Chapter 31

**ARIA**

“Let me guess, you’re in a palace with a bunch of werewolves, vampires and Adam of course.”

“Sorry Rosalie, I was...somewhere else.” Rosalie brings me out of my thoughts.

“Clearly. Here.”

She hands me a cup of tea and sits down in the chair across from the couch I’m sitting on.

“You and Riley still not talking?” She asks me but it seems she already knows the answer.

“How do you ...” She gives me a smirk and takes a sip of her tea, cutting me off.

I sigh. “No.” I growl in frustration. “She has a right to think what she wants, but I didn’t like the way she told me things. She knows I’m not selfish and she knows that this whole situation is complicated for me.”

“It’s okay to be mad at her. You’re right, everyone is free to have an opinion but you have to be careful when sharing it.” She pauses. “I for one am happy for all three of you. You deserve to be happy, you haven’t had easy lives.”

“Thank you. It feels good to be supported.”

“I have a surprise.” She announces to me before getting up and leaving the living room. I hear her stirring things up in the distance. “I’m coming! Just a minute!” She yells but still doesn’t come back.

After a few minutes, she returns with a small notebook in her hand.

“You want me to start a diary?” I ask her skeptically.

“That would be a good idea but get another notebook, this one is already full.” She sits down and places it on her lap with a huge smile on her face. “I never told you but this was my grandmother’s house and this house has been in our family for several generations.”

I nod as I wait for her to continue, curious as to what she is getting at.

“This whole thing between Austin, Adam and you got me thinking a lot and after the boys came to see me, I did a little digging into our family stuff and voila!”
I raise an eyebrow, still not sure what she’s getting at.

“I found some journals in my great-grandmother’s things and one notebook caught my eye because it didn’t look like the others that belonged to her. In it, it talks about a young human girl who was the mate of a werewolf... but also... wait for it... a vampire.”

I open my mouth in amazement. “Wait that means...”

“You’re not the first.” She cuts me off. “And that’s not all. They had children... hybrids.”

“But I thought that...”

“I know. Adam, Sasha and Leila wouldn’t be the only hybrids.”

“But then that means...”

“That you could have little hybrids at home too.” She cuts me off again with a big smile. “Unless you had something else in mind.”

“How is that possible? Did they all three become hybrids? Why doesn’t anyone know about them? Oh but you think they could still be alive?” I ask her with wide eyes.

“That’s a lot of questions. So as I explained to you. Yes. People aren’t too fond of what they don’t know so I think they wanted to keep it a secret. And I don’t know. The notebooks aren’t dated so I have no idea what happened to them but from what she’s saying I’d say it must be from the 1950s.”

“Can I read the notebook?”

“The notebook? Oh but you can take them all and get to know Christina, Dimitri and James. I found this one and I found three more identical ones. Christina wrote them down. Don’t ask me how they ended up in my ancestor’s things because I don’t know.”

“That’s great. Thank you, Rosalie. I’ll bring them back to you.”

“No keep them. They’re for you. I think the reason they landed in this house and I found them is because you were supposed to have them.”

She gets up again to get the other three notebooks.

“These notebooks will keep you company for a few days, I think. Besides Austin’s company of course.” she adds with a wink.

My cheeks flush. “You really do know everything.”

“Not everything, but I’m pretty good at picking up on things. Anyway, I’m glad to see you’re not marked. I can’t wait for the three of you to take the plunge.”

“Speaking of which. Austin told me about the Council and...”

“And you are afraid of this group of old men coming to put obstacles in your way?”

“Yes. And could you please stop cutting me off? It’s slightly annoying.”

“Oops, I’ve been told that before but I’m working on it.” She finishes her tea. “I never said it would be easy. Like I told you, people are often afraid of the unknown so your relationship will scare them...that’s for sure. But the three of you need to be on the same page and put your heads together and I would even add that you should talk about all the important issues before you go down this road.” She pauses then add.

“Like for example, would Austin consider becoming a hybrid? Would Adam be willing to spend eternity without you, if you decided you didn’t want to become a hybrid.”

She’s right, we’ve only skimmed over these topics. We were so anxious to be together, each with me I mean, that we didn’t have a real substantive discussion and with what is happening to Adam, I wonder when we will be together again.

After spending some time talking, I leave Rosalie’s house, too eager to dive into Christina’s story. Without really thinking about it, I feel guided to the clearing where Austin showed me his wolf and it is sitting in the grass that I begin this mysterious story.

*"Dimitri is such an elegant and cultured man, I never thought that a man like him would be interested in a girl like me but I keep thinking about James. Our incongruous meeting last week keeps haunting my mind day and night..."*