Page 31 of Fire Bound

Her face turns serious. “I’m really glad you’re okay. We’ve lost enough family this past year. We don’t need to lose you too.”

I attended three funerals in the past year. First was Pruitt’s adoptive aunt, Addison. As a human, she never stood a chance against the cancer that infested her body. Then there was Noah, Addison’s mate. After she died, he went crazy and ended up getting himself killed in the same battle as Gage. To say that I was pretty numb to the sadness of funerals by the time I buried Gage is putting it mildly.

“I’m hard to kill.” If there’s one takeaway from the past two years, it’s that none of us are going down without a fight. “I like to be difficult like that.”

“Difficult indeed.” My mom’s voice sounds before I’m abruptly pulled away from Winnie. In a flash, Mom’s arms are wrapping tightly around my shoulders in a crushing hug. Her body shakes with nerves against mine as she squeezes the life out of me. My arms hang limply at my sides, my fingers flexing awkwardly. I never used to shy away from hugs from my mom. Before Pruitt, she was my best friend. We were the only girls in the house, and we had to stick together if we were going to survive living with four boys. While they were rough and tumble, breaking bones and destroying toys, we were having tea parties and playing dress-up. She was the only one who would play dolls with me. Mom played with just as much imagination as me if not more.

Margot Weylyn is a good mom—the best mom—but I know if I’m around her for too long, she’ll look into my eyes—truly look—and know what I’ve done. She’ll know what part I played in Gage’s death and I’m not ready for her to look at me with disappointment.

Same with my dad.

Behind the quick tongue and attitude problem is a girl who wants to make her parents proud. What I did won’t make them proud of me. They won’t understand.Hell, I’m not sure I do.

Mom pulls back just far enough to take my face between her hands. Blue eyes that look like all of ours scan my injured face. I’m healing, but I’m sure it’s not a pretty sight right now. “Look at you,” she sighs. “You’re a mess.”

“Well, that’s the understatement of a lifetime,” I breathe out a light laugh, my lips tugging at the corners. The split in my lip pulls painfully, making me drop the small smile quickly. Mom doesn’t look nearly as amused as I am by her comment. “I’m fine, Mom,” I try to assure her, squeezing her shoulder. I’m subconsciously aware of the rest of my family moving closer. I can sense Jax hovering somewhere behind me.

“You say that a lot,” Mom observes skeptically. “That you’re fine.”

“I have to believe if I keep saying it, that at some point it will be true.”

Mom’s about to step away from me, but freezes. Her eyes narrow and her nostrils flare. Confused, I jerk back when she leans forward and inhales deeply. The features of her face that had just a second ago been creased with concern, harden as she pulls away. “Remington, have you been drinking?”

My stomach drops as I feel the eyes of eight people boring into me. I open my mouth to answer, to tell her that when the crash happened, I was already sober, but she doesn’t give me the chance to explain.

“Is that what happened?” she falsely deduces. “You were partying and then drove intoxicated? Did you roll your car off the road because you weredrunk driving?”

My mouth snaps closed, frustration building in my chest. I’m frustrated that my mom would jump to that conclusion, but I’m more frustrated with myself that my actions the last few months have caused her to accuse me of this in the first place.

Taken aback by the accusation, my eyes shoot to Isabeau. My silent question must be written on my face, because she steps forward. “Ransom didn’t tell them what you told me when you called. He just said it was a car accident. I wanted to see it for myself before we shared what you said.”Meaning… she wasn’t sure I was telling the truth until she saw the evidence for herself.

I was never a liar. Always believed in brutal honesty, even if it meant hurting someone’s feelings, but I started keeping secrets and lying. It’s on me that Beau wouldn’t immediately believe what I told her.

My head nods tightly in sad understanding.

“And I was too busy telling them that you were alive andwhereyou were.” Her arctic eyes flick over my shoulder, presumably at Jax. “That I didn’t get the chance to tell them.”

Pruitt steps forward with her arms crossed, resting on the small perfectly round bump under her pullover. “Tell us what?” Ryker, her ever-present tattooed shadow stands vigil behind her.

My hand grips the edge of the blanket that Winslow had tossed over me. “I didn’t crash my car because I had been drinking. Two men in a black SUV followed me and when I started to get too close to pack territory, they started running into me until they finally caused my car to flip.”

My heart sinks when my mom looks at Beau for confirmation, that she can’t blindly believe what I’m telling her. When the vampire nods her head, my mom returns her attention to me. “They were planning on taking me with them, but they heard Isabeau coming and fled. They were worried about what she’d do to them.”For good reason. “We can stand around here and pretend we don’t know who’d do something like this, or we can get straight to the point. Sterling is behind this.”

I can’t help but glance at my dad to gauge his reaction. He’s been quiet the whole time, but that’s the kind of man he is. The quiet, observant type. He’s as straitlaced and levelheaded as they come. How he ended up with four kids with varying degrees of control and anger issues, I’ll never know.

“It’s odd to me that he’d target you,” Mom observes, almost sounding skeptical.

Instantly, her tone makes me bristle as defensiveness comes over me in a dark fog. Eyes narrowing, I demand, “What doesthatmean?”

Her face hardens, unimpressed with my attitude. “I just mean, out of everyone, you’ve had the least amount of contact with Sterling or his people.” Is she forgetting about that time I was kidnapped by Nicolai and used as a bargaining chip? “Why target you instead of Pruitt or even Jax?” She gestures at the demon behind me.

“Oh sorry,” I remark, taken aback by her words. “I guess compared to the she-wolf who broke a one-thousand-year-old curse and the all-powerful demon, I’m pretty small potatoes.” The worst part about this is I already felt that way about myself, but to have it thrown in my face by my own mother is a low blow. “Low hanging fruit if you will,” I supply darkly.

“Remington Everett,” Mom scolds. “That is not what I meant, and you know it.”

Dad steps forward, silencing Mom with a subtle look. “Emotions are high right now, let’s get back to the house and we can discuss our steps moving forward.” It doesn’t matter Elias Weylyn is no longer the active alpha. His voice will never lose that authoritative edge.

“Yes.” Ryker nods his head in agreement. “We need to make some plans if Sterling is really starting to send people here to abduct our people.”

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