Page 4 of Depraved
As if she knows exactly what I’m thinking, her bright green eyes reprimand me. Her lips purse in a rosebud of disapproval as she stares at me, waiting expectantly for me to greet her properly.
“Hi, Mom,” I force myself forward and give her a hug that’s half back pat—the kind you give to an acquaintance you were close to years ago but haven’t seen in a while. She doesn’t pat me back, just stiffly accepts her due with a nod as I step away.
I notice a crease on her forehead that wasn’t there just a few months ago—and part of me guiltily wonders if she was worried about me after my wolf finally came in and I didn’t come home.
No, probably not. I’m twenty-one. An adult. And Black told her I was with him. Besides, I’ve gotten good enough at avoiding her over the past couple of years. Maybe that line has been there for a while, and I just never noticed. That seems far more likely. My stomach squiggles uneasily and I press my lips together, searching for something to say.
Our relationship is … complicated at best, but having literally just looked death in the face, I realize that I don’t want to lose whatever tenuous connection we have left. Even if I think she’s to blame for my father’s death, she didn’t actually end him. My resolve to hate her wavers.
If Jonah had died today … she’d be the only other person I could call family. Black … I don’t know what he is, but family doesn’t seem the right word for him. Overbearing, sex-crazed alpha prince seems more fitting.
My eyes travel over Mom’s thick biceps and notice how she holds her back ramrod straight, not an ounce of fat on her. She has clearly been hitting the gym every single day. It’s her addiction … but I also wonder if it’s her coping mechanism.
“You hung up on me,” she scolds, unable to let our nice moment last more than a few seconds as she reminds me of my last transgression.
“You insulted my mate,” I retort, as we slide immediately back into our old habits. Argument. Disagreement. I wonder who will storm off this time. It’s usually me, but I’m not leaving Jonah—who’s still on his side in wolf form a few feet to my left.
“Not because ofwhohe is,” she responds sharply. She ignores the fact that we’re flanked on either side by two men who are essentially strangers to me. She’s never been embarrassed to put me in place in public; the alpha in her doesn’t care about my own chagrin, only about taking me down a notch. “Because ofwhathe is—he’s a beta—and what I know will happen to you if you don’t have a strong enough mate.”
We stare at one another awkwardly for a minute, uncertain how to proceed after her ominous declaration.
She doesn’t bother to explain, and I don’t bother to ask, because it won’t do any good. At the end of the day, neither of us will change our minds. She doesn’t approve of my life choices, and I don’t approve of hers.
Why is it that someone you’ve known all your life can feel like such a stranger, and a total stranger can feel like someone you’ve known all your life?
I shift uneasily from foot to foot, very aware of the burnt soles of my shoes. The rubber feels tacky and little rocks adhere to it, poking me uncomfortably. Of course, everything about this moment is uncomfortable.
“So …” I say, trailing off.
“I’m glad you’re okay. I’m glad to see Alpha Maddox protected you.”
Even though her words are all proper and sound completely innocent to a bystander, I can hear the smug I-told-you-so about Jonah in her tone and it makes me bristle. Layer on top of that the fact that alphas aresupposedto protect lower ranked wolves without thought or question, and that she not only failed but deliberately abused her strength … she pushes all my buttons at once.
“Not much protecting one can do from a bomb,” I retort.
Her eyebrows rise in surprise at my public disagreement about Black’s merits, but it’s true. He did protect me from an insane madman, but I can’t give her an inch, so I hold that information back. I’m so emotionally frayed and raw from her statement that I do a one-eighty from all the thoughts I just had about needing family, mind squealing as I turn it in another direction and steer it at fifty miles an hour right into a wall. My relationship with my mother can crash and burn. Screw her, screw whatever she says.
And if she dares lay a hand on me the way she did Dad, I know for a fact that Black will make sure she rues the day—
I give her a narrow, cutting grin, one that’s smug as fuck as I finally, willingly acknowledge that being marked by the pack alpha has a benefit instead of just drawbacks.
A whole lot of awkward fills the air, as thick as the smoke around us. My babysitters exchange glances with one another, the kind of glances men give each other when they’ve marked a woman as ‘high drama.’ But my mother makes low drama impossible. Luckily, other wolves are arriving, alphas forming groups and digging through the rubble. Soon the crowd will be large enough that I can create a human barrier between the two of us.
Matthew appears out of the smoke, wearing his suit and looking like an elderly James-frickin-Bond.
He’s not distracted by the chaos or destruction surrounding him. He moves forward solidly, with a purpose, until he gets close to the nearest clump of arrivals: some betas who’ve huddled together, full of worry and whispers.
He claps his hands together loudly, snagging their notice. “Medical personnel have arrived. Where are the survivors?”
Quickly I wave a hand to garner his attention and then point down at Jonah. “Here!” I call. Then I lift an arm to point roughly over in Pluto’s direction, but Poseidon beats me to it, striding over and locating his fellow elite for Matthew.
The butler gives a brusque nod. “Good. As soon as they’ve got their gear, I’ll send them over.”
Relief washes through my system like water, clearing out some of the tension still coiled in my belly. I have no idea if the medical staff will actually be able to do anything to help shifters any more than the magic of their wolf forms can, but they’ve got far more expertise than I do.
As the emergency personnel tromp over with kennels and IV bags and stretchers, I realize that Jonah and Pluto are going to be taken care of. But that leaves me to do … what?
Do I go to the group of low-ranked beta women silently standing in a circle, sending up prayers to the moon goddess for the other shifters who are caught inside the pack house?
