Previously on Love Through Hate:

Diego found out about Flora's meeting Sam. An intense argument arose between all the sabers, and three hateful words came out of Flora that can never be taken back. While looking for Sam, Flora ran into BIG trouble with two certain sabers. What will happen next? I should probably just shut up and let you read! ;)

Soto. Why did that name ring a bell to Flora? Whatever a bell was anyway.

Flashback

(How could I forget to mention that this story will have a lot of flashbacks?)

Years back, we see little Flora, past her bedtime. Cash and Bobby are already sleeping. Flora on the other hand was not in the mood to give in to her fatigue feeling and was pleading with her father to let her stay up late.

"Please Daddy? Just five more minutes!" begged Flora with her pleading high-pitched voice and blue eyes.

"Flora I already let the three of you stay up five minutes." Diego gently reminded her. "It wouldn't be fair if I let you stay up longer than Cash and Bobby would it?"

Flora thought about it for a while. Diego did have a point. Still, she wasn't tired.

"Hide and seek!" proclaimed Flora. "I hide, you count Dad!"

"No, no Flora-" Diego tried to stop his daughter, but she already ran out to hide.

"You let them stay up for five more minutes again didn't you?" asked Shira with a raised eyebrow after coming back from her hunt.

"Yeah." admitted Diego. "I'll go get her."

"No." Shira stepped in front of Diego. "You stay with the boys, I'll go get Flora. You'll just make her more restless."

Diego opened his mouth to argue, but he kept it shut knowing that Shira was right. He spoiled his kids too much. Especially Flora.

Meanwhile, Shira went to pick up Flora. She knew well where her mischievous daughter was hiding, but she pretended to have no clue in a new effort to getting her to come out instead of just taking her from her hiding spot.

"Oh where could my little Flora be?" asked Shira out loud trying to sound clueless about it.

Flora was hiding in an old, hallow tree stump, giggling. "Mom will never find me here." she said to herself.

"Oh well, since I can't find Flora, I guess I'll just have to give her sleeping spot to Cash." decided Shira. Of course she didn't mean it. It was just her ploy to get Flora to come to her.

"No, no!" huffed Flora running from her hiding spot to snuggle in her mother's front paw. "I'm right here Mommy!" Shira grinned.

"So you are." replied Shira licking her daughter's head. "Come on sweetheart, let's go home.

"Okay, no more staying up late tonight." declared Shira while walking back towards the cave with Flora.

"Yeah, tell that to the boys." said Diego pointing to Cash and Bobby play-fighting. Shira sighed. It has now clear that stubbornness has become a family trait.

"I thought you two were sleeping?" Shira questioned the boys.

"We were." replied Bobby. "But then Cash woke me up and said that we didn't hear a story yet."

No wonder Flora was hyper than usual. The cubs' nightly bedtime stories always lulled them to sleep. Although it surprised Diego and Shira that Cash and Bobby temporarily went to bed so easily while Flora refused.

"How could we forget?" asked Diego. "Okay. So, once upon a time, there was a mammoth named Manny who-"

"Met a girl mammoth named Ellie who thought she was a possum, they fell in love and became and lived happily ever after." finished Flora sighing romantically with Cash and Bobby making sickly noises.

"Okay then." Diego tried thinking of another story. "Uncle Sid once found three eggs that-"

"Turned out be be dinosaur eggs and their Mama angrily took them back along with Uncle Sid which resulted you Uncle Manny, Uncles Crash and Eddie and Aunt Ellie who still had Peaches in her tummy to go into the Dino World to save Uncle Sid which resulted you in meeting the crazy weasel Buck who helped you get through all the crazy things there and Aunt Ellie finally had Peaches. The end" it was Cash's turn to finish the story.

"Let's face it." sighed Shira. "You kids know all those stories by heart."

"Well there's one that you never told us." pointed out Bobby.

"Which one?" asked Diego.

"Did you and Mom always live in the herd?" asked Flora.

Diego and Shira froze. They intended to tell the kids sooner or later, but they had to choose the right time. They didn't want to scare the kids with it.

"I don't know kids." said Shira.

"Please, please, please, please PLEASE?" the cubs begged.

"Okay then." Diego gave in to their begging. "We don't want to scare you kids but-"

"We won't get scared!" said Bobby. "We promise!"

"Let's start." Diego began by telling how he met Manny and Sid when he saw them with a human baby that his pack leader Soto wanted.

"What did he want with the baby?" asked Flora.

"Well..." Diego tried thinking of how to explain it to the kids without scaring them. "He was mad that the baby's Dad took away the other sabers in out pack and you know how far some animals can go to show others who's boss."

Relieved that they didn't ask any more questions, Diego continued with how he was supposed give the baby to Soto, but in the middle of the crazy trips, Manny had risked his life to save Diego's from falling into a volcano and the saber had switched sides and saved Manny and Sid from Soto and the others, along with the baby who was returned to his father safe and sound. (I didn't want to go into too much detail with the story because that would take way too long.)

"Wow." gasped Cash in awe, letting out a yawn. "That was a cool story. Good night." he, along with Bobby curled up and drifted off to sleep.

"Sleep tight you guys." Shira nuzzled her kids. "Good night Diego."

"Night Shira." Diego licked his mate's cheek as she closed her eyes. As Diego was about to go to sleep himself, he caught sight of Flora, who looks reluctant to do so. Not because of her active behavior, but because of something else.

"You okay there Flora?" asked Diego.

"Soto sounds mean Daddy." whispered Flora softly. "What if he comes back someday?"

"He won't. He's gone for good so don't worry. Are you scared that he will?"

"No." Even with that answer from Flora, Diego could still see the fearful gleam in his daughter's eyes.

"Daddy, can I sleep with you tonight?" asked Flora.

"Come on up sweetheart." Diego warmly approved. Every time Flora would be scared of something during the night, she would always curl up near Diego. She always felt safe resting her head on her father's paw, free from any of the nightmares that would possibly crash her dreams.

Flora walked up to Diego and went into her usual sleeping position around him. With that, she fluttered her tiny eyes shut.

"Good night Flora." whispered Diego.

It all came back to Flora. The two sabers she was dealing with were none other than Soto and his current second in command Oscar.

"What do we got there Soto?" Two more sabers walked into the scene. On was smaller than his pack mates and very scrawny, and the other one was completely obese. They caught sight of the teenaged saber pinned underneath Oscar.

"Hello kitty." smirked the scrawny in a way that Flora didn't even want to describe. "Looks like we're gonna be getting to know you for quite some time."

Yeah. In your dreams you pervert. Thought Flora to herself clearly disgusted.

"Zeke, that was already done." retorted Oscar.

"What do you mean?" Flora hotly questioned.

"Flora, Flora, Flora," Soto shook his head.

"How do you know my name?" Flora interrogated Soto. (I know its not good word choice but I wanted to use something else other than "asked" and "questioned" again.)

"It's such a coincidence." replied Soto. "Oh Sam."

Sam? No. That's impossible. Please tell me it's not! Hoped Flora. But sadly, Flora was far from right as she saw the saber that she knew approach them with a shameful, reluctant and guilty face.

"No." whispered Flora.

So Sam's actually working for the bad guy. (GASP!) :O But before you all start hating him for that, I'd suggest you look at the sentence when he walks in and chapters 16 and 17 if you want to put two and two together.

I'll update whenever I can this week. I got lucky today. I'll see you all whenever!

Always writing,

laughs4life