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I won’t put that necklace back on yet, but I won’t rebuff his attempts to repair our friendship. Maybe it won’t be as easy as changing out the cracked glass in the coffee table, but it’s a start. So, after I yank on some clean panties, I pull on a fresh pair of jeans and shove the necklace in my back pocket.
Since I don’t plan on leaving my room anytime soon, I skip putting on a bra. Instead, I just grab the nearest shirt I can find, then reach for the phone I had left only my charger before I went searching for Ryker.
I’ve been putting off this call for too long. I probably would’ve called my mother on Friday when I noticed it was getting close to the full moon, but I hadn’t, and since then I’ve been avoiding it. I noticed I had a missed call from her yesterday, but I ignored it.
If Mom doesn’t hear from me before tomorrow night—before the full moon—then she’ll have Paul send one of his enforcers into Muncie to find me.
It’s the agreement we made when I told her that I left Mountainside. When I moved to Accalia, it was the first time in my life that we were apart, and she only let me go because Paul convinced her that me mating Ryker was a good thing. And while she understood why I had to leave after he rejected me, she couldn’t accept that I wouldn't go back to Lakeview until I reminded her it would be the first place they looked.
Of course, then I had to admit that I kind of, sort of let Ryker’s pack council discover I was an alpha, and that put the end to her arguments. So long as I check in every month, she lets me live on my own. She’s so worried that another wolf will force me to become their mate. The Luna Ceremony only takes place during the full moon, though. If I survive it, then I don’t have to worry about her worrying about me until the next one.
So I call her every month like clockwork. The conversations aren’t overly long. She tells me about my old pack, and I tell her about Aleks and the bar. We don’t talk about me being a lone wolf. And Ryker? He’s number one on the no-no list.
I insist. I know she keeps hoping I’ll go back to Accalia, if only because having an Alpha for a mate is an added layer of protection against, but after he rejected me? I couldn’t. And when Mom saw how much it hurt me to confess that, she dropped it. If I ever wanted to mention my old intended mate, it would be up to me.
For a year, I refused to bring up Ryker—until now.
She’s my mom. As soon as she answers, I feel tears well in my eyes. I don’t expect her to pat my head, fix my mistakes, or tell me that everything’s going to be okay, but just hearing her voice makes me feel like it will anyway.
She can immediately tell that something’s wrong.
“Gemma, baby. You don’t sound like yourself. Is everything okay?”
That’s all it takes. It’s like holding back the wind. One hint of her concern and I’m spilling my guts out to her.
From the moment Ryker walked back into my life all the way until I confess what I just walked away from, I tell my mom it all.
She doesn’t judge me. Honestly, she doesn’t say much at all. She listened, which is what I needed, and she offers soft, nonsense replies that make me feel so much better as I struggle to work through my emotions.
“—and he says that I’m his. And, that’s the thing, Mom. I was. I always thought I was. He’s my fated mate, but what if I’m not his?” There. The dark, secret fear I’ve grappled with for too, too long. “He didn’t choose me. How could he reject me like that is he’s my fated mate?”
“Ah, baby. Haven’t you figured it out by now?” My mom has never lost the hint of her midwestern drawl. Though we’ve lived on the east coast ever since we left my birth book out West and I don’t even think I have one, Mom’s accent is the same as it’s always been. I close my eyes as her words wash over me. It’s home. “Fated mates are a wonderful thing, but they’re not everything.”
My eyes spring open again. “I know.”
And I do. Mom’s relationship with Paul is proof of that. Jack Walker was her fated mate, but that didn’t stop him from taking his frustration out on her. A powerful Alpha, my omega mother should’ve been able to temper his lusts, but the Wicked Wolf isn’t just any alpha. He’s a fucking sociopath, and it wasn’t fair for anyone to think that my sweet, gentle mom could save him. When she was still trapped as his mate, she could barely save herself; the most she could was avoid the Luna Ceremony every full moon.
Until I came along. And, omega or not, you don’t mess with a female’s pup. She put up with his cruelty for years but, the first time he picked me up by the scruff and threatened to drown me for snapping at him, my mom showed that even an omega wolf shifter can turn feral.
She saved me. She sacrificed so much, too, and if she could survive that, I can survive Ryker Wolfson.
But do I want to? That thought has been beating at my brain since I ran from him. Why am I putting up a fight? Sure, he rejected me once upon a time, but I’m fighting too hard against something that was put into motion more than eleven years ago.
And then I hear my mom sigh.
My wolf perks her ears up. “Mom? Everything alright?”
“Your dad’s here. He wants to tell you something. Is that okay? It’s about Ryker.”
Honestly, at this point, I’m not sure there’s anything to say about Ryker that would surprise me.
“Uh. Yeah. Sure.”
“Hold on.” There’s some static as she hands him the phone before a deep voice booms, “Hey, kitten.”
I swallow a laugh. Only Paul Booker would think it’s funny to call an alpha wolf shifter kitten as a nickname. “Hey, Dad.”
“Sorry for overhearing, but you know how your mom is. She had you on speakerphone—”
