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“It’s real.” Sarah touched Joan’s wrists. “It’s a long story, but it’s real.”
“It’s not all that long, really,” Max snarled. “That bastard has been keeping her prisoner this whole time. Her, as well as our daughter, Ava.”
“Daughter?” Joan’s eyes widened as she took in the teenager. “Daughter! Oh, there’s no doubting it, is there? Come here, you sweet thing! Let me see you! But what’s this?” Her eyes darkened as she saw the thick metal collars.
“They’re made of a silver alloy. They keep us from shifting. It’s why I was never able to reach out and contact Max telepathically, and it helped hold up Edward’s false story that I was dead.” Sarah’s shoulders suddenly felt heavier than ever. She was used to the weight of the collar, but the burden of it now was so much more than that.
Max stood up and came over to look for himself. “They wouldn’t shift along with you. They’d just cut straight through if you went into your other form,” he concluded.
“Nasty things,” Joan hissed as she peered around the side of Sarah’s neck. “Soldered on, too. We’ve got to get those off right away.”
“Dad might have something,” Max suggested, his frown deep with disapproval. “Maybe a grinding disc or something. That metal is thick, so it’s going to take a while.”
Sarah felt a renewed sense of shame. It wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t asked for any of this, but she was literally a wild animal caught in a trap, relying on someone else’s kindness to be saved.
“No need for any of that, nor to wait for another second!” Joan announced. She flapped her elbows as she brought Ava and Sarah to stand next to one another. “I can take care of it on my own.”
“Mom, are you sure?” Max asked.
“Trust me, darling. If I didn’t have enough power to do it before, I do now. Emotions can feed into our magic, and I’ve got plenty of them going. I’ve just got to find the weakness in the metal, and it’s done for.” Joan stepped up to Ava. She bent her elbow so that her hand was straight up in the air, her palm just in front of the silver collar. Her fingers were relaxed and slightly curled, but her thumb slowly moved back and forth.
Sarah watched as the tiny muscles around Joan’s eyes worked, undoubtedly seeing things that Sarah herself had no hope of seeing. Soon, she would have to tell Joan that Ava had inherited a family trait from her. In fact, Ava was probably geeking out over this right now if she wasn’t too exhausted to enjoy it.
After a few long moments, Joan bent her thumb all the way down and then flicked it forward. Two hot red stripes formed on the sides of Ava’s collar a second before it split in half and clattered to the floor. Ava lifted her hands to her neck and touched her bare skin, smiling.
Sarah’s heart surged, and she thought she might cry all over again. Right now, though, Joan had stepped over to work on her collar, and she knew she needed to be still. She watched and waited as Joan performed the same movement. Max’s mother had aged, just as the rest of them had, but she’d done it gracefully. The last traces of blonde in her hair had now all gone to gray, but her eyes were still bright and vibrant. Her skin wasn’t as tight as it used to be, but it was smooth and soft.
She had to wonder what Joan would think of her. Was she angry with her for leaving that day? For leaving Max? For leaving Hunter? Sarah’s throat tightened at that last thought. She hadn’t brought him up yet, afraid that perhaps Hunter wouldn’t want her in his life. Max hadn’t mentioned him, either. Was he trying to protect his son? She wanted nothing more than to hold her baby boy in her arms once again.
The snap of heat was brief, and the two thick thuds that each half made on the floor were the sound of her freedom. “Thank you,” she managed, knowing that those two simple words didn’t even begin to explain how grateful she was to be rid of that terrible thing.
“Of course, my darling. Of course.” Joan gathered both Sarah and Ava into her arms and hugged them so tightly. “I only wish I could’ve done it long ago.”
“Dad?”
The voice that came from the kitchen was too deep, but it could only belong to one person. Sarah lifted her head as a young man came jogging in. He moved with the ease and grace of a shifter comfortable in his own body and the confidence of a teenage boy.
“What’s going on? We heard some thumping around up here.” Hunter, her baby boy, turned his head and looked into her eyes.
She didn’t expect him to know her or recognize her. She couldn’t even expect him to love her, not the same way he would’ve if she’d been around all these years. It was a pain she would carry with her forever, but as Joan’s arms dropped away and Sarah crossed the room, none of that mattered. She walked slowly up to Hunter, wondering if Max had felt the same way when he’d seen Ava. It felt almost impossible for Hunter to exist like this. Her mind still categorized him as just a baby, and logic hadn’t ever been able to completely correct that. “Hunter?”
He looked down at her in utter confusion. “Yeah?”
“I just…” She thought her heart might explode as she tried to wrap her brain around the fact that this boy—this young man—was her Hunter. Sarah wrapped her arms around him.
He stumbled backward as she leaned into him. “Um, Dad?” His voice rumbled in his chest, the same way his father’s did.
“Hunter, this is your mother. This is Sarah,” Max said behind her.
“I’m sorry.” She was crying so hard now that she couldn’t even open her eyes, and the air moving through her lungs was the only noise. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s…it’s okay.” He rested an arm against her shoulder.
Sarah didn’t know if Max and Joan had encouraged him to do so, or if the gesture had just been one of kindness to a strange weeping woman clinging to him for dear life. She was just so grateful to have him back.
“I think we should all go into the kitchen and find something for Sarah and Ava to eat,” Joan said softly. “I can’t say I’d mind a bit of a snack myself.”
Sarah’s feet moved toward the kitchen in the small river of shifters that’d accumulated there. She was so tired. She was so…everything. Gentle hands guided her into a chair, and someone put a mug of coffee in her hands a few minutes later. Tissues had appeared from somewhere, and she mopped her face.
