Chapter Five #2
“Honestly…I don’t know.” My alarm went off again.
“What I do know is that I have to go to work today. I need to call the king today.” My stomach clenched.
“I need to speak to daddy, and Thoth today.” I got out of bed and went to the closest. “I have too much to do to stay in bed like I want to do.” I grabbed the first thing I could and went to the bathroom.
My mom called after me. “I can help.”
I shut the door behind me so I could have a quick shower to wake myself up. Barely slipping behind the frosted glass before my mom charged right in. “Mom.”
“No baby. I don’t want to hear it. I told you I can help and I mean it. Let me call your father, the king. We can handle that part. You just have to tell me the plan.”
“I’m in the shower.” I groaned, but she just laughed.
“Babe, I've seen you naked. You came out of me, remember?” I cracked the door open to glare at her, but she just shrugged as she slid onto the counter by the sink. “We have the same body.”
“Mom.”
She shook her head as I closed the glass behind me. “I’m not leaving until you tell me. So you might as well cut the time in half. What’s your plan?”
I groaned and hit my head against the tile again. “ Honestly, I don’t know.”
She hummed. “Well, let’s start with what did you need to say to the king?” I smiled at how she was avoiding saying his name.
“I need him to allow me to transfer to dad’s old pack lands.”
She tilted her head. “Why?”
“Because Brandon made a fool out of me last night and it is the perfect time to disappear. We can use it and the space to attack the rogues, as well as get daddy’s pack situated back home.
But the most important thing, we can use the closet to move people into the pack lands before the mating ceremony. ”
“Why would we need to do that?” My mom picked up my brush and started in on her wild mane.
“Because three days ago Shannon had the insane idea that the mating ceremony should be a masquerade, and I know she is stupid enough to run with it.”
“You have to be kidding me.” My mom laughed. “Of course she would call for that. She always had to be unique.” My mom shook her head. “She probably thought that if it was your mating ceremony, she could knock you out and take your place.”
I snorted. “Probably. But I think it was so ‘the brotherhood’ could come too.”
“The brotherhood?” My mom shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. What about your father?”
I grabbed my shampoo. Nix, can you change back our scent a little more?
On it. She moved over to the clearing.
“I need to tell daddy to move people back to the pack, slowly.” I sniffed my strawberry shampoo and sighed. “And I want him to send someone to scout the cave, or send his magic in there to see if the rogues are still there.”
My mom pulled her phone out and put the call on speaker. “Hello dove.” My father’s voice rang through my bathroom. Great.
“Hello Gav.” Her voice was lower, almost sultry, and I nearly gagged.
“Mom.” I groaned, causing her to chuckle.
“Baby?” My father sounded confused.
“Yeah, Amy is here with me, and she has a plan.” My mom started as I shut the water off. I popped my head out of the shower to ask for my towel.
“What’s the plan? About what?” He sounded confused.
My mom wiggled the phone towards me as I stepped out of the shower with the towel wrapped around me. I sighed as I reached for the phone. “Pushy.”
She laughed again. “You mispronounced helpful.”
My dad blew out a breath. “I can’t wait to have you both back.” He sounded almost needy.
“Well…I guess I have a plan for that.” Then I laid out my idea.
My father hung up as soon as I was done explaining without saying anything.
I looked at my mother who looked as confused as I felt.
She pulled the phone back to her and furrowed her brow, and started typing.
“What are you doing?” I pulled out my hairdryer and started in on my hair.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye as I finished getting ready.
My mom kept typing on her phone and barely glanced up at me. “That was fucking rude.” She started typing again.
“What was?” I bent over to dry the underneath of my hair and all I heard was her clicking at her screen.
“He just hung up.” She tossed out and I snorted.
"You'll get used to it," I singsonged back as I padded over and shut the dryer off.
I grabbed some oil to scrunch out the cast on my hair.
My mom looked at me and I laughed. “He does it all the time. He has the attention span of a goldfish. If he has a thought, he needs to deal with it right away or he forgets it.”
My mom stopped typing. “But he wasn’t like this before.”
I finished my hair and turned to look at her. “Probably because he had you to talk to and to remind him. He doesn’t have that anymore.” I did some light makeup as my mom processed my words.
“Fucking hell.” She leaned against the mirror and I saw a look cross her face.
“Stop it.” I snapped at her.
She looked at me with wide eyes. “Stop what?”
I dropped the hand that was holding my eye liner and just looked at her.
“Don’t play dumb with me. I know you and that look.
” She blinked at me. “My father’s issues with remembering things is not on you.
He found a way to work around it. It is not your fault that he has a short attention span.
Rude or not, he figured it out. Stop trying to make this somehow your fault because you left. ”
She sighed. “But-”
“But nothing.” I went back to my makeup.
“Your mate is a little forgetful, but that isn’t on you.
Just like everything that happened after you left wasn’t on you.
Everyone made choices with the information they had, and at the moment, it was the right decision.
” I shrugged. “We can always work with the pack when we get back.”
My mom’s eyes lit up. “The pack?”
I nodded. “In a couple of days… you’ll be back home.” She was almost vibrating with her excitement. “But I need to go into work and get everything in place before we do.”
My mom settled at that. “Right. We also need to get the tents and everything in place.”
I thought about it for a second, but I shook my head. “No need.”
My mom tilted her head and watched as I finished my makeup. “Why won’t we need it?”
“Because this plan has us moving quicker. So we won’t need to have Rick’s and Alannah’s families in the yard. They won’t even be staying here.” My mom shook her head slowly. “What?”
“Unless you set up a shield like you have here, Carly, Rick’s family and Alannah’s should stay here.
” My mom jumped from the counter and turned to look at me in the mirror.
“Vince will definitely be looking for them, and using magic to do so. We can’t chance them being found in your father’s pack lands before we are ready. ”
She was right. “Fuck.”
“But!” She held up her finger. “Lynn is ready.” My mom smiled. “I can’t say she is healed, because I don’t think that will ever happen, but she is ready to kill Derek. Take her and Toya with you, leave everyone here with Wendy and me.”
I turned to her, propping my hip on the counter. “But dad-”
“Can wait an extra few days. Keeping everyone safe and secure as we move in the shadows is the best. And Wendy and I can handle any rogues if they pop up.” My mom leaned in to kiss me.
“Focus on saving the kids, and getting Rick, Alannah and their families here. We can use Lynn’s, yours, and Toya’s rooms to house everyone.
They’ll be safe, and you and your father can finish this.
” I sighed and then nodded. I looked at the time and realized I had to go or else I would be late.
I kissed my mom and ran from the room. “Make sure you grab breakfast.”
I chuckled as I slammed through the closet doors and down the stairs. I ran from the house, and instead of taking the car, I just shifted to run to the pack house. It will burn some energy and make it seem like I’m on edge.
Nix chuckled as I ran down the street. We are on edge.
I snorted. Ain’t that the fucking truth.