His news made me choke on my own spit. Coughing, I tried to catch my breath and process what he had just told me. Trent didn’t say anything as I let the words sink in. My mother never told me anything about my father. To her, he was just a random patient that she cared for. There was no love. A one time thing that created a child. Then a question popped into my head like it was holding up a sign. How did Trent know this?

But before I could ask him the question, he answered what I was thinking, “Your father is one of the researchers in the Blizzard Region. He is the one that came up with the idea for my mechanical heart. I only learned who he was when I woke up from the surgery and thought he was you.”

“So you pretty much found out by accident?” I heard myself ask.

Trent nodded, “He knows you exist but he also knows that your mother never had the intention of telling you about him. They live in different regions and she didn’t want you torn away from her growing up.”

It took me by surprise that my father knew who I was. Also, it would make sense of my mother not to say anything about who my father is. There have been mothers who have done the same thing in order to keep their children. One of the laws was that if a child whose parents were from different regions, the child had to live with the father. It was due to the fact that the father could protect the child better than the mother. But if my mother never told anyone about my father, including me, she wouldn’t have to send me away.

“Luna, I understand that I put a lot on your plate by telling you this. But I wanted to ask for your hand in marriage,” I looked at him with a blank mind. How do I answer him when I have just learned about my father? “You don’t have to answer me right away. Just think about it, okay?”

I nodded my head because it seemed like the only thing that my mind could process. Trent then grabbed my hand and mentioned that he was going to return me to my mother. Mindlessly, I followed him. My thoughts were trying to process the information that threatened to drown me. But I wasn’t lost in my head long when a flash of white flew past us.

Both of us looked at what had flown past us and saw a white wolf lying on the ground, struggling to stand up. Shocked, I looked in the direction that it came from. Another white wolf stared down the injured one with a serious look. But the other wolf wasn’t going to back down. It finally got up and ran at the other wolf. Trent held me close to him in a protective embrace as the two white wolves fought it out.

Luke and Em came running up to us. They looked as shocked as I felt at what was going on. We have never seen shifters fight before. The bear shifters usually went off in the distance to fight so that no one would get hurt. But it appeared that these wolves didn’t care about who was around. Settling whatever it was they were fighting about was more important.

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“What happened?” I asked Em.

She clung onto Luke in fear, “I don’t know. That man that was talking to your mother suddenly got possessive when another man approached her. Then they started fighting after the other man mentioned something.”

Eventually, a bear appeared between the two wolves and threw them in different directions. The bear then shifted to our mayor, “That is enough. You are in our region and there are children around. If you are going to fight, leave at this instant.”

The wolves shifted back into men. Both of them looked battered and bruised, but one looked a little worse than the other. They still glared at each other as the mayor threw their clothes at them before putting his own back on. It’s amazing how natural it was to see the shifters naked in our region. I never really noticed it until the Blizzard Region came in. Now I am just embarrassed by it.

My mother then came running up to the more beaten-up wolf with her medical supplies. She started tending to his wounds when the man I saw her talking to her walked up to them. He glared at the wolf shifter as he spoke to my mother, “So that is the reason?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Marcus,” she said as she continued to tend to the wolf shifter. She only glanced at him over her shoulder long enough to tell him, “The heart wants what it wants. Even an alpha like you can’t change that.”

After she told him that, he ended up storming off. The injured wolf gave her a sad smile, “I seemed to have made a mess of things.”

“You should have just kept your mouth shut,” she scolded him.

I walked up to them and stood next to my mother. Staring at the man she was tending to, I noticed the similarities to myself. His light blonde hair and light blue eyes. He looked up at me and smiled, “You raised a beautiful young woman, Mary. It's a shame she didn’t get the shifter trait though. Probably good if she married a bear shifter though.”

My mother glanced at me with an expressionless look. I knew that look. She was trying not to tell me something or at least tell the man something. But she didn’t even have to say anything because Trent had already told me.

“So you are my father,” I told him. Making him smile more.

“I see you’ve been told about me. It can’t be through your mother though,” he then glanced behind me towards Trent, “Ah. So this is where he is from. Continuing the wolf bloodline. Good choice.”

My mother glared at the man, “She isn’t doing anything. She is going to continue her training to become a nurse like me.”

Even my mother didn’t believe her own lie. I finished my training last year. There wasn’t anymore she could teach me unless I left the region, but she wouldn’t allow that. While the other girls were allowed to leave, my mother held on to me tightly. Envious wasn’t a strong enough word for what I felt for those girls who were able to leave. Instead, I was imprisoned in my mother’s care.

“Mary,” the man said in a soft tone, “She’s old enough to get married now. It’s time to let her go.”

My mother glared at him more, “We couldn’t have the selection process today because of the fire. You know that we can’t have another one until next year.” my mother began to cry as she continued in a shaky voice, “Now that you’re here, you’re going to take her away.”

The man pressed his lips together. It was clear that he was trying to find the words to say anything. But he came up blank and I didn’t find it appropriate to inform my mother that I had been asked to marry someone anyway. She needed to approve the marriage anyway for me to marry Trent. But right now her thoughts were on losing me to my father and I could understand her fear. I had no idea who this man was in front of me and the idea of going anywhere with him terrified me.