Page 60 of Bred Mate
Still going to kill her, though.
It’s not really that long until we pull up outside the house where I was beaten into submission and nearly forced to marry. I’m wondering now why I didn’t just take my wolf form and kill them all. It didn’t feel right somehow then. I blame my mother’s influence. There’s something about her that freezes my brain and makes me less than I could otherwise be.
Not anymore, though.
Karl pulls the car to a halt and turns to me.
“Now we’re going to…”
I don’t listen to Karl. I am already storming out of the vehicle, throwing the door open and not bothering to close it. I am so furious at what has happened, at the fact I can’t get one moment to myself in the entirety of my life without someone making off with my little brother, and the fact that that my mother can’t just leave us alone once and for all. What the hell is her problem? How many people do I have to fucking kill? The image of Patrick being rag-dolled around in the bayou flashes into my head for a moment, then is gone again.
“Mom!” I slam through the front door of the big fancy house. I am dressed head to toe in black leather, which feels a lot more true to my nature than what I was wearing last time I was here.
My mom does not meet me. Rainer does. He looks older than he did last time I saw him. He was more hale and robust then. Now he looks like he’s been miserable for weeks. I guess he’s been suffering the loss of his only son. Sucks to be him. I feel absolutely no pity for him. None of this had to happen.
He stares at me with an expression that shifts from surprise to hope.
“You’re alive,” he says. “Where’s my son?”
“Patrick’s dead,” I tell him, snatching that last shred of hope away from him as quickly as possible. He doesn’t deserve it. “He died of being eaten by an alligator on our bayou getaway.”
The old man stares at me with a horrified expression, as if he expected some other response.
“You know you tried to force me into the marriage,” I say. “You know he didn’t want it either. I don’t know what you thought would happen. You’re the one banging my mother. You should have known nothing would go like you planned it.”
“Excellent job being diplomatic, sweetheart,” Karl says in a long-suffering tone, draping an arm around my shoulders as he enters the house behind me.
“You! You were the one who was trying to buy the forest!” Rainer recognizes him.
Karl doesn’t acknowledge him. We’re not here to confront or comfort Rainer. We are here to get my little brother back.
“What is going on?”
My mother emerges from the interior of the house with Connor by her side. He looks healthy. He’s still wearing his little school suit. He smiles broadly when he sees us.
“Sis! Alpha!” he says.
“Excuse me,” Rainer murmurs, leaving the foyer while the rest of us have a little reunion.
“This is our mom,” Connor says, pointing to Margaret. “She’s nice.”
“Is she,” I say flatly. “Why did you take him, Mom?”
“Well, Patrick went missing, and it was apparent to me after my wedding to Rainer that we would need a replacement heir. Who better than my actual son?”
“You have two other sons.”
“They weren’t quite so easy to convince to leave everything behind for a candy bar,” she says bluntly.
Connor laughs, like it’s a joke.
“You’re crazy, and Connor’s no use to you. If anything happens to him, I’ll kill you, I’ll kill Rainer, I’ll destroy everything and everyone you ever loved—and I know there aren’t many of those things because you’re an unfeeling bitch.”
“You don’t give me enough credit,” she says, speaking to me with that affected patience designed to make me seem like the unstable one.
“I give you no credit, and that’s still too much. Come here, Connor. Now.”
Connor slinks over to me, looking chastised. I probably shouldn’t have said anything about this in front of him. I should have shielded him from the reality of our mother. But long term, it’s better that he understands how dangerous she is.
