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ChapterEighty-Two
Everly
Hours pass, and dinner is going cold while I wait for Valen and Valarian. Not that I made anything special; I was too tired and wanted to sleep, so I whipped up something simple, spaghetti with meat sauce.
However, Valen said he would be home before dinner and I finished cooking two hours ago. It’s already 7:30 p.m. and the storm outside has only intensified. Lightning streaks across the gloomy sky, and there’s not one star in sight; the clouds block out even the moon. Walking back into the living room, I snatch my phone off the coffee table and redial his number. The phone doesn’t even ring, but instead goes straight to voicemail. Ok, now I’m starting to get worried.
Another 10 minutes, I pick up my phone again to call when it begins ringing in my hand. A private number shows up and I sigh. Finally, he thought to call back! Only, when I answer, I hear an unexpected feminine voice.
“Hello, is this Everly’s phone?” comes my mother’s voice. Shocked, I pull the phone from my ear to look at the screen before placing it back.
“Mom?” I ask.
“Oh, thank the Goddess, I thought your receptionist gave me another wrong number,” she says. I don’t know what to say; it’s one thing seeing her the day of the Alpha meeting, but I find myself suddenly lost for words on the phone. I no longer know how to speak to the woman who gave birth to me. So much has changed. I have changed. My family are suddenly strangers to me. I no longer identify myself with them anymore.
“Are you there?” she asks.
“Uh, yes, sorry. Why are you calling?” I blurt without thinking. She has never called before, not even when she promised to when I turned up on her doorstep that stormy night. So many broken promises—relationships now non-existent.
“I, um, I wanted to check on you after the incident with the rogues. Your father tried to see you, but your mate wouldn’t let him in.”
“Well, you could have visited; he let Ava in,” I tell her, and she falls quiet. I find it hard to make chit-chat with her. The silence as we try to think of what to say is awkward.
“So, how have you been?” she asks, and I bite my lip, hesitant to answer. Does she genuinely care? Something bothers me with how she called out of the blue.
“Yeah, good—waiting for Valen and Valarian to get home,” I tell her.
“He looks so much like his father,” she says, and I nod, moving into the kitchen and covering their dinners.
“So, uh, how is Ava?” I ask, trying to divert the conversation.
“Ava is Ava. She’s being difficult.”
“And why is that?”
“Because she wants to go away for university; she doesn’t want to take over the pack,” my mother says.
“Well, find someone else to take over then,” I tell her, looking at the clock as the minutes tick by. I’m starting to worry that something has happened because I’ve heard no word. Placing the phone on the loudspeaker, I search for Valarian’s tracking device on his watch.
“It’s not that simple, and you know that,” she answers.
I watch it load before seeing he’s at the mall, and sigh when I see it leading toward the parking lot and know they must be on the way home now.
“Are you listening?” my mother asks.
“Yes, still here,” I tell her, turning the loudspeaker off. “Sorry, I was checking an email,” I lie. I have no idea why I lied, but it isn’t like it’s any of her business.
“There’s another thing I wanted to talk to you about.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Your father said you put a petition in to change the laws surrounding the rogues.”
“Yes, interested in signing it?” I ask, knowing I need at least four Alpha signatures.
“No, but you should pull it. You’re drawing unwelcome attention. Your father nearly had a heart attack when it hit his email. Withdraw the application, Everly,” my mother says.
I laugh, shocked by her words.
