Page 68 of His Wild Mate

“Whatever happened, that's in the past. You were so young, and you've been on your own since then?”

Paige nodded against her shoulder, and I could see tears welling up in her eyes.

“You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but if you do, we're here for you. That's what true family does, they support each other unconditionally. My boy says you're his mate, that makes you family too.”

A sob escaped her as Mom rubbed her back.

“I left because . . .”

“Sweetheart, you don't owe any of us an explanation.”

“It’s okay,” she insisted. “I was eleven when the curse started. It runs in the firstborn female of each generation in my family line.”

“A curse?” Esme asked, her interest officially piqued.

Paige pulled back just enough to look at us. Mom's arm remained possessively around her.

“I don’t what else to call it. That was the first time I went into heat.”

Mom gasped. “At eleven?”

She nodded.

I thought I was going to be sick.

“They tried to protect me, but it was hard. My mother said my curse was worse than most, that I was an evil siren calling males to me. She thought I enjoyed the attention. I most certainly did not.”

“Of course you didn't. You were just a child.”

“I stayed locked away in the basement for most of the first two years. I wasn't even able to go to school even though the boys in my class were still immune. They argued that I was a disruption to the unmated male staff and others in the vicinity around the school.”

“That's bullshit. You were just a kid,” my father said. I'd never seen him so righteously angered before as he pounded his fist on the table.

“What happened when you were thirteen?” Esme asked quietly.

I felt sick to my stomach and wasn't sure I wanted to hear what her final breaking point was.

“They decided that I was too dangerous and would need to take a mate.”

I growled.

“At thirteen? Were they insane?” Esme burst out.

“He was a friend of my dad's and he gave me the creeps every time he looked at me. I knew then that I wasn't safe there anymore.”

“Why did they want you to take a mate?” Mom asked.

“They thought it would break the curse, but it didn't. I have a mate now and the curse didn't lift.”

“Wait, you mean if we mate, the curse will break?” I asked excitedly.

“You are my mate. It didn’t lift the curse,” she said sadly.

“With Thomas's order in place you haven't been intimate yet, so perhaps that could still change,” Mom said.

“Mom!” Esme screeched, covering her ears.

Mom just rolled her eyes. “Esme, stop being so dramatic. You know damn well what sex is.”

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