear from her. Again, I pulled her into my arms, holding her tightly to let her know I was there for her. I couldn’t imagine how she had gotten through that. Then it hit me…
“Motty, where were you when this happened?” I asked.
She gave me a pained smile. “She wasn’t going leave behind, was she?” she said, confirming my fears that she had been there when it all happened. She cleared her throat again, swiped a few more tears away, and turned back to the task at hand. “Anyway, my paternal grandmother tried to take me in, but I didn’t want that. My aunt fought like hell to get me out of there. She probably saved my life.”
“She’s loves you very much,” I said.
“She does,” Motty agreed.