Emily's POV
"How are you, really?" I asked Dathan. He seemed confused, which in turn made him defensive, a little too defensive.
"I don't know these days." He answered.
"Why? Just say it. However it comes to your mind. That's the most original feeling."
"My mother wouldn't have thought that." He replied.
"You still miss her, don't you?" I asked, looking at his sunken eyes and jutting neckline.
"Yeah." He admitted. "Even though we never really were best of friends."
"Why is that?" I asked him. It's weird to imagine. Mothers are usually closer to the last born.
"I've always asked myself that question." He said, sighing. "At least up till last year. A curious mind is a disaster waiting to happen."
"What does that mean?" I asked him.
My curiosity was beginning to peak,and Dathan didn't look like he was in a rush to tell the story.
"I asked all the hard questions, had to. I noticed mom was beginning to get a little too aggressive. Stopped asking, I even contemplated giving up." He paused again.
"Please tell me you're joking." I said. The story looked like it was heading downhill.
"I'm not. I started looking at pictures, I asked Damon too." He said. "Found out she could carry just one child, rhesus factor issues. I was the child of my father's concubine, she died right after I was born. Made it very convenient for 'my mother' to adopt. Then she decided she was done with kids. Damon is not just my only brother, he's her only child."
"That cannot be true. You both look alike, a bit at least." I objected.
"We take after my father,"He explained.
"But you seem to be more rational than he is, more like your mother." I still referred to the immediate past Luna.
"Some traits are acquired, Emily. Character is one of them." He smiled sadly. "But I can't blame her. She did what anyone would have."
"She seemed like a smart woman." I agreed with him.
"She was." He replied. "She handled things as professionally as possible. Even very personal matters."
"I'm tempted to ask what you mean by those." I said, squinting.
"Ask. I love questions. Be free with me." He replied.
"What do you mean by those?" I asked immediately.
"Well, I found out that the Alpha, Damon III, had a concubine that he almost rejected my mother for. This was way before either Damon or I were conceived. I could not gather or calculate how many years exactly, but the child was older than us both for sure. His Luna was infertile, and my father considered changing her as he had a son on the way, by one of his servant's. The woman gave birth one day and was dead the next, but not from complications resulting from the birth." He said, and took a deep breath.
"These pauses are killing me." I said. Which wasn't actually true. I was dying more from crooning my head so badly than from his pauses.
"Well, the story isn't so much after that. I hear he still serves in the palace, lives in the servant quarters, but I was never able to find him." Dathan said sadly. "I feel like if I ever do, maybe I'd be closer to him than I am to Damon. Both of us have more in common by the way."
"I don't think you mean that. You and Damon are like two peas in a pod." I said. "By the way, does he know about this?" I asked Dathan.
"I never told him. If he does. It's not from me." He said and stood up again.
I understood his need to blow steam off and honestly, I can't blame him,
"How about you?" He asked, backing me.
"What about me?" I replied to him.
"Your mother." He said.
"I don't know much about her." I answered. "She passed away when I was a kid, can't exactly remember how old I was. My father was a goldsmith, made this necklace and gave it to my ma. She gave it to me when she passed." I took unsteady breaths, trying to stifle the stream of tears threatening to erupt.
"I'm so sorry about that." He said, turning to look at me. "So Vynara is her name?"
"Was. Vynara was her name." I answered.
"I'm sure she was as beautiful as you are." He said, giving me his hand.
I contemplated taking it for a few seconds. But what better company is there than misery? Or someone miserable? So I took it, gladly.
Dathan pulled me to my feet and I stood opposite him, not too far to smell mint exhale, and not close enough to be tickled by his body hair.
"You're a strong woman, Vynara." He started.
"Please don't let me feel bigger than I am. I'm really just a girl with the world around her spinning faster than she can ever catch up with." I said.
"I'm not inflating anything. I'm being as honest as possible." He countered. "You have to be strong. If you think things are confusing as they are, you're still looking at stuff from rose coloured lenses. They're more hard and deceitful than confusing. I want you to know, though, that I'll always be here for you. You can count on me, anytime. I'd always be your friend. There's no need to say I'd take as much of you as I can get, but I'll respect both of us, and stay within the confines of my boundary and relationship to you."
"I, I, Uhm, I don't know what to say, Dathan." I said truthfully. He'd managed to let a tear or two slip from my eye and it was minutes till I became a cry baby.
"Come on." He chuckled. "Wipe your face."
I didn't and quickly put my hand back in his.
"I think it's time we go back down. Damon would not treat it with such levity if he had to send a search party here to get us." He joked. But I knew that wasn't just an empty joke.
Damon didn't care much about me, he couldn't give a hoot as long as I'm there to care for him and not embarrass him, but seeing me with Dathan would definitely send sparks out of his eyes.
So I agreed with Dathan.
I picked my phone up from where I sat, and we took the elevator back down.