Page 44 of Plus-Size Bullied Mate

“He’s doing a shit job of it from what I can tell. Losing to two alphas is a low blow. I bet he’s hurting.”

“Maybe a third time will get the point across.”

Dominic scoffs, and I can hear his smirk through the phone. “Doubt it, but I’d like to see that.”

“What’s the next move then?” I ask.

“Caleb has a unit on rotation along his northern border, and Luke is monitoring everyone moving in and out of Coldreach. Zane and I are tracking inland,” he replies with a measured sigh. “For now, we’re gathering as much information as we can until Hayes decides how he wants to dig his grave.”

I nod to myself before murmuring, “I have a few scouts along our border shared with Wraith Peak, but I’ll send a few out to help inland. I’m keeping watch for him here just in case he comes back.”

“How’s the wolf he attacked?”

My jaw clenches at the mention of Tessa and what happened. “She’s fine. I need to know now if she’s still a target.”

It’s not a lie, yet it isn’t the full truth. I’m not in the mood to share the finer details of what followed, even if I’ll have to tell them eventually.

Dominic hums. “You never know with Hayes. Let me know if you see more of him.”

“And let me know about any updates you guys have.”

“Will do.”

When we say our goodbyes, I hang up and stay outside a little while longer, eyes on the territory spreading out below the hill. I think about Hayes and what he wants. For someone who has the power he surely always wanted, it apparently isn’t enough.

Of course, my mind takes me back to that night, and the sight of Hayes with his firm grasp on Tessa. How terrified yet resigned she looked.

The phone sits next to me for no more than twenty minutes before Mom’s contact pops up next, and when I answer, she asks if I’ll come for lunch. The fact that she has this planned out tells me everything I need to know in advance.

When I do eventually get there, I see she made soup, and a place is already waiting for me at the table.

This is how difficult conversations are approached in my mother’s house. She feeds you first, puts up a front of domestic normalcy, and then lets it all drop once she cuts to the chase.

I’ve known this pattern since I was a teenager, yet it has never once made the conversations easier.

With it being just the two of us, she asks about the territory and everything that’s been going on over the last few weeks. I give her the version that doesn’t include anything too troubling about Hayes or the conversation I had with Dominic. She asks about the house, and I tell her it’s fine, like usual.

Finally, she puts down her spoon and looks at me with the expression that tells me we’ve finally arrived at the real reason she called me over.

“I’ve been thinking about the girl,” she begins.

“Tessa,” I tell her before she can continue. “Her name is Tessa.”

A flicker of recognition that I’ve drawn a line moves through her eyes, and she takes a small breath before continuing. “I’ve been thinking about Tessa, and what you’re asking the pack to accommodate. What you’re asking me to accommodate.”

“I’m not asking you to do anything except treat her decently. I don’t see why that requires further discussion.”

“It’s her parents, Hunter,” she says, forcing the words out quietly, yet they still carry the weight of something that’s been compressed for far too long without closure. “Her parents withheld information that got your father killed. That got Daniel—” Her voice tightens before she smooths it out, taking her time before trying again. “He was out there that night to protect the pack, and he died doing exactly that. Now you want me to sit across from their daughter and pretend like it doesn’t ache to think about…”

“Mom,” I start, keeping my voice level. “Tessa was still a child.”

“I know that.”

“Do you?” I question, finding it harder to continue this same discussion again and again. “Because the way the pack talks about it, the way you’re talking about it right now, it sounds like everything related to her name gets attached to her, regardless of who was at fault. She lost her parents that night, just like I lost one of mine. You can hardly blame a child for the things her parents didn’t say.”

Mom goes quiet, and her expression stays unreadable while I continue.

“Her parents died in that ambush. They paid for their decision directly, just as my father did. Tessa has spent years in this pack paying for choices that weren’t hers and ones made before she was old enough to have any say in them. And I haven’t been innocent in that either,” I say, fighting through the tightness in my throat now. “I let it go on among our peers even when I had enough authority to interrupt it. But I didn’t, all because I was avoiding something I didn’t want to deal with. That’s on me, and now I’m fighting to make up for it.”