41. The Change

Catherine smiled seeing her son and his mate coming in through the door. "I was just about to check on you guys. I thought you'd spend the whole night outside," she teased.

"Mom." Eden groaned, but there was a hint of a goofy grin on his face.

Marley knew her out-of-breath face, swollen lips, and disheveled hair (all of it the courtesy of Eden) were the reasons for Catherine's amused smile. Eden too was matching her look with his own flushed face and tousled black locks, but then again, unlike herself, he managed to make that appearance look exotic.

"Where are the others?" Marley asked, noting her friends' absence.

"Sanjay is catering to Oliver, and I think Callum is with them to entertain himself." Nicholas answered in a humorous tone. He was sitting beside Catherine, who suddenly turned serious.

"Honey, I think you should talk to your parents," she said, looking at Marley. "They've been worried sick about you. Right now, they are staying with Martha."

[A/N: Martha is the first name of Mrs. Sherman]

Marley immediately felt guilty after hearing Catherine. Among all this chaos, she had forgotten about her parents. For all she knew, her mother and father could be accusing themselves for their daughter's disappearance.

"What they've been told?" She asked, knowing that werewolves must not had told them about her being abducted by a bunch of lycans.

"For now, nothing. All they know is that you're missing." Nicholas replied. "Chief Hopper has been assigned with your case and he's been keeping Steve and Christine busy."

"I should go to them right now," Marley said with urgency. She didn't want to worry them longer than necessary. Almost five days of her disappearance was more than enough for them to loose their minds.

"Of course, but I think first you should freshen up." Catherine's eyes moved up and down, taking in Marley's messy state. "I'm sure if they see you like this, it'll do hardly any good to reassure them."

Marley suddenly became aware of her used-to-be-yellow dress which was torn at few places and splattered with mud, blood, and whatnot. She was sure that she also smelled horrible to these wolves.

*Had Eden been smooching and licking her all this time when she looked and smelled so disgusting?* Marley thought and looked at Eden perplexed. Her mate returned her gaze with the raised eyebrows asking her 'what?'. Marley just shook her head before turning back to Catherine.

"Let's find you some good clothes. Also, Ethan will be so excited to see you again. He missed you a lot." Catherine grinned, and stood up. Within a second, she was beside Marley, their hands already clasped together. "My son dearest, I'm afraid now you've to let go of your mate." She chirped looking at Eden before snatching his mate from him.

Eden sighed, rolling his eyes, which earned him a light smack on the back of the head.

Before the Alpha could retort, Catherine was already walking out of the door to their house, taking Marley along with her.

******

"Marley, are you sure that's what you want to tell them?" Eden asked as his father parked the car on Mrs. Sherman's house driveway. "You're going to put all the blame on yourself."

Catherine and Nicholas got out silently, giving space to the young couple at the backseat.

"Yes." Marley nodded. "It's better than telling them that their daughter had been kidnapped by some supernatural beings... Ooh, and also her boyfriend can change into a giant wolf and lives with a pack."

Once again, a pang of guilt clenched the inside of Eden. He still felt at fault for not being able to protect his mate. He couldn't help but blame himself for all the trauma that Marley had to go through.

Marley saw right through Eden's frown.

"Eden." She whispered softly, wrapping her both hands around his big calloused one. She cursed herself mentally for her mindless ramble. "You have to let it go. I'm saying it again, 'it wasn't your fault'. You couldn't have prevented it, so just let it go."

Eden smiled, kissing the back of her hand. His mate was seeming to get better at reading his thoughts. "Let's focus on making me less guilt-ridden some other time. We shouldn't keep your parents waiting."

Marley nodded, and they followed behind his parents.

Catherine tentatively knocked on the dark-maroon wooden door, and half a minute later it was pulled open.

Marley's mother, standing at the threshold, stared at her daughter in shock, her face displaying the barely held up emotions. Christine's red puffy eyes and dark circles beneath them vouched for her depressed and exhausted state.

"Mum," Marley whispered, looking into her mother's warm eyes, which shared the same color as hers. The flashbacks of the lonely nights spent in the dark room, thinking that she'd never get to see her parents again, came rushing back. She missed them so much.

"Where were you?!" Christine cried, enveloping her daughter in a tight embrace.

Marley hugged her back. It took every ounce of her control to stop the tears, that were starting to well up in her eyes, from flowing out.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled weakly, burying the face into her mother's shoulder.

Steve, who was behind his wife, too looked emotionally relieved finally seeing Marley safe and unharmed. The grueling search of their missing daughter had made him almost give up all hopes.

Minutes later, Marley found herself squeezed between her parents on a three-seater sofa. Their prodding eyes and look of disbelief on faces made her gulp nervously and cower. Others too occupied seats around them, making her anxiety rise ten times.

She had just spurted out the lie, which in her mind was well-constructed. She readied herself for the onslaught of words that was about to follow.

"Let me rephrase that," Steve said disbelievingly, "you ran away to Eastbourne because you wanted freedom."

And it began...

"Yeah." Marley nodded meekly, her eyes downcast.

"What freedom? You were already living alone!" Her father yelled, but his efforts to sound intimidating were in vain. He sounded rather amusing than frightening because of his adult-nerdy attire, which consisted of a heavy brown sweater, a pair of black pants, and thin-rimmed glasses--that needed a timely push from his forefinger to stay in place.

Eden, silently sipping his tea, noticed that it was her father that Marley inherited her soft and shy nature from. It was kind of adorable seeing the father-daughter duo looking like cute puppies, and having no idea how to be aggressive in their conversation.

Mr. Seyfried was no danger to his mate. Eden concluded, and returned back to his tea that Mrs. Sherman had made for them all.

Marley mentally facepalmed herself at her own stupidity. Her lie now didn't seem that well-constructed.

"I-I wanted to explore... Y-you know discover myself." She made a last attempt to save herself, however, after sneaking a discreet glance at her mother she realized that she had just dug herself a grave.

"Explore! Discover yourself!" Christine stood up and glared at her daughter. "What the fuc-" She was cut-off by Steve's loud cough, stopping her from babbling out profanities.

Red alarms started blaring inside Eden's head on seeing Christine's outburst. He was about to stand up and defend his mate, but Nicholas stopped him mid-way from his rescue mission by gently grabbing his shoulder, accompanied by a small shake of head. His father didn't think it was right of Eden to interfere in their family matter, at least not until it was unknown how Marley's parents would interpret it. Also, Steve was seeming to do a good job at calming down his wife.

Steve was soothingly running his hand on Christine's back. The latter took deep breath to recompose herself, and turned back to her child. "Marley, did we do something wrong? Is there any specific reason why?" She asked.

"No," Marley replied, her guilt reaching new heights. "I just wanted to-"

"Explore." Christine finished with a sigh. "Then I guess you were trying to be reckless, like any other teen."

"It was wrong," Steve added sternly, "you got us all worried."

"Sorry..."

"Now, don't be so harsh on her." Mrs. Sherman said, taking the teen girl's side. "Look at her. She already looks so pathetic, I bet she's feeling worse than you both do right now."

Mrs. Sherman was right. Marley did look miserable, and her parents noticed that, stopping them from yelling at her.

"It's your first time doing something like this, so we're going to let go," Christine said, sitting back on the couch.

"Also we don't know what to do," Steve chimed in. "It's not like we can take you back, your midterms are going to start soon... Maybe, one of us should stay."

"You don't need to do that. I won't run away again." Marley protested pathetically.

"How can we be sure about that?"

"Uhm... Because I'm your daughter and you trust me," she said unsurely, which earned her glares from her parents.

"Or-" Catherine began, pulling everyone's attention at herself, "she can come and live with us."

Every pair of eyes in the room turned to her. Eden and Nicholas wondered what was brewing inside their matriarch's head.

Catherine studied Steve and Christine, and when they didn't show any sign of clear rejection of her offer, she continued. "Marley told me that you both run a firm, so obviously it's difficult for you to stay here, leaving everything unattended. Martha, too, most of the time works overtime.

"All I'm trying to say is that we can give your daughter a proper care. In fact, I already think of Marley as my own child."

"It's really generous of you to offer something like that, but we don't want to burden you," said Christine.

"Oh no, she's hardly a burden. I'm raising two boisterous boys. Believe me, your daughter is an angel compared to them." Catherine smiled brightly, hoping to strike the hot iron right. "I get it if you don't want to leave her with strangers. Martha can vouch for us-"

"It's not like that," Steve interrupted politely. "We know your family is well respected in this town. But my concern is putting these two together." He eyed Marley and Eden. "It'll be like giving them a free pass to do anything."

The teenagers frowned, but it was Christine who spoke for them. "Steve, you have no right to teach these kids abstinence when you couldn't keep yourself from being with me in high school." A small smug smile appeared on her lips when she saw her husband blushing at her words.

"It was different for us," he blurted out, his face red.

"And what if they break up?" He added. "These days kids hardly stay in relationship longer than a month. It'll cause only unnecessary problems for Eden's parents."

Eden's frown deepened. He didn't like the bond between him and his mate to be reduced to a measly high school fling. He wanted to retort to Steve's remark, but one look from his father stopped him.

"Oh Steve, our daughter isn't insane. Look at him." Marley's mother pointed at Eden, acknowledging his presence for the first time. "Who'll want to let go of that?!"

Christine knew her daughter was beautiful but also too introverted, and didn't expect her to catch such an eye-candy. But then again Steve too had aimed out of his league when he asked Christine out on date in 1992. Maybe, it ran in the family.

"Mum." Marley groaned, embarrassed by her mother.

Eden's head bloated by hundred times at Christine's words. He definitely liked his mate's mother.

"If you don't want her living in our house, there's a place that we rent out to kids her age, right next to our place." Catherine addressed to Steve, who looked sceptical of the previous arrangement. "You two can come and check it out."

"I guess there's nothing wrong with that," Steve said thoughtfully, and his wife nodded in agreement.

Catherine grinned excitedly. "That's settled! Now only thing to know is if Marley is ready for the change?"

When every head turned to the eighteen-year-old girl, she just shrugged. And Eden barely resisted himself from fist pumping the air.

*******