Chapter 332

Chapter 332 Forced to Leave Harbor Bay
Ava’s POV

I stood up, fists clenched at my sides. “You put them away? They’re not yours to ’put away.’ Half of those books belong to me!”

“They’re family heirlooms, Ava,” she countered calmly, setting her purse down on the counter. “And as the elder witch in this household, I decide when and how they’re used.”

“Bullshit! You’re hiding something from me, and it has to do with whatever’s happening to me, doesn’t it?”

A flicker of something, maybe concern or fear, passed across Odelia’s face before she composed herself. “Nothing is ’happening’ to you except emotional turmoil over a man who never deserved you in the first place.”

“This isn’t about Joseph,” I insisted, following her as she walked into the kitchen. “This is about you suddenly being concerned about my magic, about my physical sensations, and then mysteriously removing every magical resource I could use to figure out what’s going on.”

My mother filled a glass with water, her back to me. “I think you need a break from all things supernatural, Ava. Look what getting involved with werewolves has done to you—you’re heartbroken, exhausted, and now paranoid.”

“Paranoid?” I laughed harshly. “The books are gone, Mom. That’s not paranoia, that’s fact.”

She turned to face me, her expression hardening. “I want you to have a normal life, Ava. A human life. Away from magic, away from werewolves, away from all the complications and heartbreak they bring.”

“I don’t get to have a normal life!” I shouted. “I’ve never had that option!

“You’ve been lying to me for the first eighteen years of my life! If we hadn’t been hunted and escaped to Harbor Bay five years ago, how much longer were you planning to hide this from me?”

“I was born with witch blood, born into a world with werewolves and magic. You can’t just decide to take that away from me!”

“I can protect you from it,” she insisted. “That’s what mothers do.”

“Protect me?” I stared at her incredulously. “By lying to me? By hiding things from me that I have a right to know? This is my heritage, my identity!”

My mother set down her glass with a sharp clink. “Your identity? You’re so desperate to be special, Ava. First chasing after werewolves despite being an Omega without a wolf, now clinging to witch heritage you’ve barely explored until now.”

Her words landed like a slap. “I’m desperate to be special? Is that what you think this is about?”

“I think it’s about you refusing to accept who and what you are,” she said coldly. “A mostly human girl with a touch of witch blood, trying to find meaning in a world that doesn’t have a place for you.”

I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. “Wow. Tell me how you really feel, Mom.”

“I’m being realistic,” she continued. “You’re an wolfless Omega. That makes you practically human already. Why not embrace that? Why keep torturing yourself trying to fit into supernatural circles where you’ll always be an outsider?”

Tears stung my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. My mother had never spoken to me so harshly before, never been so dismissive of who I was.

“You’re unbelievable,” I whispered, voice trembling with hurt and rage. “I’m your daughter. How can you speak to me like I’m some… defective product?”

She sighed, her expression softening slightly. “I’m trying to help you, Ava. I’ve made a decision that I think is best for both of us.”

My stomach dropped. “What decision?”

“I think we should leave Harbor Bay,” she said. “Start fresh somewhere else.”

I stared at her, certain I’d misheard. “Leave? You want us to run away?”

“Not run away. Move forward,” she corrected. “Remember how I mentioned being contacted by that new company? In that city, I’ve been in contact with a community. No werewolf packs for hundreds of miles. You could find a new job there, make human friends, date normal men. Live without all this supernatural drama.”

“You want me to leave my job, my friends, my whole life… because of a breakup?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Mom, that’s insane!”

“It’s not just about the breakup,” she insisted. “It’s about your future. What kind of life do you think you’ll have here? Pining after werewolves who will always choose their own kind? Being a second-class citizen in their world?”

I shook my head, anger bubbling up again. “No. Absolutely not. I’m not running away. I’m not letting Joseph or anyone else drive me from my home.”

“This isn’t your home,” she snapped. “This is a temporary situation that’s gone on far too long. We don’t belong here, Ava.”

“I belong where I choose to belong,” I countered, voice rising. “And I choose to stay. With my friends. With my job. With my life that I’ve built.”

“A life that’s making you miserable!” she shouted, finally losing her composure. “Look at yourself! Crying over a wolf who never truly saw you! Working at a company owned by wolves! Living on the fringes of a society that will never fully accept you!”

“At least I’m trying to live authentically!” I yelled back. “Not hiding who I am! Not pretending parts of me don’t exist!”

We stood facing each other across the kitchen, both breathing hard, neither willing to back down.

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” I shouted. The very thought of being uprooted from the life I’d built here made my blood boil.

Mom’s expression hardened, her eyes narrowing as she took a step toward me.

“Ava, don’t force my hand,” she warned. “You don’t understand what’s at stake here.”

“What I understand is that you’re trying to control me!” I fired back, refusing to be intimidated. “I’m twenty-three years old, Mom. An adult. You don’t get to make these decisions for me anymore.”

She crossed her arms, studying me with an intensity that made me uncomfortable. “You think you’re so grown up, but you have no idea what you’re dealing with.”

“Then tell me!” I threw my hands up in frustration. “Stop with all these cryptic warnings and just tell me what’s going on!”

“It’s not that simple,” she replied, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“It never is with you, is it?” I sneered. “Everything’s always secrets and half-truths. Well, I’m done with it. You have no right to control my life!”

Something in my words seemed to snap her last thread of patience.