Chapter 17 #2
I couldn’t understand why she had to lie. “Why couldn’t you just leave us and return to Alaska? Why did you have to pretend you died?”
“Because I couldn’t have you come looking for me one day, Millie.
You had to think I was dead so that the Tupilaqs didn’t know you were living.
If they knew you existed, they’d force you back into the pack and you would have been paired off with Osyrius to be his mate.
I didn’t want that for you. I wanted you to live whatever life you chose, free and unfettered by pack decrees that had been written before any of us were even born. ”
“But your plan didn’t work. They found out about me anyway, Mom. Osyrius wants to fight my mate to the death because he has some ridiculous notion we’re fated to be together. Nothing you did made any difference. The only thing that came of it was me feeling betrayed and unlovable.”
My mother shot forward and grasped my hand.
“That’s not true, baby. I might not have wanted to be with your father, but I always wanted to be with you.
You’re right, my plan didn’t work. Malcolm lied.
He knew about you all along. He was only biding his time before he planned on gifting you to his son. ”
I was more confused now than ever before. “So why would you want me to live with these men? To bind myself to a mate whose father killed my own?”
Jenny’s hand slipped from mine as she put some distance between us by leaning back in her chair. “What happened to Calvin was terrible, Millie. I need you to know, I had no part in that.”
“But you knew about it,” I bitterly accused. “You knew about it, and you still stayed with that disgusting pack of yours. How could you?”
Jenny’s mouth formed into a flat line. “Calvin knew what he was getting into when he brought you to Alaska, Millie. He should never have done that. It was foolish and dangerous. He’d thought taking you home and teaching you about your roots was going to somehow fix the past. He thought that time had healed a rift between himself and the Tupilaqs, that they’d embrace you with open arms once they met you.
He’d been wrong, baby, and that mistake cost him his life. ”
My muscles tensed with anger over her callous words. “You’re blaming my father for his own murder!”
She shook her head. “No. I’m saying he should have known better. Packs like the Tupilaqs don’t ever forget a perceived slight. He, better than most, knew that fact, but chose not to heed it.”
I wanted to cry at the woman’s utter lack of compassion for the man she might not have loved, but certainly cared enough about to have a baby with. “Cut to the chase, Jenny. Why are we having this conversation?”
“I need your help, Millie. I have to make a decision that no mother should ever have to make, and I don’t take it lightly. This decision is the difference between life and death and can’t be ignored.”
Was she being hyperbolic or were these men going to kill my mother if I didn’t return to the pack willingly? “Life and death? Malcolm is threatening to kill you if I don’t return to the pack?”
That just seemed outrageous. She was his mate. The one he’d ruthlessly manipulated to return home to him. Why would Malcolm do something like that after all he’d gone through to force her back into the fold?
My mother covered her mouth with her hand and vigorously shook her head. “Not me,” she sobbed. “Bowman. If you don’t return to the pack, Millie, they’re going to banish your little brother from it, turning him into a stray!”
Was I missing a vital piece of information here? “You said life or death,” I reminded her then. “While it’s cruel as hell to take your anger out on your own child, banishment isn’t the same thing as death.”
“It is,” my mother vehemently argued, tears spilling over the rims of her eyes as she spoke.
“Being a stray is a fate worse than death for a pack ware. He wouldn’t know the first thing about how to survive, where to go, or how to navigate the world on his own.
The loss and shame of it would consume him until there was nothing left but a hollow shell. ”
I was furious at my mother’s admission. “You mean he’d be a mutt, just like the boys of Cascia House?”
My mother had the good grace to blush. “I know these are ugly words, Millie, but that’s how people will view your brother if he isn’t affiliated with a pack.
You might not like hearing the truth, but it doesn’t erase the harsh realities of being a stray.
They’ll scorn him. Pick fights. Gang up on him until one day they finish off the shadow of a man he grows into.
I’ve seen it more times than I can count.
The world isn’t kind to mutts. It breaks them down and destroys them one day at a time. ”
“Why in the world would Malcolm banish his own son?” The man might be a shit father and husband, but it didn’t make any sense that he would destroy his own flesh and blood out of sheer spite. There had to be more to it.
My mother’s eyes darted quickly around the room. She lowered her voice as though she was afraid somebody might overhear her. “Because he’s not an alpha, Millie. Bowman is a beta.”
I didn’t know what the hell that meant. Well, I did, but I wasn’t sure what it meant in this context. “What does being a beta have to do with anything?”
My mother shushed me. “Malcolm is the proud alpha of the Tupilaq pack. He can’t admit he has a beta for a son. It’s humiliating. He’d be the laughing stock of the entire community.”
Life always had a way of teaching us a lesson, and this one was Jenny’s.
It wasn’t just “other wares” who were projecting this disturbing sentiment of inferiority upon her son.
It was her. She also agreed with the notion that you were somehow “less than” if you were not claimed by a pack or didn’t possess the proper title.
Well, she was dead wrong. Ethan, Flint, Stark, Colt, and Gavin were all amazing men.
They’d stood beside me when I needed them, and that’s all that really mattered to me.
Too bad my mother couldn’t see the truth, even when it was staring her directly in the face.
“What do you want from me, Jenny?” I posed finally, tired of the constant games.
“Give it to me straight, because I’m done with all this breadcrumbing you’ve been doing.
Now’s the time to put your cards on the table and ask me for whatever it is you want.
You won’t get a second chance.” I thought I knew the answer, but I had to hear her say it out loud.
My mother chewed the inside of her cheek as she decided her best strategy forward. “I want you to come home and be bound to Osyrius. If you do, Malcolm has promised me he won’t excommunicate Bowman from our community. It’s the only chance your brother has at a normal life.”
And there it was. She wanted me to sacrifice my life for Bowman’s. I shouldn’t be surprised or upset by her request. Yet I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t both. Once again, my mother was showing me I was expendable to her. Nothing more than a bartering chip for the child she actually loved.
Swallowing down my overwhelming disappointment, I calmly stated, “No. Find someone else to be your sacrificial lamb. I’m not doing it.”
An expression of pure rage, chased by absolute disgust, flashed across my mother’s face.
“Think carefully about this, Millie. It’s not just Bowman’s life you’ll be saving.
You’ll be saving Ethan’s as well. Osyrius is the pack’s best fighter.
He’s much younger than Ethan is. I’d hate for you to have to watch the stronger man tear your beloved apart. ”
I was sickened that she should try to manipulate me into compliance with the threat of my mate’s death.
“Yes, Jenny, I’m sure your deepest concern is for how I would feel.
” I didn’t give her the chance to answer.
“I’m not worried about Ethan’s ability to take on Osyrius.
My mate wasn’t raised with a silver spoon in his mouth like your stepson.
It’s like you said, Jenny, strays have to fight the world on a daily basis.
What’s one more fight to a man that’s survived the worst life can throw at him?
Worry about your own family. I’ll worry about mine. ”
My mother shook her head like she couldn’t understand my reasoning. “I’m asking you to protect your innocent brother, Millie. How can you turn your back on him like that? He’s your own flesh and blood!”
Picking up my wine, I stood. “My mother was a great teacher,” I bluntly retorted before turning and walking over to my mate without a backwards glance.
My mother left the restaurant in tears. I pretended not to notice or care. We stayed for dinner afterward, and my companions all acted like I hadn’t just had an intensely painful conversation with my estranged mother just minutes before.
Flint, in his own way, had tried to comfort me.
He’d ordered me another glass of wine and handed it over the minute I’d drained my first. Because I was a lightweight, it immediately warmed my chilled and shaking hands so that I could at least pass for calm and collected, two things I most certainly wasn’t.
Ethan placed a bolstering hand on my back and rubbed it soothingly throughout the night. To be honest, I couldn’t remember much after that. My mind was reeling with all that I’d just learned. I had a brother. One that I’d probably never get a chance to know.
When we got back to the motel, Ethan asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head in denial. “No. I’m too angry to deal with it right now. Maybe later.”
“I understand,” my mate assured me, kissing the top of my head lovingly.
Needing some time alone, I said, “I’m going to take a shower. Why don’t you pick something for us to watch when I get out,” I suggested before retreating into the bathroom and shutting the door.
The minute it closed, I began to cry.
Ethan
My mate’s crying was too much for me to bear. As quiet as she may think she was being, I could still hear her over the running water, and the sound broke my heart.
I could feel her sadness like it was my own. Mates couldn’t hide their emotions from one another. We were bonded in every way that mattered. Her pain was my pain now. I’d have it no other way.
After what I’d overheard her mother say to her at dinner tonight, I could understand why she was so upset.
My supernatural abilities had allowed me, and all my brothers, to easily listen in on that terrible conversation.
It had taken all my strength not to leap up and run across the room when Jenny had tried to convince Millie to sacrifice herself to protect the male heir.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to do that. My mate had shut down the request before I could deal with the foolish woman myself.
The fact that Laurence had warned me with his eyes to be patient, to let this play out without interruption, had certainly helped keep me in my seat, as well.
Well, Laurence wasn’t here now, and I’d long since spent my patience. I was going to soothe my mate and see to her care like she deserved.
I entered the bathroom silently, having already stripped down in the bedroom. Pulling back the curtain, Millie glanced up in surprise, as she hadn’t heard my entry.
Wordlessly, I stepped into the shower, which was far too small for someone of my size, not to mention a second, much smaller, person.
Millie adjusted herself so that she was facing me.
Leaning her cheek against my chest, she let her defenses down and her tears out.
I allowed her the chance to purge the worst of it before I began to purr, and the harsh gasps subsided into quieter sniffles.
When I felt her body relax, I soaped up my hands and began to thoroughly clean my mate. Soon, those tiny sniffles turned into soft mews of pleasure. As my hands slipped between her legs to soap her sex, her growing slickness alerted me to what she required next.
“Please,” Millie whimpered, needing my comfort so bad I could feel her aching for it.
Lifting her in my arms, I placed her back against the shower wall and her legs wound around my core. With an elemental growl, I lined myself up with her delicate opening and surged forward.
“Yes!” she cried, urging me with her heels to go as deep as possible.
I did. I pistoned hard and fast into her wet heat, the only place I wanted to be for the rest of my life.
Millie went off like a rocket almost instantly.
Her orgasm hit so fast it took us both by surprise.
Her muscles seized my cock like a powerful fist, expertly milking the pleasure from my very bones.
“Harder!” She demanded.
I gave her everything she wanted and more. I went so hard and deep, I knew I’d bred my mate tonight without a single doubt in my mind. When we returned to Montana, we’d be expecting a child.
The thought of Millie having my baby caused a burst of love to shoot through my chest. It also made me more determined than ever to win the fight against Osyrius tomorrow. There was no other choice. I wasn’t about to let my son or daughter go through life without a father like I had.
With fierce determination, I made Millie cum over and over again on my thrusting cock. Then, when I couldn’t hold out anymore, I unleashed my seed into the very depths of her womb.
As she spasmed around me, I held her close, relishing the smell of her hair, the taste of her skin, and the feel of her body enshrouding mine.
“I love you, Ethan,” she whispered from the crook of my neck. “I always have. There’s never been anyone else. It’s always been you.”
Though I hadn’t realized it sooner, Millie was right. We’d always been destined to be together. All it took was time and distance to show me what wonders life had in store for us. Two people, broken and lost in grief, coming together to heal as one.
My heart contracted painfully as I held my mate. “I love you, too, Princess. Everything is going to be okay. I promise.”