"I can't stay here." Rhydian, Emma and Dan looked up in surprise at the sudden disturbance of the silence that had settled uncomfortably over the dinner table.
"What do you mean?" Emma queried.
"I mean, I don't want to live here anymore. Why can't we go back to Stonybridge?" Emma and Dan exchanged nervous glances.
"Well, because our lives are here now." Daniel began.
"No! Your lives are here. You guys... You're happy here, but me... I miss my friends. I miss our house," Rhydian looked edgy for a moment, but no one noticed, "I miss school, I even miss the three Ks! Don't you miss it too?" She looked around the table, desperately.
"Look, you're hormonal because of the baby. Wolfbloods are affected worse than humans by pregnancy." Emma stated, calmly.
Daniel nodded, "your mother was the same with both-" Emma shot him a look, "I mean, with you..."
Maddy looked startled. "With both what?"
"Nothing-" began her father.
"You mean you were pregnant before... Before me?" Emma nodded and looked down, tears starting in her eyes.
"What happened?" Maddy breathed.
"This isn't the time for this discussion." Dan stood up and began collecting their plates, but Emma placed a hand on his arm.
"No... She has the right to know. She's old enough now." Daniel sat down beside her. Maddy stared at her parents, then looked down at her hands in her lap.
Rhydian stood up, drawing the attention of all three Smiths onto himself.
"I'll go," he said, "this sounds like a conversation for the family. I'll... I'll be outside." He finished lamely. He turned to leave, but Maddy grabbed his hand and pulled him back round.
"You're part of this family too." She said. Emma and Daniel nodded, quite unashamed. Slowly, Rhydian sat back down again.
Maddy turned back to look at her mother. "What happened?" She asked, quietly.
"You... We... I had another daughter. Before you were born. She was... Not your fathers." Dan looked away, as though the memory of this betrayal was still fresh. Maddy had sat back in her chair, shock all over her face. Rhydian found her under the table and squeezed it reassuringly. Emma continued.
"Her father, he was a wild wolfblood. He'd come to Stonybridge, a young alpha still growing into his role as leader. I was young and carefree, newly married but not so newly that the novelty had worn off. I was," She looked helplessly at her husband, "well, bored..." She trailed off as he looked at the table.
"Yes?" Maddy prompted, desperate to find out what had happened.
"We had sex." Emma was brief and straight to the point. "At a party. I think it was Dingxian Chen's, Jimi's father." Rhydian and Maddy exchanged incredulous looks in spite if the seriousness of the situation. "Anyway, he turned up half way through the party. I was drunk! I can't even remember it clearly." Emma hung her head in shame. Maddy reached across the table and patted her mother's hand. Emma paused before continuing. "Seven months later, I gave birth to-"
"Seven months?" Maddy interrupted.
"The wolfblood gestation period is shorter than in humans. Female wolfbloods often spend much more time in wolf form, as it makes it more comfortable. The wolf womb is designed to carry more than one cub at a time, you see, so there's plenty of room for one cub. This means they have a more wolflike pregnancy. Your mother had to spend most of her time as a human though, as she had to work in a human office." Daniel quickly filled in. Emma nodded.
"Almost as soon as she was born, I became pregnant again, with you. Your father had something to prove, I'm sure." She looked at her husband, an almost cheeky smile playing across her face. "And then you were born." She finished. Maddy frowned.
"But what happened to her? Why isn't she here? With us?"
"Because her father returned on your first birthday and took- took her away..." Emma's eyes overflowed and she turned away. Daniel pulled her into his arms and made gentle soothing noises. Maddy looked shocked, as though the ground under her feet had given way.
"He took her away? Back to the wild?" Her parents nodded. "So she's gone then... Did she have a name? What was her father's? You didn't tell me." Emma nodded again and pulled herself upright, away from her husbands embrace.
"Her father was Alric. Jana is your sister."