Chapter 88

[ 1,472 words ]

Aria

My mother is alive.

The single thought keeps slamming through me like a physical blow.

Over and over again, it beats at my ribs, cracking and splintering my heart.

I’m seeing her, standing in front of me.

Her bright blue eyes are dull, and the clothes around her shoulders are baggy and falling off her slim frame.

There is no fire, none of the life I’ve associated with her throughout all the years of my adolescence.

All of it is missing.

Yet she’s here.

Alive.

I stare at her while my entire body shakes against the ropes binding my arms.

There are bruises on her wrists.

Old and new.

Faded scars and marks that look eerily like fingerprints.

My shoulders shake and ache, but I ignore them.

Aldren has to be playing some type of game.

“Hello, my little storm cloud,” she says tentatively.

That voice…

This isn’t a dream or a trick.

My heart thuds wildly in my chest.

It’s her.

“Mom,” I croak.

She takes another step forward, her eyes taking in my bound state before pain and shame pass through her eyes.

“Is this really necessary?” She asks Aldren in a tone that is much too soft.

“Only for the moment. We’re hoping you can change that,” Aldren replies in a flat voice.

Her nod is almost imperceptible, then she tenses as he places his hand on her shoulder.

“Get your decrepit hands off her,” I hiss.

“I’m fine, Aria,” my mother says quickly, trying to soothe me.

It is the same tone I used to hear every night as a child.

Soft and warm, while she brushed my hair from my forehead and reminded me she had chased the monsters away.

Now her voice sounds hollow.

Like something inside her has been carved out and left bleeding.

Like Aldren had taken something from her.

Because this is not my mother.

Not truly.

Something inside of her is missing.

A ripple of emotion shudders through me, and I know it’s my wolf somewhere deep inside me.

I look at my mother closely, trying to integrate what I’m seeing with what I know and what I have learned.

All the information from the past month swirls around me.

Mom moves toward me slowly, cautiously, like she’s afraid of how I’ll react to her coming too close.

That’s when I finally really see her.

Not the human lens I viewed her in, but the shifter she is on the inside.

The flash of wolf behind her eyes.

The blue sparks that rise against the gold.

Water, something in me whispers.

Only a sypher’s magic can fuel the Veil.

Something ugly twists inside my chest.

All this time, Aldren and Kane kept her here, used her.

That’s how they knew about me, why they tried to take me even when they thought I was human.

“They’ve been using your magic,” I say deftly.

Pain flashes across her face.

She doesn’t deny it.

“Aria—”

“The truth, Mom. I want the fucking truth and not whatever Aldren has told you to tell me.”

Silence.

Kane smiles faintly from near the doorway like he’s enjoying every second of this.

I want to burn him alive.

“I believe mother and daughter deserve a moment alone.”

My lip curls.

“I would appreciate it if, while you were out, you choked.”

His expression doesn’t change.

“I do enjoy that mouth.”

“Kane,” Aldren scolds.

Kane gives my mother and me one long, meaningful look before both men leave the room.

The heavy metal door seals behind them.

For several silent seconds, neither of us speaks.

We just stare at each other.

My mother reaches for me, her trembling fingers cupping my face gently.

The second she touches me, I break.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I sob.

“All of these years, and then when Liam left, you just let me believe the worst.

You pushed me away.”

“I had to.

Aria, I took no joy in it.

It killed me to hide who you and your brother were, but it was the only way to protect you.”

“Well, as you can see, it didn’t work.”

She jerks back as if I slapped her.

“I’m sorry.”

I feel like a bitch, but I don’t have time for this.

Hazel is counting on me.

Liam and my mates are counting on me.

Our pack.

The entire shifter world rests on what comes of this, and I can’t let emotions get in the way.

“Look, I don’t want to make you feel bad, but you have to help me here.

Why are you working with them?

Was it the Assembly you were hiding from?

A moment passes, and I’m not sure she will answer.

“Yes,” the word is soft.

“Then help me.

Give me something I can work with.

I’ll get you out.

We will.”

“We?” she questions.

I don’t trust her enough to tell her about Ronan and the pack or that they are waiting in the wings to take us down.

But I still want to give her a push to help her if she needs one.

Some reassurance.

“Liam is with me,” I say.

A haunted look crosses her face.

“Liam.

Your brother is here, with you.”

“He is.

I joined his pack, and we came here together to get my friend.

A human.” Her eyes widen, and her skin pales.

“Do you know where they are keeping her?”

“No.” Her voice sharpens.

“They don’t tell me those things.”

“Then what do they do?”

She glances back at the door, and the trepidation in her gaze tells me she’s fighting something I can’t see.

Finally, she gets close to me and whispers, “Listen to me carefully.

You do not understand what these men are capable of.”

“I understand plenty.”

“No.” Her voice trembles.

“You don’t. They will bind you to them if you don’t submit willingly. If they do, you won’t be able to escape. Your souls will be linked.”

She rubs her covered wrist almost subconsciously.

What the fuck.

Can they link souls?

It hits me that that is exactly what they did to my mom.

Why else wouldn’t she try to escape?

Why else would she be so implicit?

Shit, I don’t want to know the answer to this question, but I have to find out.

“What happens if they link my soul?”

“Then you can never get away. Their life and their death are tied to you.”

Fuck.

Even though the ringing in my ears cracks up to ambulance levels, I hear Kade’s voice.

Keep your head.

I can’t give in.

No matter how afraid I am.

This isn’t just about me.

“So you just expect me to let them use me the way they used you.”

Her silence confirms it instantly.

Rage surges to replace the fear.

“I won’t let them.”

Her face pales.

“You don’t have a choice.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Aria—”

“I said no.”

“You can’t say no to them!” she suddenly hisses, panic breaking through her hollow calm for the first time.

“You cannot provoke Kane. It will be worse for you, for your pack. He’ll destroy them.”

I stare at her in disbelief.

“He will do it anyway.”

“No, we can make a deal.” She says desperately.

“Keep them safe.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

“He’s hurting you, and you’re still protecting him?”

“No, I’m trying to protect you!”

“He’s a monster!

They all are!”

“I know that!” she snaps, the words echoing through the room.

Tears fill her eyes.“He enjoys pain. Especially when someone resists him. Don’t give him what he wants. Be smart. Survive.”

I speak slowly and carefully so she hears every word.

“I’m not helping them destroy our people. I won’t abandon my pack. I won’t betray my mates. No matter the cost.”

She goes quiet.

“How could you give in?” I whisper.“I fought my whole life because of you. Because you taught me to. So why are you kneeling now?”

She looks at me as if she doesn’t know me and takes a few steps back.

“Fight for your children,” I plead.

“Fight for us.”

Pain.

Fear.

Defeat.

Shame.

Every emotion tears across her face at once.

Then something flashes like lightning across her face.

I see the old Lorain again.

Strong.

Wild.

Determined.

My mother.

Then the door opens, and the moment shatters instantly.

Aldren walks back in with Kane behind him.

Without a word, he walks up to my mother and grips her arm possessively, something feral snaps inside me.

I bare my teeth and growl.

My wolf lunges violently against the suppression magic.

“Protective,” Aldren muses.

Lorain stiffens beside him, but she doesn’t pull away.

That somehow makes me angrier.

Kane steps forward slowly.

“Have you come to your senses?”

“In what world is anything you want considered sense?”

His sigh is almost disappointed.

“I was hoping we wouldn’t have to break you. But I won’t lie. I do like doing things the hard way.”

Ice slides down my spine.

But I stare him down, unwilling to let him make me squirm.

Guards enter behind them.

They turn the chair into a large screen, which I, embarrassingly, have not noticed before.

Kane watches calmly as the screen is flicked on and it splits into several surveillance feeds of a forest.

“Are you going to bore me to death?” I say dryly.

The live surveillance starts to flicker and change, showing new angles.

Hunters move through the trees on one screen and on the other …

I swallow.

Liam.

One screen centers on him stumbling through dark woods naked and shackled with the same magic bands as me.

Blood streaks down his side.

Another shows Felix being dragged through mud by armed hunters.

A dazed look on his face.

“No.”

My wolf slams against the magic restraints desperately

Kane steps beside the screens.“This is one of our hunting grounds.”

Cold terror spreads through every inch of me.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Kane’s pale eyes slide toward me.

“Convincing you.”

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