Chapter 76

Celia

Soren and I stand in front of Donna’s house. I stare at the white picket fence and soft yellow paint color, a small sigh leaving my lips. Soren places his hand on my shoulder and I look up at him, our eyes meeting. He slowly nods, one that I return, and step across the street, moving through the picket fence, and up the stairs.

Just as I am about to knock on the door, it swings open and Donna is standing inside the sanctity of her home, a smile on her face. My body immediately relaxes at the sight of her.

“Did you figure it out, dear?” Donna asks, her voice nothing but soothing and comforting. I smile and nod. “That’s great. Stay right here. I have a gift for you.”

“I can go in and grab it if you want,” I call after her but she waves me away.

Donna is gone for about a minute or two before she comes back down the hallway. Tucked beneath her arm is a small yet thick booklet. I raise my eyebrows and watch as she extends the leather bound book towards me. I take it in my hands and open it up.

“This belongs to you,” she says and rests against her cane. “Your family would have wanted you to have it.”

I flip through the pages and my emotions surge from inside of me. There are countless pictures of me as a baby with my parents and grandmother. It is of us on the road away from the Lycans. Many pictures are at motels and inside of the shared car with my father behind the wheel.

My eyes well with tears and I look up at Donna, a bittersweet smile on my face. She chuckles and opens her arms. I immediately slide into them, leaning down to her height. We embrace each other in a tight hug, remaining there for a few brief moments, before I pull away.

“Thank you so much for this,” I whisper.

“Of course, my dear, I hope it gives you the strength to get through the hardships in your life. If you were able to go through that as a baby, you can get through anything,” Donna smiles. “Have a safe trip, dear. Be sure to visit when you can!”

“We will,” I sniffle, “I promise.”

I turn back down the walkway and leave Donna’s house, finding my way back across the street. Soren sits inside the car, his head perking up as soon as I get into the passenger seat beside him.

“Are you ready to go?” Soren asks. His eyes move to the photo book in my hand before his gaze flickers back up to me.

“Yes,” I nod with a small smile. I finally look away from the book and turn my attention onto him. “Where are you taking me?”

“The Duke offered for us to stay on his land in Lycan territory,” Soren begins. My anxiety spikes but he takes my hand in his, pressing a gentle kiss to my knuckles. “We will be safe there, Celia, I promise. Nothing bad will happen to us.”

“Are you sure about this?” I ask, wanting to double check with Soren if this is truly the next move that we are taking. “There’s so much uncertainty around it.”

“Exactly,” Soren squeezes my hand, “the uncertainty will be like a shield for us. It is a move that Bianca and her rogues are not expecting.”

I slowly nod to myself, turning my gaze away as the car begins to move. It is quiet between the two of us for the first couple of minutes. I reach out and turn on the car radio, filling in the awkward silence.

After awhile, though, my hands begin to wander back to the book that sits on my lap. The pages call for me, wishing for me to open it and to discover the photos and memories that I have never seen before.

The tips of my fingers graze against the leather-bound book. There are a few scratches in the material, the leather worn from the years of being inside Donna’a attic. I open the book once again and a wave of emotions hits me.

I am in a trance with the photos that lay before me, memories that I simply do not remember coming to life in front of my eyes. I am just so happy to know that during a tumultuous time in their lives, my parents kept bright and big smiles on their faces.

“What’s that?” Soren asks an hour into the drive.

I look up at him, one eyebrow raised. He glances down at the book and I nod, chuckling to myself.

“Donna gave this to me,” I answer. “It is a book filled with memories of my family from when I was just a baby.”

“Really?” his tone is genuine and pure. It makes me feel so safe to open up about my past to him.

“Yes,” I nod, “my father, mother, and grandmother left the Lycan pack because they wouldn’t accept my mother as my father’s wife. They wanted a Lycan woman for him since he was a prince. She gave birth to me and they knew they had to leave for my safety. They ran into Donna on the road.”

“Wow…fate can be so unpredictable,” Soren comments with awe laced in his voice.

“I know,” I nod with a smile, “fate has a funny way of showing people exactly what they need in life.”

The car falls quiet. Soren and I look at the road ahead. Neither of us are able to say a word, not wanting to disrupt the peace that surrounds us.

What can I say that hasn’t already been said?

Perhaps Soren deserves more information from my end. We did decide that we are going to give our relationship a chance, that we are going to fight for us and make sure that we make it out in the end. He deserves to know what these pictures mean to me…hopefully he can feel the same way.

“These pictures are a gift,” I nod, feeling my eyes sting with tears, “I lost my parents a little over five years ago. All I had left were pictures and journals and their clothes that they left behind.”

I turn to look at Soren. His green eyes are locked onto mine. There is a look of reverence in his face, something respectful and kind. It urges me to go on.

“I lost them and put the blame on myself for not being able to do something about it. But these pictures? They are a reminder of what they have given up for me so that I will be able to go out and live a normal life,” I continue. I fight back the tears and let out a quiet sigh. “These pictures will help keep them alive in my heart. I…I just want to keep their memory alive. I don’t want them to be forgotten.”

“We won’t let them be forgotten, Celia,” Soren reaches out and takes my hand in his. He squeezes it and reassurance floods across my body. “We will keep them alive and pass down their memories and teachings to those who come after us. I promise you that.”