Chapter 164

chapter building for the Medical School of The University where I'm now learning these techniques with Fabiola since I'm still apprehensive of being around large groups, I am getting better though and I'm very excited to start practicing in the lab!

After talking with Izzy about her plans for our family, Maco explained MY ROLE... If he's head of the family, I would be it's Matriarch. And after learning the place of privilege in this pack our daughter would enjoy, I was more determined than ever to put my past as behind me as possible. My own family of mostly Deltas didn't care what happened to me and last I heard Alpha Kayden took their heads... I was glad and relieved. TWO of my own brothers partook in my rape! I wanted nothing to do with them and decided to take the Mirabal name, it's not common practice here. Usually both males and females keep their family name till they die, I just wanted to expunge my past completely, those people were no family. I told Maco I would stand by him if that was what they chose and after reading his mother's diary... Uff! No wonder she refused to be Alpha.

"Hey! It's smelling good!" I already hear Natalia and Lola here. We've been all morning helping Nina prep and following her instructions, and I must admit I have been 'sampling' more of the food than I should... It's just SO GOOD!

"What are you making prima?" Lola goes to greet Nina and Maco, she waves at me. I know why they're doing this, Izzy the other day didn't touch me and even willful Nía doesn't push. This pack IS special... They know what happened to me and have embraced me as family but take into account what happened to not make me feel uncomfortable. I feel all the love they send me and I must admit, it HAS been very helpful. Back at that place I don't want to remember, everyone would make fun of my mismatched eyes... HERE everyone is captivated by them and Maco has asked the Lady Magdalena prayers for our daughter to inherit this trait. For them it's not an imperfection and when the albinos came with those with vitiligo and I saw how the Temples filled up with people WANTING matings, I was shook! Fabiola explained to me that those traits are not just VALUABLE to them, but that it was a natural processes of evolution and to a point an aphrodisiac! The Spogel family begged to train the albinos and the Saint Germaines pleaded for those with vitiligo. They are the MAIN Epsilon and most diverse Legacy family on the island. None look related, and because of that varied diversity they ALWAYS have a finely trained Master Spy for Every. Single. Country on the planet. I love it here. I love my mate and I love that my children will grow up in this environment of not tolerance, but RESPECT.

"Hey prima! Well I'm made pastelón which I know is Maco's favorite, the onion rice is done, the chickens are almost roasted to perfection to pair up with the mangú, a codito salad and a green salad, and there's blue crab alcapurrias in the second oven to keep them warm to munch on! They're cold beers in the fridge and here are some joints! Light up ladies! We're going to rumble!" They both lunge at the oven to get an alcapurria. Nina made enough food for a battalion! Once the talking is over, hopefully without casualties, she wants everyone's mates to come over so they can eat supper. This is also THEIR home.

"Oh my Goddess Nina! These are almost as good as the ones Justina sells in her kiosks by the beaches, is this Berto's recipe?!" ALMOST indeed. Justina is already an Elder but refuses to retire and she and her family won't disclose her recipe to anyone! They basically have a monopoly on the dish and have kiosks in several beaches, they go themselves to catch the choicest crabs to add to their crab farm so that theirs are the BEST! The Clementes are a Legacy Kappa family with a tiny home in The Citadel, however they have managed their business so well that they have a small town of their own on the coast North of Itiba where they have their farm and that's not the only dish the won't share the recipe.

"Yup! I can't compete with Madam Clemente but I did buy the jueyes (crabs) from them. Anyway, since you guys are early can you help Maco in the dining room, and we definitely need the sound barrier for this! Goddess knows this is going to be... Well... Interesting." She says as she stirs the rice again in the huge caldero. I had seen it with the other pots and pans but didn't know what it was for until today! I just usually use a rice cooker or else Maco and I will be eating rice crispies. Either way we mostly have our meals delivered from The Fort or just walk over there and eat down in the kitchens... Berto has a special diet for me.

Besides my weekly talks with Anacaona, I have found solace going to The Shrines and have a chat with the Lady Magdalena after prayer and her help with meditation to keep healing, and every weekend we go for runs in the mountains or the rainforest and Maco knows where nobody goes so that I don't feel uncomfortable taking off my clothes. I know nobody is going to harm me, but I'm not ready. I hope the day when I am comes very soon.

"Ok so no sharp objects in the dinning hall, gotcha!" And Lola and I go while Natalia stayed with Nina. I have come to love this house as much as everything else here. The Patriarch of the Mirabals who built it made sure to gather enough wealth while they lived at The Fort in the beginning, even sending some of his sons to attack and pillage pirate ships from whatever they stole to make a GRAND home for his family and beloved mate the Lady Adelola, Priestess of Changó. They even stole a Dutch ship which they rechristened 'El Lobo Infernal' which Maco's Grandfather sold to the Historical Society for a hefty price (they weren't going to donate this one) and is now on permanent exhibit in Cofresí Bay. It still has it's Jolly Roger of a wolf skull looking forward with it's snout open and exaggerated canines and a crescent moon in the upper right corner. The ORIGINAL Jolly Roger is sealed for protection in the vault, however they use the image as their oficial family crest. I haven't been able to go see it yet, but it's open to the public with other 6 ships other families used for the same purpose!

Adelola's grandparents were human slaves, until their son Andrés, Yoruba name Adetoke, fell deeply in love with the Taíno Gamma wolf Princess Anani, daughter of Cacique Agüebaná Real the 2nd. She went back to the original island of her mother, Paula Oller, looking for coquí frogs to bring here to see if they adapted to Karaya. She stole him and his family and brought them back with her and bore the first of what is the now gone Bankole family after Adetoke cast off his Spanish master's name. Their blood still lives in the Mirabal bloodline, their bones down below in the Catacombs. If I'm going to be Matriarch of this family I better know it's long history. This is the ancestral history of MY OWN daughter and children to come, mine is full of shame and misery and either way my family never cared about keeping records.

Beta Imotonex loved his mate dearly! This house is full of beauty and majesty and in his diaries he has multiple poems and love letters he wrote her. They're even paintings and portraits of her in key points of the house he commissioned from his best friend Pablo Oller. It kinda creeped me out at first, but now I don't feel right without the soft gaze of her beautiful chiseled face, with high cheekbones and sweet dimples with full lips with a cupid's bow wearing her gentle smile. Her amber eyes as haunting as Izzy's and Nina's contrasting to the smooth luminous milk chocolate hue of her skin and her thick and tight coiled black curls cascading down to her waist! There is even a portrait of her dressed in a pale yellow French style gown of the era (17th-century) with embroidered slightly darker yellow lemons and white butterflies. Her hair up, adorned with two cut white peacock feathers, pale yellow pearls and numerous long curls going down one side of her neck adorned with a multiple strand pearl choker with a large dark yellow diamond in the center that matched her eyes. It can EASILY beat those of Queen Mary Antoinette and the Duchess Georgiana Cavendish I have seen in books! Then Maco told me of the strong protection spells inside the paintings and how Morgana tested them and they were as strong as the day they were cast by Adelola herself. My favorite one is one of her in her red Priestess robes with all 14 of their children when most where still small pups and they still lived at The Fort, with the everblooming blue flamboyán tree and The Gardens as a backdrop. There's only one painting of the great Beta in the main hall and he looks almost IDENTICAL to Urayoán. It's uncanny!

This house received very little damage compared to others in the blast, even I'm placing fresh fire flowers for Changó every week! The choker, the dress and many other heirlooms are in the vault in the basement. That's without mentioning the small stone stables along the right side of the building with rugged archways that's now the garage, it still houses a fine carriage he commissioned for her and their youngest pups in the French style of the 17th century. Nina keeps it looking good but they have talked of selling it too when their Dad was alive.

He chose the best plot of land to build on, not even the Real or Guerrero ancestral family homes compare to this! The Oller's home is more similar and at the other side of the street... The Oller Patriarch Pablo, sent 4 of his sons and one of his daughters (the only Gammas and Epsilons of the family) to go with the 6 Mirabal Beta sons to raid The Caribbean. They always divided the loot 50/50, cementing the close relationship between both families.

Like old Spanish colonial architecture, there is a big inner courtyard with a garden with yellow lemon and orange trees surrounded by open halls with beautiful pillars that arch into almost two feet from the ground serving as benches in between the entrances to the garden, a seven star pentagram fountain in the center, the citrus scent throughout the house is so refreshing! From his diaries, her scent was of lemons and orange blossoms and he wanted that scent to be ever present... From what I have read he was a powerful Beta Warrior, vicious, arrogant and ruthless, who didn't mind the brutality of piracy and war, yet he was a hopeless romantic and family man who would change the stars in the sky if the Lady Adelola even suggested it! He reminds me of Vito Corleone.

The house has technically four floors, the first being below that connects to The Catacombs that start from The Fort and are basically a cave system underneath The Citadel, that's also where the family grand burial chamber is... My own bones will lie there someday. Just above that is the basement where the old dungeons are, along with the wine cellar, the library and the vault, these we have to revamp. The connecting entrance to the 'second' smaller house is just to the side, although the house has a street entrance as well. Imotonex build it for his mate's family who weren't as well off, yet he wanted the Lady Adelola's happiness. That's where Bayo used to live with Morgana before, it's not even a third of the size of the main building, yet it's really comfortable with similar design. It's pretty much the size of what back in Virginia we would consider a very sizable home and it's just as beautiful as the main building. For fucks sake just THAT house has 5 bedrooms!

Then there's the main floor were we are now with the massive kitchen, dinning hall, living room, it even has a sewing room! Back in the day, if you wanted to dress nicely either you made your own or a Master would come to your home to work. Now Maco uses it as storage for the prototypes of his inventions or gadgets he wants to refurbish, yet the old sewing machines and lay form mannequins are still there. There's also two bathrooms in this floor, but what I really like are what people don't care about, the roof and the floors. I love looking at the ceiling as I lie in bed in Maco's arms, white with dark oak rafters, while listening to the coquí frogs in the garden. Everyone usually walks barefoot inside the house and I love it as well, the stone used for the floors tiles are so smooth and have a nice shiny betina with the passing of the centuries. In the fourth floor there is a sitting area that lies like in a roof covered wide bridge crossing above the gardens that leads to a massive balcony with a view to the bay, and another one on each side looking down at the gardens, the floor in this level is not tiled, but has large smooth cut black stones, it's very relaxing to walk upon. The walls in the bedrooms are also amazing! They're made of a gray rugged stone that regulates the temperature inside making them VERY cozy!

There are also a few studies and a huge classroom divided in two sections that was changed before to a game room with a pool table... they took their classes at The Fort anyway. It was the most damaged part of the house in the blast, yet Nina has been little by little fixing everything with our help. When Izzy just arrived and wasn't paying attention to anyone and I was still under, Ura and Freya were over here working on that room first. Now not only does it have a new black pool table, one of the walls in the left section is a whole LED light panel that Suania insisted be pink and purple that everyone was against at first, until Nina showed them how it would look in her computer. Then they were on board with the colors because it reminded them of Bad Bunny's video for 'Yanagumi', they did want to add some red and teal to make it look EXACTLY alike. Ha!

They added four television sets and every gaming console there is and gaming PCs, with comfy couches and gaming chairs. Nina even found a Pac-Man and Galaga arcade machine online and Maco fixed them up while Nina came over with Paco and his brothers Pepe and Papo to paint them making them look factory new. After they finished there was no way to get them out of there, and Maco just sent for a Medieval Madness and Addams Family pinball machines he found online, these guys are really a bunch of bratty rich KIDS that now have free range to use their family's wealth like they please! Ha! To be fair Maco started making very good money when he changed careers and Nina also was well off, she just didn't know how to administer her income. Now that they all have raises they're updating everything.

Most Osupa have P.O. Boxes in Puerto Rico and the U.S.V.I to get anything they want that they can't make and now the vampires are handling it bringing the stuff over when they go hunting. Everyone receives them like if they were Santa Claus! Apparently they're looking for a Marvel vs. Capcom machine now because it's Izzy's favorite... Although they said the same thing about the Galaga one... I have a feeling that if Maco is head of the family this space is going to be busy ALL the time, I know they're not being a nuisance now because they're giving me my space, but since Maco and I talked about it I have been getting mentally prepared for that. However the thought of it brings me joy imagining all the children playing there! My daughter has still a bit to get here but already has four cousins of about the same age. I imagine the future and even though this lot love each other dearly, they do have to fix some things.

There's also a pretty big yard with a stellar view... VERY rare in Old Itiba, I really don't know of another house that has one like it. Already Nina brought some designs for her vision, she wants everyone to vote before moving forward.

The fourth floor has the bedrooms... All 13 of them! It's funny that the world considers it an unlucky number, yet for The Osupa it's an auspicious one. Then lastly there's a watchtower overlooking the bay and another overlooking south to the open sea, each has their own red brass bells and to top it off a roof of barrel roof tile made of deep blue glistening terracotta clay and slate that compliments the outer mild mustard yellow color of the stucco walls... The Citadel is a rainbow with houses of so many colors. I have made sure to study EVERYTHING I can, not just about the family, but the tribe. All I really have to do is look into the Bond and the information is there. However I have been going over books, documentaries, I even got to touch and peek inside their ancestral boat in the museum! I only get that privilege because Maco was there and I'm his mate, however it's the ONLY time I will ever get to touch it. Not even Izzy can touch it again. And I understand, it's the property of the pack now and the Master Curators take great care in preserving them.

When I touched it I felt like the ugliness of my past completely disappear and I felt my baby kicking for the first time! Freya said the same thing happened to her... She has problems with her past too, her family and mine would have gotten along... Assholes! Then I remember the CORE problem of WHY there's so much disharmony outside Karaya. Without the education The Osupa receive the other packs don't know any better, and the root, the deception of The Council.

I see that everything is prepared and head out to the yard and go to the cliff to look over the bay... I love it when the mountains have a blue hue and I remember Nina's drawings and imagine how this will look like when it's done. I would have NEVER imagined I would end up in a place like this and I dread to think where I would be if Maco wouldn't have found me. I looked down at the waters of the bay and see a pot of orcas. It's been more frequent lately!

I rub my belly full of joy knowing that my daughter will not live anything I did! She will have a very bright future surrounded by so much love, history and nature whether she be an Alpha or an Omega. As I see the orcas I feel more sure of myself... I AM Amelia Mirabal, an Omega of The Osupa!