Chapter 21 #2
I need answers about the medicine. About what was done to me and why. About whether my mother knew what she was doing or if she was just following someone else’s orders.
And then, I need to figure out what comes next. Where I go from here. How I build a life out of the pieces Darius broke me into.
The empty field stretches before me, darkening as the sun sinks toward the horizon.
My backpack weighs heavily on my shoulders.
Inside, the single photograph I have of Trevor and my father is tucked between layers of clothes.
Everything else I own fits in here, too. Not much to show for twenty-four years.
My weight shifts from foot to foot. Eyes scan the tree line. Anne arranged for my mother to meet me here, away from pack territory. Neutral ground where Darius won’t pick up my scent.
The thought of him sends a fresh wave of pain through my chest. I shove it down, forcing myself to breathe through it.
Not now. Deal with that later.
My wolf stirs restlessly inside me, alert and watchful. She’s been like this all day, her senses sharper than mine, picking up on things I can’t quite perceive. It should comfort me, having her here after so long. But right now, it just makes the loss of our mate that much more acute.
She knows what we gave up. What we’ll never have.
The sky bleeds orange and purple as the sun continues its descent. Shadows lengthen across the field, and my pulse kicks up a notch.
Where is she?
A figure emerges from the trees, silhouetted against the dying light. Too far to make out features, but the way she moves triggers bone-deep recognition.
My mother.
No warmth rises. No relief at seeing family. Just the cold, careful guardedness that has lived in me since I was old enough to understand that her love came with conditions.
She walks quickly, her steps purposeful. As she gets closer, her face sharpens into focus. Those same harsh features, the elaborate updo starting to come loose, expensive perfume probably still clinging to her clothes despite dressing down.
She’s still twenty feet away when she stops dead, as if she has just walked into a wall. Her whole body goes rigid.
“Mom?” I call out, my voice careful. Neutral.
She doesn’t respond. Just stands there, staring at me with wide eyes that catch the dying light.
My wolf whines uneasily. Wrong. This is wrong.
My mother takes one step closer, then another, moving slowly now. Like she’s approaching a wild animal.
When she’s close enough that I can see the color drain from her face, she stops again.
“What have you done?” Her voice cracks like a whip across the space between us. Horrified. Furious.
My shoulders square defensively. “What?”
She closes the distance in seconds, fingers shooting out to grip both my upper arms. They dig in hard as she shakes me.
“How long has it been since you stopped your pills?” she demands. “How long?”
My brain scrambles to process. The pills. The medicine. “How do you know I stopped?”
“I can sense your wolf, you stupid girl!” Harsh. Panicked.
The truth hits me like ice water. I stare at the fury and fear in her eyes as everything clicks into place.
She can sense my wolf.
Because my wolf is no longer suppressed.
I tear myself out of her grip, stumbling backward when she finally lets go. My voice comes out strangled, broken. “It’s true, then. They do suppress my wolf. Darius was right.”
My mother goes even paler, if that’s possible. Her eyes widen. “Darius?” The name comes out like a curse. “You told Darius about the medicine?” She grabs me again, shaking me even harder this time. “Have you been with Darius this whole time?”
Before I can answer, her gaze drops to my neck. She releases one of my arms and reaches for my throat.
A terrible realization forms in my mind.
“What are you looking for?” My voice goes cold. Flat. “A mating mark?”
My mother stiffens. The color is completely gone from her face now. She looks like a ghost, haunting me in this field.
Suddenly, the life drains from me, too. All the air leaves my lungs.
My fingers curl into the front of her dress, gripping the fabric hard enough that my nails tear it slightly. “Tell me I’m wrong.” My voice shakes. “Tell me you didn’t know. Tell me you didn’t know Darius and I were fated mates.”
Her expression twists. Guilt. Fear. Shame.
She knew. She knew!
“I’ve spent years protecting you, Violet,” she hisses. “Years. I sent you away so that he wouldn’t cross paths with you. But now, you’re here. And you’ve been with him.”
The laugh that escapes me is bitter. Broken. I release her dress with a huff. “He doesn’t want me, Mom.” I choke out the words. “I rejected him. He wanted to sleep with me, and that was all. He didn’t want me as his mate.”
Relief floods my mother’s face so fast, so completely, that tears actually spring to her eyes.
The sight stuns me.
She’s relieved. Relieved that her daughter rejected her fated mate. Relieved that I’m alone. Unwanted.
“Thank God,” she breathes. Then she’s moving, her hands fluttering. “Okay. Okay, this is good. We can still fix this. I’ll get you a ticket. I’ll send you somewhere far away. Somewhere he’ll never find you. We just need to get you out of here before—”
Lights blaze to life all around us.
Bright. Blinding. Coming from every direction.
My mother’s arm shoots out, grabbing me and yanking me behind her. She tries to plant herself between me and the lights like a shield, but she can’t. They’re everywhere.
I’m in shock. She’s trying to protect me.
My mother. The woman who slapped me whenever I forgot to take my medication. Who shipped me off to another country the moment I became inconvenient. Who couldn’t even look at me most days because I reminded her too much of what she’d lost.
She is putting herself between me and danger.
The realization sends a sharp spike through my chest. No time to examine it, as a sound echoes across the field. The sound of slow, mocking clapping.
“How clever.”
Zion’s voice cuts through the darkness beyond the lights. He emerges from the glare to our left. Tall. Lean. Moving like a predator going in for the kill.
My heart stops.
“I always wondered,” Zion continues, his tone conversational, “why a female would seduce an alpha with two sons when she knew her own daughter was a weakling who would be ostracized in the pack.” He steps closer, and now I can make out his features.
That familiar smirk. Those cold, calculating eyes.
“And then I had your little pills tested, Violet. Imagine my surprise when I discovered what they were really for. After that, it was just a matter of watching. Waiting. When I saw Anne come to the main house today, I knew she was arranging a meeting. So, I followed your mother here.”
He keeps approaching, rattling an object in his hand. As he gets closer, the lights illuminate what he’s holding.
My pill bottle.
“Now it all makes sense,” he continues.
But I don’t understand. Can’t piece together what he’s saying. I look at my mother, but her eyes are staring straight at Zion, her body rigid.
“Mom?” My voice shakes. “What’s going on?”
Zion tilts his head, studying us like insects under glass. “Two hybrids living under our roof. You two really are clever.”
The word hits me like ice water.
Hybrids.
The main thing I know about hybrids is that they are executed on sight.
“What are you talking about?” My words come out strangled. I look at my mother, desperate for her to deny it. To tell Zion he’s insane.
Her arm wraps around me, pulling me closer. The contact is foreign. Strange. She hasn’t touched me like this in years. When she speaks, her voice is steady. Controlled. “You’ve lost your mind, Zion. We are not hybrids.”
“I’m not sure about you, Lillian.” Zion’s gaze slides to me, and an evil glint enters his eyes. “But Violet certainly is. I can smell it all over her.” He inhales deeply, theatrically. “I’ve smelled enough hybrids to know what their scent is like.”
No. This can’t be happening. He can’t be saying what I think he’s saying.
My mother’s grip on me tightens, her body tense as a bowstring.
A cold, satisfied smile spreads across Zion’s face. “Capture them.”
Bodies surge forward from the darkness beyond the lights.
“Run!” my mother screams. She shoves me hard, sending me stumbling away from her. “I’ll hold them off!”
Her body explodes outward. Bones crack and reform. Dark fur ripples across her skin. Within seconds, a massive wolf stands where my mother was, teeth bared and snarling.
She launches herself at the nearest soldier.
But I’m like a statue. Rooted to the spot. My backpack slides off my shoulder, hitting the ground with a dull thud.
Run, some rational part of my brain screams. She told you to run.
But I won’t leave her to fight alone. Won’t abandon her after all this.
Even if our relationship is broken. Even if she has hurt me more times than I can count.
Even if this is the first time in years she has actually protected me.
She’s still my mother. And she’s fighting for me now when she could have run. When she could have saved herself.
My wolf surges to the surface, desperate to shift. To help. But I don’t know how. Don’t know how to make the change happen. My body trembles with the effort, caught between human and wolf, unable to complete the transformation.
A soldier rushes toward me.
I dodge instinctively, faster than I’ve ever moved before. My fist connects with his jaw, and the impact sends him sprawling.
What the hell?
The strength coursing through me isn’t normal. Isn’t human. This is what hybrids can do? The realization barely has time to register before another soldier charges.
My mother’s wolf tears through him, her movements fluid and deadly. She’s powerful. More powerful than I ever knew. Faster. Stronger.
It takes three warriors at once just to slow her down.
Another one comes at me from the side. I spin, grabbing his arm and using his momentum to throw him to the ground. My wolf is feeding me strength, guiding my movements even if I can’t fully shift.
But there are too many of them.
For every soldier we take down, two more appear. They’re organized. Coordinated.
This wasn’t a random ambush. Zion planned this.
Fingers grip my hair and yank my head to the side. A cry rips out of me as I claw at the hand. Someone else grabs my arms, wrenching them behind my back.
“Mom!” The scream tears from my throat.
She’s surrounded. She’s still fighting, still snarling, but they’re overpowering her through sheer numbers. Five soldiers pin her down and wrap chains around her wolf form.
The silver burns her skin. The acrid scent of burning flesh rises. Whimpers of pain cut through her snarls.
I thrash against the grip holding me, but it’s useless. Someone kicks the back of my knees, and I go down hard, the impact reverberating through my bones.
Zion crouches in front of me, fingers grabbing my jaw and forcing my head up. The smirk on his face makes me want to claw his eyes out.
“Looks like you were running away,” he says softly, holding up my bag. “Too bad. You should have been faster.”
I try to jerk away, but his grip tightens painfully.
“Take them to the prison,” he orders the soldiers.
“No!” I struggle harder, panic flooding my system. “Let us go!”
Zion releases my jaw, stands up, and brushes off his pants as if he has just finished some mundane task.
The warriors drag my mother’s wolf across the field. She’s trying to fight, but the silver chains are burning her, weakening her. Her muffled growls fill the air.
“Please,” I beg, hating how desperate I sound. Hating him. “Please don’t do this.”
Zion looks down at me, cold satisfaction in his eyes. “You brought this on yourself.”
Suddenly, pain explodes across the back of my head. My vision swims. The bright lights blur into streaks of white.
I try to hold on. Try to stay conscious. But darkness rushes in like a tide, pulling me under.
The last thing I hear is my mother’s howl.
Long. Mournful. Furious.
Then, nothing.