Lunch with Family[Mike]I had no idea what came over Beth and me, but we were acting like a couple of teenagers who just found out they were mates. Things were hot and heavy in a way we hadn’t been for a few years. I knew it wasn’t her heat, because that was due at the beginning of next month. It was Friday, and we were headed into the human town for a little downtime. I was eager to see my sister and called the night before to see if she and Rock wanted to meet up for lunch. Rock suggested a fae-owned restaurant I hadn’t been to before. Beth was excited about trying something new. He said they wanted to talk to me about something they found out, but didn’t want to talk about it over the phone. I couldn’t understand his caution entirely. I wouldn’t question it, though. Rock didn’t want things leaking to our parents, and they probably didn’t trust the lines in the packhouse. After a little window shopping downtown, Beth and I went to the restaurant. When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw Carmen and Rock waiting by the door. Carmen’s face was to the sun, and she was closing her eyes. For all that I worried about her and her new life, I could see that she looked peaceful. I parked, and we got out of the car. Carmen sniffed as we approached and looked in our direction. She smiled warmly. When we reached them, I put my hand out to shake Rock’s hand and Carmen put her arms out to Beth, who wasted no time hugging her while I shook her mate’s hand. I hugged my sister, too, while Beth hugged Rock. I could see he was being careful with her. “Let’s go in, Carmen is hungry,” Rock said when Beth let him go. “He’s always hungry, so it’s not just because of me.” Carmen laughed. We followed them into the restaurant. It was quaint, with plants in pots that grew as if they were wild. Vines covered the walls, dampening the sounds of the other diners. A young woman came up to the podium and looked at us speculatively after pulling out a menu. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what kinds of menus you all need. We don’t get a lot of shapeshifters in,” she told us. “Three troll menus and one blind troll menu, please,” Rock replied. “Plus one regular menu, shapeshifters eat plants, too.” “Got it!” She smiled and pulled out three more menus. “Any preference where you sit?” “We need a sound obscuring sigil, otherwise I think we’re good anywhere. Do you and your mate have a preference?” Rock asked me. I saw Beth looking over at a table where some flowers were growing on the vines. She loved flowers and I could see that she wanted to sit there. I pointed to the table. “By the flowers, maybe? If that’s okay,” I suggested. Beth smiled at me and bumped me lightly with her body. I took her hand and squeezed it. She knew I was only thinking of her. “That table is open. Come this way, please.” We went with her to the booth that was surrounded by vibrant flowers. Beth and I took the seats where she could look at them, which didn’t seem to bother Rock much. After we sat, the woman handed us the menus. Rock made sure Carmen had the blind troll menu. “I’ll come back with some water for you.” “No. We’ll order and pay for drinks when it’s time,” Rock replied. The woman frowned and walked away. I raised an eyebrow at him. “Accept nothing for free from a fae you don’t know personally. Only fae come to this restaurant. Sometimes the staff can be a little tricksy when non-fae come in. She didn’t mean anything by that she was testing how much I would let her get away with. The line has been drawn,” he explained. I nodded. I didn’t know exactly what her game was, but I’d be careful of free things if I ever came back here without Rock. He set his menu down and leaned over to Carmen. “Blind trolls don’t know braille. Their fingers are too thick and not sensitive enough. All the offerings here have a raised outline and when you touch them, you can taste the thing you’re touching. It’s one of the magics used to accommodate blind fae,” Rock told her. Carmen smiled broadly and touched the menu. She pulled her hand back quickly and covered her mouth with a surprised expression. Rock smiled at her. He really loved her and I could see that in how he treated her. “Beth! Try this,” Carmen said with an awe-filled voice. She handed the menu over to my mate, and Beth tried it, too. I could feel her delight when she touched something. With a grin, she handed it to me and I tried too. The pages were blank with only the raised pictures on them. I touched one and could taste rare flame-grilled meat. It was plainly seasoned, but delicious. “That is amazing,” I replied, and handed it over to Rock. He took the menu and handed it back to Carmen. She smiled at him and started exploring the menu. I couldn’t help but watch my sister. She seemed to be in her element here more than she’d ever been in the pack lands. “How do you know what the items are called?” I asked. “Once you desire something, the name pops into your head like the flavors did,” he answered. We looked over the menus quietly until the waitress arrived. Carmen was confident in her order and I couldn’t help but feel, again, as if this was where she belonged. I’d never gone out with her for a meal off the pack lands. Maybe that was part of it. I didn’t have any actual basis for comparison. None of the restaurants on the pack lands had braille menus. They expected Carmen would be read the menu by whoever she was with or they would order for her, like our parents did. The waitress stuck a sticky note with a design on it on the table before she left to put in our order and get our drinks. As quiet as the restaurant was before, it got even quieter. All I could hear were the people sitting around our table. “That’s a silence sigil. It will keep others from listening in on our conversation. Even the waitress can’t hear us until it’s destroyed,” Rock explained. “You’re being very secretive about whatever you wanted to talk about. I could understand not wanting to talk on the phone or not coming to the pack lands, but this seems a little extreme. What could be so sensitive that even other fae shouldn’t hear?” I asked. “How much do you remember about our grandparents on Dad’s side?” Carmen asked. “Pretty much everything. Grandpa was the Beta for the pack. Our grandparents retired before I was born and died about thirteen years ago. They were on vacation on the coast and died in a freak storm that destroyed the beach house where they were staying and swept them into the ocean,” I replied. They were never as nice to Carmen as they were to me. I got gifts while she got nothing. They came to my big events but barely went to Carmen’s birthdays. She had been eight when they died and mourned as much as the rest of the family and pack did. None of our grandparents were terribly fair to Carmen, but they were more dismissive of her than my mother’s parents were. At least Mom’s parents tried. I didn’t say all of that, though. Now that I was an adult, I didn’t approve of how they doted on me. When I was a kid, I loved that someone paid more attention to me than to my sister. “It turns out that Grandpa Rosen rejected his mate, who was an Alpha’s daughter, and mated with Grandma instead. Dad was supposed to be born a common wolf,” Carmen told me. I stared at her. I had never heard that. I wondered if Dad knew. Then I started making some connections. “How did Dad end up being Beta if he wasn’t supposed to be one?” I asked. Carmen reached out for my hand and I gave it to her. If he wasn’t meant to be a Beta, then that means I wasn’t meant to be a Beta, either. The goddess tried to end our line, but something changed. “The reason Dad hates the fae so much is that it was the fae who made him a Beta. Grandma and Grandpa were supposed to have another child and give it to the fae they made a deal with. A child in exchange for a child.” “But they never had another child…. Carmen….” There was a lot of sorrow in her eyes. She closed them, trying to hide how she was feeling. If a Beta child was born, then the next child who wasn’t a Beta would be owed to the fae. Since I was born a Beta, Carmen was the payment. My grandparents passed the debt on to my father. No wonder he hated the fae so much. He didn’t ask to be the Beta and he was expected to give up his child as payment for his parents’ mistakes. “I was born blind because I was supposed to be a fae healer’s child. They’re blind and would have raised me to use magic to see. I was supposed to be a fae child, but Mom and Dad kept me. Even my werewolf mate wasn’t really supposed to be mine. The goddess only gave him to me to show Dad that a werewolf wouldn’t want me. Rock was always supposed to be my mate,” Carmen said. I couldn’t imagine a world where I wasn’t raised with my little sister. She brought so much brightness into my life and was my confidant when I didn’t know if I could trust my friends. Carmen was the only one who knew our fertility problem was my fault. Beth didn’t want anyone else to know it was me, even though I told her I didn’t care. I had to tell someone, so I told the person I trusted as much as myself to keep my secret. Carmen knew it would be hard, but wasn’t impossible for me to impregnate my mate. “The storm that killed them?” I asked. “They were declared enemy of the fae after Mom and Dad refused to give me up. They were killed by the fae. I’m pretty sure our parents know that, too. I’m sorry to pile this all on you, but you needed to know all of that before I told you the next part.”“What’s the next part?” “The goddess didn’t want our line to continue. That’s why you and Beth haven’t been able to conceive. But the good news is that the goddess made sure there was a way to achieve it. As long as I accepted Rock as my mate and joined the fae community, then you would be able to have children. It all hinged on us showing that we weren’t poisoned by our parents,” Carmen told me. “I accepted that you were Rock’s mate. If I hadn’t then I doubt the goddess would have done that. Even if our children aren’t Betas I’ll be grateful for them.” I pulled my hand back and turned to Beth. “I’m sorry, my love. If I had known….”“What? You would have given your little sister up to the fae so we could have pups?” Beth shook her head. “No, you would have given up the Beta seat, wouldn’t you? You would have let your shame about what your family did stop our pack from having the best beta they’ve had in several generations.” She was right. I would have given up my position if I’d found out. I would give up being Beta before I would give up my little sister. Even then, there was no guarantee that it would have worked. Carmen was forced to live a life that didn’t fit her. She was made to live in a world that wasn’t made for her. The only reason she had a werewolf mate was because of our father. He caused her pain after pain. He basically kept her locked up in the pack lands until she was an adult and put her in the position to have to be rejected. It was selfish, but as Carmen said, I understood. She was his pup and he didn’t want to give her up. When she came back with a mate, he should have, though. That was where I saw him being truly selfish. When his pride was more important than her heart, he wasn’t being a parent anymore. He was being a dictator. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what the right answer would be. I wouldn’t have given Carmen up. I love my sister and I never want to lose her. I would have looked for answers and ways to fix it. I was already thinking of going to the fae healers in hopes of them having an answer that could help,” I admitted. “I doubt they would have been able to do anything. The goddess wasn’t going to let your family keep the Beta seat and this was her way of ensuring it,” Rock said. “Then I would have started looking for someone to replace my child. Harmony Aconitum was born a Beta. Her first child would probably have taken my place. I would have been fine with it. We could have adopted so Beth could be happy. She loves children.” I took Beth’s hand and squeezed it before giving it a kiss. She suffered because of my family and I found myself hating my grandparents for hurting my mate like that. They could have had a second child then my sister and my mate wouldn’t have had to suffer. They treated Carmen like trash instead of someone harmed by their own selfishness.A growl rumbled deep inside me. They never really cared about either of us if they kept this from us and let us pay the price for their deal with the fae. I was betting they didn’t tell my parents until the fae came to collect Carmen, too. My father had no right to be mad at the fae. He should have been mad at his parents. They did this to him, to us. Beth tried to calm me, but I was having trouble because she didn’t deserve this. None of us did. I would place blame squarely where it belonged, though. My grandparents were entirely at fault.“Everything will be alright, Mike. I know that the goddess has a plan and all of us will benefit from it. Carmen has Rock and she’s part of the fae community. You helped with the treaty with the fae and accepted Rock as Carmen’s mate. The goddess knows that we aren’t like them.” “What if our second child is born blind and supposed to go to the fae, Beth? I would never have made a deal to give up our child. What do we do then?” “The fae they made the deal with said she was satisfied with their deaths and with me being Rock’s mate. I don’t think that will happen, but if it does, we can talk to the fae about a compromise. I can adopt your pup and raise it in the fae lands,” Carmen offered. I would feel better if it was Carmen raising our pup. She would understand what it was like to be a blind werewolf. The world of the fae would be more accepting of a blind werewolf. Our food arrived as I thought over Carmen’s offer. I glanced at Beth. She was a little tearful. ‘If it happens, I would rather Carmen raise the pup than a strange fae. I feel better about her being in their community. Our pup would know their aunt and we would have the freedom to come and go in the fae lands. I don’t want our children to have to deal with this. Your grandparents’ mistake won’t be ours,’ Beth linked me. I agreed with her. If that was what the goddess wanted, we would make sure we were in our child’s life as much as possible, but we would honor the agreement so none of our children or grandchildren had to suffer like Carmen, Beth, and I had.