Chapter 22 #2
Because you’re her oldest son. The only one who stayed around and cared. And despite the bad times we’ve had, she didn’t use to be this way. She used to care before her boyfriend screwed her over.
I guess that’s the price I pay. The role I was given in life. Taking care of everyone else but myself.
My phone buzzes in my hand, and I sigh.
Egg Donor
Jackson! I need you. This is a 911!!
Why doesn’t that surprise me? Sometimes I wonder how she’s still mobile and able to get to her phone. They should have taken it from her by now.
I squeeze my eyes shut, counting to ten in my head. If I don’t answer her, she’ll continue to text and call nonstop until she gets what she wants. Probably food. Or company. Or she forgot where or who she was. Again.
Wilder
Mom. You okay?
I stare at the screen, ignoring the looks from Hux and Mack.
I’m sure they’re glaring at us like we’re the damn enemies here.
But my mom never replies. Fuck. Not only will I have to stop by and check on her, but now it’ll be in the back of my mind throughout our entire fight tonight.
I can’t leave, or Mack will think he’s won and blacklist me from everything, including my only outlet.
“Well, well,” Malic says, standing tall. “Our opponents for the evening.”
“You got what you wanted,” Hux says, lifting a shoulder.
“I did.” The way Malic says those two words has my eyes snapping at him. He’s insinuating something. What? I don’t have a clue.
Ever since he fucked that chick in the bathroom, he’s been acting stranger.
Okay, stranger than usual. Not only did he lose his V card, something he never seemed to care about, but now he’s become obsessed with finding her.
I see it in the way he peeks at every corner and looks over his shoulder.
Fuck. He even dragged me back to that bar.
Sure, we were trying to find Mer again, but he was also looking for her.
The oddly familiar girl that I feel like I should know.
But I shouldn’t, should I? There’s no way.
“I got exactly what I wanted. But you wanted it, too. Didn’t you?” He cocks his head, stepping up to Hux. Nose to nose. Chest to chest. He’s ready to take him right here and now.
“Back off,” Mack says, pushing the two apart forcefully.
“Hands off,” I growl at him with gritted teeth. I can’t wait to punch his fucking lights out and make him bleed for everything he’s done to me in the past.
“Make me,” he taunts, turning in my direction. “What’re you afraid of? Huh?”
I run my tongue over my teeth, grab Mal’s shoulder to pull him back, and step between him and the other two idiots.
“I’m not afraid of shit. But I don’t fight in the locker room.
I fight on the mat. Or I could meet you in a back alley and show you what you should be afraid of, little brother.
” I cock a brow when his chest heaves. There’s no fear in his eyes.
Only tension in his muscles. Good. He’s finally toughened up.
“Do you feel like a big man now?” Malic asks my brother with a laugh. “When you realize what you did later...” He shakes his head, using cryptic words again. Jesus. I’m going to have to check on him, too, tonight. Make sure he’s in bed and not building a damn bomb to put under my brother’s bed.
“Realize what?” Mack grits out. “That I’m about to show my brother up?” He’s way too cocky for his own damn good.
“Just get dressed,” I say, gesturing for them to get away from us.
“Can’t wait,” Hux murmurs, eyeing Malic up and down.
“Ditto!” Mal says giddily, stepping back and standing beside me. “Can’t wait for the bloodshed.” And I know he means that. He’s been ready to beat their asses all his damn life. It’s like he was born with a grudge against the three of them.
“Malic,” I say in a low voice, bringing his gaze to mine. It’s the only way I can tell what the fuck is going through his mind.
“Wilder,” he quips back, cocking a brow.
“What’s up with you?” I murmur.
He grins. “I’m a new man.” With that, he yanks his gaze away from me and walks out the double doors, toward the ring. The crowd goes nuts at the sight of him. They fucking love his fights. The terror it brings the guys who call on him, thinking they can take him down. Malic is indestructible.
I rub my temple. I don’t know what the hell he means by a new man.
Was it him finally losing his V-card at the bar?
Losing Meredith? Whatever it is, something has fundamentally changed Malic, and I can’t tell if it’s for the better.
His obsessive tendencies have ramped up, making him hyper-focused and losing himself in his room for hours. Well, until we have a job to do.
Egg Donor
I need you, Wilder! I’m so scared...
There’s a fine line between loving someone and loathing them for what they did in the past. How am I supposed to hate someone for ruining their life when they can barely remember who the hell they are?
Wilder
Mom. What’s scaring you?
I plop on the metal bench with a heavy heart. I run my fingers over my nearly bald head, reveling in the feel of the tiny hairs slowly growing back.
Egg Donor
The man… he’s back!!!
My head falls forward into my hands as I sigh.
I’m twenty-two years old. I’m a senior in college.
Next year, Mal and I will be on our own, with degrees and working for our boss.
But I can’t seem to shake this toxic relationship with my mother.
She barely knows who I am some days. When I walk in, she swears I’m her first boyfriend—my father.
And sometimes, she looks at me like I’m a stranger visiting her at the nursing home.
I shake my head when Mack and Hux walk through in their gym shorts with their chins raised.
“Looks like our fight is last,” Mack says with a grin, coming to stand in front of me.
“Great,” I mutter, putting my phone away. The only reassurance I have is the round-the-clock nurses stationed there. I quickly text her nurse and let her know what’s happening. Because if I don’t alert them, she’ll call 911 and bring the cops to her room. I don’t need that again.
Mack doesn’t say anything else. Hell, he doesn’t hang around to ask about mom. He walks with Hux out the double doors to watch the fight between him and my best friend. I should go, too. But sometimes, being the caretaker of everyone around me is the most exhausting job of them all.