Chapter 31

Derek's POV

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I guess nothing could go fine in my life, even for a day. I was having a hard time handling the happiness that Stacey shared the same feelings for me that I had for her. It was not a one-sided feeling, but all of a sudden, she fell sick.

Though the term 'SICK' was a big question mark on the werewolf community because our immunity was way stronger than humans.

After Stacey emptied all the liquid from her system twice, I brought her to the living room on the couch; if she still wouldn't feel good, then I could take her to the pack doctor.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Mom asked before I could when we saw her wrinkling her nose.

"Please don't my words, Mrs. Randell, but can you just throw away the egg from the kitchen and plan something else for the breakfast because the smell of egg is making me feel like I would puke again."

Was this a kind of smelling disease? Because I clearly remember that she didn't have anything like this problem before. Mom did exactly the same, just as she said, without questioning her unusual request.

"Did you eat something that is poisonous for the werewolf?" Dad asked in concern.

"No. I don't think so.", She replied, shaking her head. "I haven't eaten anything since last night, and recalling the snacks that I ate in the amusement park was something which even Derek has had with me.", She explained.

"You didn't eat anything last night?" I asked, arching my brow.

"Scolding the one who locked himself in the room after coming from the amusement park?" Mom said, raising her brow.

"God, Mom! You shouldn't have said that part in front of her.", I complained, feeling embarrassed that my own mother revealed my little secret in front of Stacey. "You know what? I'm taking her to my room where she can rest for a while and have breakfast over there because I think she can still smell the scent of the eggs coming from the kitchen.", I added.

"Sure!" Dad agreed while mom was giving me a sly smile.

***

"So, even you didn't have dinner last night?", She chuckled after asking me, on which I glared at her.

"But unlike you, I drank alcohol the whole night.", I pointed out, remembering the smell of the alcohol which hit my nose when she was throwing out. "You should stop drinking, you know. I don't remember that you used to drink this much before.", I added, on which she lowered her eyes. I placed my index finger on her chin and made her look into my eyes. "Even though you're a werewolf but, excess of anything is not good for the health."

"I know."

"So, you won't be drinking from onward, right?" I asked, on which she stared at me for a while before nodding her head as far as I knew that she had started drinking this much after Adams left her. Now that she was moving on in her life, then she should leave that bad habit of her behind. "I want to hear the answer in words."

"I won't drink from now onwards until and unless there is be some occasion to celebrate.", She said. I leaned toward her and kissed her forehead. I would have kissed her lips as well, but I heard the sound of someone's slipper, and I already knew who was coming toward my room.

"Daddy," There came my princess after freshening up. "I heard that Stacey is sick. What happened to her?"

Ahh! That question! The answer to that question was unknown to us as well.

"Nothing, sweetheart. Only pack doctor can tell me about that."

"Oh! Then when you are taking her over there?"

"After breakfast.", My daughter nodded her head like my grandmother understanding everything in her own little way. Holding the bedsheet tightly with both her hands, she climbed on the bed and crawled toward Stacey. She sat near her crossing her legs and holding her hand into her little hand in affection, or this was what I thought.

"What did you do?" Stacey asked, narrowing her eyes.

"What happened?" I asked, hearing Stacey questioning Scar. "I didn't see her doing anything."

"No. All of a sudden, my sickness, which I was feeling till a moment before, went away. It seems like that it was never before.", Stacey responded, but her eyes were still on Scarlett. Now after listening to her, my eyes were also on her.

"Scar..how many times…

"I forgot to tell you that Grandma is calling you, and she said that she has to speak something important with you.", She said quickly by cutting me in between to save herself from getting scolded. I growled at her in a low tone, telling her that this topic was not ended.

'Don't worry. I will talk to her.' Stacey's voice rang in my mind.

'Yes, please. Otherwise, she can land into some trouble one day.'

*****

"Is the breakfast ready, Mom?" I asked her after joining her in the kitchen. Before that, I didn't miss seeing that Dad was busy installing Imac in Scar's room. My little daughter had wrapped everyone around her fingers.

"Yes! It is almost ready."

"By the way, Scar was telling…."

"Yeah! I have to ask something important.", She said and turned off the stove once the breakfast was ready. I expected her to ask something important, but she dropped water on all my expectations when she asked, "How close you two are? I mean, do you two have sex until now?"

"Mmmmm," I hissed. "There is something called privacy. We are officially together for barely an hour.", I whispered and yelled.

"You two have sex or not.", She asked again, on which I glared at her. "It means you two have, haven't you?" I didn't answer her for a while but just glared at her.

"I can't believe you.", I finally said in frustration, raising my hand.

"No! No! I'm not trying to pry into your personal life in that way. You both are adults and mature enough to make your own decision on your own. It's just that I think she is pregnant.." I placed my palm over her mouth. However, I was sure that Stacey couldn't hear us but still.

"Don't, Mom. Don't speak that word ever in front of her. Keep your thoughts and assumption to yourself. We all know that she…" I didn't complete the sentence because it was not required to because everyone knew about her infertility.

It was not that she announced it as a piece of good news to everyone, but when Adams left her, he announced this news to the whole pack, and this type of news spread faster than fire.

"But Derek…"

"Please, Mom. Don't be like that mother-in-law or something who will start expecting like this from the first day of marriage because in this case, nothing like that is going to happen in this case."

Immediately mom grabbed my ear, pulling it harshly, "For your kind information, she is my daughter. Back then, when you were kids, we used to stay in the packhouse with Alpha, and just like you, she used to play with me and spend her time with me until your father decided to get a separate place for us. So, you don't have to tell me that how I am supposed to treat my daughter."

"Mom, it hurts."

"And let me clear me one more thing that daughters are the most loved ones or pampered ones compared to sons. So, dare you lecture me about her to me because I know what can hurt her and what can't."

"I get it.", I said, nodding my head. "Now, please let go of my ear.", I requested, and finally, she let go of my ear and gave me a bowl of soup for Stacey.

"Here! Take this.", She said sternly. "And if she still feels sick, then take her to the doctor because there can be only two reasons behind Stacey's sudden sickness. One, I have already told you, and Second, she might have eaten something poisonous."

"Oh, okay!" I nodded my head before taking Stacey's breakfast into my room. When I entered the room, I found her holding a photo frame in her hand, and she was looking at the person in the photo frame carefully while Scarlett was doing something on her phone. I peeked at what she was doing and found her playing games on her phone.

'Kids these days!' I shook my head and then walked near Stacey, who was staring at my mate's picture.

"She is…"; she turned around and pointed her finger toward the picture.

"Scarlett, my fated mate." I told her the truth because she already knew about her. It was just that she had never seen any pictures of her. Her eyes widened in shock when I said that. "What happened?"

"Nothing. I just remembered that I have to finish some of my pending work. So, I should be leaving."

"What pending works?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"It's an Alpha thing you won't understand.", Saying this, she tried to leave, but I blocked her way.

"Try me."

"I…I.."

"I'm not your Beta, Luna! So, I'm sure I will have an idea about the pending work about which you are talking about.", I said in a sarcastic tone. She tried to leave, but I blocked her way again.

'Why do I smell that her reason to leave from here is related to our mate?' Rex said, to which I agreed with him. There was definitely something that she was hiding. Did she know something that we didn't know?

"Let's drop the topic of work for now. Come, have some breakfast first; you haven't had ate anything since last night."

"I…I…" I took my mate's photo frame from her hand and looked at her. It was not that I was giving her place to Stacey in my life. It was just that Stacey had made her own place in my life. After staring at her for a while, I kept her photo frame back in its place.

'You still love her, don't you?', She asked through a mind link.

'I do.,' I said, nodding my head. 'But that doesn't mean that I don't have feelings for you.' I cleared her doubt, if any. It wasn't possible to leave our past completely, not when you have beautiful and amazing memories related to it.

I made her sit on the bed first and then took her phone from Scar's hand.

"Daddy…", She whined.

"First, go and have your breakfast.", I said, showing her toward the door. She pouted and tried her best to convince me with her cute face, but I ignored it. At last, she huffed and jumped from the bed before leaving the room.

"Here!" I forward the bowl full of soup toward her.

"I don't want to have anything."

"In that case, I will have to forcefully make you have it. So, you can decide on your own.", She sighed before taking the bowl in her hand. I heard Scarlett's slipper's sound coming toward my room again. I turned around to see why she was coming here! And was surprised to see her bringing breakfast for me.

"Daddy, Grandma gave this for you.", She said, passing a tray toward me. "So that you both can have breakfast together."

"Thank you, Princess."

"You're welcome."

****

"I should leave now.", She started, leaving after finishing the soup, but I held her wrist.

"You can talk to me about whatever is disturbing you. We are friends, remember?" I said.

"I…I…", She was getting nervous, and for some reason, it was causing me restless because I could feel whatever she was going to say was related to my mate, and it was not a piece of great news because she was acting really weird.

"What is it, Stacey?"

"Iwastheonebecauseofwhomyourmatemetwithanaccident.", She said in a one go. Though I heard it but my mind took a while to understand what she said after breaking one word into a sentence. 'I was the one because of whom your mate met with an accident.'

I let go of her wrist after hearing this. I didn't know how to react to it. Even Rex was completely still back in my mind.

"I'm sorry, Derek. I'm so sorry! She came in front of my car all of a sudden, and before I could have applied break, it was already too late."

"So, you just ran away? Leaving her on the road? To let her die?" I demanded. I wanted to know what did she do next? Fine! I could agree that it was not always the driver's mistake when in an accident. Sometimes, it was the mistake of the other person as well.

"Noooo! That's the point that she didn't die that day. I took her to the hospital just after the accident. But because of excess blood loss, she went into a coma. With the help of my dad, I even found out about her family member and informed about the same to them. As far as I know, that she is still in a coma. She is not dead. Your mate is not dead, Derek. And I'm sure about it because I monthly bear for her medicinal expenses.", She told me.

I didn't believe it to be possible that a few words could ruin my life.

Not that she just met with an accident in Stacey's car, but she was also alive and was in a coma. But her parents told me that she lost her daughter in the accident. I couldn't find out about it because I didn't had mark her then. I just believed them, but why the hell would any parents keep all do all this drama in front of me?

'Until they knew our identity and were scared of our identity.', Rex concluded. But I wasn't sure about that fact because I didn't know whether Linda, our mate, had revealed our true identity in front of her parents or not?

"Where? Where is my mate?" I asked, getting desperate. I was so excited to meet her that I didn't notice the hurt look of Stacey when I mentioned the word 'MY MATE.'

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#TBC