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“So, teach me. Show me what you do, and we can drink while you do it. Sounds fun.”
“Who are you, and what have you done with Moira Easton?”
“Mmmh. Don’t forget, it used to be Moira Spinelli, and I know what it was like to make some tough decisions for my mate. You and I aren’t all that different.”
She had never thought of her mom as a young woman, or any kind of adventurer. She was happy to take over the restaurant, to settle down with her mate, stay in the pack she grew up in.
“You don’t remember my twin, but she was the adventurer. Just like now, Aisling was open to us going in and out. So, she loved going places, being different. And I loved her. I didn’t want her to go places on her own, and though I loved being here with Nonna, I couldn’t let my other half out in the world. I had already met Tayon, since we grew up together here. So, he went with us.”
“I didn’t know that. What did you all go do?”
“Nothing grand or life-saving. She wanted to party. Plain and simple, she wanted to go to New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Vegas. You name the city, she wanted to go to the bar scene. You two are…a lot, and I mean, a lot alike. I think that’s what made me finally realize you were grown this week.”
“Just this week?” She chuckled softly.
“Yes. And that was all your dad. He pointed out you’re older than we were when we headed out to see the world. And then, we realized she didn’t have a goal, a plan at all. But you do.”
“It doesn’t feel like I do.”
“Maybe not right now, but you’re the smartest person I’ve ever met, and you’ve done all this without people finding out. You’ve covered your tracks, and you’ve built something no one else thought of.”
“It feels that way now, but in the beginning, I was so scared it was going to flop.”
“Yeah? And why didn’t it?”
“Ava never doubted me. People ate it up. It was all gossip in the beginning, then I was reporting on the wars, warning packs about attacks, tricking the old Council, live streaming the messages from Ava as they fought the Council. It mattered. Every time someone contacted me that I’d saved a pack or convinced them to stand up against the Council too…it felt right. It gave me a purpose. Our worlds are so isolated from each other, shifters and then witches were desperate for outside communication. When I started using it to change our world, to get back at Thomas, I knew I could never stop.”
“And that’s something else I had to come to grips with this week. I went back through and watched hours and hours of footage from when Ava was taking down the Council, and it scared me. You were so close to all the fighting, baby.”
“Don’t worry, no one let me get near it. It was filmed with drones or magic. Cass helped me get in and out of places, and Ava gave me this locket. Tuisa and Nicholas didn’t let me anywhere near the fighting.” Most of that was true.
“It took me a couple of days, but I think what you’re doing is good. We need this. Wolves across the world have become so disconnected. We need the community, the communication, the alliances against our common enemies. That’s how I lost my twin. She had made it through the war, but then we lost her, her mate, and their son in the recovery. We still don’t know what happened exactly. I can’t seem to remember the details.”
Her mom trailed off, lost in her memories, but then brought herself back, squeezing her hand again. “So, that’s why I think what you’re doing is important. Whether you think it’s just gossip, and not enough news, it’s not about the content, it’s about bringing everyone together. We are safer in numbers.”
She wiped the tears that had formed in her eyes again, tired of all the crying she had done already. “It sucks to know the parts I’ll be missing. I wish I had never met him. That I had never gotten to know him this week. Things would be easier.”
“Nothing is easy when it comes to love. Then you would have to live without knowing. That’s a regret that would follow you. No, you need to spend the time with him. And I won’t tell you what to do, but maybe you should tell him.”
“No, you haven’t met him. He…he doesn’t understand. It’s that Tuisa mentality. It would hurt him so much. He wants that typical family.”
“Tayon did too, right, sweetheart?”
“I just wanted you.”
She looked up in time to see her parents exchange loving looks, and it was so sappy, she sighed. “You can’t tell me he would be okay with me going to mating parties and flirting with other men, pretending to be single. It’s not going to happen. And once he knows, and we can’t be together, he’ll be able to see it in my videos. He’ll drive himself crazy, even after a rejection. It’s better he doesn’t know.”
“You think he won’t do that now? Without even knowing you’re mates, he is already in love with you. You feel it. I know you do. But at least you know why. He isn’t getting that option, that peace of mind of making his own choice.”
“Maybe. But isn’t that what everyone wants from me? To take away my choice? Would he do the same thing for me? Would he actually consider what I want and let me be free?”
She paused at that thought, realizing that very real fear, one that even her own mother hadn’t considered. “Even you are considering his feelings, but no one blinks an eye at not considering mine. Our world defaults to what the man wants, and if he’s gracious enough, he can be convinced to allow his mate their freedom? Why do we have to count on that? When do we get to turn the tables and put me and my feelings first?”
Her mother hesitated, looking back at Tayon before she spoke. “It’s the way of the world. We can try to change it but remember you’re the one who has to live in it. Live with it. You’re the only one who can change your path.”
Bailey laughed bitterly. “Maybe I’m just a coward and don’t want to see him break in front of me. I can’t do it. I just want to disappear in the middle of the night, and hope he forgets about me.”
“Or he would follow you to the ends of the Earth.”
