Rescuing His Captive Mate: Saving The Future Luna

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Star

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"That\'s right Aunt Gloriana, please do introduce us." I did my best to keep my voice level as I smiled at her. "I would love an introduction in this situation." I watched as my father\'s face paled as he processed the words that I had just spoken.

"Excuse me, but please do not refer to her as your aunt. It is quite rude when non-family members take such liberties." I noticed a tightness around his eyes and mouth that didn\'t look natural on him.

"I am sorry, Sir, but I am not taking liberties. As I am in fact Queen Gloriana\'s niece, I have been given permission to call her by the name."

I don\'t know why, but that small statement had my father looking at me more intently. It was like he was trying to figure out just who I was. I think there was a bit of recognition there, but since I didn\'t look that much like my mother, I knew it was difficult for him to make the connection. The closest resemblance, as I have been told, was in my eyes.

I was doing my best to not hide my eyes from him. I wanted him to see that part of me the most. I wanted him to see my mother in my eyes. What I really, truly wanted to know was if he would recognize her there. I wanted to know if he would even remember her.

As Aaron, my absent father, stared at me intently for what felt like hours even though in reality I knew it was merely seconds, I watched as a sense of familiarity washed over him.

"H..how is she your aunt?" His voice was hushed, and there was disbelief in his eyes though it was mixed with something that I didn\'t quite recognize. What was it that he was feeling right now? What was running through his head? I wish I could see it right now.

I watched as a strained smile passed across Aunt Gloriana\'s face. She was all too happy to reunite us, in theory of course. However, now that we were here, and the time had come for us to be meeting each other in person, it was as if she had suddenly become very nervous.

"Aaron, my dear nephew, could you join me for a moment. I wish to sit and talk with you for a little while before we have our dinner." There were no emotions that escaped into Aunt Gloriana\'s voice, she was a master, a pro, when it came to being diplomatic like this.

"I most certainly will join you, Aunt Glory, but I think it would be better to discuss whatever this matter is with just the two of us. There is no reason to bring an outsider into the mix now, is there?" It was clear that I was making my father nervous. If he only knew how nervous I was right now. He would probably be the first person to nominate me for an award for how well I was handling it all.

"Come now, Aaron, this matter has to do with her as well. I would like to talk to the both of you at the same time. Won\'t you please do me the honor of granting that request? I do not wish to make it into a command." That was the first time that I had heard her threaten someone, and it wasn\'t that much of a threat. To me it basically just sounded like she was telling him to stop being a baby and to just do as he had been told.

"Aunt Glory?" He looked shocked by her words, but his proper attitude didn\'t falter at all. "I do not know this woman so how am I expected to trust her?" I believe that was perhaps the most honest thing he could think to say at the moment. "No offense to her or whomever it is that she is here to represent, but I can hardly put my faith in her so easily."

"That is truly funny, Aaron." I tried to smirk at his words, but I am very certain that it ended up looking a lot more like a grimace by the time that I was done. "You find it hard to put faith in people that you just met, but you expect that faith from them. Tell me, how long do you wait before you tell a woman that you love her? Is it something that they must work for so that they feel special? Or is it more like a club that is open to everyone, and you spread the word around as if it were nothing more than a free sample that everyone is allowed to try a piece of?"

Honestly I didn\'t even know where the words came from as I ranted at him. They just came spilling out of me as I glared at him as the pent up anger was boiling throughout my body. When my words had hit him, and he had had the time to process what it was that I had said, a cloud seemed to settle over his eyes. The colors darkened, both the blue and the purple, until they looked nearly black. I could see that he was just getting ready to start a fight with me.

That was fine with me. If he wanted to fight and argue with me then I would let out everything that I was feeling as I screamed at him. I had even envisioned something just like this happening anyway. I knew that he would be angry when he met me. I knew he would be mad that he was meeting the daughter he never wanted. The daughter that would just make him remember the woman he never wanted. Oh, I would let him start this fight, and I would do my best to put him in his place.

"Look, whoever you are, I don\'t like the way that you are speaking to me right now." His attitude filled with authority and superiority was still there, but it was starting to crumble and fall, I could tell by the way that his voice shook just a little. "However, I do not randomly tell women that I love them. That is not an emotion that should be taken lightly. I do not believe that someone as young as you would understand that, but we Fae take the matter of family, love, and eternity very seriously." 

He was really starting to make me mad with the way that he was talking. I know that he had seen my eyes. I know that he recognized my mother in them. Was he just going to ignore it completely? Or was he just going to pretend like I was someone else until this was over and then yell at Aunt Gloriana after I left the room?

\'GRR!\' I growled my frustration inside my head so that he wouldn\'t notice that anything was wrong at all.

"Do you want to know something, Aaron? You\'re quite infuriating." I could feel the anger raging in me so much that my vision was literally turning red.

"I don\'t find you very pleasant right now either, Miss. Sorry, but I don\'t know your name." He seemed to be sneering at me as he spoke, like him not knowing who I was meant that I was not important to him.

"My name is Astraia, Astraia Westbrook." I noticed that he flinched just a little bit when he heard the name, so he did remember her. "Does that mean something to you, Aaron?" I sneered at him now, he would know that I knew who he was.

"Oh hush now, the both of you." Aunt Gloriana snapped at us as she cut through the anger and tension that was between us.

I could tell that Aunt Gloriana had been trying to let us start this introduction ourselves. We had definitely opened up the floor for discussion, that was for sure. However, we hadn\'t taken it in a very friendly direction now, had we? I had a feeling that Aunt Gloriana was wondering just which one of us that she should be supporting in our little argument. My bet was she had wanted to stay neutral so she was breaking up the spat before it truly got started.

"The two of you need to sit down and discuss this calmly and rationally. That is why I asked the two of you to come to this dinner tonight. I wanted you both here together, because without the both of you here we will never get to the bottom of this."

For the first time since I had gotten back to Aunt Gloriana\'s room, I noticed her true emotions leaking out. She was angry and frustrated. What would she do if we continued to fight?

"Fine, Aunt Gloriana, I will sit and talk with him." I settled into an armchair and waited.

"I refuse to speak with an outsider that is so rude and overly familiar with you." My father was still being defiant as he refused to accept that we needed to talk calmly.

"Oh for nature\'s sake, Aaron, she is your daughter."