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My mother doesn’t talk again until we are back in the kitchen, and she has closed the door.
“Lita’s mother left town a year before she gave birth to her daughter.”
“Left town?” I ask, certain that was something that was forbidden when I was last here.
She nods, moving to let me walk past and get comfortable on the floor again.
“She told me and the other nurse when she was starting to go into labour. She wanted there to be no doubt over who the father of her child was.”
“Someone would have doubted?”
“The Alpha is known for forcing himself on women. She was one of them, but she was able to leave town and get help from a witch to make sure she did not conceive from that encounter. A month or so later, she met another shifter and started to fall in love. She didn’t come back until she was five months pregnant.”
“If she found her mate …”
“She’d been told about a medical condition she had. If she went ahead with the pregnancy she would most likely die. She knew her mate would plead with her to terminate to save her own life and she knew she couldn’t do that. So, she came back, and she begged me to promise I would take care of her baby personally. She asked that I give her child her father’s name and address once it was time.”
“So, you told the Alpha you would raise the child so that you could keep the promise you made to her?”
She takes a seat and shakes her head slowly. “It was a little more complicated than that. I raised the child to make sure she survived. Her father was born deaf, so there was a good chance she would be, too. Considering what happens to children born different here, I knew I had to intervene. I was working at the nursery at the time, and I knew I might only have one chance to save her. I took her home and when the Alpha came to ask what I thought I was doing, I told him I was going to raise her as my own since he took you away from me. I told him if he didn’t let me, I would tell everyone how her mother managed to get out of town. He knew Lita wasn’t his, so he could suffer her to live, as long as he didn’t have to see her, which he wouldn’t if she was being raised separately from everyone else.”
It is a lot to take in. I think it over, wondering why the Alpha didn’t care as much because Lita wasn’t his child. It seems strange that he is more willing to sacrifice his own children.
Terrible people are difficult to understand. So much of their behaviour makes no sense.
I am glad my mother fought for Lita’s life, and I am glad she found a reason to force the Alpha to walk away and let them be. It still angers me that he makes them work the hardest job with the longest hours, but at least they have always had each other.
“So, Lita is deaf?” I ask, curious about how she communicates if this is true.
My mother nods. “She is.”
“Then, how did you tell her stories?”
She smiles. “I learned to talk to her with my hands.”
She demonstrates this by straightening up in her seat and making a few hand gestures.
“It’s called American Sign Language. ASL for short. Once I learned this, I taught it to her. Then, I taught her to read, always telling her stories using my hands while she held the book and put her finger under the words.”
“Can you teach me this ASL?” I ask, keen to know how to talk to my mate.
“You can talk,” she says, seeming bemused.
“I would like to know how to talk to Lita.”
Her eyes light with understanding. “Now, Sol, she’s the first female shifter you’ve met here so I know you must have some … instinctive feelings … but Lita is not used to attention from men and …”
I hold up my hand, knowing now is the time to inform her of my intentions. It makes me slightly nervous, but I know if anyone can understand, it is my mother. She is the best person I have ever known.
“You misunderstand. I am not going through my teenage phase. That was over a long time ago. I am ready for my true mate, and I am certain Lita is the one.”
My mother raises her eyebrows at me. She does not seem sure about how to handle this revelation.
“Did I teach you about true mates?” she murmurs the question, almost as if she is only speaking to herself, which I recall she sometimes used to do.
“You had many books about shifters meeting their true mates. They did not skimp on the details. They describe exactly what I felt when I met her.”
Her mouth drops open. She closes it again, her face flushing.
