[Carmen]“A deal my family broke?” Rock explained a little about fae to me and I remembered Queen Maeve telling my parents how important oaths and promises were to the fae. Being an enemy of the fae was just one of the punishments she listed if promises were broken. Some fae would kill over that. “Yes, your grandfather was searching for an answer because someone told him he wasn’t intended to carry on the Beta line of your pack. He was looking for a way to ensure your family kept it,” Sadiya answered. Orella told me my brother couldn’t have a child if I didn’t accept Rock and I wouldn’t have had any Beta children, either. I processed what Sadiya was telling me. My father was born a Beta, but if he wasn’t…. “My father wasn’t meant to be a Beta?” I asked. “No. Your grandfather went against the goddess and rejected his mate. He was in love with someone else. Your intended grandmother was supposed to help carry on the Beta line. She would have added Alpha blood to it and reinvigorated it. Your grandfather was in love with a common werewolf,” she replied. They were killed while on vacation when I was eight. I was always told it was a freak storm. An enemy of the fae was at risk of being killed. That was one of the things Queen Maeve explained to my parents on the phone when they wanted me to skip Rock’s party. My grandparents had been killed by the fae. I knew that now and it filled me with sorrow. Rock gripped my hand tightly. I leaned against him. It was hard to hear, but they did it to themselves. “Are you upset at the fae for their deaths?” she asked. “No. They should have followed through on their agreement, but they didn’t. Werewolves aren’t like humans. We know you can’t break promises to the fae and you probably told them as well.” “Would you like to know what the deal was?” “Please. I will do what I can to get you what you deserve.” “In return for infusing your father with the power of a Beta, I was to have their second child for my own,” Sadiya replied. “A child for a child. A fair trade. Your grandparents were careful not to have a second child, though. I imbued your grandmother with true sight so the child I was to have would be like me.” “And that passed on to you,” Orella answered. “This makes sense.” “When your father had a child, I watched carefully. When a second child was born, I approached him about fulfilling the bargain your grandparents made. He told me they would never give me their child. At that point, I named your grandparents oathbreakers and enemies of the fae.” “You wanted me?”  “You would have been raised in a blind household. My true mates are both blind and we would have known how to care for you better than those wolves did. You are not as powerful as you could have been because of how they treated you. “They kept you from the human town until you were too old for me to take. The goddess let me give this power in exchange for their child becoming part of the fae community. You were created for me,” Sadiya told me. It was like finding out I was adopted or kіdnapped. There was a whole life I never got a chance to experience. Things I was supposed to learn and ways I was supposed to grow. I loved my parents, but they never really understood me. They weren’t the ones I focused on, though. I thought of my friends and my brother. Mike didn’t have all the attention he deserved because of me. I knew my brother loved me, but I wasn’t supposed to be there to take away from him. Ash and Gemma gave up a lot of cool things to hang out with me because I couldn’t do what everyone else could. They missed out on a lot. My parents should have given me up. I was a burden on the whole pack, but I wouldn’t have been a burden on the fae. Rock and I could have been together since I turned eighteen. We lost time together. What else would I have experienced? “Wait, so if my grandparents had another child, they would have been blind instead of me?”“Yes. That would have been my child instead.” “Does that mean I wouldn’t have been mated to Rock? I don’t like that.” I scowled. “I have no idea what the goddess would have done. None of us do. This is how fate worked out. There’s no point in thinking ‘what if?’ and I don’t intend to start. I couldn’t raise you, as I should have been able to. The goddess made sure the fae would get our child in the only way left to her,” she told me. This was a lot of information to take in. I wasn’t meant to be raised as a werewolf. I was meant to be raised as a fae. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand my parents. They wanted to keep their child. The idea of losing my child to a deal I never made was painful. It wasn’t my parents’ fault that my grandparents made a deal with a fae in order to keep the Beta seat in the family. “What does this mean for me now?” I asked. “Nothing. I thought you would want to know the truth of why your parents hate the fae. I wanted you to know you were meant for a different life. I would not have tried to stop you from being with your true mate. I have heard from Queen Maeve about the behavior of your parents. I’m sorry you had to deal with that,” Sadiya said softly. I couldn’t imagine a reality in which I had parents who accepted everything about me and who didn’t try to stop me from being with my mate. I held on to Rock’s large, firm hand. He was grounding me, or I was sure I would have been freaking out. Once, I heard my mother saying they stopped having kids after me because I was blind. My brother was seven years older than me, so I was sure my grandparents had warned them against having a second child. Though I didn’t remember much about them, I did remember that they seemed to love Mike more than me. They never brought me gifts, but they gave Mike presents and little trinkets. I wondered about it, but my father told me it was because my grandparents didn’t know what to give me. I’d accepted it. They were my grandparents and I thought they loved me as much as my friends’ grandparents loved them. I didn’t want to tell them what to give me, because I didn’t want them to think I was greedy. This whole time, my family was hiding this from me. Mike didn’t know. He would have told me. Mike was always honest with me and I knew he would have told me, even if it hurt me… right? How did I even bring this up? It certainly explained why my parents hated fae. If someone told me a deal I had nothing to do with required me to give up my child, I would be mad, too. It wasn’t a good enough reason for them to be cruel to Rock and call him a monster. It wasn’t a good enough reason for them to tell me to reject the only person who accepted me the way I was. It wasn’t a good enough reason to try to take my choices from me. “Orella said I had some troll tendencies. Was that because of the blessing or because Rock was my mate?” I asked. “It was because Rock is your mate. A little of his soul resides in you. We would have recognized it immediately and known you were meant to be the mate of a troll,” she answered. “Your mother didn’t want you to see a fae healer. It was probably because of this. She didn’t want you to know that she kept you away from your fate,” Rock said. “If you were raised in the fae village, we could have found each other earlier…. I would have had you sooner.” “I thought of that. I would have known when I was eighteen. We could have had the last three years together…. But I also understand why my parents didn’t want to give me up. I’m sorry, Sadiya. Is there anything I can do to make up for my family?” I asked. “No. When your grandparents died, my debt was repaid. When you accepted Rock as your mate, you fulfilled the fate the goddess planned for you. Orella is a dear friend of mine and I want her to teach you everything you should have grown up learning. I am sorry I didn’t fight harder for you, but I didn’t think the Alpha of your pack would give you up.” “He would have probably had a hard time deciding what to do. I don’t know if he would have told them to fulfill the bargain or if he would have punished them. My grandparents, too. They were the ones who went against the goddess’ plan,” I told her. “Mike mated with the woman he was fated to be with, though. He is a better Beta than my grandfather and father were. I’ll make sure he knows about this.”“Good. Going against our goddess is never a good idea, but it should also be a lesson to always follow through on your deals with elder beings. Your family was on thin ice, but I find you to be agreeable, despite their refusal to give you to me and their hatred for fae,” Sadiya said with a smile in her voice. “I’m sure the goddess will give your brother everything he deserves as long as he’s anything like you.”“We should leave, sister. I’m sure this has been enough of a revelation for Rock and Carmen. They need time to process and they have not had their supper yet.” I heard the women get up. Rock gave my hand a little squeeze and I let him go. He thanked them for coming, which I guess was okay, and saw them out. After he closed the door, he locked it. He came back to the couch and sat with me again. My mind was blown by all of that. I didn’t even know where to start unpacking everything. “Seers really know how to fuсk up plans for the evening,” Rock said with a scoff. It was such a ridiculous statement that I started laughing. I leaned against him when I couldn’t sit up straight anymore. Rock didn’t tease me about how much I was laughing. Instead, he let me keep going for as long as I needed. When I calmed down, I climbed over him and straddled his lap. I pulled the drawstring on my dress, loosening it under my bust, and pulled it over my head. I didn’t want to focus on this. I had the rest of my life to think about what it all meant. Tonight, was for my mate and me. Every night we had together was special and I wouldn’t give them up to wondering about things I couldn’t change. I’d focus on the past and the future later, all I wanted was whatever he planned for me right now. “Did you want me like this, Alpha?” I asked coyly. “You don’t want to deal with what she just told you?” “No, Alpha. I want to do whatever you want to do,” I replied. Rock laughed and wrapped his arms around me. “Do the ear thing, my little wolf ѕlut. I moved his head to the side and started teasing the lobe of his ear with my tongue and teeth. He moaned as my body pressed against his. I raised myself up on my knees to reach the tip of his pointed ears. Rock’s hands slid down and he massaged my ass as I sucked the tip of his ear into my mouth. “Oh, goddess, little wolf. You’re going to drive me crazy,” he groaned. My breasts pressed against his shoulder. The slightly rough material of his shirt brushed against my sensitive nіpples. It made me even more turned on than before. When I finished with that ear, I kissed down his jaw, to his neck, and gently turned his head the other way. My lips slid back up on the other side of his jaw and I started kissing and nibbling his other ear. I paid special attention to the outer rim just before they trailed off into the long points. I found it was one of the most sensitive spots on his ears, right next to the very tip. After I worked my way up to the tip of the other ear, I sucked it into my mouth. With great reverence, I teased it with the tip of my tongue, flicking and swirling the point at the top of Rock’s left ear. I suckled at the sensitive tip of his ear and I slid my hands down his chest. Inch by inch, I worked my way down his body.“So good. I love you, my little wolf,” he groaned again.Pleased with myself, I backed off and sat in his lap again. Rock’s hands moved from my ass to my waist, but I didn’t move, even though I could feel him hard and ready under me. I would play this game perfectly. “You’re so beautiful when you’re giving me what I want,” Rock murmured.I smiled. I loved it when he complimented me. His hands slid from my waist up to my breasts. Gently, he caressed my sensitive skin. I moaned softly as he teased the stiff tips. “So beautiful and soft.”A blush spread over my face. I could sit here all day, every day, and hear him call me, and my body, beautiful. I was getting wet from the sheer anticipation of what he would do with me.After playing with my breasts for a few minutes, Rock moved his hands down to my waist and lifted me off his lap. I was sad that he didn’t want to stay there longer. I could have stayed there all night.Rock got off the couch, then picked me up and bent me over his shoulder. I managed not to squeal in the transfer. It reminded me of the night we met. This was how he carried me out of the club. This time it was to take me from the living room to the kitchen. Rock laid me on the counter and positioned my limbs until I was posed the way he wanted. “Stay like that while I make some dinner. I don’t want you to move from that position,” he murmured.“Yes, Alpha,” I replied. I listened to him as he cooked our dinner. I was beginning to feel silly, posed on the counter like that. Rock would come over and kiss me from time to time. He carried me to the dining room and we ate while he had me tell him about my training. I was excited to talk about it and Rock seemed excited for me. The rest of the evening was spent talking and touching, but we never had ѕex. It didn’t really matter to me, because I had everything I needed. Rock was with me and he was reassuring me with each little touch. It ended up being a lovely night.