I’ve never been included in theourbefore.
In Frostclaw, I was just Cordelia, and barely even that with everyone but Maud happy enough to call me an array of names: bitch, cursed whore, lost orphan, a burden.
Those names I know.
Fireheart is new.
“Oh,” I whisper.
He smiles and I realize the light that I was seeing is in his eyes. This Alpha has kind eyes. “Of all the lost ones we hoped to be returned to us, I never dared to dream it would be Amara’s girl that came home.”
At the mention of my mother’s name Thorne sucks in a sharp breath, so does Clyde. I’m too stunned to even react. All of this feels surreal. I take a step forward and my knees feel weak. Thorne comes to my side and puts a hand on my arm. His touch is unexpected but I’m grateful for his strength. I let him help hold me up.
Amara.
I haven’t let myself say that name in years. When I first arrived in Frostclaw I used to whisper it to myself like a talisman when I was scared and alone in the dorms. I said it so much that it stopped sounding like a name at all. The older I got the more painful it was to say my mother’s name, so I stopped.
“You knew my mother?” I ask.
“I did. Amara Fireheart has never been forgotten by me or this pack. Allow me to introduce myself properly to you.” He comes forward and drops low into a bow. “I’m Ronan Stone, Alpha to the Bloodstone Clan and your mother…your mother was very special to me.” I can hear the emotion in his voice. There’s more here that he isn’t saying about my mother. If I wasn’t feeling overwhelmed I’d ask him what he means but from the tender way he says her name, I think I already know.
Fireheart.
“I never knew her last name,” I tell him and my lips tremble when I smile at him. “Thank you for giving me her name,” I take the hand Ronan offers me and we shake hands. He squeezes my hand gently before he lets go. “Your mother was a good wolf, steady and strong. The best of us. Taught our young better than any teacher we’ve had. When we lost her, we lost a brilliant mind. Losing you and the others has weighed heavy on me all these years. She would be glad to know you’ve made your way home, finally,” he pauses and gives me another kind smile. “You look just like her, you know.”
Holy hells.
I look like my mother.
Her name was Amara Fireheart.
My world spins around me from being forced open with the information the Alpha has just given me. I never dreamed I would be given a gift like this. Apart from the basic features I could pick up from my one tattered photograph, I never knew I looked like her. My throat gets tight and I can’t speak. Even if Iknew the words to say to the Alpha, I wouldn’t be able to form them. Amara Fireheart was my mother and she was here, she was known, and if the look I read in Alpha Ronan’s eyes is true,she was loved.
“Thank you for saying that.” My eyes water and smile at him. “I didn’t know she was a teacher.” It’s true. I had no idea what my mother’s life in Bloodstone was like. What she did, who she knew, how she spent her time, all of it has been a mystery but tonight I’m starting to put the puzzle pieces together for a better picture of who my mother was. I’m so happy she had a true life here, a full life with a pack that she belonged to. I lean into Thorne. I don’t mean to do it and if I’m ever waterboarded about my decision to lean into the big shifter, I’ll claim temporary insanity. Still, I do lean into him and the amount of comfort I get from that body-to-body contact settles me. At least it does until Thorne leans in close to me and inhales.
He sniffs my hair. “You don’t smell like anything. Why?”
I jerk back to look up at him. “Did you just smell my hair?”
He lifts a shoulder in a shrug. “Well, it was right there,” he says, motioning with his free hand that I’m not grabbing onto. “What else was I supposed to do?”
I throw my hands up and jerk away from him. “I don’t know? Not smell me for starters?”
Thorne frowns. “Where is your scent? You’re an omega. All omegas have scents.”
“Well, I…just don’t. And you just can’t ask why an omega doesn’t have a scent. It’s common decency and besides, I don’t remember you wondering why I didn’t have a scent in the meadow,” I tell him and step away from him with a pointed tap of my foot. I don’t know where the fire in me is coming from but I’m not of the mind to stop it. I let my anger settle in me. For once, I’m going to say exactly what I think and Thorne hasn’t so much as brought up the meadow to me. Yes, I haven’t seen himand I was trying to avoid him but still. We almost…we almost…my face flushes hot from the memory.
Mated. We almost mated in the meadow. If we hadn’t been shot and struck down by an act of the universe, I would have gladly had sex with him. Taken him into my body and enjoyed every second of it, not knowing he would stonewall me the second we weren’t alone. I clench my fists as I grow angrier. It’s so like Keiran that for a split second I don’t know who I’m angry with, who I’m talking to at this moment.
Keiran or Thorne.
Does it matter?
They’re both alphas that only wanted me when there was no one to see. Alphas perfectly content to pretend we hadn't been intimate, hadn’t been more to each other than strangers. I take in a deep breath as I wrangle my anger to the ground and force it down. Clyde makes a sound that sounds like he’s agreeing with me while Thorne grumbles at my mention of the meadows.
“This isn't the time or place to discuss that,” he says.
I cross my arms. “I could have told you that, Thorne.” My palm itches to slap him. I take a step back because for a second I think I might.
