Chapter 21: Have To Choose Her Family

-Nova-

I had been sent out on a new round to get more drinks. Rhys had just handed me his card as if it was nothing, and I had looked at him surprised before he had gently pushed me in the direction of the bar. Serena had told me she would go with me though, as she saw how nervous I looked. It was clear Rhys was just trying to get me to be more comfortable around everyone, but I was still very cautious. I had been taught my whole life not to trust pack members, and now I was surrounded by them. Not everyone here was from Rogan’s pack, but they certainly did belong to one.

“How are you holding up?” Serena asked as we stood by the bar.

I was shocked at how easily she just talked to me. She wasn’t looking down on me or anything. She really just wanted to know how I was doing. It made no sense.

“It’s … not what I thought,” I said.

Serena laughed and I looked at her shocked.

“You don’t say,” she said.

She waved to the bartender, who soon appeared, and she turned to me, letting me order it all. I was so surprised. They put so much trust in me already … I mean I was a rogue and Rhys had only met me last night, but it didn’t matter. They were already trying to include me. I just … I couldn’t understand it, but I found it almost exciting that they allowed me to do this and let me swipe the card and everything. My brothers were crazily overprotective. I could barely breathe without them allowing me to.

“It gets easier,” Serena said, as the bartender went away.

“It does?”

She nodded.

“How?” I asked, actually interested because, despite knowing I had a mission, I was suddenly forgetting all about it.

“Once you find your place it does,” she said.

“How did you do it?” I asked.

The music and talk were loud, so we almost had to shout to each other. The later it had gotten the crazier it had gotten. More people came streaming in and everyone was just having the time of their lives.

“It wasn’t easy,” she said. “I wanted Rogan dead, but then I realized who the true monsters were.”

“The true monsters?”

She nodded.

“Rogan couldn’t kill me, so he started showing me his world. He showed me all the love and what a family truly meant. I had never thought I needed any of it because I had been taught it was not important, but then I realized it was. I didn’t want to be just another number. I wanted to matter,” she said.

I understood that. I really did, but I already mattered. I mattered to my own family, therefore, I couldn’t be part of this one.

“I know a lot of the other hunters feel the same way,” she said and looked back at our table.

I turned to look the same way, and my eyes instantly landed on Rhys, even though she wasn’t talking about him.

“We have all found a family now and started to allow love to enter our hearts,” she said.

“Didn’t know a hunter could be so poetic,” I teased.

Serena turned to me and we smiled at each other.

“Yeah, I have grown a little soft,” she admitted. “But I don’t mind. Rogan makes me happy, and I wouldn’t change anything.”

“Really?”

She nodded.

“And I trust Rhys,” she told me.

I looked down as she said this. *She shouldn’t*, was all I could think. Not because Rhys wasn’t trustworthy, but because he had decided to trust me … and I could not be trusted.

“And I care about him,” she added.

I just nodded a little.

“Tell me, I don’t have to worry,” she said.

I looked up and saw Serena looking at me with eyes that were so cold now. She had completely changed, turning into the former hunter role, and I knew she did it on purpose. She needed to see through me. She needed to know she could trust me.

“Tell me that Rhys really has chosen the right one,” she said.

“The Goddess chooses,” I said.

“I know, but I know you wolves also have a choice. Tell me he isn’t making the wrong one,” she said.

“You don’t trust me?”

She shook her head.

“I don’t, and not because you are a rogue, but because you are an outsider that I don’t know anything about,” she told me.

“Being a rogue doesn’t matter?”

“It does, but not for the reasons you might think,” she told me.

“What do you mean?”

“I was taught to hate all wolves, it didn’t matter the position. It is therefore different for me. To me, positions don’t matter, it is the person and who they surround themselves with that matters, and you have surrounded yourself with some bad people,” she said.

“It is not like I have a choice,” I said.

“But you do, Nova. We all do. I did too, and I know I chose the right one,” she said. “Even though I had to go against everything I believed.”

“But you didn’t have a family,” I said.

“The hunters were a family in a way,” she said. “And I betrayed them all.”

“It is not the same.”

“Explain it to me,” she said.

I sighed and looked away.

“You can’t.”

It wasn’t a question, I knew she saw through me, and when I turned to look at her again, she was shaking her head disappointed.

“Don’t hurt him, Nova,” she said.

“We are bound to hurt each other,” I said, the alcohol making me a little less careful, and letting some of the truth slip out.

“It is not true.”

“Rogues existed long before the hunters.”

“Doesn’t mean your fate is sealed,” she said.

“It is though.”

She shook her head.

“If that was true, then Rogan and I never stood a chance either,” she said. “You can choose to do it differently. Be the first rogue and pack member that works through this.”

“I am not sure I want to,” I said.

“Why not?”

“We all have expectations to live up to,” I said.

Serena studied me a little. It seemed like she really understood me, but I couldn’t be completely sure. Maybe she just didn’t want to continue to discuss this with me.

“We do, but there has to come a day where we realize the only expectations we should live up to are our own,” she said.

“What if it is my own?” I asked her.

“Then perhaps it was time you lowered them a little. You might be missing out on something good, trying to do everything right. At least what you believe is right. There are always two versions,” she told me.

“I …”

The bartender suddenly appeared with our drinks, and Serena quickly took the tray, easily carrying all the drinks.

“Just think it through, Nova, because if you hurt my friend, then I won’t hold back,” she warned me.

I stood there stunned, as Serena walked away. I knew I had to do this. I knew I had to betray Rhys and everyone because I knew Rhys and the others would never let my brothers live, and my brothers would never allow me to be with Rhys. I had to make a choice, and I knew I had to choose my family. They always came first … right?