“I want to know,” I say.
Flora pours me another cup of tea and hands me a piece of lemon pie. “She was nineteen when she got pregnant, and too scared to tell her parents. So she had you secretly.”
“Dad was pretty young, too,” I muse. “Why did she have me in secret?”
“It seems like her parents were very strict. She was scared of being locked away or hurt.”
“Is this why she handed me to Dad?” I ask.
“I can only make my own assumptions now,” Flora says. “But I think it was just part of the reason. The other might be that she felt too young to raise you.”
I nod. “And she found out Dad was a shifter.”
“Yes,” Flora says. “She handed you to him because she didn’t think she could do it.”
“I wonder if the pack would have ever accepted her as Dad’s chosen mate,” I say. “I think he wouldn’t have cared and made her his mate anyway. But her life would have been miserable, just like mine.”
“Your mother has demon blood in her, which narrowed it down and made the search easier. But she is by no meansaware of that, nor is her family. If anything, I think your great-grandmother might have quite the tale to tell.”
“She is the one who dated a demon?” I ask.
“I believe so,” Flora says. “There is nothing to show him being anything but human, but why would there be? Your family consists of humans, and they don’t know of our existence or any other shifters’. But they claim your great-grandmother had a mysterious man who courted her. A wealthy man who supported her and left her with a lot of money when he disappeared. I think that might be him.”
“Funny,” I mutter. “My whole family seems to have a history of being left by their baby daddies or mommies. Though there is the possibility he didn’t even know.”
“Yes, it might have been a fling, and he disappeared before she even noticed she was pregnant. I don’t think we’ll ever find the real truth.”
“What’s she doing now?” I ask. “My mother?”
“She moved far away from her family,” Flora explains. “And owns a small bar now with her husband.”
“So, she managed to escape,” I muse. “And make a life for herself. Does she have children?”
Flora hesitates.
“I am fine,” I reassure her. “I really just want to know.”
“Yes, she has two children,” Flora says.
I nod thoughtfully. It’s true what I told Flora. Iamfine. After everything that‘s happened, I am just glad my life brought me here, and that I can finally call a place my home. What happened to my mother is just a puzzle piece I was missing.
“Do you want to meet her?” Flora asks.
“I think it’s fine the way it is,” I say. “I just wanted to know the truth. I don’t want to upheave her life, or mine. Is that weird?” I pause. “I probably should react much more emotionally?”
“It’s fine. I never knew my father, either,” Flora says. “Only as a late teen, I started to dig up the truth and find out what happened to him. I did not really have a wish to bond with him, just to know what happened. I wanted answers. I did learn that he passed away, and to be honest, I mourned for him, for the fact that we could have had a relationship when I was a child. But, just like you, I am not sure I would have wanted to dig him up and rebuild old bridges.”
“We weren’t even the ones who burned them,” I say.
Flora nods. “Exactly.”
“I am happy now,” I say. “I am happy with Felix, and I love this pack, and I feel at home here,” I pause. “Maybe one day I will reach out to my mother, but I am not sure. She always knew where I was, and never reached out either.”
Maybe one day I will feel different.
For now, it’s good the way it is.
Besides, Charlie will come later and drop off some things from my old pack, some of Dad’s and my old belongings. And Faye will visit as well for some riding lessons. I can’t wait to see her. We are the first pack that gives horse riding lessons for kids, and Faye was one of the first to come and learn how to ride. She has been thriving with Celine and Marius in their pack, meaning I have truly fulfilled Marina’s last wish.
