Edena's POV

I've never seen Adrian like this, he always has been a confident person. But now he, somehow seen pretty shaken with something. And I know deep in my heart that it has something to do with the elders and me staying there. I can tell that it's pretty bad from the way he hesitated before like he was scared that I might reject him, that something changed between us in these past days that would make me think twice about us. Though he seems okay now I can't let it slight, I need to erase whatever doubt or fear he has. It has to wait for now as I need to deal with the rest of the family. My confidence that they would be okay got shaken badly after seeing Adrian.

I know I don't have to wait for them to come and true to that dad came within 3 minutes of me calling them. It's really good to have the link back.

We were still standing by the window when dad entered and it was like a blur and then dad was hugging me tightly. I can feel all his emotions on him. They were so strong, the fear that he was feeling and the feeling of failure and disheartened, that I could taste them and it broke my heart further.

"Dad, I'm here, and I'm fine."

"Dad, it's okay."

I called him but he still didn't give me any response, he just kept hugging me. I take a step back despite dad holding me strongly so I could make him see that I'm here and I'm not going anywhere.

"Daddy look at me, see I'm right here and I won't go anywhere."

"I'm sorry baby, daddy failed you. I couldn't protect you back then. I am so so sorry."

"Hey, dad. It was not your fault and I don't blame you at all."

"But I should have done something back there to stop them."

"You know better than me that no one can stop elders, after all, it was you who told me 

everything about them. So, you know you couldn't do anything. and I don't put blame on you or anyone else."

"Eddy, I'm sorry. I....I came to bring you back home but.....but I couldn't find the castle. I tried so many times but I failed every time. I'm sorry, I failed as a brother to protect you.", Kyle said as he hugged me from the back.

"No one failed at anything. No one.", I said while looking at all of them. They all need to understand that they are not at fault here.

"They didn't hurt you right."

"No.", I'm going to leave it to that, they don't need to know everything. Especially now.

"I'm sorry too. If it wasn't for me George (Stephen's brother) and Mark (Alpha) wouldn't have done anything like this."

"Stephen, you couldn't control their action, so you're not to blame here. They are adults who should understand that the world doesn't fit in their rigid image, and everyone has the right to make their own choices. But leave it, you tell me did my stupid brother give you any trouble."

"Well he kinda did trouble me, but I think it's a bit too late to ask Moon Goddess for 'Mate Exchange'. So, I will adjust to what I have."

"Hey, I'm standing right here. And you want to exchange me, you think you can someone good-looking, charming, smart and strong like me. I don't think so, mister."

"I will help you find another one, you are right it's late but we could still try."

"Since you too are picking on Kyle, can I take it as a sign that everything is okay."

"Jay", I said as I hugged him, "I missed you."

"Is it late to say that, don't go anywhere I say I have a bad feeling about?"

"In my defense, you didn't exactly say those words."

"You know what I mean cause I expressed multiple times that I don't want you to go there. But its already done. So, the most important thing, how are you?"

"I'm fine. It wasn't......easy but I got through it and I'm good. You tell me did you take care of yourself or were you too busy thinking about others to notice yourself. You know the usual."

"Well, you know me. But I got someone to take care of me or stop me overworking myself."

"I knew something was different about you. So, you find your mate and why I'm hearing about it so late. shouldn't it be the first thing you say after coming from that door."

He obviously ignored my comment as always and called someone in. oh, she is beautiful and they look good together. I can tell that she is wary to meet me, which means that she didn't have good experience with packs or alphas. So, I have to show her that not all alphas are bad.

"Eddy, this is Raven my beautiful mate and Raven this is my sister and our alpha Edena."

"It's good to meet you, Raven. And it's good to know that someone's here to look after this idiot who remembers everyone except for himself, and I can tell that he is lucky to have someone like you by his side. And that reminds me it's a bit late, sorry Stephen, both of you are not an official member of the pack. I wanted to organize an event to announce it in front of the whole pack but I guess we are still under threat of war, so this has to do. I, Edena..."

"Wait, you are going to let me in your pack without even knowing anything about me. You should know that I'm a rogue and it's okay if you don't want me in your pack after knowing everything, but listen to me first."

"Raven, you are Jay's mate and that is enough for me. And he trusts you and I trust him. So, where was I... oh yeah. I, Edena Crescent Black, alpha of Scarlet Moon pack accepts Stephen and Raven as our new pack member and hope that you both will follow pack rules and if you break any rule you will willingly take punishment given to you."

"Finally...sorry I blame m stupid mate for dramatics. I learn all this from him.", Stephen said while running out with A very angry Kyle chasing after him. These two kids.

"By the way where is the kid? I thought he would be the first one to arrive."

"That kid has grown in your absence and taken the responsibility of protecting everyone on himself and working his ass off on borders. And he said he will come to see you once I go at the borders to free him for his shift.", Jay told me as he took his leave with Raven by his side.

"I should go now, you kids need your time.", dad said as he too left.

I can't believe Tyler has grown this much. I didn't know my absence would have this much impact on all of them. I don't know whether I should be happy by that or scared that what would happen to them if something were to happen to me. It's like bruises that I can see on all of them, some more visible than others.

"You see what your absence could do to us, so you better keep your ass inside the pack border for a long time or.", he said as he wrapped his arms around me.

"Or?"

"Or you would have to deal with some very clingy wolves and a human."

"I don't think I would mind that.", I put a chaste kiss on his lips, "Not even a little bit."

"One: Gross and Two: no PDA."

"Hey asshole, how is it PDA when we are doing it in our office and if you find it gross you should have knocked before coming in.", I hugged him close.

"Never again. I'm never letting you go anywhere remotely dangerous alone. Even if someone wishes to kidnap you, they had to take me with you."

"You really want the poor kidnappers to suffer by committing the biggest mistake of their life, kidnapping both of us together. They would definitely go crazy in a day and return us with some ransom money."

"Not now Eddy. I'm serious, you are never leaving me behind. Never. Or I would do something stupid and then you would have to come back to fix it. And I won't ever talk to you again. Do have any idea how difficult these past days were for me? You know why I spent so much time at the border to make sure that when you enter the pack, I would be there to meet you. So please don't ever leave me behind."

"Promise", I said as I hug him. I know why he's acting like a baby now when he was taking care of everyone like an adult just a moment before. He didn't change, he was always like this, caring about everyone but not showing it. You would only know of his affection toward you by the number of pranks he played on you or who he would follow like a shadow. He likes to act tough and uninterested in things when the reality is that he notices everything, every little change. He notices them all. I did need this training even though I hate it, I need to be strong for my family's shake, we depend on each other for happiness a little too much, so I need to be able to protect them all better.

In the evening we held a little get together with the pack so that they could know that I'm back and I am alright. It wasn't much as they were still wary of attack happening the moment, they let down their guard, but I know he won't be that stupid. I know for sure that he would have found out about my return but he didn't know that elders have left earth for good this time. They are not coming back and I don't think that the alternate council has been formed as no one seems to be aware of such a thing. I think he would wait for a day or two before attacking us so he could perfect the opportunity to surprise attack.

So, all I care about the moment is food, man they didn't feed me well. I had to eat that cold tasteless food daily as I didn't earn the reward food as often as I would have liked. The food in front of me looks like it came straight from heaven.

"Why are you looking at food like it's your one true love? I don't know how I feel about being jealous of the food."

"Because it is my one true love at the moment but baby you don't need to feel jealous of the food as I would come back to you after eating my fill."

"Wow, not sure how I feel about it. Never mind, I wanted to ask you about Tyler. Why was he acting that way?"

"Well, you already know about us four being close all our life. In our gang, Jay and Kyle had a special bond since they were of the same age and had a common interest, while Tyler and I, being younger had to follow them most of the time. Sometime they would include us in their secrets and sometimes they won't which left us with each other that brought us close, so close that people think that we might be mates. After all, we were always together whether getting in troubles or just roaming around the pack. We were inseparable, we used to tell each other everything, thing that we might not want to share with others. But we always knew that we weren't mates and Tyler for some reason had always felt lonely despite having us and a wonderful family. So I stuck with him, so he won't ever feel lonely."

"I never knew that. That's why he was always there at the borders waiting for you."

"Well, it's getting late. We should head back home. We still need to talk about your sorry and lift from where we left it then."

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As you guys know that we are reaching the 'Mating' part so I wanted to ask you that if it would be okay if I don't go in detail. what do you say? (I will take no response as a sign for not going in detail. So please response if you want me to not skip it.)