Chapter 90
Chapter Ninety
~Thane~
Harlow hangs up the moment she hears Rhen’s voice outside my car. I’m still parked on the side of the road when they find me. Rhen says nothing as he peers down at me, and I rest my head back on the head rest.
“You got her to call me,” I breathe and I close my eyes.
“No, but she was on the phone with Leon when we felt you freak out.”
So she called on her own accord, not because they asked her to? I swallow and nod my head.
“You’re not driving like this—climb over to the passenger seat,” Rhen says, pushing on my arm to make me move. Sighing, I relent and do as he tells me, quickly moving to the other seat as he climbs into the car.
“Are we going home?” I ask him.
“Is that where you want me to drop you?” he asks, and I turn my head to look at him.
“Are you all coming home?” I ask him and he purses his lips but says nothing.
“I want to go wherever you are all going,” I tell him. He nods once, and we follow Raidon back to his parents' new place.
The Hamptons-looking home is vast, and it’s everything Elaine has always wanted.
It is also out of the city and surrounded by forest. Rhen pulls into the garage and shuts the car off before climbing out.
Elaine stands by the door, staring at the cars as she worries her lip between her teeth.
I find no comfort here, even surrounded by my mates.
When I don't climb out of the car, Raidon opens my door, looking at me expectantly.
“Come on, Mom made lunch,” he tells me. I nod once before he steps aside. I follow him through the house. With neutral tones and high ceilings, it resembles a show home. I know Elaine is very house proud, she always has been.
“Are you staying the night dear?” she asks me as I step into the huge gallery-style kitchen that overlooks the living room with its open floor plan and sweeping polished floors.
I look at Raidon. It’s his mother’s house, not mine, and I’m not sure I am welcome despite her asking.
I take a seat on the couch. Leon comes in moments later and watches me closely as he moves toward the living area.
I want to feel anger at him for draining me, for knocking me out, yet I feel nothing but numb, desensitized to the anger I felt before.
He stops in front of me, as if asking for my forgiveness.
It is me who should be asking for theirs.
When he doesn’t move to sit, I reach for him, gripping his wrist and tugging him down next to me.
He sighs, leaning against me. I can feel his burning hunger, the need to feed from his Alpha. As strong as it is for Harlow.
“Yes, Ma, he’s staying the night,” Raidon answers. I don’t realize how much I am hoping he would say yes until the words spill from his lips. Elaine smiles fondly at her son. We’ve always been close, and after a little while, I find myself relaxing in her new home.
* * *
The night is long as my mates settle into the routine they’ve had for the past few days here. Raidon’s father goes to bed early. The local hospital is understaffed right now, and he is called in to assist on early morning rounds.
Elaine sits on the armchair across from us going through boxes of paperwork she needs to sort out.
Rhen is beside her, going over her finances on his laptop.
She hands him a folder and he accepts it, flicking through the pages for something he needs for her taxes.
I let them be, turning my attention back to the TV.
Rhen packs up his laptop, having finished whatever it is she asked of him. I watch as he stretches and yawns.
“It’s finished, I just need to send it in tomorrow,” he tells her before rising to his feet. He leans down, pecking her cheek. “I’m going to head to bed,” he tells her, and she nods, going back to her task.
Leon and Raidon are quick to follow after him. Leon stops behind Elaine, looking at me expectantly. I sigh. I am much too wired for sleep right now, but I know he is asking for me to join them.
“I think I will do the same,” I tell Elaine, getting to my feet as she pulls out some journal. She looks it over with a confused expression. I lean down pecking her cheek as she opens it.
“Night, son,” she tells me, picking up whatever fell from between its pages and landing on the floor by her feet.
I follow Raidon and the others to a room upstairs.
They had pushed two queen beds together.
I feel awkward, almost as if waiting for permission to rest with them.
Yet as they climb into bed, I find myself following, and within moments of my head hitting the pillow, my eyes close as their familiar scents surround me.
Feeling the bed dip, I go to roll when I feel the sharp pierce of Leon’s fangs as they sink deeply into my neck.
Turning my head so he has better access, my fingers find their way into his hair.
As I caress his scalp, his tongue laps hungrily at me, enticing a moan from my lips as I pull him on top of me.
His hard cock digs into my stomach as he moves against me before pulling his fangs from my neck.
My blood dribbles down from his lips as he pulls back, his tongue poking out to lick it up as I hold him in place.
Raidon groans beside Rhen, feeling Leon’s sudden arousal and mine as I relish his weight atop me, the feel of him in my arms as he peers down at me.
Gripping the back of his neck, I draw him closer, and he groans as his lips move against mine, just as demanding as his fangs were embedded in my neck.
My tongue sweeps across his lips, and they part, granting me access as I tug at his boxers.
Unfortunately, before I can revel in the desire coursing through me, the door bursts open and the light is flicked on. Leon lurches to the side as Elaine’s scent wafts to us. I sit up rubbing my eyes against the sudden brightness.
“Geez, Mom, knock next time,” Raidon growls at her as he, too, sits up. Startled, I peer toward the door where Elaine stands, white as a ghost. Alarm courses through me seeing her so frightened and I toss the blanket back.
“Mom?” Raidon asks her as Rhen groans at the lights.
“I made a mistake,” she whispers, and my brows scrunch together in confusion. Her skin is clammy as she steps into our room. The journal I saw her with in the living room is clutched in her hand. She grips it so tightly that her knuckles are pressed white beneath her skin.
“Mom?” Raidon asks, but it is me she moves toward.
“I’m sorry. Oh god, I am so sorry,” she pleads as tears begin to steadily stream down her face.
“Sorry for what?” I ask her, completely confused by whatever could have her so spooked. The look on her face is one of immense grief and fear, as broken as the one she wore when she learned of my mother’s death. Elaine hands me the journal.
“She didn’t do it. She didn’t kill Hana,” she murmurs, before her legs give out from under her. Her knees hit the floor hard, and Raidon rushes to her side, gripping her under her arms and hauling her to her feet.
“What are you talking about?” he demands as I flick open the journal, wondering what she’s talking about. The first page is chock full of old photos: a photo of Harlow and Zara, photos of them with their parents. Yet it is the next page that has me startled beyond comprehension.
It is a drawing of my mother, so precise, so exact, it is as if I am staring at her in real life.
“Harlow, son. She didn’t do it; she didn’t do it,” Elaine sobs into her son’s shoulder just as the door bursts open again and his father comes running in, searching for his distraught mate.
“Oh, she’ll never forgive me for what I have done,” Elaine wails as I flick through the pages to find a drawing of the car Harlow supposedly ran off the road. I start reading, the words on the page telling a different story from the one I know.
My mother told her to run.
Most shocking of all is one of Harlow’s drawings—it’s of the lead investigator on the case, and the label above his head reads 'murderer'. I stare down at her neat handwriting, the wheels turning in my head as I finally see everything from Harlow’s perspective, so different from the story I was originally told.
From the way she describes my mother, it is clear she felt safe in her presence, not at all threatened.
I learn so much from the journal. Tales of her fight.
She speaks of her shame, and the guilt she feels for her sister.
Her fear as she learned of my mother’s passing, worried they still hunt her, as they did through the forest after running them off the road.
She lay inside a hollowed log for three days, too scared to move, covering her scent in thick mud.
Everything proving her innocence lies within these pages, along with everything we didn’t know, and the pictures she drew of the men she has feared since that day. My heart races as I turn each page, before I look up to see Elaine’s frightened face.
She flinches as I stand, as if afraid I would strike her for her part in blaming Harlow. The book falls to the bed, lost from my grip as I rush toward the bathroom.
I barely make it to the toilet as I purge the contents of my stomach, sickened by my actions.
Sickened at what I have done to a woman just as innocent as she always claimed to be.
My stomach twists at the deep pit forming, and I realize just how truly I have fucked up.
The evidence is right there. Now I have no excuse for the things I have done.
No way of making it up to her or correcting the wrongs I have made.
All I can think is what have I done? What have I done to the woman I love? She will never forgive me, but I will surely try to make it up to her, if she will have me.