“What’s worse than torture and death?” I find myself asking.
Travan’s smirk… I imagine it’ll frighten even the reaper of death. Terror coils through my chest like barbed wire.
But instead of answering, Travan gestures for me to duck beneath a low-hanging branch. “Come on. We need to get back to the others.”
This time, the silence only lasts a few seconds before I shatter it.
“What happened to my mother?” I ask, thinking of my conversation with Gerry and Hale.
Travan’s jaw begins to twitch. “We don’t know.” He removes one hand from his pocket to rake it through his shaggy brown hair. “She… She started acting weird before she went missing. One night, she never came home. We assumed it was a kidnapping until we found her note.”
“She left a note?” I wrap my arms around myself, as if that physical gesture may hold me together when I want nothing more than to shatter.
“She said she had to leave and she was sorry.” Travan flicks his gaze towards me before refocusing on the path. “We didn’t hear from her again until the police called.”
“She committed suicide in a hotel bathtub, right?” My heart thunders in my chest. I can hear it between my ears, each consecutive thump getting louder and louder until I fear I’ll go deaf.
“Allegedly.” Travan grits his teeth together.
God, I can’t imagine what he’s going through. I never met the woman, but to him…she was his everything. His lover. His mate.
“You don’t believe she committed suicide either?” I glance towards him before immediately looking away.
It’s strange to stare at him for too long. When I do, I start noticing the similarities between the two of us, and my head reels. It makes everything feel all too real.
“Helena wouldn’t have left me,” Travan says resolutely. “Wouldn’t have left you.”
“But she did leave you, didn’t she? When she ran away?”
“She would’ve come back,” Travan says.
I can’t help but admire his confidence. If one of my mates were to leave me with only a note…
I shake my head to clear it of the errant thought.
“Is it true about Delaney?” I turn back towards him, gauging his reaction carefully.
Travan’s expression turns impassive. “What about her?”
“That you and your pack mates used to…date her? Before you met my mom?” My skin crawls at just the prospect.
“It’s…complicated.”
His words hit me like a slap. My chest suddenly feels tight, like there’s a weight pressing down on it.
“So you did date her?” I phrase it as a question, but I know it’s the truth.
“We briefly—very, very briefly—were in a relationship with Delaney before meeting your mother. But when we saw Helena…” He ruefully shakes his head, even as a tentative, fleeting smile curls up his lips. “Nobody else mattered.”
“Damn. You seriously left Delaney for her twin sister?” I gawk at him.
No wonder my aunt is such a raging bitch. Anyone would be in her position.
For the first time since we started this conversation, Travan appears sheepish. Red shades his cheeks as he lowers his head. “Yeah. It wasn’t our finest moment. But Delaney knew it wasn’t serious. She knew we would have to end things when we found our Heart.”
“I doubt she expected your Heart to be her twin sister.” I don’t know why I feel so defensive of my aunt. She’s an evil, conniving bitch, yet… I can’t help but pity her. “Do you think…?”
“That Delaney killed Helena?” Travan glances at me then looks away. “I don’t know.”
