Ivy.

Fifteen years...

Fifteen years since the war, and every day, I tried to atone for the shit I had done prior. I could play innocent and act like I hadn't done anything to cause it all, but I'd be fucking lying. Not only to those around me but also to myself.

The day Kara told me my children were to be sent to the land of the gods when they turned eighteen, I made a silent pact to prevent it. They were my children, and I was determined to make sure their lives were their own. Even if I wanted to strangle them on more than one occasion for their defiance, among other things. "Damn it, Pollux! Where are you?"

Storming through the house, I looked for the eldest of my six children and found, while gifted and the future of our pack, he never seemed to be where he was supposed to be.

"James, have you seen Pollux?" My words seemed to fall on deaf ears as James continued grading the papers before him. After all the hell we had gone through, he decided ten years ago to get into teaching, and he hadn't looked back. Which honestly was shocking, considering he taught ninth-grade biology.

"James..." I repeated with a groan of frustration. "James!"

"Huh?" His eyes gazed up to meet mine with a clueless look. He had aged so much since I had first met him. Gray hairs now streaked his head, and with it wrinkles crested the corners of his eyes. "Sorry, sweetie. The end of the grading period is next week, and I have to get these done."

"I know, I know," I replied as I rolled my eyes and walked towards him. No matter how much he had changed physically, he was still the sweet man I once knew. He always thought of others before himself and took pride in his work. "I just haven't seen Pollux since he came home from school, and he promised to take Dillon to practice."

"Practice?" James glanced down at his watch and furrowed his brows. "Babe, that started twenty minutes ago. Why didn't you tell me I would have taken him?"

Smiling, I shook my head, "It's okay. Talon was done with his rounds and offered. He was excited to take him this week. You know how much he hates missing out on stuff."

With all the changes we had undergone, some were harder than others.

Damian had refused to take back his

ove

Alpha position, and in doing so, Hale took over as the Alpha of the pack, allowing Dàmian to spend more time with the business aspects of our world. As for Talon, his obsession with security grew increasingly urgent with every child we had.

Running the training grounds and managing the borders became his calling.

One the entire pack was grateful for.

"I know. Let him enjoy it. Dillion's twelve now. He isn't going to be young forever."

Pet

Nodding my head, I leaned down, kissing him gently. "I know. I'm glad that he has been coming around lately. When little Sylvia got hurt a few years ago, I never thought he would leave the borders." Thinking about the memory of that day made my chest burn with anguish, but forcing the feeling away, bpushed my mind forward. "If only I can find your son." Material © of .

James chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. This was a usual thing for the twins. Now that they were about to be sixteen, they thought they could do whatever they wanted, and out of the two... Pollux wasn't the worst. No, he may have had his moments, but Cassie was very different from her brother.

"Why don't you go ask Cassie where he went? She has her way of finding him," James suggested, causing me to groan in irritation.

There was no way I would let her do something like that. The thought of her using her powers for any reason was out of the question. "James-"

"Don't start, Ivy. You can't make her stop being who she is. Just... go ask."

James didn't give me much chance to reply before quickly going back to the papers before him, and by that point, I was already regretting even asking Pollux to help with his brother. I should have just taken him myself and saved the headache of this entire conversation.

Taking a moment to think about what James suggested, I huffed with irritation before walking towards the staircase headed for Cassie's room. There was no way I was going to ask her to use her powers to find her brother, but I could simply ask if she had seen him. Her bright white door appeared before me. The acrylic painted green flames and intertwining vines upon her door were her own design. She was the most artistic person I knew, and many pieces of her original work hung not just around our home, but around the pack.