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Jude’s hands came down on her shoulders. Squeezed.
She stiffened. He shouldn’t touch her.No. Don’t do that. Don’t show my mother any weakness.
Too late. Her mother’s gaze had already noted the telling move.
“Attached to her, are you, tiger?” She smiled and seemed satisfied. “I hope you’re a fighter.”
“I am.” Close to a snarl.
“Good.” Her eyes raked Erin. “Long time, baby girl.”
Baby girl, her ass. This wasn’t some movie-of-the-week reunion. “What do you want?”
A shrug.
Red lights danced before Erin’s eyes. Not real lights. More like spots of rage. “Thenget out.”
Jude pulled her back against his chest. “Easy.” Breathed in her ear.
But she didn’t want to be easy. She wanted to scream. To rage. Like she’d done years ago.
The yellow eyes dropped. “Been looking for you,” Theresa said, lifting her hand to rub the back of her neck. “You disappeared on me. I got...worried.”
What?“Youleft me years ago. You knew where I was.” She hadn’t moved until her dad died. “Not like I was particularly hard to find.” Theresa had never come looking for her. Not once.
Still gazing at the floor, her mother admitted, “Not then. I...watched you then. Had to stay far back. You would have caught my scent.”
It wouldn’t have hurt more if someone had carved her heart out with claws right then.
“Lost you...a few months back.”
What? All that time? All that damn time, her mother had been close by—and she’d never contacted Erin?Why?
Theresa glanced up. Her mother had to see the question burning Erin alive because she said, “You didn’t fit in my world.”
Like Erin didn’t know that.
“I didn’t fit in yours.” Another shrug of Theresa’s shoulders. But this time, the move seemed...tired. Sad. “But I still...wanted to make sure you were okay. I-I needed to see you.”
Erin shook her head. Jude felt solid behind her. Strong and steady—just what she needed then. “You threw me away.” A whisper, one she hadn’t meant to voice.
That stare bored into her. “Had to. You couldn’t shift?—”
She flinched.
“—and the pack would have torn you apart. No way were you strong enough to handle what they would have thrown at you.” Theresa’s shoulders set. “I did what I had to do in order to protect you.”
Erin stared at her mother. At the tense expression on her face. The steady hands. And she said, simply, “Bullshit.”
Theresa’s jaw dropped.
“You didn’t leave me on that doorstep because you wanted toprotectme.” Not buying that. Not for a minute. Jude’s hold on her tightened. “You did it because you were ashamed of me.”
She saw the hit in the slight widening of her mother’s eyes.
“You think I didn’t know?” Erin asked, stomach knotted. “You think I didn’t see the way you looked at me?” Not a proud mama. Never that. Always pushing her into the shadows. Away from the others who might see her.
“You were supposed to be like me!”A scream of fury and pain that broke fast and hard from her mother’s lips. “Supposed to shift and fight—just like me!”
