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The remnants would be gathered into the King pack. Their territory would become mine. I’d make sure they fully acclimated to our pack and our ways of doing things. I couldn’t leave them out here alone, because then they would be unprotected.
Now they would be my charges, and I would protect them, whether they liked it or not.
Except for one of them.
I turned to Lawson and lowered my voice “What’s the name of Amelia's mother?”
Lawson told me, and I called her forward.
She stepped out, looking wide eyed and terrified. She was an attractive woman, with auburn hair touched with gray at the temples.
"Bring her," I said, turning and striding away from the Longroad pack.
She was shaking as Cole and Liam seized her. Aiden gave me a wide-eyed look, and some pity settled in my gut.
I'd hated my father, but it had still burnt inside me to watch him die.
"She won't be harmed," I said, as if I had planned that all along. "Only exiled."
She was breathing heavily as she faced me, her eyes wide with terror.
I cocked my head to one side, studying her. "How much fear did Amelia know in your home?"
"I was a good mother."
Aiden looked away, pain etched on his face, and I was quite certain that was a lie.
"You closed the door to her when she needed you," Aiden said quietly.
"You didn't protect her either!" she spat at him.
Aiden winced, and I knew it was true. I would have despised him for it, but I had the feeling Lawson and Aiden had done what they could in a terrible situation.
I had failed my family too. And I had wanted so much to protect them all.
"Aiden was a good brother," I said, and his eyes flickered to me, surprise and uncertainty reflected in that gaze. "You, on the other hand, have never been much of a mother. So it won’t be any loss to keep you away from your kids. You can stick to neutral territory all the days of your life."
I studied her. She started to babble, but it didn't matter. My voice cut right through her meaningless words. "You chose not to be their family, and I’m not going to make you mine.”
* * *
Amelia
By the time I arrived,the fighting was all over. I glanced at Liam suspiciously as we rolled through Longroad pack territory, convinced he had made sure we arrived when it was too late for me to get my hands dirty.
There was a bonfire rising into the air, lighting the makeshift command center that Stone had set up. His shifters patrolled our pack territory. The Longroad pack survivors were straggling back to their homes, and I couldn't read their faces. Agony over the dead? Gratitude not to have joined them? Relief Nathan would never rule them again? Resentment that Stone King would?
Stone had tried to spare my people, those who were innocent--for now--and I wondered if he would live to regret it.
As I neared the bonfire, I approached Stone's broad back, which faced toward me. It took me a second to see who the woman was who knelt before him, flames reflected on her beautiful face.
My mother looked so much like me. It made it all the more strange how deeply she hated me.
She was begging Stone, but her eyes were dry and furious. I had no doubt he could see right through her.
"Amelia is the best woman I have ever met," Stone told her. "A warm, caring mother. A good friend. A fierce fighter."
My mother couldn't hide her disbelieving sneer even on her knees in front of an alpha.
