Rejected, but not Broken
Chapter 83

Gabi’s POV

The time flew by at Red River, and they threw a little BBQ the night before we left to thank us for all we did to help them out and prevent any more deaths from occurring. I will miss several of them, Justin, and his mate Anita, Marie, and Anthony.

I have gotten quite close to him in the last few weeks, and we made sure that he got extra training just for him to be effective in his new role as Beta at River Bed.

He listens and he cares, and he learned quickly, we even taught him some good takedowns and hope he will stay safe in his new ranking.

He is a lot happier now that he got to accept Piper’s rejection. I know the kind of pain that he was dealing with, and he was right, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else.

We had gone to the doctor last week and we have two pups, they said that they looked healthy and that in the next few weeks we would be able to determine their s*x of them.

So, we will be going in two weeks from now, when I am at the land a half month mark to see what we are having. Tanner’s Brother Gavin and Alicia drove from B***d Rose to come and get us, as his SUV was taken back to B***d Rose when we left to come here to train.

Gavin and Alicia also wanted to come with us to spend the night at Crimson Shadow, just in case, as we all knew Taylor would be there.

Stone climbed into the last row and plugged into his music and started playing a game on his phone. It was almost September now, and his 18th birthday would be in the second week of October. I had gotten to spend a lot of time with him after Taylor left and I love him.

He is sweet and calm, and he has had to struggle for years because of Taylor. Apparently, she runs that household and he is the “fixer” now, fixing everything that she messes up. I really wish I could get her out of his hair, but I know our parents still have a blind eye turned towards her about the extent of her behavior.

She has no redeemable qualities, and she has been told she has to straighten up, or she is out on her 18th birthday. I just really don’t think that our parents have clued in as to how bad she really is.

I know that she hasn’t given up on Tanner, she is just laying low right now, and I really am concerned about how far she is willing to go. This is not going to end peacefully.

I may have to kill my own sister, I hope I won’t have that kind of pressure put on me, I am pregnant, and I cannot get into a full-blown fight, but I can’t allow her to hurt me or the pups.

I will end her if my pups are put in danger. That will be unforgivable in my book. As far as I am concerned, she has gone way past acceptable, and she deserves anything that I give her.

Gavin and Tanner are in the front seats and Alicia and I are in the second row. Alicia doesn’t want to go there either, but she would rather her and Gavin be present than we be there alone, just me and Tanner.

She is good with going as a backup for us. She keeps smiling at my stomach, and you can’t really see anything yet. I have to be n*ked for you to see my tiny little bump, but the doctor told me that soon I will be showing in just a short month, and I won’t be able to hide it anymore.

I catch myself rubbing my small little baby bump or speaking to them already. The doctor also told me that they can hear me and Tanner, sometimes at night he lays with his face near my stomach and tells them how much he already loves them. It is the sweetest thing I have ever seen in my life, and I am so excited for them to arrive.

We have four more months to go, but I know this is probably going to go fast and I am excited about it. They are set to arrive around Christmas.

Tanner has already made plans for the room next to ours to be changed up and made into a nursery for them. Aria, Tanner’s mom, did the same thing that Von did, and ordered two top-of-the-line beds for them and was chomping at the bit to help me design the room.

Both the beds are dark wood, and I was waiting until we found out what we were having to make plans for the decorations.

I was going to go to the pack doctor at B***d Rose tomorrow after we arrive there to get put on the schedule for regular appointments. They said every two weeks until I was three and a half months pregnant, and then weekly as they said that Alpha babies grow quickly and that with us both being Alphas, I could have them at four and a half months up to 5 months.

I feel like I am being watched and look into the rearview mirror to see Tanner grinning at me. I smiled back at him and thank the Goddess again for giving him to me. I am so very thankful for him, and I love him so much. Even having to deal with my pain in the a*ss sister over him, because she is clearly delusional. I hope this visit goes quickly and with no problems.

I hope I don’t see her at all, but I will give my parents a second chance. Stone has asked me if it was OK to tell them and I told him, yes, but not to tell Taylor. I don’t need her trying to shove me down a flight of stairs to kill me, or the babies, so the longer she is in the dark about me being pregnant, the safer I will feel around her.

Alicia is happy and telling me about what the pans are for the Luna ceremony and asking me what color dress I want, traditional white dress, or did I want to get one with color which is what some packs are doing with their Luna ceremonies.

I just helped Marie pick hers out, and listening to her talk about how the Luna Ceremony is kind of like a marriage ceremony made sense, as mates we don’t usually do or need the formal ceremony.

She went with a white gown, for both the wedding vibe and to be like a beam of moonlight at the ceremony in respect to the moon Goddess, Selene, to bless the union. I will be doing the same thing.

“I will be getting a white dress, with respect to the moon Goddess, and it gives it a wedding vibe too,” I told her, and she nodded in approval. I think she liked the traditional approach and that I was taking it seriously”.

“I love you being traditional, I am going to do the same thing if I become a Luna, or whatever rank! am mates with. I can’t wait to meet him; I am already 18 and I wish he were here already. I had hoped I would meet him when I turned 18, but it hasn’t happened yet, and I am getting frustrated. I hope I get a good man when I do get him.

One that values and respects me and takes care of me. I don’t want a man-whore. I have prayed about this and if he is a man-whore, I don’t know if I am strong enough to reject him with the mate bond being so strong. I will continue to pray for my mate, I know the Goddess will take care of me” Alicia tells me, and I smile at her, I hope she gets a good man too.

Alicia continues to talk animatedly to me for the rest of the trip, only getting quiet when we arrive in front of the packhouse at Crimson Shadow. We are all quiet looking at the front of the packhouse and no one wants to open the door and get out, not even Stone, who lives here. He is sitting there like he is gaining strength just to enter the doors himself.

I know it has got to be hard living with Taylor, I cannot imagine what kind of stress he is under, living here with her.

We get out and go to the door, I heard squealing coming at us and the door flies open with my mom, Everly standing there grinning widely at me, and my dad, Wyatt is right behind her. They both look really happy and without intending to, I smiled back at them, because I could see how excited they were to have me come and visit.

I can give them another shot at this. I know it was shocking, my visit, as it was shocking to me as well. I didn’t know that they were my birth parents, and it came as a shock to me as well.

I may have overreacted with my behavior because I was hurt that instead of them wanting to spend time with me, and show me that they accepted me, they chose to spend time with Taylor when she lives here. They could talk to her anytime.

I deliberately didn’t give them my cell number, and I refused their calls at Ever Green too. They needed to give me some space to process this, as I know now that Heath and von knew the second that they saw my wolf, to whom I belonged.

I was a little hurt over that too, but they told me that I had just stopped having nightmares over Jack and what he did, and Derek rejecting me. Both of those things took a toll on me, and they didn’t want to reverse the process giving me additional stressful news.

Plus, they felt like they were my parents now, they are OK with me having a relationship with Wyatt and Everly, but as far as they were concerned, I am their child. They didn’t have to give birth to me to feel the amount of love they have for me. I was so thankful to the both of them, they were right, they would have heard the nightmares, and I know that was hard on them too.

I would just take this slowly, and if I don’t feel comfortable meeting them here, because of Taylor. I would just start meeting them at a restaurant between our packs and we could start building up the relationship that way. Because I don’t know if I can ever feel truly comfortable here after all that Taylor has done to me and Tanner.

Everly hugged Stone, and then Wyatt hugged him, and Stone moved past them to set his duffle bag down near the bottom of the stairs. Everly held her arms out to me and I walked slowly towards her and Wyatt and allowed them to hug me together, and it was nice.

This is a good start and I let them hold me for about two minutes until someone cleared their throat and said, “What a heartwarming family moment, that I wasn’t included in”. We all looked up the stairs to watch Taylor walk down the stairs in a very tight outfit.

I can tell by how she was put together that this wasn’t her normal dinner set-up and her parents looked at her and asked, “Are you going out tonight,

Taylor?”.

“No, I just wanted to look nice for dinner is all. I don’t need a reason to dress up, but it is nice to do it occasionally. I loved this new outfit that I picked up at the mall. Do you like it, Tanner?”

Taylor said and gave a twirl, and stopped near him smiling up at Tanner, who rolled his eyes and moved closer to me to put his arm around my wa!st almost like he was protecting the babies from whatever Taylor was about to do.

I saw Taylor look at my stomach, and give it a really hard look like she was trying to see something before she stopped and just smiled faintly and walked off to the dining room. I am worried, she knows, she didn’t look at my stomach when we were here for her birthday party, or at Red River pack.

I see that Stone had noticed what she did too. I am glad because I don’t want people to think I am crazy. But I KNOW that she knows. I walked up to Everly and Wyatt and asked them, “Did either of you tell Taylor that I was pregnant?”

“No, we made sure to keep it to ourselves. Stone told us to not tell her” Everly replied, and Wyatt nodded in agreement.

“She knows, she just stared at my stomach, and she didn’t do that the last time I was here, or the last time she saw me. This is making me very worried. I am sorry, I don’t feel safe staying here, I can’t give her the opportunity to hurt me or the babies. I don’t know if I can stay here” I told them, and they can tell from my anxious behavior that I believe what I am telling them.

They sighed in understanding, and Wyatt told me, “We understand. Maybe we can start meeting you somewhere else for lunch away from here, so Taylor isn’t with, or near us. If that is, OK?

We realized that we didn’t know our daughter like we thought we did, and after what Dawson said to us before you all left the day after the party, we really had to have a good hard look at our behavior, and we didn’t like what we saw.

We have created a monster in Taylor, so we have tightened up on her and we will not let her get away with what she has in the past. We also told her if she didn’t start doing right, that when she turns 18, she will be out of our pack, and on her own.

We have no idea how she will support herself, as we have spoiled her. We tried to overcompensate for what happened to you, by spoiling Taylor. It never helped you, and it created a monster in Taylor”.

I have to agree, but at least they see it now, and they seem to want to spend time with me. She is still spoiled as she made sure to mention her new clothes, but I don’t need a lot of stuff. I have what I need in Tanner.

“I would like to get to know you, and you get to know me. Stone can give you my cell number, but please don’t give it to Taylor. I am sorry, but she has already put me through enough, and I really don’t want to deal with any more from her.

The doctor said I need to watch my stress levels while I am pregnant. So, we can just meet somewhere in between us and here for lunch, if that is OK with you?” I told them.

“Quincy has some good restaurants, and it is almost exactly halfway between here and there, and we can change up restaurants each week if that is good with you?” Everly asks me.

“That sounds good to me, that is a great idea. We can start doing that next week if you want to” I told them. I hugged Stone goodbye and told him that he could give them my cell phone number.

I hugged both of my parents goodbye and they both seemed upset, but I think that they are finally getting just how deceitful Taylor really is now. I cannot put myself in a position to be hurt, or allow our babies to be hurt.

I wave goodbye and see Taylor coming out of the dining room and watching us leave and as the door closes I heard her say, “Why is Tanner leaving?”. She isn’t going to let this go, and my hope for a peaceful resolution to this goes out the window.

She will NOT be letting him go, and neither will. We are at an impasse, and I worry about just how far she is willing to go to try to get Tanner. I need to keep my guard up at all times.