Chapter 6 VI. A daughter's duty

Daniela

I spend a lot of time drawing the man that is always burning. I concentrate on the way the flames dance around him, the way he pulls at his chains, even the way he screams. I haven't seen his face, but I know he screams, because sometimes I can hear him. And when he sees me, he stops. And I know he is looking straight at me, and I swear I can hear him whispering something to me. But what? I sigh. Who cares anyway? He is just part of a nightmare that haunted me for years.

"Daniela!" I hear my mom entering my room. "I have been calling you for at least five minutes. What are you doing in here that you can't hear me?"

I try to hide my drawing, but my mom grabs it.

"You are drawing this again!" she accuses me. "Do I have to call doctor Jackson, again?"

Only hearing that name makes my skin crawl. Ever since my nightmare started, when I was seven years old, every summer my mom took me to a clinic for mental health. She would lie and say I am spending my time with friends in Australia.

Doctor Jackson is the doctor that treats me. He enjoys using pain therapies with his patients. His favorite one is electroshock. But what he liked the most was to touch. He started touching me when I turned fourteen. When I turned fifteen, he started taking photos of me.

"Let me see your curvy body," he would say behind locked doors.

And he will touch some more while he took pictures of me.

"No, mom! I am fine. No need to call doctor Jackson," I rush to say.

She studies me for a while, then she nods.

"Fine, I will trust you. Well, come in the study. Me and your father have something to talk to you about."

"OK, mom."

I follow my mum in the study. When we enter, I see my father sitting in his favorite armchair, behind a Victorian desk.

"Daniela. Come closer and take a seat," my father says and points to one of the armchairs that are in front of the desk.

I do as I am told. I wonder what this is about. Usually my father ignores me. When was the last time he spoke to me? I don't remember.

"I am sure you know we have been having problems with paying the witch covenant for their magic barrier against the demons. If we don't have the magic barrier, demons will attack us."

I nod. Of course, I know. Ever since the last big attack of the Demon King, and the disappearance of the Werewolf King, the regents' Kings, Gabriel and Lucian, contacted the witch covenants for protection against the demons. Packs have to pay annually for the magic barrier.

"Yes, father, I know."

"I have reached out and asked for help. A pack, in particular, has answered me. Hoja de Roble Pack, from Spain."

I don't understand what this has to with me.

"The Alpha of the pack has agreed to help us only if my oldest daughter becomes his mate."

Oldest daughter? That's... me. Mate?

"Are you listening to what I am saying?" my father asks when he sees that I am not saying anything.

"But I don't even know this Alpha. And you expect me to be his mate?" I ask, in shock.

"You should be grateful that someone wants you," my mom says. "I never expected that you will ever have a mate, and yet an Alpha wants you."

"But I don't want a mate! I want to go to the art school!"

"You will do as told!" my father yells. "As the daughter of the Alpha of Silver Moon Pack, you have to do your duty and help the pack. If you refuse to accept Alpha Erik as a mate, I will kick you out of the pack. Do you understand?"

If he kicks me out, I am good as dead. Rogues have a hard life, and most died killed by demons.

"I don't want a mate!" I protest, wanting to scream in frustration. This is so unfair!

"Saturday, Alpha Erik will come to visit you. Don't embarrass us!" my father says and I know the discussion is over.

Saturday? But that's in two days.

"You may go now," my mother says.

I excuse myself and leave.

I am in my room when my mother enters.

"You listen to me, now," she starts. "I have welcomed you into my house, and this is how you treat us?"

Is not the first time she throws this in my face. I am not the actual daughter of Alpha Nick and Luna Karen. She had a baby girl and two days after the birth, the baby died. Father brought me a week later, telling my mother that my birth mother died giving birth to me and that I am an orphan. Mother accepted to raise me. But she also suspected my father to be my biological father. But I find it impossible. I look nothing like father or mother. While my father has black hair and whiskey eyes, my mother has blond hair and icy blue eyes. Alana looks like a younger version of her mother.

"I am grateful for everything. I really am, but I don't want a mate that is not my fated mate. Is it too much to ask?"

She yanks my hair. I push back tears; it is not the first she yanked my hair.

"You either accept and become Alpha's Erik mate, or I will personally make sure you will never leave doctor's Jackson clinic. Do you understand?"

The name of doctor Jackson makes my blood run cold.

"Yes, mother."

"Good. And do something with that hair. Not only that you are fat, but you stand out too much with your horrible pink hair."

"I will try," I say.

I have tried in the past to dye my hair but it didn't work. Not even with black dye.

Once mother leaves the room, I collapse on my bed. I am too upset to eat dinner.

I sleep and dream again with the man. He is burning. He is always burning. And when he looks at me, I burn too!

I wake up, trying as fast as I can to muffle my screams.

Will this nightmare ever stop haunting me?