Chapter 17
Millie
My mother was sitting at a two-person table in the corner of the room diagonal to our party. She looked just as I remembered. Beautiful, graceful, and sad.
It was as if she’d just stepped out of the pages of my memory into the real world, and I was both elated and terrified.
Elated, because she was still my mom and I loved her, had missed her, despite our complicated history over her abandonment of me.
And terrified, because I knew what, and who, she represented.
The Tupilaq pack. The family she’d left me for.
Who she wanted to be with, regardless of whatever she might claim tonight.
Pulling out the empty chair, I sat opposite my mother.
Glancing over my shoulder at Ethan, I noted his handsome face was tight with concern.
My amazing mate was worried for me but also understood exactly why I needed to do this.
All the men at our table did, including Laurence.
They were in a unique position to understand complicated family dynamics in a way few others were.
That’s why our family had bonded so well.
The pain and loss of our past had united us in a way that few others could understand and empathize with.
“Thank you for meeting with me,” my mother timidly began. “I wasn’t sure you would, after our last phone call.”
That had been pretty bad. But part of me thought my mother had been influenced by whoever was sitting beside her when we’d talked.
Although she was an adult who made her own decisions, it was clear to me she wasn’t calling the shots.
And from what Flint had said, females had almost no power in the Tupilaq pack.
Somebody else was controlling her. I suspected Osyrius’s father, the alpha of their pack, was heavily involved in whatever my mother did.
I cleared my throat and stared at the woman who resembled the one I looked at in the mirror every day. “Flint said whatever you wanted to tell me was urgent.”
“It is,” she quickly agreed, “I-,” she started to speak, but our waitress stopped by then with a pitcher of water.”
“Can I start you two off with some drinks or appetizers?” the young girl inquired. Not waiting for a response, she quickly filled the glasses at our tables from the icy pitcher in her hands.
“I’ll have a glass of whatever the house red wine is,” my mother politely ordered, her hands shaking as she took a long gulp from her water glass.
“Same,” I replied, not caring what the hell they brought me.
“I’ll go get that for you two,” the waitress stated, not picking up on the tension at the table as she placed two plastic menus in the space between us. “That’ll give you some time to look over our specials for the evening.”
“You were saying,” I prompted when we were again alone.
Suddenly thirsty myself, I gulped down my water as I watched my mother over the rim of the glass.
My mother licked her dry lips. “I wasn’t being honest with you when I called before, Milie.”
That was a good start. “Why not?”
“There was somebody listening in on our conversation. He…well… he is the leader of the Tupilaqs. He asked me to make the call and told me what to say.”
“Osyrius’s father?” I returned. He was the alpha of the pack and seemed to rule with an iron fist.
“Yes. His name is Malcolm. All pack decisions go through him. He’s… not to be defied,” my mother uneasily stated. “He’s also my mate.”
That checked out. “Why are you telling me this?” If we were being honest, I wanted the whole truth, not some watered-down version of it that she thought would soften me up enough to blindly follow her back to her pack. “Malcolm isn’t my alpha, and I don’t answer to him.”
“I know,” my mother quickly replied, “but I do, and he threatened someone very important to me, if I didn’t bring you back into the fold.”
I hadn’t expected that. “Who?”
“My son,” my mother confessed, shocking me. “Our son, actually.”
My mind began to spin like a top as I considered what she’d just said.
Though it wasn’t strange that my mother should have a second child, I had to admit, I’d never considered the possibility.
I’d reasoned that, because she’d already abandoned her first child, she’d make sure she didn’t have a second. What a fool I’d been.
“You have a son? I have a brother?”
My mother guiltily looked down at her hands where she was nervously shredding a paper napkin. “Yes. He’s six.”
I had a brother. I had a brother, and he was six. “What’s his name?” I numbly pressed.
“Bowman,” my mother provided, her face lighting up at the mere mention of the boy.
I’m not going to lie. That smile hurt. It hurt more than a dagger being repeatedly plunged into my chest and twisted from side to side.
Had my mother ever smiled like that about me?
Did she ever even mention my name, or was I forgotten the moment she turned her back on our family and walked away for a second chance at different life?
One in which she was raising my brother, Bowman, with a husband that wasn’t my father.
My father, the good man her pack had killed.
“He’s a wonderful boy. You’re going to love him. He can’t wait to meet you,” she gushed excitedly, though I couldn’t help but feel that excitement was on Bowman’s behalf and not mine.
“Sure,” I choked out, my body hot and tingly like I’d just been bitten by a venomous snake.
My mother’s smile froze on her face, then fell off entirely. “I wanted to tell you about him the other day, but our conversation got cut short and I wasn’t able to.”
“It got cut short because you called my mate a mutt,” I coldly reminded her.
“Or did you forget that point as quickly as you forgot our family when you abandoned us? Did you tell Bowman that? Did you tell him he has a sister you ghosted as a young girl? That you faked your death so that you didn’t ever have to see her again?
To be bothered by the mere sight of your bad decisions? ”
My mother’s face crumbled and her eyes filled with tears. “That’s not how I feel about you, Millie, but I deserve that. I know I do.”
“Yeah, you do,” I hatefully replied before the waitress spun back around with our drinks.
“Can I get you guys something to eat?” she inquired, flipping through her notepad to find a clean page where she could scribble out our order.
“The drinks are fine for now,” my mother tactfully responded.
The young girl finally caught on to the heavy mood at the table then. “Ah, sure. Just flag me down if you need another round of drinks or want the check. Otherwise, I’ll leave the two of you alone.”
I took a sip of my house red, and the waitress was halfway across the room before I set the wine glass back down on the table, half gone.
“Let me start at the beginning,” Jenny offered, cradling her drink in her hands.
“When I’m done, you can decide for yourself what to do with the information.
I’ll respect whatever that is. I know I haven’t been in your life for years, Millie, but you grew inside of me.
I nurtured you through infancy and beyond.
I know who my daughter is, though I might not deserve her, and she’s turned into a beautiful, bright, caring young woman that I’m very proud of. ”
I didn’t refute anything she said, though I didn’t feel she had any right to taking pride in me. “I’m listening.”
“I’ll begin at a beginning of sorts,” she offered. “Why I left Montana. Why I left you, baby.”
My fingers reflexively bit into my thighs as I listened to a story I’d wanted to hear my whole life but had convinced myself I’d never be told because of my mother’s untimely death.
“I made a mistake leaving the Tupilaqs for your father,” my mother brutally confessed like she was speaking to her priest and not her daughter.
“While Calvin was an amazing man, he wasn’t my true mate.
But I’d been blinded by how handsome and charming he was.
All his big plans for our life together.
I was young, bored, and naive about the realities of the world beyond my isolated community.
Because your father had been an orphan raised at Cascia House, he had no ties in Alaska to keep him anchored here.
He wanted to venture out into the world and stake a claim somewhere new.
I wanted to be anywhere but where I was, so I convinced myself we were soul mates.
That was my mistake, not his. And certainly not yours, baby. ”
Her honesty, although appreciated, hurt like hell. “When did you realize you weren’t in love?”
“When it was already too late,” she admitted.
“I was pregnant, and not with a man from my pack. I knew I was going to be in terrible trouble with our alpha, Malcolm’s father.
I’d been promised to his son, not Malcolm, but his brother, Kade.
When Kade died unexpectedly, Malcolm became the heir and I became his omega. ”
This story sounded more like a soap opera than real life. “I can see why you left the pack. They sound awful.”
She smiled appreciatively, but her mirth didn’t last. “I wish it were that simple. I’d thrown caution to the wind by mating with Calvin.
I’d hitched my wagon to the unforgivable: a mutt.
” When I winced at the derogatory word, Jenny paused but didn’t apologize for the truth.
“Although I wasn’t in love with Calvin, I was in love with you, Millie, the tiny baby girl growing in my womb.
To protect you, your father and I decided to leave Alaska and start a new life in Montana.
It worked… for a while. Until it didn’t.
I was happy enough and willing to accept my fate, until my pack found us.
When they did, I knew what I had to do: protect you at all costs.
Unfortunately, protecting you also meant leaving you and faking my own death.
It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. ”