The Unclaimed Human Luna
Chapter 52

El POV

Her Aunt Juliana was waiting for her as she was told she would be. She was a tall slender woman, with long black hair, much like her grandma and father, she also had those same silver-grey eyes. She smiled right at her and waved, then just hugged her good and tight, “Not such a little kit now are you.”

“No. It’s good to see you. Thank you for helping me.”

“That’s perfectly alright. What is family for? Now let’s get you in the car. It’s a bit of a long drive.”

“How long?”

“Five maybe six hours depending on traffic, but at such short notice, we couldn’t get you on the flight we actually needed. Closer to home. So here I am. It was a nice drive for me though. I got in last night and stayed in a really nice hotel and did some shopping this morning. My family is going to love me.” She grinned at her.”

“You shopped for your family?”

“I shopped for everyone, got me a bootload of things, let’s hope your suitcase fits.” She chuckled, it did fit, though in the back seat. Her aunt wasn’t kidding when she said she went shopping. The back of her four-wheel drive was piled high with shopping bags and boxes. El looked at her questioningly. “We don’t get down here often, live up near Pisogne, I actually don’t live that far from your university.”

“Oh, how far?”

“Close enough for you to commute if you want, it’s just over an hour each way, so if you don’t want to stay on campus you don’t have to, and your more than welcome to come out on weekends and school breaks.”

“I didn’t realise it was so close.”

“You weren’t looking for a university last time you were here.”

“I wasn’t. I don’t really remember much about the drive to be honest, just hanging out with my cousins.”

Aunt Juliana laughed, “They are excited to have you visit and two of them will be starting at the same university as you this year as well. Though most do duck off to Bologna, which I heard you were supposed to go to.”

El nodded “My new stepfather took it upon himself to yank me from my degree to study in Utah.”

She saw her aunt shake her head. “Well, here you can study anywhere you like, you might even be able to transfer in your second year to go to the university of your choice.”

“That would be nice.” El smiled.

“So, let’s get you some food, something better than aeroplane food and we’ll be off on our long drive, but that just gives me plenty of time to ask you a million questions.”

“Do you know how grandma is?”

“I do, she’s handling your stepfather and your mother. No problems so far. Don’t you worry about Sloan.” She chuckled “She bites really good and most will back off when she’s in full fight mode, and don’t really know how to handle her. She’s got one hell of a mean streak and protecting our kits. That is what she does no matter where she is, or where they are, for that matter.”

“I’d like to call her.”

“Ah, yes. Now, I did get you a new phone, but.” She laughed “It’s back there in amongst all that shopping. You can use mine.” Pressed a button on her steering wheel and spoke her native tongue to have her car call Sloan’s number.

“Is El with you?”

“I am here, grandma.”

“Ah, good. All’s going well on my end. I only have one question for you?”

“What’s that?”

“Your stepbrother texted you, now I noticed he’s sent a few before, you’ve never once replied to him. I sent a single reply, of ‘yes.’ To his question. Would that be appropriate?”

“What was the text? I don’t talk to him normally.” It was true she didn’t talk to him. It was just s*x, always just s*x and nothing else.

“Hi El, are you alright?” Her grandma told her.

“I don’t know why he would do that, and I likely wouldn’t have replied at all. Just ignore him, it’s what I do.”

“Alright, he was the one sent after you the last time you left. Is he the one going to be coming for you again?”

“Probably, Marlo said that it was Conner and Adam’s job to do that, retrieve people. So, I guess.” Was not going to tell her grandma she was having s*x with him and that he had told her she was never allowed to leave, that he would hunt her down every time, or that he thought her body belonged to him. She was here to get away from that man.

“Hmm, then I guess I might interact a little with him.”

“Don’t bother grandma.” El shook her head, “I just stay away from him. He’s not there anyway, off on some company retreat for a few days is what I heard Logan state, along with like a hundred others.”

There was quiet for a long time, and she could feel her aunt looking at her as well. Turned to replace those eyes so much like her own right on her. Then she was speaking fluent Italian to her sister. El only understood a few words of it. Not enough to glean what the conversation was, as they talked between themselves.

Then her grandma just sighed heavily “El, I’ll chat with you later, got to go check something out.”

“Okay grandma.”

The line clicked closed and she looked at her aunt, who smiled at her. “Ah don’t worry about it, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Did I just cause more trouble?”

“Hmm, unknown at this point. But really, you’re here in wonderful Italy, home where you belong. What really can any of them do now? Can’t force you onto a plane and make you go back. Nope, that would cause a massive inquest and you could just claim being kidnapped. They’ll all be arrested.” She chuckled. “So don’t concern yourself with it.”

She nodded, “Alright. I didn’t pick up much from your conversation with grandma, I really need to work on my Italian.”

“Likely haven’t spoken it in a while, huh?”

“Yeah, mum never tried to learn it and so dad always spoke English at home. I know a little, but growing up in California not many others spoke it. Or at least not many I knew.”

“That’s okay, El. You’ve got plenty of time to pick it up from all of us. We’ll all help you so you’ve got some better understanding before getting started at Bergamo.”

The food was delicious, and the drive was nice. They got to drive through lots of the countryside and her aunt talked to her about the places they were passing, and laughed a little at El’s attempts to speak some of the words back to her, there was some language lessons in that car.

They arrived at her home late in the afternoon and grandma wasn’t wrong, there were lots of small homes dotted around, and lots of people as they passed through the gates. “Now El, I hear you’ve been living inside a gated community?”

“Locked inside, I was not allowed to leave it.”

“Well, here you can come and go as you please. All the cars here have a sensor which activates the gate. So, although we are similar to that in which you just came from, we don’t enforce people to stay here. Most want to be here, some come and go of their own accord over the years. The young ones all go to school here and then off to the local high school and then,” she smiled, “Well, they may go anywhere in the world to study.”

“That’s nice.” It did sound nice.

“It is, Sloan hopped on over to America decades ago. I have a sister in Japan, and two brothers who knows where, somewhere in Asia,” she chuckled. “My eldest is here, she’ll take over this place with her husband when she’s ready, still a wee bit free-spirited. Not quite ready. My other children are all over the world. We like to wander, our people.”

“So, I can go anywhere, anytime is what you’re saying.”

“Yes, honey you can.”

El smiled. That was a really nice feeling to have, “Logan was always concerned about his company and his rivals, apparently that’s why I wasn’t allowed out.”

“Hmm, well we don’t really have rivals like that, we’re pretty laid back, my company is managed mostly from here all online, and many will go off and just live their lives. We’re quite different to other big corporations. Some of those will even let us live within them, like Sloan. Her talents come in handy for people like Logan.”

“She’ll be alright though, if Logan or Conner hunt her down, right?”

“Oh yes, don’t you worry about Sloan. She also knows quite a few people, just like Logan. He won’t want to take her on. Though I imagine once he replaces out, a lot of things will happen over there. Considering who your mother is now.”

“His wife.”

“Hmm, we’ll discuss that a little later,” she smiled and pulled the car up to a lovely but grand villa, “Come now let’s get you settled in.”

Many people came from the villa to help unload the car, lots of children all over the place, running up to Juliana, talking a mile a minute and tugging at her dress a little. El didn’t understand a single word except for ‘dolci’. They were all looking for sweet treats. Loved sugar, it seemed.

It was very cute. She was shown to a room on the second floor and then brought back downstairs to help prepare a big outdoor dinner. She saw several of her cousins, who she knew from chatting online with them, over the years growing up and she helped them to set up for the big dinner. Everyone smiled at her and hugged her.

Most of them spoke English and lots of them ribbed her about her lack of Italian, but she was going to pick it up quickly, she thought, and by the time dinner was ready she was sitting and was laughing, felt like she fit in here. It was really nice to be here, with her father’s side of the family. She’d been given her bank card and accounts by her aunt Juliana and that phone that was buried in amongst all the shopping had finally turned up, and it already had her grandma’s number in it.

Several of her cousins put their numbers in it as well. It was a very lively dinner with lots of people, the children were up and gone off to play the moment dinner was over, and she couldn’t help but smile. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she was home. That constant ache she’d had the whole time in Utah was almost gone right this minute.

El turned in by nine, tired from her long flight and her long drive. Took a long hot bath and then just crawled into her bed, to sleep. She was finally here where she was supposed to be. It was in the very room her father had used when he was here. Something her Aunt told her when she’d shown her to the room, there were even a few pictures of him and her grandma in the room. Though there were no pictures of her grandpa, she’d never seen pictures of that man. Grandma never talked about him either and neither had her father. Kind of a taboo subject, she thought. Or perhaps there was just nothing to tell, maybe they had just gotten together and it hadn’t worked out. Grandma found herself pregnant and alone. Who knew? She wasn’t about to go bring it up. It was a long time ago and if she’d not heard the tail by now, she likely wasn’t going to.

Though a part of her was now curious, she could see some of these photos were taken here, and she knew her dad had grown up here, till he was like 13 and then he and his mother had moved to America. He’d come back here to study, but then met her mother on a trip to visit his mother, and that had been it. Told her he’d been smitten by Brittney and just couldn’t see himself with anyone else.

They’d been married within a year, but it had taken a few years for her to come along, and no other children. Not for lack of trying, he’d always chuckle. Though he’d never seemed all that concerned about it, there was no blame ever laid on either of them, she’d been told once. We will have what we are meant to have.

She was all they were meant to have, apparently. Their life had been good, she’d grown up happy with a loving mum and dad, it had all been nice until he’d died, accidently shot by a hunter out in the woods while he’d been working on some project. And now he just wasn’t here anymore, and life had fallen apart for her.

She reached out and touched his photo, smiled at it and picked it up to look at it, her eyes moved to the background and there were foxes off behind them. Blinked at that, maybe this was where their love of foxes had started. Smiled at the thought of seeing some here just like he had. Yawned to herself and settled down to sleep finally.