Page 88 of Knot Forgotten

My brow furrows. Is that what I’m doing? Pushing them away? Still, Cam hasn’t said a single word. Watching his side profile, my heart aches because now that I’ve felt Blake’s full emotions through the bond, I know Cam has shut his down completely.

Riley’s palm lands on my thigh. He squeezes my leg, and I shift my attention to him.

"You have my heart; you have all of our hearts," Riley says and signs, his movements imbued with a quiet conviction that tugs at my heartstrings. I feel a lump form in my throat, a surge of emotion threatening to overwhelm me.

My hands tremble as I mirror Riley's gestures, my own signs hesitant yet filled with a raw vulnerability that I cannot conceal. ‘I want to believe,’ I sign, unable to find my voice, the words spilling forth from the depths of my soul. ‘With everything I've got, I want to believe.’

As Riley reaches out to grasp my hand, a flicker of warmth courses through me. Yet, even as I lean into his touch, uncertainty claws at the edges of my mind, refusing to be silenced. Leftover fears from hiding and running as a teen.

Schoolwork overwhelms me from dawn to dusk, and sometimes, until the moon says goodnight, I am trying to catch up. Missing class shouldn’t be this hard to catch up on. And maybe part of it is that I’m throwing myself into the homework so I can avoid Cameron.

Not that I have to work that hard to avoid him, because he does a good job of that for me.

On top of that, I’ve been avoiding my mom’s calls. She’s left message after message since they found my dad’s body, and his wife confessed to murdering him. I don’t want to face her and tell her everything that happened. The urge to protect her from it makes it easy to keep my mouth shut.

As if my thoughts force my phone to ring, the screen lights up with her smiling face, and I draw in a breath before answering. She appears on my screen, and I smile. I miss her. Maybe I should go home this weekend.

“Hey, Mom,” I say, forcing cheer into my tone.

“Don’t hey mom me, you’ve been avoiding my calls for three weeks.”

“I texted.”

She makes a face. “That isn’t the same, Erin. How do I know you aren't kidnapped in someone's trunk?”

Shifting my attention past the screen of my phone, I make sure there isn’t anyone around me before saying, “It wasn’t the trunk.”

“Ha ha very funny.”

“It isn’t a joke, Mom. But I’m safe now,” I say in a calm tone.

Her eyes widen as her face pales, and I realize I could have told her differently. She snags up her purse, balancing her phone and wallet in her hand as she searches for her keys.

“Mom, what are you doing?”

“Coming to get you. You’re coming home, where you’ll be safe.”

“Dad’s dead. And his wife is in jail. I think I’m fine.”

“You think you’ll be fine?” she asks, on the verge of hysterics. “The man your father associated with won’t think his debt is paid just because he’s dead. He will come for you.”

I scoff and roll my eyes. Although, a bit of fear blooms inside my stomach. “I’m a small fish for him, I’m sure.”

“Erin Quinn Renee Walters, you don’t understand how serious this is.” She is out of the house now, yanking open the driver's side door.

“Mom, he doesn’t know where I am. He didn’t seem like the type to ask where the girls he sells are found.” It is true. The monster that came to check on his ‘product’ while I was being held captive wouldn’t have asked that.

“He saw you?” Well that did it, she is officially panicked. I watch as she places the phone in the hands free holder and backs out of the driveway.

“Yeah, but he won’t want me. I have a pack.”

The phone tumbles from the holder when she hits the brake. Hard. Then the world is topsy-turvy as she turns the phone screen, looking at me.

“Pack?” she says, staring into my soul. “You take heat blockers.”

I wet my lips, rolling them together. “Yeah, I still do. But Valentine and his mafia made me take drugs, and it brought it on. And–”

“And you mated with some random pack?!”

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