Page 16 of Bound to the Dragon
“I was trying to calm my mother down,” I explain slowly, careful not to rile him up any more than he already is. “She’s in the bedroom.”
His shoulders sag slightly, and he rights his body as if he’s collecting himself in recognition of his grave overreaction. “I’ve told the Silver Glade pack to go home. You should see your mother out, too.”
I frown. “She isn’t really in any position to be traveling right now. She’s very upset.”
“I don’t want anyone but my pack here.” He’s not asking, and like Virginia had just said, you can’t refuse the Alpha.
“She’s my mother!”
“She’s not a part of the Shadow Pine pack. I’ll have a car take her home, along with some of my enforcers. She will be safe. A car will be waiting out front.”
He gives me another once over before eying Virginia, lingering at the threshold of the bedroom and sitting room. “You, too. Collect your things. It’s time to go home. You can ride with Lynelle.”
“Yes, Alpha.” There’s no hesitation in Virginia’s response, and I give her a sad look. I had hoped for a little bit of resistance.
Blaze leaves, and I watch him retreat.
“Just like that?” I ask my friend sadly. “You’re leaving?”
She scoffs so loudly, it’s almost a cough. “Is that a joke? What do you want me to do, Maddi? Take on the Alpha?”
“No, of course not,” I sigh and turn to my mother, who is already gathering her things. “You don’t have to go,” I inform her flatly. “You should stay until you calm down.”
She keeps packing. “It’s not safe here. I’m not staying.”
“Mom, if it’s who we think it is, you’re not safe back at Silver Glade, either.”
She stops and looks at me with haunted eyes. “This was supposed to make us safer, all of us. How could they come here, on the day of your ceremony? They have been sitting in wait all along!”
Hysteria creeps into her words again, but before she can launch into another diatribe, one of the Shadow Pine enforcers hovers at the threshold. “Luna, your mother’s car is waiting at the front of the estate.”
I don’t acknowledge him. “Mom, I’m serious, you’re probably safer here?—”
“How can you say that after what just happened?” She secures her bag and grabs the handle, stalking out of the room without so much as a backward look at me.
I throw up my hands in disbelief.
Virginia trails after my mother, but she pauses to give me a sympathetic look. “I would stay if the Alpha would allow it.”
“Just go. There’s no point in antagonizing him. If he isn’t going to let my mother stay, he won’t let you, either.”
She steps closer and lowers her voice so the enforcer in the hall can’t hear us. “Do you think he’s worried about us? About our pack?”
I don’t want to create more unrest than is already floating around. I’m not worried that Virginia is going to start rumors, but it will still cause her unnecessary stress.
She knows my secret, too, and I trust her to keep it.
“No one knows anything yet.” That much is true.
This attack is too fresh to jump to any conclusions, and I won’t make any snap judgments, even though in my heart, I’m sure this has everything to do with what happened years ago.
I see them out into the hallway, but stop short of walking them down the stairs when I catch a glimpse of Blaze at the landing, waiting impatiently for the rest of my pack to leave the property. I’m not ready for the discussion with him, not yet.
“Text me when you get back home,” I tell my mom and Virginia. “It doesn’t matter what time. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”
As they disappear down the steps, I retreat to my suite to change out of the outfit I’d thrown together in the wake of my shift following the attack. My beautiful ceremony dress was ruined in my haste to follow Blaze when he took the wolf shifter prisoner, and it broke my heart a little.
This mating was doomed from the start. I should have listened to my instincts.
