Page 28 of Plus-Size Mate

The tone of her mother's voice was just as Winter had imagined it would be. She didn't sound pleased in the least.

“I'm going to perform the spell, Mom.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Her mother sounded utterly incredulous now.

“I've made up my mind, Mom.”

A strength swelled inside Winter, the likes of which she had never felt before. Sure, she had rebelled once or twice in her teenage years, sneaking out to meet boys and drinking alcohol, breaking all her mother’s small rules, but when it came to witchery and the supernatural, whatever her mother declared was law.

“You can't be serious.”

“I am.”

Winter sat firm, her hand tightening on the phone.

“I have to.”

“No, there has to be another way. You can't mate with a werewolf!”

The disgust in her mom's tone was painful to hear. It wasn't the first time she'd heard her mother speak poorly of the werewolves; in fact, she’d said some pretty terrible things about them in the past. But just thinking of Eddie now, of how kind he had been, made her want to bite her mother's head off.

Instead, she sighed deeply and said, “My mind is made up. You won't change it. But, um…there's something else we need to talk about.”

Her heart skipped a beat.

“No, we need to talk about this. You can't go through with it, Winter.”

“I can and I am. This is more important for now,” Winter stated, preparing herself for what was to come. “When the werewolves attacked me, they…they said something that I need to ask you about.”

Silence seemed to echo through the phone for a second. “What?”

“They…they said my dad had told them it was time for me to come home,” Winter admitted. The werewolf’s words had been replaying in her mind for far longer than she cared to admit.

“That…that’s impossible.”

Winter closed her eyes, her insides tightening into knots. “Mom, I need to know the truth. I deserve that much. I've never asked you about him before. I guessed it was just too painful for you to talk about, that he died or something, but if he is alive, Ineed to know the truth. Who is my father, and why did he send Christopher’s pack after me?”

Silence. Again.

Winter clenched her jaw. Was this one of those times when her mother said it was none of her business?

If she did, she would have to fight to learn the truth, and right now, Winter wasn't sure she had it in her.

Then her mother sighed and said, “I guess it's time.”

Winter almost dropped the phone right then and there. She couldn't believe it had been so easy.

“Winter, I'm sorry.”

Winter's throat swelled, making it difficult to breathe.

“Your father and I didn't know each other. Hell, I never even learned his name. We were young. I was dumb. It was one night.”

Bile rose in the back of Winter’s throat.

“I'd just gotten out of a terrible relationship. I was vulnerable, drunk, and your father was charming and handsome. More than that, he…he was a werewolf.”

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