Page 43 of Their UnBearable Destiny

Chapter Twelve

Her father arrivedthe next morning, determined to explain his position, but Emiliana had other things in mind.

Seated beside Uberto she gestured toward a chair a few feet away.

A moment after he sat down in the chair, she spoke. “Am I a woman?”

The question seemed to confuse her father. “What kind of question is that?”

“One that I want answered. Am I a woman?” She didn’t hesitate even though she knew that her father had a short temper if he felt she was playing games with him. The only things she had in her favor were that she wasn’t playing a game and she had Uberto by her side.

The thought itself was comforting.

Nodding slowly, as if he was worried that he was walking into an ambush. “Yes, you are a woman.”

“And that is why you entertained an offer to push me into a mating?”

“An offer from a man like us, Ana. A shifter eager for a mate.”

She felt Uberto tense beside her. He was her mate and the way he took her hand in his she felt comforted by his presence and hoped she returned the favor to him as well.

“Why me? Surely, he knew that I wear ‘Berto’s mark.”

“A mark,” her father only seemed too happy to point out, “that you rejected.”

She felt a sharp twinge of regret in her chest. Like a seed planted in fertile earth, her complaints and her repeated justifications for sending Uberto away and only grown in her father’s mind. And no doubt in the minds of the people around her.

“It was something personal between Uberto and myself, and I made the mistake of telling you about it.”

Uberto’s leaned against her arm. “You were young.” He sighed. “We were both young. And I didn’t help, thinking I knew what we should be, how you should let me care for you.”

“Has it changed?” Her father’s voice was tight, strained. “Have you changed your mind about Uberto?”

Emiliana nodded a little and then shook her head once. “It’s a process.”

She heard Uberto’s laugh beside her and she nudged him with her elbow.

The look on her father’s face as he witnessed their playful interaction brought true joy to her heart. For so long they had been at odds.

“But I wanted to ask you,” she looked at her father and waited for him to focus on her. “Why were you so eager to push this ‘offer’ to send me away?”

“It wasn’t for that reason,” he looked away and let out a long breath. When it was finished he looked much older than he had a moment before. “I love you, Emiliana, but surely you understand how unique you are.”

“Not really,” she shook her head, “I’m a shifter, the first in anyone’s memory, at least from this area, but it hasn’t helped me at all. No one wants me to help with anything that I seem to be made for. I want to help protect the people here in our valley. I want to use my strengths to benefit others, but you never seem to take me seriously.”

Her father opened his mouth to reply but shut it a moment later.

“I’d blame old habits, Ana, but I worry that I’m stuck in my ways.”

“Just explain it to me,” she swallowed and squeezed Uberto’s hand, “I want to understand.”

“It started with some of the other elders,” he explained, “through the last few generations, the number of our children that become shifters when they reach their last few years of youth, are dwindling. Some of the stories from the past tell us that children born of two parents, both shifters, will have a higher chance of-”

“Being just like their parents.” Emiliana let the information settle in her head. “But I have a mate. Why would you have even considered the offer? Would it work if I already have a mate?”

“Nothing is certain in any case, Ana, but the elders,” he shook his head, regret turning down the corners of his mouth, “they wanted to make sure we did everything possible to try. The idea of bolstering our numbers-”

“Using me as a brood mare?”

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