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Ava’s friends dropped her off at home. They tried to ask her what was going on between her and Jan; she only said he hated her, so she wanted to stay away from him.
When Ava entered her house, she saw her mother waiting for her with dinner.
“Mom? You haven’t had your dinner yet?”
She shook her head and walked toward Ava. “No. I was waiting for you, my daughter.”
Ava felt sorry for her mother She should have come back sooner. She came back to the pack to spend time with her. So she should be with her.
She did not have an appetite to eat anything but still had dinner with her mother. She did not want her mother’s patience to be
wasted.
The next morning,
Ava woke up in her old room. Moving the blanket away from her head, she reached for her phone, which was ringing loudly.
Her eyes were closed. Her brow furrowed when she could not find it. But when her hand found the phone beside her on the bed, she immediately received the call without opening her eyes.
“Mmmm.”
She hummed as she tried to fall back asleep.
“Miss Taylor, you were supposed to be at the meeting, right?”
On the phone, she could hear the voices of the head of her department.
Her eyes flung open.
“Meeting? Oh, yes! I am coming!”
She hurriedly sat up on the bed. But she froze when she found herself in a familiar room.
‘Oh shit! I am in the Mystic Shadow Pack,‘ she thought and sighed.
How could she forget that she came here yesterday? She rubbed her eyes and said,
“I can’t come.”
“What? What do you mean you can’t come? What about the models? They came to the company to—”
“I believe you did not check it or were not informed about it. I am on leave for a few days.”
“Few days? How many days? What about your work? What about the fabric you picked for the new costumes?”
Ava was caught off guard by a slew of questions. She felt a headache from stress.
She enjoyed putting in long hours. She was not a slacker who could simply take a day off and be carefree.
Her mother had called her at a time when she needed to be there in the company. Very soon there would be the annual party where she would have to display her projects.
“Let me see what I can do about it.”
“You have never been so unprofessional before.”
Ava lowered her head. “Throughout the past six months, I have never left a question mark on my work. If I am absent from work, there must be a reason, right? Now if you have any problem with my leaves, you can go and talk to Alpha.”
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Ava hung up the phone and threw it onto the bed. She stood up from her bed and walked to the bathroom.
She did not need to explain her personal life to anyone. The person who should have known where she was was aware of it
When Ava went downstairs to have breakfast with her mother, she was stunned.
Gamma Harper and Stephen had returned home.
Ava came to a halt a short distance away from them.
“She is here,” her mother said.
Ava noticed Harper and Stephen looked at her. She lowered her gaze and stepped toward them.
“Dad,” she mumbled.
Gamma Harper looked surprised to see her. Her mother did not appear to have told him or Stephen about her.
“What a pleasant surprise, Ava!”
Gamma Harper pulled her into a hug.
Ava hugged him back. She experienced the warmth of the father’s embrace. She closed her eyes. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally felt the warmth. Gamma Harper was her stepfather, yet he always welcomed her so warmly. He never let her feel the absence of her own father.
“I miss you, Ava. Your mom missed you the most.”
Ava broke the hug and raised her head to look at him. “I missed all of you, too, Dad.”
Harper smiled at her and said, “I am glad you are back.”
Ava did not want to fade the smile on his face right now. So she did not tell him she would only be here for two weeks. She planned to leave the pack after her birthday.
Ava turned her head and glanced at Stephen, who was staring at her.
She wanted to see the same surprised look in his eyes that she had seen in Harper’s and her mother’s eyes. But Stephen looked different. Instead of looking surprised, he looked disappointed at something.
“Go and hug your brother. He missed you as well. He tried to reach you a lot when you left the pack,” her mother said.
Ava gulped, moving toward Stephen. Without saying anything, she wrapped her hands around him.
“Steph.”
Stephen did not hug her back.
Ava felt upset. She knew he also misunderstood her. That was why he never called her all these years.
“Stephen, now stop being angry with her. See. She is back,” Harper said to him.
Stephen raised his hands and hugged her back. Ava felt that he was forced to hug her. If they were alone, he would not have hugged her back.
“I am sorry, brother,” she uttered.
She felt emotional. She had another brother who she left in the Thunder Howl Pack. Though they were blood–related, Ava never felt the warmth she always felt with Stephen. Perhaps it was because they had accepted each other as real siblings in their hearts.
Stephen grabbed her arms and broke the hug.
Ava met his gaze. In a harsh voice, he inquired,
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“Where have you been, Ava?“”
Her eyes widened. She suspected right. Her brother discovered that she had not been a member of the City Moon Pack for all
these years.
“I–I…”
“What are you saying, Stephen? She was in the City Moon Pack. She directly came here from that pack,” her mother replied with a confused face.
Stephen stared at Ava. Though their parents started to ask questions, he did not move his gaze away from her.
“Did you really join the City Moon Pack?”
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