I don't know who Lita is, but I'm sure I will find out soon.
"Melisa?" I ask, unsure how to form the proper sentences.
One of the girl's furrows her brow."¿Mamá?"?4
The word pierces right through me. As I look at these two girls, realization washes over me again and again.
"¿Melisa es tu madre?”?5I ask.
One giggles."Hablas raro."?6
But the other says,"Si."?7
Yes.
My head spins, and my heart beats fast. She never told me she had...
"I'm looking for your mother," I say, continuing to talk to them in their language.
They look at each other and frown. The one who isn't a veritable beast tamer steps closer to me and grabs my hand. I look down at her fingers. They are impossibly small.
"I missmamá. Will you take me to her? She promised to come, but she missed our day.”
The other says, "I can askLitaagain!”
My brows furrow, but I place my hand atop the girl's. "Who isLita?"
“Wren, Thea!” someone shouts from outside. A woman joins us who doesn’t look much older than Melisa. She looks like my mate, too. But, whereas Melisa is filled out and full of life, this woman’s hair is tangled and mussed around her face. Deephollows are in her cheeks, and some dust is scattered from her cheek to her nose, and she hastily wipes it away.
She gets one look at me, and her face twists with fury.
"Get out of my house!" she shouts.
I stand.
"I'm just looking for Melisa."
Her eyes narrow, darkening the circles under her eyes, and she grabs a metal rod from the wall. “I’ll kill you.”
I take my hint and back away, but don’t leave.
The world tilts on its side. Melisa... has daughters. Two of them.
Memories blast at me, filling my thoughts.
“And what if you are mated to one of the pregnant women?”
“I would care for the child.”
“But you would want your own?”
“Yes.”
Then last night…
“You don’t know me… You want a family, and children to carry your bloodline, and a mate…I can’t do that.”
Shit. I’d been stubborn and pigheaded. I’d acted like I wouldn’t properly father children from another man.