Page 34 of Bond & Protect

“Mom, you did save me. You saved all of us. You’re the hero here.”

She smiles thinly as she lets the blade clatter lightly on the table, which is now wonky again because the book holding it upright is halfway across the room. Actually, that book might have some answers. I don’t know for sure, but that’s something to think about when we have the time.

“I don’t feel like a hero. That was the scariest thing I have ever done. I don’t even know what I did and if it will work. Do you think it’s gone now?”

“The monster you stabbed is gone,” I reassure her, pretty sure I’m correct with that assumption. “But The Rift might not be closed for good. That’s something we need to look into later on.”

“We?” She darts her eyes around the room. “So, you are a part of this then? Whatever this is? That’s why you came to this town? To be involved in this fight?”

“I came here to escape the stalker that I had in the city, Mom. You know that. I just got sucked into the fight while I was here. The monster started to come for me right away.”

I stare at the blade, wondering if I would have fared better with it. If Mom had given it to me when she was supposed to, when my grandfather first passed away, would I have destroyed the monster much faster and stopped The Rift from reopening? I don’t know. We still might have needed our unity for that. Who the hell knows? I guess we won’t at this point.

“So, what’s happening here?” She looks at each guy in turn, reminding me I haven’t properly introduced them yet. “With the wolves. What’s happening?”

“Elias, Liam, Sydney, and Amos.” I introduce them all in turn. They all smile a little awkwardly at Mom, not quite sure how to handle any of this. Meeting the parents wasn’t exactly on the agenda today, but I guess here we are. “They are my mates…”

The word mates shocks Mom to the core. She blinks a few times in horror, not quite sure how to process what I’ve just told her. I knew this wouldn’t be easy for her to accept, but at the same time, I’m not going to lie to her. Not about anything. She’s my mom and she’s the one person who has been there through everything with me. I wouldn’t be who I am without her, so of course I’m going to keep her in the loop. I have to. It’s only right.

“You have mate bonded with these wolves?” she gushes. “I… I didn’t know that you were going to come back to this town for this. I didn’t know you would… would…” She swallows hard. “I didn’t know that you were going to fall in love here.”

Tears brim in my eyes as well. I can’t help feeling a little silly for getting so choked up and emotional, but I can’t help it. So much has changed in my life since I ended up here, it’s wild, but it’s amazing too. I feel much more like myself now.

“Yes, Mom, I have fallen in love. I wasn’t expecting it, but I have.”

“So, you’re going to be staying here? In this town?” I nod, knowing that this will break her heart a little. “Wow, that really is a lot, Mila. I wasn’t expecting this. This makes me feel a little weird. Knowing that you’re going to stay here forever.”

“Well, our family belongs here, right? Your dad said as much.”

As she starts crying again, I envelop her in a hug. I do feel like a lot is shifting and changing here. Things that neither of us was expecting, but it’s still hard…

“I only want you to be happy, Mila,” she finally admits. “But I don’t like the idea of being away from you. It makes me feel like I want to move here as well, to be closer to you.”

“You do?” I’m surprised because I wouldn’t think she’d ever want to leave the city. She has a good job and a lot of friends there, but I suppose she knows I will never return, even for a visit. I can’t because of the stalker and everything that happened with him. “You don’t have to do that because I would love to have you close, but if you don’t want to give up your life, that isn’t necessary either. We can still see one another all the time.”

Mom nods wearily. The exhaustion from the day washes over her. I can see she’s struggling. I think it might be time to get her somewhere that she can sleep.

“Come on, Mom. I have an apartment here. Let’s go back just me and you, so we can get some rest and talk about this properly. I think that’s the best idea, don’t you?”

She nods gratefully. This really isn’t the best time for her to be meeting the wolves anyway. Not when we’re all messed up like this. We need to deal with this another day when we’re all in a much better head space. I can sense the disappointment coming from all the guys because they probably wanted to have a night with me because we all have a lot to talk about as well, but I have to focus on my mother right now. I hope they understand that.

“I will walk you back,” Elias jumps up and declares. “We have to keep you safe.”

“I think we all should,” Liam agrees, giving me the same smile he did as he checked over and bandaged up my flesh wound. It felt dreadful, but Liam has assured me that it won’t take long to recover. “I think we have learned that safety is in numbers. Unity, am I right?”

I let out a little giggle. One that shoots through the room in a weird manner. The tension is still thick but I’m shattering it a little. I hope. The unity did help us. It didn’t solve everything in the end, but it assisted us. It helped us stay strong until Mom arrived with the mysterious blade. It’s annoying that we don’t know where that came from or what it means, or how it works, but I guess we just have to take everything on board that we have and just be grateful for that.

“Okay, let’s get going. I think we all need some rest.”

As I grab onto the blade to take it off the table because it seemingly belongs to me, I notice Sydney taking the book with him, like he will do some light reading as we go. Mind you, we do need to know if The Rift is shut for good or not, so I suppose this is a good thing.

There’s a bit of chatter as we walk, but I can tell that the guys are a little shy around Mom. They don’t quite know how to take her, and Mom is too tired to be social. I’m trying my hardest to be the best facilitator that I can be, but I don’t know if I’m pulling it off right. I mean, I’m shattered too. I can hardly keep my eyes open. This has been a whirlwind.

From sitting in the cabin alone, getting increasingly wound up, to watching in horror and awe as my mom took down the beast, it’s been crazy. The only thing I can do is sleep. Although as we get back to Faraway Lane, my nerves start to jangle once more. I don’t feel safe all over again. I know that The Rift was closed, but I will always be aware of its presence.

I got this apartment because it was cheap and out of the way, but I think I’m going to have to move soon. I can’t stand this especially if me and my mating round are going to make it work. We will need somewhere much nicer than the cabin because I don’t want to be stuck in the middle of the forbidden forest either, and we’re going to need a much bigger home…

But again, that’s something we can deal with in the morning. We need to sleep off today before moving on to the next issue facing us. I need to talk to Mom alone.

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