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Magic prickled on the tips of my ears and my fingers. I waited for her to stand up and fight me. We frowned upon violence for the sake of it, but I’d fight her for Salta. I wouldn’t let that mostly happy little kid get pushed aside for kids whose carriers hadn’t died in childbirth. She’d have just as much if not more than them.
“Terrick,” Mother said, her voice low and soft. “You were never meant to parent her. At first, I thought it was your coping mechanism. I thought that’s how you were processing. If I had known you thought she was yours to raise, I would’ve stepped in sooner. You were so young. Too young for that.”
“Except I did it. I’ve gotten her to eleven. Why stop now?”
“Because you’re not her father. You’re her brother. You deserve time to date and ---”
She stopped when I squeezed my fingers into fists. It was a habit I picked up from her. I dug my nails into my palms chasing back the magic that danced and scratched just under my skin. I took deep breaths trying not to think of the last time I dated. He was now married, true-mate bonded, and had three kids of his own. No more of that. I didn’t need a boyfriend. I didn’t have time to waste on loves that would flee at the first chance they got.
“Or perhaps, you will go in search of him. That redhead you see so often when you dream,” she said, her voice softer now.
“Quit spying on me,” I said through gritted teeth.
We weren’t going to fight. Our magic flowed from the same place, and it wasn’t about to battle itself. We were of the Lost Fangs. We did not waste precious resources on fruitless endeavors and our magic agreed.
“You are still so young,” she tilted her head and frowned at me. “Your dreams whisper to me still. It will stop when you are older, but first you have to live to be older, Terrick. Living in between the times a dead man comes to visit you isn’t living. You’re as dead as he is in some ways. You’re going to go, my son. You’re going to go for a year and a day and hopefully someday, even if it’s many years in the future, you forgive me and understand what I am doing. It is time for you to go and find your true-mate. Maybe he can get through to you.”
“Get through about what?” I arched a brow, digging my heels into the plush green carpet beneath my shoes.
She wasn’t about to cast me out without a fight.
“You don’t see yourself or perhaps you do. Apathy is as bad as hatred for the soul, Terrick. You’ve become cruel to everyone except Salta. The staff cringe when you walk in. My mates except for Jert avoid you.”
“Jert is a dumbass,” I huffed.
“Jert is the bravest of them all. He will advocate for Jordan as your father advocated for you. As hard as it is for you to believe, your father knew Jert. He was fond of him. He was never to replace him. No one can do that, but you didn’t even give him a chance to be here. You were fifteen. Then, it was okay. Then, you needed time, but what about now, Terrick? What’s going on now?”
I opened my mouth to say I was doing my best. Only I wasn’t sure that was true. I was certainly doing my best with Salta. I’d die for that kid. I’d take a bullet to the brain or a stake to the heart. I’d cut off my limbs if that’s what it took to save her. I’d fight for mother’s safety too. That was my responsibility, but she could take care of herself just fine. The rest of them – I felt nothing or worse when I looked at them. They were all alive and walking around like they never knew him and they were jealous of Salta.
“I’m not cutting off your funds,” Mother continued. “That money never belonged to me. It was your father’s and now it belongs to you and Salta.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“But you are,” she frowned. “Whether you pack and drive away or the guards drag you out, you are leaving. I won’t have my vampires fearing my own child. I won’t have them live in fear of the ruling family. I’ve seen what that has done in other covens and groups and we’re not going down that path. Go out and find peace and bring it back with you or stay with your red headed mate. Perhaps, he can soften the heart I haven’t seen but a glimpse of in eleven years.”
“I’m not the monster you’re making me out to be,” I spat out the words, my heart pounding in my ears.
“That’s what worries me the most, Terrick. You don’t even see the man you’ve become,” she said and blinked hard.
“I’m not leaving without Salta,” I shook my head. “Casting me out will only punish her. Go ask her if she thinks I’m a monster! Ask her!”
“She thinks you hung the moon and all the stars. It is true,” Mother nodded slowly, tucking another lock of dark hair behind her pointed ear. “She will think that upon your return as well.”
“I’m the only one she has!” I growled.
“No, you two have never been alone in the world. You’re as alone as you’ve chosen to be since you came of age. Perhaps, your fate is elsewhere. Perhaps, that is why you loathe every person here you lay eyes upon. I do not know. This breaks my heart, but ---”
“You’ve always been a high priestess before you were a mother!” I spat out the words.
She didn’t open her mouth to deny the truth I spoke. Instead, she raised her fist to shoulder-level to summon her guards. Their hands wrapped around my arms and for a split second I thought I was the monster she called me. I could’ve ripped them all asunder. They were too removed from both our blood roots and our elven roots. It would’ve been easy. They could’ve laid slain – a pile of corpses around me. Only, I didn’t want Salta to hear about that. So I went limp in their arms and allowed them to drag me off the grounds to where we parked our cars. That was the last thing I’d remember for a long time to come.
Chapter Three
Frost Moonscale, the draconic ancestor of The Hemlock Wolf Pack and the Moonscale Dragons
I’d done a lot for the wolf who held my heart after all these years, and I’d do more in the years to come. He’d made sacrifices for me and our family too, but dragging Terrick Lost Fang out of his burning car left a bad taste in my mouth and it wasn’t just the ash. Dragons were used to fire and the elements. I’d seen plenty of guys like him before. Life hurt them and they grew up like a rotating hybrid between a cactus and a porcupine. They shot off barbs and thorns without even knowing it sometimes. Even with the magic ahead of me, I was pretty sure some of those sharp bits would land in Scott and I loathed the idea of him bringing more pain to the little baker. Still, Juda had been right before. He was fertile hope where I saw landfills and even flowers grew from shit.
“You’re a fucking heavy blood sucking elf, aren’t you?” I huffed, pulling him off the shoulder of the road and over the guardrail.
