The Shadow of a Luna
Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Chapter 16

TESSA POV

As I jumped right into the middle of the battle everything stopped. Everyone looked. They were confused. No one had seen me in my wolf form before. Because I knew that it wasn’t normal. I have always been larger than I should have been. That’s why, even when I wasn’t on wolfsbane, I wouldn’t shift often. And I never shifted in front of other people. But the thought of Tyler going into this battle had me terrified. I couldn’t let him do this alone. I know how my father and Matthias think and act. They play dirty. The first opportunity they would take the cheap shot and both would gang up on Tyler. Just to claim his pack. And they would enjoy doing it.

’Hello daughter.’ Dad said through the mind link.

’I am not you’re daughter.’ I said through an open mind link to my whole pack. My old pack, that is. ’I took your abuse for years just hoping that my real father would come and get me. But he never did. So I was very happy to go with Tyler. And it was the best decision I ever made.’ I snarled.

’What do you mean your real father?’ He asked.

’Angelo Andres.’ I announce and almost everyone gasped.

’The vampire.’ Dad growled out loud.

’Life’s a bitch, isn’t it Daniel?’ I asked. And with that he lunged at me and I attacked him at the same time and we clashed with a thunderous crash.

We both got to our feet and circled each other when suddenly we heard a torturous howl and I felt a tether snap. Not just any tether. It was the Alpha’s tether. Matthias was dead. I didn’t want to look away from Daniel but I also wanted to know what the hell just happened.

Daniel let out a howl and I used that opportunity to look over and Ethan and Wyatt were standing over Matthias. Ethan managed to kill his own father. Finally. And I looked back at Daniel with a smirk on my face.

He looked more pissed then ever and attacked me again but I managed to dodge the attack and sunk my teeth into his flank. He howled out loud, but I didn’t let go when he thought I had. I shook my head with his left shoulder still in my mouth until I felt it break.

He tried to put weight on that leg but he couldn’t anymore. But that didn’t stop him from snarling at me again. This time I lunged at him and I forced him on his back. I was standing over the top of him and I was snapping my teeth right in his face.

’Take a good look dad. This is the last face you are ever going to see.’ I snarled, making sure that I put emphasis on the word ’dad’.

I then sunk my teeth into his throat and shook until his head was ripped completely off his body and I threw it across the yard.

I then stood back and took a breath and I looked around at everyone else. The fighting had stopped. A lot of people had shifted back. Including Tyler. And he walked right over to me and patted my fur on my head and he got to his knees but I was bigger than him when he did that.

"You are beautiful." He whispers in disbelief. I cocked my head to the side and stared at him for a moment until I finally licked up his entire face and I let out a little wolfy laugh. " I am going to get you back for that." He says wiping the slobber off of his face. And I slowly and painfully shifted back. It took longer than other wolves and it was more painful because I didn’t do it often. Not like them.

Tyler looked concerned but when it was over Cade handed him a towel to wrap around me so that I wasn’t naked. All the others had found some piece of clothing to put on. And I was out of breath and sweating a lot after I had shifted back. I then took Tyler by the hand and stood with Ethan and Wyatt in front of everyone else.

"Matthias is dead. Welcome Alpha Ethan Peterson." I announce to the whole pack. And they bared their neck in respect and showing that they accepted him as their new Alpha.

"I will start rounding up the warriors that need to be taken to the dungeon." Tobias says.

"Do you need to do it now?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah. I can already see a couple of them edging towards the woods. Their gonna make a run for it." I say and he saw the men I was referring to.

"I’ll help." Tyler announced. So they both grabbed some trusted warriors and grabbed every last traitorous warrior and took them to the dungeon under the packhouse.

"I guess you’ve got some remodeling to do now." I tell Ethan looking back at the packhouse.

"Yeah. We did a good job tonight, didn’t we? That’s alright, I think it needed a makeover anyway." Ethan smiles at me.

"You’re gonna be an awesome Alpha Ethan. Don’t ever doubt yourself." I say.

"Thank you, Tessa. I couldn’t have done any of this without you and Tyler." He says.

"I didn’t do anything. I was in my bedroom most of the time you were at my place." I say and he laughs.

"You know what I mean." He says.

"I know. I’m actually sorry that I wasn’t there for you more." I say.

Once they rounded up the warriors and put them in the dungeon Tyler came back outside to find me. He grabbed my hand and led me away from everyone else so that we could talk in private.

"So, this has been an interesting night." He says stopping by the tree line.

"Yeah. I know." I say.

"How are you feeling? After what just happened?" He asked.

"You mean, after killing Daniel?" I asked. " You are probably wondering what we were mind linking about before I killed him." I continued.

"It did cross my mind." He says. _{\n(o)v.e\l.com}

"I told Daniel that he wasn’t my real father. I’ve known for years. But if he knew, he would have killed me instantly. My mother took me to meet my real father when I was a kid. I always knew not to mention him in front of Daniel." I explained.

"So, you were left with an abusive asshole who wasn’t even your real father. That is fucked up." He says.

*************************************

When I was 6 years old and I woke to my parents having an argument I quietly made my way down the hallway towards the kitchen and the closer I got the more I heard.

"Over my dead fucking body are you leaving me." My father boomed.

"Why not? The only reason why I am here is as a trophy piece. Someone who is 30 years younger than you." My mother yelled.

"Where the fuck do you think you’re gonna go. You’ve got nothing. You and that little bitch daughter of ours will be rogues." My father yelled.

"We’ll be just fine. You don’t need to worry about us." My mother yelled.

"Oh. So you are a whore. You’ve already found someone else. Haven’t you?" Dad asks.

"Yeah. And he treats me and Tessa a hell of a lot better than you do." She replied. Then he hit her across the face and she fell to the floor.

"You already took my daughter to meet the son of a bitch?" Dad growled. Then mom turned to see me in the hallway and she stood up to usher me off to my room to get changed so I could go and play with Bella.

*******************************

"She was going to leave Daniel and go live with him. But then she died. So, that didn’t happen. I thought he would at least come for me. But he didn’t. I guess my mother and I were a package deal. He didn’t want me if he didn’t have her." I explained. And Tyler put his arms around me to comfort me.

"That’s not all Tyler. There’s more that you need to know about me. I should have told you from the start and I’m sorry that I didn’t." I say nervously and I knew that he could my heart rate pick up.

"What is it? I’m sure it can’t be that bad." He says.

"My father is Angelo Andres." I blurt out. And he pulled back with his hands still on my arms and looks at me for a moment.

"The infamous vampire. The legend?" He asked.

"Yeah. That would him. Another reason for you to reject me. More heat towards your pack that you probably don’t want." I say. But Tyler hangs his head and started shaking it.

"When are you going to realize that I am never going to reject you. I don’t care where you came from. You’re my mate. And if he comes sniffing around then I will treat him like your father unless he becomes an asshole and then we will deal with that when it happens." Tyler says.

"I was really hoping you would say that." I say and he leans forward and kisses me. We were interrupted by someone clearing their throat near us and we both turned to see four men standing there.

"Tyler. This is Ben, Heath, Kai and Cooper. They are Daniel’s kids from his first mate. Before he killed her too." I say.

"We’re Tessa’s brothers." Ben says and I look at Tyler a little guiltily.

"They don’t know either?" Tyler asked.

"They’re about to find out." I say. So I explained the whole thing again to the guys and tell them that we’re not actually related. Their not my brothers.

"So, after all that you can stop feeling guilty for leave me along with a psycho when I was 6 years old, just after my mother died. I wasn’t your responsibility. And I’m not now." I say.

"Weather he was your father or not, we still think of you as our sister." Kai says.

"Well, I’m sorry but I don’t. You did abandon me. You promised to come back for me and get me away from him. But I never saw you again. I never heard from you again. This is the first time I’ve seen you in 11 years. You weren’t there when I needed you. I don’t need you now, so you don’t need to be here now." I say and I grab Tyler’s hand and walk away.

"Tess. Why is it so painful for you to shift?" Tyler asks.

"Because that’s the first time I’ve shifted in years. And I’ve never done it very often to begin with. I always made sure that I was alone because I knew that my wolf was different. Bigger than she should be, stronger. I thought she would freak people out." I say.

"She doesn’t freak me out. I think she’s gorgeous." He says. " But we have to get you shifting a lot more. It almost killed me seeing you in that much pain trying to shift back to your human form." He says.

"Okay. I guess it won’t be so bad now that everyone has seen her." I say.

"Hey guys, we’re gonna start heading back. Are you two coming?" Cade asked.

"Yeah. We’ll be along shortly. We have to figure out how to get there." Tyler says.

"I can shift back and run there." I say.

"Will it hurt?" He asked.

"Yeah. But we might as well start now. It’s going to hurt no matter when we start." I say.

"Good point. Alright, we’ll follow along soon. Right now we just need to say goodbye to these guys." Tyler says.

So Tyler and I head over to the packhouse where Ethan was assessing the damage.

"We can stay to help if you want us too." Tyler says.

"No. You have already done more than enough. You have your own pack to get back to. Just be sure to take care of Bella there." Ethan says.

"I hope you’re not saying that to me." I scoffed. And he laughed when he realized who he was talking to.

"Of course not. I know that you will take good care of her." He says.

So we said goodbye to Ethan, Wyatt and Tobias. And I looked around at my old pack and they were all still standing around helping out with the damage but I saw a lot of them give me sad and pitiful looks because they let the abuse go on for so long.

"Let’s get the fuck out of here." I say to Tyler while turning my back on them. Like they did to me for so many years.

"Sounds good." He says holding my hand and he started heading towards the tree line.

Once we got far enough into the woods I was rather nervous about shifting again. Earlier I was angry and needed to get to my mate. I didn’t care about the pain but it was bothering me now.

I was just starting to concentrate when suddenly the wind started picking up. It started blowing a huge gust of wind around us and Tyler pulled me close to him and held my to his chest.

"Tessssa." Whispered in the wind.

"Who’s there?" I asked looking around. But there was no one around. It was really dark in this part of the woods but it seemed to get darker. Like we were being surrounded by shadows or a dark mist or something. I couldn’t explain it.

"Tessssa. He’s waiting for you." It whispered again.

"Who is?" I asked.

"Angelo." It responded and I looked up at Tyler. Both with shock on our faces.