Two

Talia sighed in frustration as she sat down at the kitchen table and avoided looking at her mother. She knew that she was in trouble for looking through her things but she needed information. Silence descended upon them and Talia knew that it was because her mother was waiting for her to start talking but she refused to break. A hand turned her face and she looked into her mother's whiskey colored eyes.

"Talia Clara Montgomery you are thirteen years old so stop acting petulant and talk," she ordered.

"I was just trying to find out about my father," Talia said harshly pulling away and turning her back to her mother as she looked out at the setting sun.

Aria Montgomery was not alpha of her pack in Tennessee for nothing but hearing this broke her heart. She couldn't tell her child the reason that she left without a word to her father because she wouldn't understand. Talia just wanted the truth and she didn't understand why her mother had to lie to her about these things.

"Your father is a good man, a good alpha and if he had known about you he would have loved you. There are things out in the world that you cannot understand yet, things that want you dead just for being his daughter. Please child leave it alone," Aria begged.

Talia sniffled as tears filled her eyes but she refused to let them fall. It wasn't fair that she couldn't know her father but hearing her mother plead she knew that she had to leave it alone at least for now. Little did she know what would happen two years from today.

Talia groaned as she came to a dim light hitting her eyes as she opened them. She tensed and sniffed her surroundings taking everything in. She smelt the man, her father, her alpha around the room and realized this must be his bed. She listened and heard them downstairs which meant they were waiting for her to come out on her own. She slowly sat up and saw the clothes sitting on the dresser for her. If Talia was going to be staying she was going to at least enjoy a shower so they could all wait for her to take her sweet ass time. She dared them to try to hurry her or touch her because she would make them regret it.

Jeremy sat patiently reading a book while the rest of the pack seemed to shift uncomfortably. The only one who was slightly calm was Clayton but that was because he understood what Talia was going through having lived on the streets as well until the he had saved the boy. Footsteps sounded so lightly that you almost couldn't hear them and they were quick telling the pack that at sixteen Talia was already very attuned to her wolf. She came around to stand in the doorway looking at the pack as if assessing them like they were with her. Jeremy heard the curse from Nick and looked over to see the Beta looking back and forth between him and Talia. Jeremy already knew that she was his daughter not only from the way she smelled but from the fact that when he caught her in his arms they bonded as pack. Looking at her now though he could see why Nick was able to figure it out. Talia had dark hair that fell to the middle of her back in waves and she had blue eyes very much like his own that were sometimes grey and sometimes a deeper blue.

"Talia," Jeremy said calmly keeping his voice cool and collected knowing she could bolt at any given moment but the girl didn't say a word just looked at him until he was afraid she wouldn't speak.

"I know what my mother meant now," she whispered so low that if everyone here hadn't been a wolf they wouldn't have heard.

"Aria Montgomery," Jeremy said remembering her and the potential they had together.

"Yeah she's dead thanks to Mutts," Talia said coldly and there was a hard look in her eyes that told Jeremy his daughter had not only been living on the streets running for a year but she had witnessed the murder.

"Nick go get some food for Talia," Jeremy ordered.

Talia wanted to protest on him making her food because she didn't know him and the only person she was told to trust had been her father but seeing the look in her father's eyes there was something there, like he was asking her to trust him at least so she relaxed slightly but not completely knowing she could easily smell if something was off with the food plus she was starving.

Clay recognized the look in Talia's eyes, it had been in his own many years ago when Jeremy had first found him. When Jeremy had first found him the alpha had informed him that they were related in some way but that still wasn't enough for him to trust the wolf after having been bitten savagely. Jeremy had persisted waiting patiently for weeks on a tree stump for him to learn to trust and when he finally had Clay felt his wolf settle but still for weeks afterwards he was distrustful and weary of everything. Jeremy had helped him though by being patient, helpful, letting him be upset and angry but also holding firm on making sure Clay didn't go too far. Finally it was like one day Clay could trust Jeremy and soon that extended to the rest of the pack. Looking at Talia he knew that she would be like him though maybe not so much for the lashing out since she seemed far more in control of her wolf then he had been.

"You must be starving," Jeremy stated trying to ease some of the tension.

"I'm not eating that food alone," Talia said daring him to disagree because he might be her father and now her new alpha but that didn't mean she was going to completely trust him.

"Of course not I'm hungry as well let's go make sure Nick is actually making something edible or just slacking off," Jeremy said kindly and the alpha watched as Talia nearly took Elena's head off when the blonde walked behind her without warning.

"Sorry," Elena apologized.

Talia narrowed her eyes weary but could tell that the woman meant no harm. She still didn't want to be touched by anyone and was slightly relieved when the rest of the wolves walked in front of her and her father. Her father was the alpha though so he could do what he wanted but instead of pushing her forward or ordering her he simply walked beside her to the kitchen and pulled out a chair by the head of the table for her. She sat and let him push the chair in without touching her and watched as everyone else sat down. The one man, Clay, or at least that was the name she remembered hearing sat beside her with Elena across from them and finally Nick passed out the food which was basic pasta and spaghetti sauce with garlic bread. She didn't touch the food and neither did anybody else all waiting for the alpha her father to eat first and she relaxed a little more at that because at least then she would know the food was safe. Her father looked at her with knowing eyes as he took a bit and then ordered everybody to eat. Something in those eyes that were exactly like her own made her want to trust him, to trust the pack but living on the run for a year hadn't done her any good so trust would take time she just didn't know how much time she had left.