Page 119 of Wanted

“Listen to her foul mouth,” my mother’s words bring my attention back to her. “I knew she was nothing more than a wild animal. Now that the money that Rufus was giving us to raise and keep them is dried up, you can have her and I want our compensation!”

That’s the third time she’s mentioned money. It finally starts to click for me.

“Money..? Wait, you knew?” I glare at her. She visually shrinks back into my father’s hold. “What did you know?” I yell.

The pills, that night she caught me eating in front of the refrigerator, all of the years of her needing to ‘tame’ me, come rushing back.

“What the hell did you know?!”

“What you truly are!” she finally answers. She shoves away my father’s hands when he tries to pull her back. She approaches my cage with her finger pointed in my direction.

“You should’ve been grateful. We tried to save you. After Dr. Lee had your dreadful parents killed, you were never supposed to turn into this thing.” She gestures at the cage.

She’s referring to my wolf. Who and what I truly am. A shifter. She’s despised me and Ashley for all of these years.

How could I have not realized it? How did I not see it?

“Those pills should’ve worked. They would’ve worked for your parents if they’d given it more time.”

“My parents,” I mumble. “My birth parents?”

“They claimed the pills made them sick,” Dr. Lee answers. “They changed their minds and chose not to give the pills to you girls. They, for some reasons, couldn’t see the plans I had for the lone wolves of this country.”

“Atrocious.” My mother’s disgusted voice brings my attention back to her.

“I knew once I caught you eating like a pig in the middle of the night the time came to give you those pills. To keepthat animal locked away for good. But then Ashley went asking questions. She never listened. She always wanted to know why she needed the pills.”

Every word she says is like another stab to my heart.

“Ashley went to Dr. Lee with tests from another doctor that her iron levels were above normal. Then she decided to take that trip to Florida. It’s a good thing Lee still has his connections in Florida and tracked her down before she could do any real damage.”

“You didn’t tell me she’d contacted Emery,” Dr. Lee’s voice breaks through my mother’s tirade.

“I had no idea what she told her sister. I should’ve known Emery would be the first person that little brat talked to.”

“Fuck you!” I seethe, rattling the bars of the cage.

My mother jumps back.

“Don’t you ever talk about my sister like that. All of these years I told her you just wanted the best for us. That you were just looking out for us. I told her, like I told myself, that we were the ones who were the problem.

“That we just needed to learn how to behave like proper women, but it was all a lie! You made me believe I was wrong in every way. And I made Ashley feel that way too.”

“Just look at you!” my mother yells back. “That ugly gray streak in your hair. You’re sitting in that cage naked for goodness’ sake because you just shifted out of being a wolf!” She says it like that’s justification for her behavior.

“You said she would never change.” My mother points a finger at Dr. Lee. “You said she would never know.”

“She shouldn’t have. Unless…” Dr. Lee looks over at me. “When did you stop taking the pills?”

I snarl at him by way of an answer. Slight pain rips through my jaw as my incisors sharpen. My wolf wants to tear everyone in this room apart. It’s getting difficult to hold her back.

Yet, I try to keep her calm, reminding her there’s nothing we can do from inside of this cage.

He chuckles as if he has no care in the world.

I glance around at the people in the room. It’s a large, open space with metal tables spread out. It reminds me of an autopsy room from one of those crime drama shows.

“We should have never allowed her or Ashley to leave the state,” my mother says to my father.

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