It turned out that Leon and his wife didn’t survive the fire. On their way to safety, a tree that was on fire had fallen right on top of them. My mom only hoped that the tree had killed them and that they didn’t suffer in the flames. I had hoped for the same thing because I couldn’t imagine the suffering they would have gone through if it was the latter.

Luke had finally stopped crying and was holding on to his little brother. His mother was crying in my mother’s arms as we all sat in my home. Earlier, my mother had gathered all of us to see if anyone was hurt. That is when she learned about Leon and his family. Now I just felt guilty about being an only child along with having a father still living. I also felt guilty that even with all Luke was going through, I still wasn’t going to marry him. Also, it wouldn’t be the right thing to do.

“Mom?” I said to my mother, getting her attention, “Can I talk to you in private for a minute?”

She nodded as she whispered something in Luke’s mother’s ear. I headed for the door and waited for her to join me so we could go outside. Our house was a little scorched, but other than that, it was fine. My mother’s quick thinking had actually saved our house, but she wouldn’t tell me what that thinking was.

But once she was next to me, she followed me outside. The moment we were outside, I was reminded that my father was also with us. He looked at us with curious eyes as my mother closed the door behind us. Keeping our conversation separate from the other family inside. I’m sure Em was already hanging on Luke’s arm the moment I left.

“What is it you wanted to talk about, Luna?” my mother asked. Capturing my father’s interest.

“Luna wanted to talk? About what?” he asked curiously.

This was probably going to be the only perfect time to tell my mother what happened before meeting my father for the first time. She didn’t even know that I had gone off alone with Trent right after the fire. She was too busy dealing with the drama my father was causing.

“Trent asked for my hand in marriage,” I suddenly said. My mother instantly tensed up while my father broke out in a huge smile.

“I’ll be damned,” he said with excitement. I figured he would be happy about the news since he was also a wolf shifter. But I’m sure my mother had accepted me marrying Luke and was preparing for that. This probably put a damper on her plans.

My father turned to my mother. I don’t think I ever could see him more proud of anything, “Look at that. Our little girl is continuing the wolf line after all.”

“She isn’t doing such a thing,” my mother said as she glared at him, “She is already promised to someone else.”

Rolling my eyes, she didn’t need to say anymore. But this was news to my father, “And who could that be?”

“Mom, I’m not marrying Luke,” I told her matter of fact, “I even told him that. Em deserves to be with him, not me.”

I couldn’t understand why everyone was being so blind to Em’s feelings towards Luke. She hasn’t made it a secret. For some reason I was the only one putting her into consideration. Everyone else just had a thick skull or just didn’t want to hear about it. It’s as if Luke had brainwashed everyone into believing that he and I were meant to be together forever.

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“Are you saying you want to marry Trent then?” my mother asked sternly. I couldn’t respond. That was a question I didn’t have an answer to. It was unfair for my mother to even ask it and she knew it.

My father let out a sigh as he walked up to my mother. I watched as he laid his hands on her shoulders and talked in a soothing voice, “Now Mary, why don’t we all talk about this? Let’s figure out together who is the right choice for our little girl.”

Swatting his hands away, my mother glared at him more. She didn’t say anything other than turn on her heel and stomp down the path. My father let out a sigh before he looked at me apologetically. Then he ran after my mother. I could hear him try to be the voice of reason that she needed to talk things out with. But I just knew that she wasn’t going to let any of this go easily. For some reason my mother didn’t want me marrying any wolf shifters and I made a mental note to figure out why.

Deciding that it wasn’t worth wondering what decisions my parents were going to come up with, I turned around to head back inside. But instead I froze as I looked into the eyes that belonged to my best friend Luke. It made me wonder how long he had been standing there. What did he hear? But I didn’t have to wait long before he asked me the one question that would answer my own.

“He proposed to you?” he said in disbelief.

It took everything in me to not roll my eyes. This was an argument I wasn’t looking forward to. I guess it never crossed Luke’s mind that someone else would be interested in me. Not when he was pretty much marking his territory since we were kids. But I guess things don’t always go as planned.

“Luke,” I started but he put his hand up to silence me right away.

“I don’t want to hear it, Luna. I’ve heard it more than enough times,” he said with a stern look on his face. I knew the look too well. “You can’t marry Trent. That isn’t what we planned.”

“We?” Now I was the one in disbelief, “Luke, there is no ‘we’. There never was a ‘we’ in the first place.”

Luke ended up rolling his eyes, “Luna, everyone knows that you and I are going to get married.”

“According to you, but has it ever crossed your mind to even consider my feelings for once in your grand plan of marriage?” I shouted, “Luke, neither of us would be happy and you know it.”

I’m pretty sure no one had considered my feelings other than Em. My mother was all for me marrying Luke even though I didn’t love him. Even Luke’s family were ready to take me into their family and had already started making plans. I wouldn’t even be surprised if his mother had already started making baby clothes for her potential future grandkids.

“Are we really going to fight about this? Especially after I just lost my older brother?” Luke questioned.

The forest air was suddenly filled with the sound of my hand slapping Luke’s cheek. Tears welled up in my eyes as I tried to hold in my anger. “How dare you?” I said through my clenched teeth, “How dare you use your brother’s death to your advantage.”

He didn’t say anything. His face still turned slightly away from me after I slapped him. His cheek slowly turned red in the shape of a small handprint. I guess he was just shocked that I would do such a thing to him. But I literally had it with him not listening to me. Especially when he decided to try to manipulate me into marrying him.

“Until you can finally accept that I don’t want to marry you, we can’t be friends anymore.” I finally told him and then walked off. Giving into the need that I didn’t want to be around anyone as the tears began to fall. At this moment it felt like living with my father was the best choice.

To tell the truth, I didn’t know why I was crying in the first place. Maybe it was out of disappointment towards my best friend. I was disappointed that he would stoop so low to even use his brother’s death against me. If only Luke had fallen in love with Em instead of me. Then we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.