Page 30 of Claiming Xan
River’s entire body went rigid as another low growl rippled low in his throat. “Fuck,” he uttered, grinding his teeth. “You should probably call her.”
“Do I have to?” I whined, but deep down, I knew he was right. It would be like ripping off a Band-Aid on a particularly-hairy part of your body. Painful, but quick. I hoped, anyway. I sucked in a deep breath and squeezed my phone. “Okay.”
I went into my missed calls and clicked Mom’s name. The phone began to ring. Almost immediately, Mom answered, her voice damn near frantic. “Xan? Where are you? Are you safe?”
My heart sunk a little deeper into the recesses of my chest. “Jesus, Mom, chill out,” I said. “I’m fine!”
“Where are you?” she asked again, this time more of a demand than a question. I felt the Alpha inflection in her tone and it had my inner-wolf going belly-up.
“A hotel.” God, I hated this… “I’m safe. Really.”
I heard her sigh hiss across the line before she said, “Xander. Please tell me that River isn’t with you.”
My heart thumped wildly in my chest. For a moment, I couldn’t find the words to answer, shame burning a hole through me. “He might be,” I said, as nonchalantly as possible. “Why?”
Mom growled. Yep. She was pissed. “Jesus. Of course he is. Xander Price! You come home, right this minute!” The phoneclicked dead. I sat there for a moment, listening to the hum of the dial tone, telling me she’d hung up on me.
“Shit.” I ended the call and dropped my head into my hands. “I think we’re in trouble.”
River growled softly, but his hand on my back was a small comfort when my world had suddenly been turned on its axis.
The drive home was tense. Neither of us said anything. What was there to say? We were taking the proverbial walk of shame. I didn’t know what to expect when we got there. I didn’t know how angry Mom would be, but I knew when she saw the claiming mark on my neck? She’d flip her shit.
We didn’t have time to shower, so I knew I reeked of River and he reeked of me. One sniff and she’d know exactly what we’d spent our time together doing. Not that she didn’t already know.
She met us at the door, looking between the two of us before pointing a finger at River accusingly. “This is all your fault,” she snarled, her fangs bared and her dark eyes ablaze with fury. “Had you not come along and tempted my son?—”
“Excuse me?” I barked, stomping a foot on the ground. “Temptedme?If anything, I temptedhim!Don’t put this all on River, Mom. This wasmyidea!”
“Your idea to let an unpredictable, half-feral Alphabreedyou?” she snapped back, turning her ire on me. “You’re so damn foolish. You could’ve been hurt! Killed!”
“River isn’t like that! If you’d just get to know him—” She cut me off with a slap across the face. One that I never saw coming, and one that stunned me to silence. I stumbled back, my jaw dropping open as I stared at her in shock.
River turned on her with a snarl, his fangs sharpening in his mouth and claws tipping his fingers. “Don’t touch him!”
“Get out!” Mom roared back, placing herself between me and River. “You broke the one rule I gave you! Both of you! You are no longer welcome in my home, or in my pack. Go!”
River froze like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming semi, but it was me who grabbed a hold of Mom’s arm. “Mom! Stop!”
“Be quiet, Xander!” Her voice was ice cold when she fixed her gaze on River once more. “You defiled my son. There is no place for you here. Get out.”
River staggered backwards. “Wait, I?—”
“OUT!” She lunged at him, yanking free of my grip on her even as I cried out his name.
River snarled at her, his face twisted up in an emotion I couldn’t decipher, before he spun away mid-shift and fled into the woods. I watched him go, running away with his tail between his legs, and a cry broke free of my chest.
“Mom! How could you do that to him?”
“I did what I should’ve done two months ago,” she replied coldly. “There is no place for someone like him in Rubydawn. I should have never let him stay!”
“You’re wrong,” I growled. “He’s not a bad person. Where is he supposed to go?”
“I don’t give a damn where he goes, so long as it isn’t anywhere nearyou,” she replied, turning her glare on me. Oh, she was far from done. “I can’tbelieveyou! TheoneAlpha I forbade you from fooling around with, and you just couldn’t listen, could you?”
“That’s not fair! I can’t help who I like?—”
“Youshouldn’tlike him!” she snapped. “He’s a monster, Xander! He’s untamed! He shouldn’t even be alive.”
