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I FOUND THE LADIES in the park. Caden was sitting with Kya while my mom and Nia talked. It was crazy to think I had a family. A mom and a sister and a slew of boyfriends. I felt loved and cherished, and it was a good feeling. I was getting addicted to the feeling of being loved.
“How did it go?” Nia asked.
“Good.”
I didn’t want to get into the gory details in front of Caden and my mother. Although I suspected my mother already had a good idea. “Will your council be staying on?” she asked.
I smiled. “Yes, they will. We are all on the same page.”
“Good. I like them. I know you are very well protected with them around. You are better at this than your father was. Having a conversation and giving them the opportunity to walk away shows a lot of respect for them.”
I slowly nodded. “It was Nia and Kya who pushed me into doing the right thing. I never would have done it if they hadn’t insisted.”
“You’ve done very well here, Azalea. I’m glad you are surrounded by people that love you. When I left you, I knew the pack would step up. I knew they would step in and take care of you.”
“It wasn’t the same as having a mom.”
“I know,” she said.
I didn’t want to beat a dead horse. “The guys are making lunch. Why don’t you head back? I want to check in with everyone and see if they are okay with this latest change.”
“I don’t want to cause issues for you,” she said.
“It’s fine. I’m getting used to issues.”
“Where’s Decker?” she blurted out. “I’ve been meaning to ask, but it hasn’t seemed like the right time.”
I sighed, shaking my head. “I will explain that situation later. It’s not a short story.”
“I’ll give her the CliffsNotes version,” Nia said. “I’ll walk her back to the house.”
“Thanks, Nia. I’ll be there soon.”
It wasn’t hard to get a good read on the pulse of my pack. My first stop was at the market. That was the hub of the gossip. “Hello,” I said as I walked inside.
I was met with a few shocked looks. I spent the next five minutes chatting, trying to get a read on the situation. Mostly, people were ready to welcome her back if she could prove herself trustworthy. Unfortunately, there were a few, including Mrs. Lincoln, that were holding back. I understood her objections. She’d been there on those long nights when I cried myself to sleep after my mother left. It was Mrs. Lincoln who’d helped feed me and my father and checked in on us long after everyone else forgot about our loss.
I left the store and headed for the house. Everyone was eating and laughing. It warmed my heart to see the guys welcoming her with open arms.
“I need to get going,” Nia said. “I have a date.”
I grinned. “Oh, do you now?”
She nodded. “Yep, and I will tell you all about it later.”
After she left, my mother and I decided to take a walk, a human walk. We went out the back way and into the forest. Our pace was slow as we made our way up the trail. “This is where I watched you from,” she said.
“What?”
“After I left, I came back quite often. I watched you play in the backyard with Nia. I watched the two of you come back here and talk about boys. I watched you guys laugh and when your father died, I watched you cry. I wanted to be with you. I wanted to comfort you.”
“You watched me?”
“I did.”
“Why didn’t you ever come and talk to me? Why did you have to stay away for so long? Couldn’t you have at least come back and let me know you were okay?”
“I wanted to, but I didn’t want to disrupt the progress you made.”
“How come I never saw you, or sensed you?”
“I think you did sense me on a few occasions,” she said with a smile.
“Did I see you?”
“No. No one could see me.”
“That’s your power? Invisibility?”
“Yes. I tend to be somewhat of a seer.”
“It seems like that is a common trait. I wish I would have gotten that power. It certainly would have made it easier to make decisions.”
“Oh sweetie, it isn’t always a blessing to see things. It can be disturbing. It can make you rethink everything. It can make you afraid of your own shadow.”
“Did you see his death?” I asked.
“Anton?”
“Yes.”
“No, I didn’t. I learned of his death after it happened. Did you see it?”
“No. I felt it.”
“What? I didn’t realize you were an empath.”
“I’m not. I think it was our bond. We were very close.”
I saw her wince. “I imagine you are. Were. He raised you. He did a great job. I envied your relationship with him. I wanted that relationship. I hate that I couldn’t be there for your first transformation or your first kiss. There are so many things I regret.”
“Mom, we can go down a long road of regrets or we can choose to look to the future. I want a relationship with you now. I don’t want to think about the past. It’s not going to change it. I don’t want to dwell on all the things I didn’t have.”
“Deal,” she said. “I promise I will be here for you as long as you let me. I want to be a part of your life.”
“Good.”
“So Nia filled me in on the Decker situation. He tried to kill you?”
“Several times,” I said with a laugh. “Kya has him under her charms to keep him away, but she doesn’t know how long it will last. He might come back.”
“Decker is a vile man. He is evil. He is hellbent on revenge.”
“Have you ever talked to him since you left?”
“No. Absolutely not. I don’t want anything to do with that man.”
“If and when he comes back, he is going to be very surprised to see you.”
“Will you kill him?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“You sound certain of yourself.”
“I have to sound certain because I don’t feel certain. I’ve had several opportunities to kill him, and I have failed every time. I either chicken out or he kicks my ass. I’m seriously hoping I have the nerve to do it when the time comes. I still have to deal with the Ironclaw.”
“Did they attack you?”
“Nia didn’t tell you?”
“Not all the details. The walk home isn’t that long.”
I laughed. “Decker has them all under his spell. They think he is their alpha. I have not seen any of them since he almost killed me, and Kya shooed him away. Do you know anything about her power?”
“Not really.”
“Why didn’t you come back with Kya?” I asked her. “Did she tell you what she was doing?”
“No, she didn’t. She disappeared for a couple of days and when she came back, she told me she was with you. She told me how much she liked you and that she wanted to be a part of the pack.”
“She wanted to be the alpha of the pack,” I corrected.
She grimaced. “Yeah, she did tell me about that. She’s young. I never realized how badly she wanted a family. I thought she was okay with the way things were. When she told me she was going to stay with you, I figured it was time for me to move on. She had settled down, and you were doing so well. I didn’t want to ruin things.”
“Why did you come back?” I asked her. “Kya told me you left for good.”
“I thought I did. I planned to. I left and I started to think about what I was doing. I was running away from the two most important things in my life because I was embarrassed and ashamed. I decided to swallow my pride and think about what mattered most. You two. If the pack wants to banish me, I’ll accept it, but I won’t accept losing the two of you. Not again. You girls are stuck with me.”
“I like that,” I said. “And the pack will accept you. Some of them have long memories. They need to know they can trust you. Believe it or not, I think the fact that Decker killed their alpha and charmed the Ironclaw to attack us works in our favor. They will believe your story.”
“It’s not a story,” she said. “It’s very real.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to come out like that. I know it’s real. I know you loved my father.”
“Yes, I did. Very much so, but I wasn’t one of the mate for life wolves. I wanted to be. I thought I could be. I don’t think your father was the type either. Honestly, I blame myself for what Decker did. He saw a weakness, and he took advantage. If your father and I were truly mated, he would have never been able to get to me. He saw a chink in the armor and took a shot. If your father had loved me like a true mate loves, he would have found me.”
“Were you testing him?”
She shrugged. “Maybe I was. I think I was testing both of us. I hated being away from you, but your father was doing okay.”
“So you don’t believe in the one mate for every person?”
“No, I didn’t say that, but I don’t think all of us are wired that way. I think Kya is, though. She told me about the boy she met. I think she wants to settle down and have a family.”
“Me too.”
“But you have your council,” she said with a knowing smile.
“I do. They make me happy. I didn’t know it was possible to have this kind of thing.”
“Oh, it is very possible. There is no shame in who you love, Azalea. Never feel guilty about that. You are a lucky woman.”
“Thank you. I feel lucky. I feel very lucky. I feel even luckier now that I have you back in my life. You and Kya. Do you want me to find you a house in town or would you like to stay in your own house?”
“Sweetie, that house is yours now.”
“I will find you a place. I was looking for one for Kya, but I don’t think she’s ready to be on her own.”
“I don’t think she will be on her own for long.”
“This is true. We should go back. The guys get a little squirrely when I’m gone too long.”
“They’re protective of you.”
“Yes, they are.”
We headed back down the trail. I wasn’t surprised to see Ares and Berrion hanging out about halfway down. They were never going to leave me completely alone, and truthfully, I didn’t want them to. They walked us to the house. We spent the rest of the evening sitting around catching up a little more. She looked at photo albums and regaled the guys with stories about my youth. What she knew of it. I found myself smiling a lot more than I ever had in my life. Oddly enough, I wished my dad was there to see it. I wished he could see my mom and me talking and sharing. I knew it would make him happy. He would be thrilled to know I was doing okay.
