After Liam left, Mom ushered me inside the quaint cottage. She busied herself in the kitchenette, making tea while I settled into a plush armchair by the window. The frayed thread on my sweater was rough between my fingers.
Bright beams of sun illuminated the warm space. Tons of plush blankets hung atop overstuffed furnishings. It was exactly the kind of place I’d always pictured my mom living. An omega’s den.
Unlike the cold, sterile home where we lived for so long.
With two cups of tea in her hands, she sauntered back, handing me one before sitting in the chair opposite mine.
“You look well, my sunflower.”
My chest swelled at the sound of the name she hadn’t called me since I was nine. This was how we always should have been. When things first started getting bad, Dad insisted all he wanted was to keep us safe.
In the beginning, that was true.
Dad had endorsed a couple of controversial bills, which led to a series of threats against me and Mom.
But soon, what had simply been an overprotected alpha twisted into something nefarious. He learned how sympathetic voters were to his sick omega wife and his innocent omega daughter, and eventually, that greed and thirst for power corrupted him.
Chamomile sweetened with honey coated my tongue.
“You too, Mom. You look… You’re—” I choked, struggling to find the words. “I love you.”
“Oh, Willow,” she said, lowering her teacup, taking my free hand in hers. “I love you too. You have always been my daughter and I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to protect you from him.”
“No. It’s never been your fault.”
I refused to let her blame herself. She was as much a victim as I was. There was only one person to blame, William Sterling.
Instead of responding, she simply smiled, her chest rising and falling with carefree breaths.
A comfortable silence settled around us as we drank our tea, enjoying the company. My empty cup rattled on the side table as I deposited it, no longer able to ignore the churning in my gut. I hoped she already knew about Dad.
There had been a time when she loved him, cared for him. They were mated.
“Do you… Do you know about Dad?” I asked, picking at my cuticles.
She clicked her tongue, gently stilling my movements.
“I know what Kaelen has planned, yes.”
I took my first full breath in the last few minutes. Of course, Kaelen had taken care of everything, not leaving anything for me to handle. It was those things that made me love him more.
“And you’re okay with that?”
After a long pause, she said, “Yes.”
Her delicate hand covered the long-faded bond mark on her throat.
I scanned her posture for any signs of distress, but found none. Like me, I think she realized that there was no way to move forward with William Sterling still in the picture. Outside of the bond with Mom, he would always try to use me.
Smiling, my mom tossed a blanket across her lap, eyeing the mark on my neck.
“You found a good one, Willow. You have an alpha who will love and respect you.”
“I’m lucky.”
“Oh no, he is the lucky one. He has you, after all.”
And I have him.
