The Crystal Moon Curse: Book 5: TAKEN

Chapter 32. Lessons

QUILLA

"Are you okay?" Neo slips onto the couch next to me.

"Honestly? I have no fucking clue." I sigh staring out of Viggo's office window with his words spinning in my head.

There is just too much raw truth in everything Viggo says and does to me, I can't deny anymore that it is not only anger stirring in my blood.

Outside Viggo suddenly appears crossing the lawn. My hungry eyes follow his every step. He stops to speak to a pair of epsilons. His lycans are massive even in human form, clad in nothing but fatigue pants with the bare muscles of their chests and abdominals blatantly on display, bulging from every inch of their bare skin. It is completely ridiculous how Viggo overshadows them, both in size and aura. I can only imagine I must look like a damn child next to him.

"Tell me what's wrong," Neo says gently, following my gaze out the window.

"Isn't having my life threatened yet again by some crazed Lycan obviously what's wrong?" I can't help the annoyance in my tone. It's not Genesis. It's everything else around me.

Neo purses her lips at my tone. "Is that all?"

I have a feeling Alphas can scent lies. I haven't been able to get away with a single one since I got here.

Viggo disappears from view and I take a deep breath. My mother's warm, velvety sweet chocolate scent brings me surprising calm and comfort I did not expect.

"Where's Sebastian?" I ask instead of answering her question.

"Your father is with Costas. They are waiting for Viggo." She nods toward the window.

"What's wrong Quilla? I want you to know you can talk to me." I hear the plea in her voice and catch the pain in her blue eyes. I get it. She wants to be my mom, to bond.

I lean forward with my elbows on my knees.

"I would have thought it was obvious." I rise from the couch, a nervous energy suddenly itching under my skin. "Look at me."

I stop and turn holding my arms out wide to show my thrift store Green Day shirt and my department store jeans. Viggo's Rolex glimmers on my wrist mocking my juvenile attempt to annoy him.

"I am not a Queen."

Neo's eyes scan me from head to toe. "Yeah, you look like shit." 

My jaw drops. "That's not very comforting." I snap.

"I've never really been the comforting type," she replies with a wry smile. "I'm your mom, but let's be honest. I have as much experience at being a mom as you do being a Queen."

I take a moment to examine my mother. She's still young and beautiful. Mentally I calculate maybe early forties, but it's hard to guess because wolves age so well. If anything she could pass for my older sister.

"So I guess I don't have any siblings then?" I remark, wondering why I never bothered to ask before.

She shakes her head and sadness flits across her eyes for a second before she smiles gently.

"We lost a pup not long before you were taken and afterward it would have been unfair to bring another into the world when all our attention was on finding you."

"I'm sorry," I whisper, sitting back on the couch next to her.

"You don't have to be. It was a long time ago and Sebastian and I made the right decision for us. Just as you have to make the right decision for you."

I lean my head back on the sofa looking up at the high ceiling. My eyes trace the intricate pattern on the ceiling cornices.

"How do I even know I'm making the right decision? I just up and left the only family I know, and traveled hundreds of miles with wolves I just met, to be with a lycan because he bit me. Nothing makes sense!"