I hum softly on the back porch, quiety listening to the sound of Sandra singing in the Kitchen.
I sigh and check my phone.
Normally I don’t carry it with me, and end up leaving it in the bedroom, but now I looked at it, turning it on and staring at the screen every few minutes.
Waiting for Hank to call.
But he didn’t.
He still was not answering my calls.
I tried every night to reach him and every night I left the same message.
Are you okay?
Is everything going okay?
Please call me.
“Luna.”
I turn at the sound of the male voice.
I don’t know him, therefore I automatically shrink back, weary of who he is and what he wants.
He takes in my defensive stance, and smiles.
“I have a phone call for you. It’s your father on the line.”
I stare at the male warrior with my mouth hanging open.
“M..my father?”
He cocks his head, confusion on his face, “Yes?”
We both wait in awkward silence until he clears his throat.
“I have him on hold. You can pick up the phone in Alpha Francis’s office…if you want.”
I stare at the male several seconds more before I ask, “Why is he calling?”
“He um…said he wanted to check up on you?”
Lies.
Father wouldn’t do that.
The warrior is giving me an odd look. I stand, trying to appease his worried glance, “Thank you.”
“I can tell him you are unavailable?”
“No, it’s fine,” I wave away the thought.
Walking up the study, I feel a small shiver rise within me as I think what it could be. The scent of Francis’s pine wood and honey though washes over me as I open the door to his office. I sigh.
It was just a phone call.
He couldn’t hurt me anymore.
I cautiously pick up the phone. There is a silence until I whisper, “Hello?”
I hear small noises in the background and then father’s voice whispers into my ear, “Hello Layla.”
I feel my legs give out as I sink into Francis’s chair.
“How are you?”
I swallow, my throat suddenly dry.
“I’m…I um…I’m fine.”
“And how is life as Luna?”
In my nervous state, I grab a nearby pencil and begin to sketch a small figure upon Francis’s notepad. A distraction for my mind.
“It’s fine.”
“Good, good.”
There is a pause in the conversation. I frantically think of what next I can say, but father starts to talk, “I guess you are wondering why I’m calling?”
“Um…yes.”
He sighs into the phone, “I didn’t think it Layla, but I miss you.”
I stop my drawing and stare in surprise at the phone, “What?”
“I miss you. I was calling to see how you were and if…I don’t know…If I could see you?”
Small incoherent sounds are coming out of me as I try to process what dad is saying.
“You miss me?”
“Is that so hard to believe?”
Yes.
I think back to our last conversation. That day in the clinic.
Almost as if he knows my thoughts, dad is sighing again into the phone saying, “I know we didn’t part in the best of ways before you left, and I’m sorry about that. I feel remorseful that that should be your last impression of me. I want to be in your life again though Layla.”
Hank’s words ring through my head like a silent alarm, This is the last time you’ll see her.
“No I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Please Layla. Let me make it up to you.”
I shake my head. He had no idea- still had no clue what was going on within my life and the darkness that was chasing after me.
But then, a silent voice whispers in the back of my mind, you never told him.
“I can’t get a hold of Hank either. Do you know where he is?”
I put my head down on the desk, confusion staining my thoughts on what to do. What to say.
“No.”
“Mmh.”
There is another pause in the conversation before father speaks, “How about this. I know your position as Luna is busy. So I’ll come to you. Tomorrow at noon?”
“Wait father I don’t-,”
“I’ll drive to the Alba Rosa pack. I haven’t even met your mate in person, have I?” Father laughs at the fact.
“Francis is busy-,”
“That’s Alpha Francis, Layla.”
I almost want to yell at him that it’s not Layla but Luna. But I’ve never had that kind of courage against my father.
“Yes,” I whisper instead.
“I’ll meet you at the border.”
“No father-,”
He hangs up before I can finish.
I stare blankly at the phone, looking at it as it lays in my hand.
I don’t know how long I sit there, with my head on the table. It’s not until I’m jolted awake that I realize the room is dark and the windows now hold the picture of the Moon in their frames.
I blink back the suddenness of the lights as Francis switches them on.
“There you are.”
I groan and put my hands over my eyes, shielding them from the sudden exposure.
Francis walks over, lifting me as if I am nothing and softly placing me back down within his lap.
“You drooled on my papers.”
I look away, blushing from the sight.
He laughs though and leans back within his seat, pushing me with him to rest against his chest.
“Why were you in here?”
I blink twice, and again before the memories resurface to me.
I gasp and sit up, Francis following my movements as I turn to frantically face him.
“My father!”
He looks at me alarm, “Your father?”
“He called me!”
“Is he okay?”
I shake my head, “No I mean, my father called me. He said he missed me.”
Francis’s eyes tell me he is not following, so I wave my hands, trying desperately to explain the relationship I had with my dad.
“My father doesn’t call. Or at least, he doesn’t call me.”
Francis again stares at me, not quite grasping it.
“You don’t like your father?”
“No it’s not that, I mean after all he is my father but… argh…”
I sigh, frustrated that I’m not able to express into words my feelings.
“He never really paid much attention to me. He didn’t like it when I started to paint. He always told me to stop.”
Francis shrugs, “Wasn’t that just his way of protecting you?”
I feel my lips tighten as I recall the past.
I wasn’t sure what to tell Francis.
Was that how parents protected their children?
Did they call them failures?31
Did they yell at them, telling them they would amount to nothing?37
Looking at Francis, I wonder if Lori did that to him.
“I guess….I never really saw it like that…”
Francis smiles down at me, leaning back within his seat, “My father is my best friend.”
I smile at his words. They were cute.
Francis glances at me then, “Did you have a best friend?”
Without hesitation I say, “Hank.”
Francis’s’ eyes narrow. “He’s not your friend though. He’s your brother.”
“Hank’s my hero.”
Those blue eyes narrow further as they take me.
“Hero mmh?”
I smile at Francis and lean back against his chest, sighing as I say, “Hank saved me. Hank has always been there for me. I… owe everything to Hank.”
Francis growls into my ear, “Enough about Hank.”
I laugh at that, “It’s true though Francis.”
He sighs, “I know. And I will be forever grateful to him, for saving my mate.”
I turn to face Francis so he can see my smile. He smiles back, meeting my expression. But then I remember the last part of my conversation with my father.
“Oh. Dad said he was coming to see me tomorrow at noon.”
Francis’s eyes narrow, “You’re meeting him at the border?”
I nod.
“I’ll assign Jackson and Sara to you then.”
I nod again. I wouldn’t argue against the protection.
“The patrol guard should be stationed there also.”
“You won’t come?”
I almost wish he could, so that I didn’t have to meet dad alone.
Francis sighs, “I have a meeting already scheduled at that time.”
“Oh.”
I feel his hot breath tickle my ear as he whispers, “But i’ll be here waiting for you.”
I lean back in and smile.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to see dad, if I had Francis by my side.