Chapter 19
RODERICK
Thoughts of Juliet threaten to fill every hour of my foreseeable future—until family drama eclipses everything in my life.
I’m not sure exactly when I became the responsible adult and my mother turned into the immature one in need of discipline. But whenever the shift occurred, tonight—only three days after our full-moon run—I’m facing it.
Mom fucked up. Bad.
Tearing-a-rift-in-our-family bad.
I knew something important was happening when I got a call from Warner, saying that he needed to talk in person.
We met in Sawdust and Supplies, the rest of our family deciding to tag along for the conversation.
With my mom, Uncle Mason, Tanya, Isaac, and me as an audience, Warner informed us that he planned to move to Denver to be with the human he’d fallen in love with. Zoey Gunner.
Then everything went to shit.
Zoey herself showed up, still sporting injuries from a recent fall she’d taken from a tree house.
Come to find out my mother had been the one to make the tree house collapse, which was just one item in a list of offenses she was secretly racking up against the woman—all attempts to drive Zoey out of town.
Turns out, Zoey’s mother and mine have bad blood from decades ago, and Rebecca Jameson thought it was her right to take retribution on Selena Gunner’s daughter. Especially when it became clear how infatuated Warner was with the human woman.
Mom claimed her actions were all to keep her son safe from heartbreak, but anyone with eyes only needed a glance at my brother clutching Zoey against his chest to know his true misery would be losing her.
Wolves hold grudges, and my mother’s anger has festered for decades.
The underhanded attacks can’t go unpunished. As the pack leader, I’m the judge and jury in this town when it comes to wolf-related matters. I try to be fair, but it’s hard to remain detached when the culprit pacing the length of my office is the woman who raised me.
“Do you hate the Gunners this much?” The question comes out on a rough exhale as I try to keep the hurt and frustration from my voice.
I can’t be her son in this moment. Only her pack leader.
“They deserve to be hated, Roderick. But how can you think this is only about them?” My mother’s agitated footsteps sound in an erratic rhythm on the scarred wood floor. “More than anyone in this family, you know how easily outsiders hurt our kind!”
She’s not wrong. I’ve been dealt multiple blows in the past that should make me an ally in her righteous anger.
But lately, I’ve been wondering if I’m holding on to that trauma too tightly.
Am I becoming as irrational as my mother?
“I do know how outsiders can be. But Zoey isn’t here to hunt wolves or coax Warner into a dangerous situation.
And this is nothing like what happened with Monica.
” I keep my voice level despite my aggravation.
Used to be that thoughts of my ex—the woman I once wanted to mate—gutted me.
Now there’s only a twinge of discomfort at the faded memory, paired with irritation that she’s been brought up in this context.
“Of course it is!” she snarls. “She left you brokenhearted because she couldn’t accept what we were.”
I nod once. “Yes. She couldn’t handle it. After finding out, barely took her a day to decide.” I hold Mother’s wild eyes. “But Zoey has known about Warner for weeks. Maybe longer. And she’s still here.”
“For now.” Rebecca Jameson has never sounded more like a surly teenager.
“I’m not doing this with you.” A sharp headache forms at the base of my skull that I can’t press away, no matter how hard I grip my neck. “I’ve made my decision.”
“You’ll regret this.”
“Choosing Warner’s happiness over your prejudice?” I laugh without humor, hit with a rush of sad resentment toward my mother. “No. I don’t think I’ll be the one with regret.”
In this moment, I want nothing more than to sink into my desk chair, stare at the ceiling, and ignore my responsibilities. But I’m a pack leader, and sometimes, the job gets hard.
Keeping my spine straight, I ignore my pounding head and stare my mother down until she drops her gaze.
“Beginning at midnight, you are exiled from Pine Falls pack territory. You may not cross the boundaries again until the exile is lifted. What you do beyond our borders is your choice. You are free to join another pack—”
“I’d never!”
“Or wander as a lone wolf.”
Silence stretches as she glares at the floor and chews over my ruling.
“For how long?”
My voice stays steady, hiding the pain of doling out this punishment. “After a year, you may petition to return by showing true regret for your actions and demonstrating your commitment to never harming another inhabitant of Pine Falls, be they wolf or human.”
My mother growls. “A year? She’ll be gone by then.”
Disappointment in her response weighs heavy on my shoulders, coaxing them to sag. But I stand tall. “I doubt that. But even if Zoey is, the requirement still stands.”
“You’re joking!” She flings her arms out to the sides, reminding me of Tanya in a tantrum. “You would still make me jump through these hoops even after she abandons your brother?”
Rebecca’s continued disregard for the severity of her actions burns away my weariness, leaving only rage, until all I want is to demolish every breakable object in my office.
But I’m not some adolescent wolf with no control over the beast inside me. I am the leader of the Pine Falls pack, and I will bury this anger.
“Yes,” is my only response.
My mother’s hands clench and release, then clench again.
“Tanya and Isaac.” She says my youngest siblings’ names almost as an accusation.
The twins will probably be hit hardest by this.
“They are adults in the pack. If they wish to go with you, I won’t stop them.” I lean forward then, letting my power out in a way I normally keep under wraps. I need her to stop seeing me as only her son. “But I can’t imagine you would ask them to abandon their home to share in your punishment.”
She bares her teeth, and then her shoulders drop slightly. “No. I wouldn’t.”
“Then we will take care of them.”
“The shop.” Sawdust and Supplies—my parents built the hardware store together, and she will now have to abandon it.
“We will continue to run it for you in your absence. Warner is in the best position to act as interim manager, but I doubt he’s feeling particularly helpful toward you at the moment.”
My brother works for my uncle’s construction company and has always been the best of us when it comes to interacting with people. He’s upbeat and charming. At least, he is when the woman he loves isn’t being threatened by his mother.
“I would prefer him to run it,” she replies stiffly.
I nod. “Leave any instructions you think he might need. Uncle Mason and I will oversee things while he decides.”
“Does my exile extend to communication? Am I to be cut off from my children completely?”
“You can call and speak to any who wish to talk to you.” In my tone, I convey that number might be smaller than she hopes for.
Rebecca is hurting us with her stubbornness, and her refusal to accept responsibility cuts all the deeper. My mother has always been a proud, strong wolf, but today, those once-admirable qualities have twisted into something vindictive.
Our family might never heal from this wound.