Chapter 113 Isabella

• After everything, the memorial ceremony had given me a welcome moment of peace. An escape, I suppose you could say, which is a terrible disrespect to the man we were here to say goodbye to. My grandfather’s response to seeing me with Aria had crushed my spirit, and my heart. I had wanted to be anywhere but surrounded by the people closest to me right now. But, there was no real escape. Any which way I looked, there were people I knew, and I did not know the pack well enough to disappear for any time.
• While sitting listening to the many memories people shared of Beta Trent, I tried my hardest to stay focused upon their words. Listening to the wonderful man that he was. A man of my grandfather’s age, and a man I had spent time with many times in my frequent visits to the River Ash Pack along with my friends and family. Guilt unexpectedly twisted at my heart that he had gone, and if he could so easily have left this earth, then so too could my own grandfather. The very man I was right now trying to avoid. The very man I was hating...
• The service had come to an end, and we all now gathered within the area where the celebration of Uncle Trent’s life was to take place. We had been allocated seats for the ceremony. Aria had been seated with her family, so we had to separate for that time, but the time apart had given me time to think. Time to focus my thoughts, or maybe I should say, time to worry. Worry desperately what my fated mate must be thinking of my terribly judgmental family... especially my grandfather. Her family all know of us. Of her sexuality, and not one had batted an eyelid at it. No judgment. No negativity. Treated Aria no differently. Yet, she had witnessed first hand now the treatment I had feared, and it was from my own blood... what must she think?