Rescuing His Captive Mate: Saving The Future Luna

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Star

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About a week before the wedding, I had a sudden thought that I couldn't get out of my head. Artem had been given an item to keep him aging at the same rate as me, but what about Mom? How would she and Dad stay together? Was she going to grow old and leave him? I just couldn't get the idea out of my head.

I went to Dad so that I could talk to him about it in private. I didn't want to upset mom with it, if that was truly the case. I asked if Dad could go for a walk with me while we talked so that we didn't get overheard by anyone.

Once we were outside and walking slowly through the trees that surrounded the pack house Dad was the first to speak.

"So what is bothering you, Star?"

"How did you know something was bothering me?" I didn't deny it, he was right; I just didn't know how he could figure it out.

"My magic has to do with emotions, remember?" He smirked at me. "Plus, I can see it in your eyes. Something is eating away at your heart right now. It's like something is weighing you down, and you're not your usual self. So what is it? I want to help if I can. I am assuming that's why you brought me out here."

"I wanted to talk to you about something." I hung my head, not sure how to bring this up. "It's about Mom."

"What about her?" Dad stopped walking then and looked at me. With a wave of his hand, two giant flowers sprung up and formed a couple of chairs for us to sit in. They looked soft and very comfortable, and when I sat in the giant moon shaped chair I found that it was indeed comfortable.

"These are amazing." I grinned at him as he sat next to me.

"You could do it too, if you practiced. But don't change the subject, what about your mother did you want to talk about?" Dad looked worried now. I think that I scared him by bringing him out here like this.

"Well, you're Fae and therefore technically immortal. Mom is a wolf and isn't. What is going to happen when mom starts to get older?"

"Is that what you're worried about?" Dad grinned at me. "There is no need to worry, Star. I will take care of your mother. In a way I have been taking care of that for the last nineteen years almost. To be honest, it was you that had actually taken care of her."

"What do you mean?" Dad's words made no sense to me at all.

"Well, you see, when a non-Fae, or a non-immortal has a child with a Fae, that half Fae baby leaves some of its essence behind. As long as that child is Fae enough then the mother will live for longer than she normally would. It's also why your mother has barely changed in appearance when it's been nearly twenty years since we met. She still looked close to the same age that she was. Just as beautiful as she always was."

I thought about that for a moment. It was true that Mom didn't look as old as she was. But then again, neither did Dad. So it had been Dad and, through that connection with him, me that had kept mom young. I was glad that Dad and I could help her so much during that time.

"She will have no issues to worry about though. The ring I gave her was meant to keep the bride young with the groom. Just like the item that Artem got from Aunt Glory, I will tie my fate with your mother and make sure that she stays young with me for as long as I live."

"I am glad that you thought about that Dad. I was really worried about that."

After that, Dad and I headed back to the house. I wasn't worried anymore and it was getting closer and closer to the wedding.

There was someone who wanted to talk to me though. Not long after getting home Aries, Artem's dad, asked if he could talk to me privately. Him and I went to one of the smaller sitting rooms that were meant for small meetings.

"Thank you for talking with me, Star." He started talking before either of us had sat down so I decided to just stand and talk to him while he paced agitatedly.

"It's fine, Mr. Cooper. What can I do for you?"

"You don't have to call me Mr. Cooper. You have your own dad so I would guess that calling me that would be uncomfortable for you, but you can call me Aries, if you like."

"I don't think it would be bad to call you dad. You are my mate's father after all, and we're bound for life. That makes you part of my life as much as his, right?" He looked as if I had just melted his heart when I said that.

"Yes, I guess that does make sense." His smile was sweet now instead of nervous. "Well, the reason that I wanted to talk to you, Star, was because Gabriela and I were thinking of moving back to the pack. We had left so that Artem could make it on his own, so he could prove himself so to speak. But now, he is getting married, he is having a pup, and he is adopting half the fucking pack for crying out loud." He laughed then realized what he had just said. "Oh, I am sorry, please forgive my language." He blushed for having cursed in front of me.

"It's fine. It's nothing that I haven't heard before." I laughed at him.

"Probably not." He laughed again. "Anyway, getting back to what I was saying before. Gabriela and I left only so Artem could learn to stand on his own two feet. We didn't expect things to happen so quickly for him though. We want to move back here so that we can be here for all of you." He was looking at me so earnestly and pleadingly like he thought I would tell him that he couldn't move back to his hometown or something. "It's not that Artem has not done well, and we don't want to take anything away from him. That's not it at all."

"I know." He was startled by my answer. "I know you don't want that. Artem has done amazingly well. You want to be here for the family. You want to see the boys, all of them. You want to be here when Chay gets married to Bailey, you want to know their children and be proper grandparents."

"Yes, that is exactly it." Relief washed over him as he realized I understood. "But, you see, I think Artem would think the opposite. He would think that we don't trust him, that we don't approve of him. I wanted to know if you could help convince him that we only want to come back for the children because that is what a grandparent are supposed to do. Be there to help with the family, spend time with the children and get to know them. Those boys may not be our blood, but if our son will call them his, then they're ours as well. I want to know who they are. And I want to show my son that I am proud of him for being a real man where most people would not take on that responsibility. I want to be with my family because I have missed them all so much."

I could see the heartache in his eyes. He truly did miss his family, and I am betting that moving away, giving them space to learn and grow on their own, was hard on him and his wife. They had to literally leave the country so that they didn't run home at every little thing that happened to their children. How much had they suffered over the last few months?

Without saying a word, I walked forward and wrapped my arms around Artem's dad. He needed to know that we loved and cared for him as well. I may have only known him for a little over a week, but that didn't mean that I didn't instantly care about him. He was my mate's dad and to me that meant that he was already family before I even met him.

At first, Aries was stiff and startled by the sudden hug from me, but after a moment he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me back. The rigidity went out of his body and he was able to relax fully as we shared the silent moments together.

"Don't worry, Dad, I will talk to Artem and tell him what it is that you want. I know that he will understand. And personally, I think it would be nice to have all of our family here to share in the joys of life together."

"Thank you, Star. Thank you so much. I really, truly am glad that Artem found you. Not just to rescue you from the life that you had been forced to endure all those years, but because I think you really are the best thing that could have ever happened to him."

"I think that about him for me. He is my hero, and I will spend my entire life proving that to him."

"Thank you, Star." He hugged me again, burying his face in my hair. I think it was just so that he could hide the tears that were starting to stream down his cheeks. 

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