Filed to story: Rylee the Orphan Luna Novel
“Dad, I’m going to ask you a few questions, and I need you to be honest with me. Can you do that?”
“Ken, you know I have no secrets from you or Keaton. Ask me whatever you like.” No secrets old man? Let’s just see about that.
“Babe, what is going on?” Melody asked. She was still in the dark about all of this, but she had the right to know. I’m 95% certain that Jason was telling Milan about everything as it was happening.
“Dad, you come from a family of Betas, right?”
“Of course. For hundreds of years, the Nesloney bloodline has been Betas to the Blue Lake pack. Just like the Lexington line has been the Gammas,” he answered while pointing to Felix. I looked at Jason’s dad and Ronan, and they too were looking at me funny. I rarely asked questions when it came to our bloodline because I never questioned it. The Valencias were Alphas, Nesloneys were Betas, and Lexingtons were Gammas. No one questioned that, but I don’t think there had ever been a time when a lower-ranked male was mated to a higher-ranked female in this pack. At least not until Melody and I were mated. But hearing that my mother may have been of Alpha blood, being mated to Melody, an Alpha female, was starting to make sense. “Dad, did mom have a rank?” I asked.
“What? Kendrick, of course, she did. She was my mate and my wife. She was the Beta …”
“No, that’s not what I’m asking.”
“I don’t understand, son.”
“I’m not asking if mom was ranked when she became mated to you, I’m asking if she was ranked regardless of you.” His eyes widened and he looked straight at Ronan and Felix, and they too looked at me with wide eyes. “Babe, what is going on? Why are you asking if Lizzy was a ranked wolf?” Melody asked me, shaking my arm.
“Dad answer me. Was mom ranked?” He said nothing again and just stared at me blankly. “Either you answer me, or I’m going to get Rylee out here and have her use her voodoo on you.” That finally registered to him, and he glared at me. “Kendrick, why are you asking me this?”
“Does it matter?” I responded, a little irritated. I knew he was already trying to avoid answering me.
“Yes, it does. You never once have asked about your mother’s bloodline, why are you asking all of sudden?”
“Because I heard something from Wi…I mean Lorenzo, and it got me thinking,” I answered, trying my hardest not to give away someone else’s secret identity. “So, answer my question dad. Did mom have a rank before you two met?” He looked back at Ronan and Felix, and Ronan finally nodded.
“Dylan, I think it’s time we told our kids the truth,” he said to him.
“Daddy?” Melody said to him in shock.
“Pumpkin gather your brother and the others, and your mothers into the conference room. You all need to hear this.”
“Go, angel.” Melody nodded and headed back to the castle. I looked back at my father and the two men who have been uncles to me my entire life, and now one was my father-in-law. I’m already certain that they were going to confirm what Wyatt, Jason, Rylee, and I just heard from William. “Dad, I’m going to get Keaton,” I told him, and he only nodded.
I went to Keaton’s room and tried to think of how he would react to what our dad had to say about mom. My mom was the light of our lives. She was that special someone you couldn’t help but love. That description was probably biased since I was her son, her firstborn son, but she really was so loved. Even though Grace was the Luna, sometimes I felt that pack members favored my mom over her.
Not to say that Grace was a bad Luna, she was definitely a badass Luna, but she didn’t have the suave that my mom did. Grace ordered people around, and she was respected, loved, and feared. My mom was just straight-up loved. People listened to her not because she was ranked, but because they wanted to please her. Almost the same way pack members behaved for Rylee. Rylee was respected, she was feared, and she was loved, just like Grace. But she also had that suave that my mom had.
Keaton was a straight-up mama’s boy. When mom died, Keaton wasn’t himself. He rebelled against our dad, that’s when he really started to sleep around and play with girls’ heartstrings. He started to skip school, party, and drink all the time. Then the whole s**t with Terrine went down. Mom dying really messed him up, but finding his mate put him back on the straight and narrow.
When I got to his room, I tried to open the door and found it locked, and he only locked his door nowadays when he and Irene were getting down and dirty. I tried to mind link him, but I was immediately met with a block. I knocked on his door several times before he finally opened it, naked.
“PUT ON SOME CLOTHES YOU LITTLE s**t!” I roared at him.
“Ken, you have three seconds to tell me why you’re disrupting my happy moments with Irene before I kick your a*s.”
“Drop the attitude, bro,” I enunciate. “Get dressed and bring Irene with you. Meet in the conference room in two minutes.” “Why?”
“It’s about mom.”
“Okay, dad, you have us all here, what’s going on?” Wyatt asked. I looked around the conference room and all ranked members, past and present were, well, present.
“A little while ago, Kendrick and Melody came to us at the dock, and asked a question that I never thought would ever be asked,” my dad said, standing to his feet.
“Dad, what the hell is going on?” Keaton asked impatiently.
“I’m going to tell you, son,” he replied. Keaton looked at me confused and I nodded once to let him know to just wait. Keaton had the tendency of getting worked up anytime anyone mentioned our mom, so he was very attentive. My dad took a deep breath and was clearly deep in thought.
“Dylan,” he opened his eyes and looked at Grace. “It’s okay,” she reassured him. That alone only proved that Grace knew the truth as well.
“So, this is actually happening?” Zoe asked and all of our parents just nodded.
“Kendrick, Keaton, the two of you are not just Betas,” my dad said to us with a heavy sigh.
“What? Dad, what the hell are you talking about?” Keaton asked.
“Keaton let him finish,” I told him, and he shut up again.
“Kendrick, when you asked me if your mother was a ranked wolf before we met, the answer is yes,” he took a deep breath and continued, “your mother was actually an Alpha and a very powerful one at that.” I furrowed my brows at his confirmation of what William told us earlier, and I looked at Keaton whose eyes were popping out of his head. “Kendrick, when we found out that you were mated to Melody last year, we weren’t all that shocked. It’s rare for a ranked male to be mated to a higher-ranked female, but given your mother’s bloodline, it wasn’t surprising.”
“So, you and Keaton are actually Alphas by blood too,” Wyatt said. I looked over at him and he had a smirk on his face. “Just so we’re clear, don’t even try to challenge me,” he said as a joke.
“Or what?” I challenged playfully.
“Or I’ll sick Rylee on you.”
“What!? Oh, come on!” I whined, making the room laugh and snicker. That alone eased the tension in the room.
“Dad, can you go into a little more detail?” Keaton asked once the room settled down a bit. “What do you mean that mom was a powerful Alpha?”
“Son, your mom, she…” he paused and smiled, “she was a very special kind of wolf, but she never wanted that to define who she was. When she finally told me the truth about her lineage, to say that I was blessed was an understatement,” he smiled and looked over at Wyatt. “If you think your mate is special, I doubt she compares to my Lizzy.”
“Let’s agree to disagree, Uncle Dylan,” Wyatt responded and looked over at Rylee with literal hearts in his eyes.
