Bitter Reality

[~CORAL~]

I wail against mother’s body as she sits with me, holding me down as I poured out the suffocating emotions that threatens my sanity. She just let me pour it all out, not saying a word to me and simply combing her soft fingers through my hair as she plants soft kisses.

“It— it’s not true, right?” I sniffle, my voice croaky and low. I pull out of my mother’s embrace. “Raegan’s isn’t telling the truth, right? He’s just trying to be selfish, right?” I question with a bitter laugh. “I’m your daughter, aren’t I?”

“Coral… Honey, I—” Mother's words clips off and she turns her face away and the possible truth sticks in.

I turn to my father, looking up at him for a hopeful answer. But there’s a look on his face that I can’t properly decipher and he doesn’t meet my eyes either. And I feel my world being blown away like a hurricane.

“This... can’t be happening… how is this even possible?” I mutter. Questioning no one in particular.

“You were found on our land’s boarder,” Father’s deep, potent voice broke through the deafening silence and this time, he meets my gaze.

“Darling—” I hear mother's panicked voice behind me but father stops her promptly.

“It’s fine, honey… our girl deserves to know the truth, now more than ever, it’s the least we can do.” He says, his gaze holds a solid resolve as he holds my gaze. “At that time, there was an active war between our pack and the Red Moon pack and our boarder was attacked… We found you, tucked underneath debris and covered in dirt.”

My lodged breath escapes my lips. “So it’s true then. I was… never your daughter?”

“Flower… you’ve always be our daughter.”

“Why? Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“Honey… it was never our intention to keep any of this from you but we never imagined you’d get mated to your brothers.” Mother explains, wrapping me into her warm embrace. “I’m so sorry, my flower. You’re in so much pain and confusion because we were careless.”

Mother’s tone held a bitter note at the end. She was angry and it was justified because my brothers had been keeping the truth from them for years. And now, because of their selfishness, their secret ended up causing a lot of damage not just to me but to her and father as well.

“It’s not your fault, mother and neither is it yours, father.” I tell them, sharing a look between them before rising to my feet.

I face my brothers again, the three of them had retained their position from where father had knocked them off. “I know, some things are just beyond our control.”

Mother and father let out an exasperated sigh and thereafter, I’m engulfed by their warm embrace. Their scent mixes in to give that comforting, homely feeling. It was a feeling of love and protection and I wanted to keep it close to my heart.

I didn’t want to be anyone else’s child but theirs. I wanted to be with them too; to continue to live like the family we’ve always been.

And that would also mean…

“But still…” My parents abruptly pull apart from me, I could feel the slow bite of tension returning to the room. My gaze find my brothers again, each of their different gazes were filled with the same emotion. “Still…”

My eyes stings again, clouding with fresh tears brewed from their betrayal. The anxiety in the room grew like thunderclouds in the sky. It overshadowed the breaths and steps of everyone including my own.

My family had been wonderful and my parents were exceptional. I love them both and for taking me in and raising me as their own, I love them even more.

I love them all but my circumstance was too much an agonizing burden for me.

My emotions threatens to knock me off my feet again but I hold myself up, one hand holding onto my other arm as though I’d incurred an injury that paralyzed it.

“I can’t accept being their mate.”

“Moonbeam…” Raegan spoke up first through the fit of their awed gasps. “Please, don’t—”

“You lied to me! All three of you!”

“It was Raegan’s fault to begin with. I wouldn’t have gone with it if he hadn’t—”

“I don’t care! I don’t care whose fault it is. You’re an adult, Damian. You're old enough to think and act for yourself! So whether or not it was Raegan’s idea, you’re not a child anymore.” I breathe through my fit of rage, glaring at him. “You accepted it and that makes you just as guilty! So take responsibility for that.”

Damian flinches. Damian’s head drops with a crestfallen expression.

“And you,” I inject sharply, my head snaps to Rune and I glare at him. He throws his face down instantly. “I can’t believe you agreed with this, Rune. I thought you were different,” I sniffle. “But I see now that I was so wrong.”

“I’m sorry…” He mutters.

I shake my head. “Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d say.”

Turning back my attention to Raegan, I find him looking at me like a lost soul. Like he’s soul’s about to be ripped out of his chest… like his world had fallen.

Well, he’s not the only one whose world has fallen.

“Well? You got something else to say to me, mate?” I spit the words like they were venom. The word felt very raw in my mouth. It was one I didn’t want to speak again.

But then Raegan doesn’t say a word and I just felt more bitter. “Of course, you don’t.” I breathe. “I need to leave.”

“Honey…” Mother calls softly and I shake my head.

“I can’t stay here… not anymore. I—”

“We understand Coral,” Mother’s warm voice calms me a bit.

I’m glad she didn’t try to stop me and neither did father. He just stood beside mother, holding her close. His love for her was what I’ve always envisioned to have with my soulmate…

They’ll always be my parents.

Mother takes hold of my face in her hands, pulling me closer, “Take as much time as you need, honey.” She rests her forehead against mine. “I love you. Always. You know that, right?”

I nod, new tears spilling down my face and I smile through it. “I love you too, mother.”

I look up at my father, he was watching us with a gentle glee in his eyes and a small smile on his lips. “And I love you, father.”

Father nods without saying a word. But he didn’t have to because his expression said the words his mouth didn’t speak and I didn’t mind that either.

I look over at my brothers once again. A moment of hellish tension sizzled around us. “I hate you. All of you.”

I snarl and the look on their faces on my last words as I start to walk away from them was heart wrenching.