Chapter 6: The Truth Revealed (Con’t), Ellie POV

Ellie POV

Am I still dreaming? What did I just hear? My entire life has been a lie… My head was swimming with so many thoughts and emotions. I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe. My head felt like it was in a vice; combined with the pounding of something seemingly trying to break through. Every nerve in my body told me to just run away, to not face what Bradley just told me. I had finally started to come to grips with my past, just for life to throw me a curve ball. I was hurt, angry, confused, and frankly I wondered if the witch, Natasha, had slipped me a crazy pill. That thought alone was more believable than me being a white wolf, charged with saving the freaking world! Trying to get a grip on my emotions and to stop the thoughts that were running a million miles a minute in my head, I sat up from my comfy “triplet couch” and walked to the window. I couldn’t be touched right now. I sensed their anguish, seeing me walk away from them but if they tried to comfort me, I knew I wouldn’t be able to ask Beta Brad…no, Alpha Bradley, the questions I needed answered in order to not completely lose my mind. Get a fucking grip, Ellie…you’re stronger than this…

Trying to ignore the hurt on the triplets’ faces, I asked the main question that had haunted me for my entire life, "Who were my parents?” Bradley looked at me with pain in his eyes and said, “They were my best friends. Your father was one of the seven Elders. Your mother was also of Alpha blood, Ellie; you are an Alpha wolf.”

His statement for some reason made me even more angry causing me to burst out, “If they were so strong, how did they die then? No way it was a rogue attack,” I spat.

Bradley took a breath and glanced at me warily, almost like he knew he was about to deliver another blow and was readying himself for my reaction. “They knew about the prophecy. The Oracle had seen that they were going to be attacked by a lesser Alpha, not through honorable means but through deplorable means with the use of poison and wolfsbane. Before you ask, Ellie, yes they could have stopped it but they knew they shouldn’t. They hated the thought of leaving you but they knew if they didn't allow things to play out the way they were supposed to, it would put your life in danger.” They knew?! They fucking knew! Is he joking me right now? There’s always a way…I don’t know if I can handle anymore…

Bradley was right to be wary. That hurt. It hurt more than all of my pain combined throughout my life times infinity.  I must be a sadist because I continued despite the pain, “Who is responsible for their death?” I asked menacingly. Whoever the fuck it was, I would make sure they died a slow, painful death.

“I think you know that answer, Ellie,” he said, taking me out of my vengeful thoughts, “Think about it hard…” he said. Fury grew inside of me as I started to put the pieces together.

“Alpha Max?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Bradley regretfully, “I am so sorry, Ellie. I wish none of this had happened to you. Your parents knew this was supposed to happen and they wanted you to be safe. It was an absolute honor, as their best friends, for Bella and me to take over raising you.”

“What were their names?” I sobbed slightly, “What were they like?”  

“Your father was Alpha Damon and your mother was Alpha Eve, and they were two of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure to know,” he replied.

 Damon and Eve – their names repeated over and over in my mind. I had just learned more about my parents than I'd had throughout my entire life. Part of me wanted to be mad at the Moon Goddess for what she did. But I believed in her enough to know things do happen for a reason. A small voice popped into my head reminding me that had this not happened, I may not have met the triplets. This thought didn’t stop the sobs or the tears which flowed down my face; I turned away embarrassed at my display of raw emotion.

“Do I have any other family?” I asked Alpha Bradley, trying to not get my hopes up. I noticed he quickly glanced at the triplets and saw them mindlinking one another. “Yes…” he confirmed.

I immediately wanted to ask more about this but like always, Bradley read my mind and stopped my line of questioning, “I'm sorry, Ellie, this is one of those things that again you will just have to wait to find out but you've never been alone. You've always had people watching over you and you've always had people loving you. Again, I am so sorry this happened to you,” he finished with tears in his eyes. Taking another big breath, he looked at me and continued, “I have been proud to call you my daughter and I hope one day you will truly be able to see me as your father and Bella as your mother.”

I could feel his sincerity and knew he was doing everything he could to try to protect me; not from a physical threat but from the emotions that were threatening to tear me into a million pieces. After taking a deep breath, I organized my thoughts and cut right to the chase, “So, bottom line, I am the last white wolf and there's some prophecy about me where I’m the one who’s going to stop this great evil from making the end of days happen? Do I have that right?” The triplets and Bradley all responded together, “Yes.” Why do I feel like I’m being punked right now…

 In that moment, the suffocating feeling came back. Despite my earlier attempt at acting strong, I really couldn't stay in that room any longer. I needed a moment just to breathe. Everything I had known about my life was nothing close to the truth. I felt sick to my stomach knowing I had grown up in a pack who’s leadership was responsible for my parent’s murders. I turned quickly and started to walk out of the room but before I could, I was surrounded by my triplet cocoon. “Just breathe, baby girl,” Bronx whispered. “We are right with you,” Benji added while all three triplets leaned down to kiss me on my head. Their touch ignited a feeling of renewed strength and I stood frozen, allowing them to comfort me.

As I calmed my breathing, another question popped into my head, “Why did he kill my parents?”

“You never met her but Luna Mary, Alpha Max’s mate, was long-time friends with your mother. The identities of the Elders are secret, Ellie, to ensure things like what happened to your parents, don’t happen. Alpha Eve made the mistake in telling her their secret. Once Alpha Max found out who your father was, he hatched the plan to kill him to take over his spot. It was all about power, Ellie. After your parents were murdered, Luna Mary ended up taking her own life. In her letter to the Elders, she apologized and said she couldn’t live with being responsible for the death of her close friend. We had hoped, because Alpha Max isn’t the strongest of Alphas, that the death of his mate would have caused him to decline and pass away but it didn’t happen. We think it’s because Hades helped to keep him strong. The important thing for you to know, Ellie, is that they don't know that you're Damon and Eve’s daughter. We need to keep it that way for your safety. So before you hatch any revenge plans, I need you to think strategically about this. If he finds out your true identity, he will either kill you or force the mate bond on you with his son,” Bradley explained.

“How could he not know?” I asked. “I mean, don't I look anything like my mother or father?” I asked, seeing Bradley smiling fondly as if he was picturing my parents in his mind.

“Yes, you have a lot of your mother and father's features. In fact, here is a picture of them,” he said pulling out the photo from his back pocket. “As you can see, while you do resemble them, the one thing neither of them have that you do is the color of your hair…you only share that trait with one other relative.”

I stared at the photo in my hands. It felt like a missing part of me all of a sudden returned back to my body. Through my tears, I couldn’t stop the smile that suddenly appeared on my face. They looked so in love and I was a product of that love. Knowing what they had sacrificed for me, I knew I couldn’t let them down.

“Okay…” I started, pacing the room, “…what do we do next?” I put my game face on and met the gaze of the triplets. Warmth flowed through my body as I saw them look at me with pride. It was one thing to be told you were destined for something. It was a completely different thing to execute it; years of training with Bradley told me that.

“Next, the triplets need to pledge their Guardian Knight oath to you and then we need to prepare for your shift. We have almost two weeks until your birthday and because of Hades awakening, we need to be as far away from this pack as possible when it happens. If not, they will know who you are and they will stop at nothing to get to you,” Bradley said, his game face also in place after seeing I wasn’t on the verge of an emotional breakdown anymore.

Turning to everyone, I squared my shoulders exuding confidence and said, “All right, boys, let's do this.”

Each of the triplets pledged their oaths to me on bended knee one by one, shocking me by kissing me on the cheeks after they finished. Their lips on my skin made goose bumps pop up all along my body and I had to fight the urge to launch myself at them again. While listening to their oaths, I had a slight shock when I found out my last name was Grayson. Yet another missing piece of the puzzle of my life returned to me. Each time, a light would burst from their chest and into mine, indicating another bond had been formed. What was confusing, was their bond to me felt different from Vince's. I could sense so many things stronger through the bond with them versus with Vince.

This new connection to them opened my eyes; the Guardian Knight bond allowed me to know how they truly felt about me.  I was floored with the flood of emotions; the strongest being love, closely followed by desire. I found it difficult to believe they shared the same feelings I did but there it was, right in front of me and I felt my broken heart from my past start to pull together even more. What exactly did this all mean? My feelings for them scared me as thoughts of my upcoming birthday and the potential to find my fated mate came to the forefront of my mind. Would my mate be able to deal with me having a bond to other people like this? I immediately knew they wouldn’t be able to. The Guardian Knight bond was for life. The triplets would always be with me and I wasn’t sure how I could just stop the feelings I had for them. A dark thought passed through my mind of the potential to reject my fated mate to save him from a lifetime of pain and jealousy but then the insecure part of me realized that the triplets’ feelings may change when they met their mate or mates. That thought alone sent a shockwave of pain into my heart. Get it together, Ellie…stop worrying about a future you have no control over…I want them to be happy, even if it’s with someone else.

Seeing the concerned look on the triplet’s faces, I realized they probably felt my internal struggle through the Guardian Knight bond and I made a note to try to figure out how to block it so they wouldn’t constantly be caught up in my rollercoaster of emotions. Pulling myself back to the present, I turned to Natasha for her to do her oath.

Everyone stood with bated breath as we waited to see whether or not the Moon Goddess would accept her pledge. We collectively let out sighs of relief when out of her chest came the bright light, entering mine. I couldn't help but smile at her happiness of being selected. She stood proud with a look of relief on her face that the Moon Goddess had approved of her being with us on this journey. While this was a happy moment for Natasha, I couldn’t help but worry about what the future would hold. The thought of people being so willing to tie themselves to me for life, pledging to give their life in exchange for mine, made me slam back into the real world and the dangers we would face. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt protecting me. I would do everything in my power to ensure that didn’t happen.

I needed to take a break, feeling as if the weight of the world had been placed on my shoulders. The triplets sensed my change of emotions and asked if I wanted to take a walk to the waterfall, our favorite place. Memories from when Alpha Mason cornered me there came rushing back into my mind but I rapidly pushed them away. The triplets told Vince and Natasha to stay back and start planning. Wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive manner, Vince joked, “Are you sure you don’t want me to come along to chaperone?” Seeing the triplets’ glares, Natasha grabbed Vince and said, “Let’s go, Vince, before you find a stake in your chest!”

Bronx cracked a smile at her comment and yelled at their retreating forms, “Focus on figuring out how we are going to fill the remainder of the protection team!” Hearing this, I giggled at the similarity of the plan to select more Guardian Knights to the movie Lord of the Rings where a group of very different people banded together to protect Frodo…oh Goddess, I am Frodo. Still chuckling internally, I admitted to myself I was short enough for the role.

“What’s so funny, babe?” Benji smiled at the amused look on my face. I explained to them my internal joke and then saw their mischievous grins, groaning at my stupidity for telling them.

“Don't you dare start calling me Frodo!” I burst out.  Everyone in the room laughed at me, the loudest of which coming from my triplets. At that moment, despite all of the unknowns and the impending danger, thed sound of their happiness made me feel like everything was perfect in my world.

As we started to walk out of the room, Bronx grabbed my hand in his to stop me, “Ellie, before we go, we want you to know we didn't know about all of this until we went to the Knights League. It would crush us if you thought we were dishonest with you or if you felt like you couldn’t trust us anymore. We were just as shocked as you were when we found out everything. Yes, we have known for the last three years that it was our mission to protect you because of the prophecy…although even without the prophecy, we would’ve still protected you for the rest of our lives. It hurt us to not be able to tell you the truth sooner. Please forgive us. We just didn't want to put you at risk. Please don’t be mad at us. We couldn’t handle that,” he pleaded.

As I stared into his beautiful green eyes, I reached up and softly touched his chiseled jaw. He leaned into my hand as if he were a starving man and my touch was the most delicious food. “I understand and I don’t blame any of you. I feel so blessed to have you three in my life…I honestly don’t think I would be able to do this without you,” I said softly. Turning to look at Baylor and Benji, I touched them the same way and then went up on tiptoe to give them all a kiss on the cheek. This was the first time I had ever touched my lips to any other person. This seemingly innocent gesture lit a fire deep in my core and the feeling of needing to touch them more hit me like a freight train. It didn’t help that I could see their wolves flashing in their eyes at my gesture. I wanted to throw caution to the wind and ask them if they wanted to come out and play with me.

Pulling myself together from my lustful thoughts, I said, “Just bear with me, okay? It's still hard to believe, you know? I'm just one she-wolf. What am I going to do? I really don't know if I'm cut up for this, guys,” I said, allowing my deepest fears to come out to them.

“Ellie, you were born for this. You are strong. You will succeed. And we will be right there with you, we promise you that,” Bronx said confidently, lending me his strength. The triplets wrapped me up again in their protective cocoon, which was rapidly becoming one of my favorite things. As calmness washed over me from their touch, I said, “Let’s take a break from all of the seriousness, okay? I just want to spend time with you all. I really missed you. Home hasn’t been the same without you here.” With a nod, the triplets surrounded me with Benji and Baylor on each of my sides and Bronx walking behind me. While I found their protective stances sweet, my independent “I am woman, hear me roar” part of my personality decided to appear.

Looking back at Bronx, I jokingly said with a smirk, “You know you don’t have to walk behind me, right? If you forgot, I can protect myself…just ask Alpha Mason.”

“Trust me baby, out of all of the positions I could take to protect you, protecting your backside is by far my favorite,” he replied smoothly. As I raised my eyebrow in question to not only his statement but the usage of the word “baby” to me, he continued, “I get to look at one of my favorite sights in the world,” as he landed a quick slap to my backside, making me yelp out in surprise, while Baylor and Benji laughed. My face flushed with embarrassment and anticipation as I remembered there had never been a time when we went to the waterfall that we didn’t get into the water. With the thought of seeing them strip down in front of me, my core immediately became wet and a little shiver of excitement flowed through my body.

“Race you there!” I shouted, catching them off guard. Behind me, I could hear their footsteps as they ran after me. The thrill of the chase was strong and I couldn’t wait to see what they would do to me when they finally caught me.